Last week I tried asking Rose and Mike if there were any hairdressers in Tok who cut women’s hair. My bangs were beginning to hang in my eyes and bug me. Talking about it between themselves, they finally said, “Well, there’s the dog groomer who also cuts people’s hair!” We decided it was time for another trip to the big city!
It takes about 3 hours to get to Fairbanks, but before we got there we decided to stop in at Eielson Air Force Base and see what they had. They actually did have a very nice salon where I got a good haircut. There was a food court where we had lunch, and we went into the BX (Base Exchange) which is like a department store on base. We got a few things we’d been needing, then continued on towards Fairbanks.
Shortly before we reached Fairbanks, we stopped in at Santa Claus House at North Pole again, and this time we saw a couple of Santa’s reindeer! One thing I never realized about reindeer is that their antlers are covered with dark fuzz. It almost makes you want to reach out and stroke their antlers. Neither of the reindeer we saw had a red nose so we couldn’t tell which of the other eight they were!
We finally made it to Fairbanks and went to Walmart for groceries we can’t get as cheaply in Tok and to a sporting store to look for something to repel mosquitos. We haven’t been hit with too many mosquitos yet, but we’ve heard stories about them carrying small animals away, so we didn’t want to wait till they get bad!
We finally turned for home and I was reading to Mark as I usually do on long drives. We are currently reading a John Grisham novel called The Last Juror about a trial gone bad in Mississippi in the 1970s. Suddenly Mark stopped me and said, “Look in the road ahead.” There was a reindeer crossing our path. We might not have known what it was if we hadn’t seen those two at Santa’s house.
Also, on our way to Fairbanks this morning, Mark saw a duck trying to lead her ducklings across the highway towards the north. On our way back, he pointed out what appeared to be the same duck leading her ducklings across the highway towards the south. It’s only a two lane highway, but cars travel it pretty fast and it seems like it would be difficult for her ducklings to get across quickly enough. It made us wonder, why did the duck cross the road?! 😉