My Travels    NYC Trip    The Windows	Alaska Pictures of the Day #6 Tundra1 - As Johnny headed us out on the Council Road, I noticed that the tundra turning brown. Everything had been "greening up" closer to shore. As we headed inland, even though the snow had melted, it was obvious spring had not yet completely arrived. I was surprised at how flat and desolate the land was. The road soon turned to gravel and things looked very dusty. It was hard to imagine the the land covered with many feet of snow. The wooden poles lining the road were a constant reminder of how deep that winter cover could be. The post in the right side of this image is one of the thousands of markers that show the way to the mushers along the Iditarod Trail. They line entire 1049 miles of the trail. Do you know the significance of the 1049 miles? One thousand miles to make it a challenge to represent the historic trail and 49 more to remind everyone that Alaska is the 49th state. I was intrigued to hear Gail say that the owner of The Nugget travels to Nome on his snowmobile via The Trail, in advance of the race. Though the finish of the Iditarod is a party I'll have to make one of these years, I'm not sure I'm up for 1049 miles on a "sled".   Road Sign - I took this shot on our way back, but it is the warning we saw on our way east om the Council Road. The pavement had disappeared miles earlier. Back in October the road had disappeared completely when 100mph winds off the Bering Sea lashed at this part of the Seward Penninsula. With repairs recently completed, the road was in pretty good shape and I was thinking I could have done this on my own. However, the stories Johnny were telling soon made me happy to have the company. "I'm retired from the National Weather Service", he started. " I used to do weather before computers and all of the automation, back when there was a certain amount of romance to predicting the weather. I really miss that."   NEXT