Waiting For The Ferry...

Today was a day off the road as I wait for the Alaska Marine Highway ferry to take me to Haines, Alaska (which is north of Juneau). You cannot board a ferry heading to Haines every day in Juneau and have to wait until the next one arrives. For me, that is tomorrow morning at around 5:30am. So, for today I had the privilege of doing school assemblies at Harborview Elementary (located in Juneau) and Gastineau Elementary (located on a neighboring island called Douglas Island). I want to thank the children and staff at both schools for making me feel so welcome. It was a joy to share information about the P.A.C.E. journeys with the kids and to answer an array of questions. It was truly an encouragement to me to be able to be at their schools. Both schools have teams participating in P.A.C.E. Trek. Tomorrow morning my parents and I will board a ferry at around 6:30 a.m. heading to Haines. It is about a 4 1/2 hour boat ride and after arriving in Haines we'll begin driving... crossing the Canadian border and spending tomorrow evening in the area of Destruction Bay, Canada. Then, on Thursday, we'll continue to drive through Canada and will spend Thursday evening near the Alaska/Canada border (at Highway 2). On Friday morning, I will start running again at the border, going 30 miles to Northway Junction (which is just southwest of Tok, Alaska). So, the participating teams have a few days to get a lead on me. However, between Friday and Monday (4 days) I'll log 137 miles - which means that by the end of the day next Monday (April 27) I'll have logged a total of 162 miles on this trek. I've posted a video from today where I talk about the next few days (click on the "Video File #1 link in the right-hand column). Also, I really didn't take many pictures today so I thought I would share a few more pictures that I took during yesterday's 25-mile run. You can see those in the column to the right. Remember, if you click on the pictures you'll see larger images. Getting back to the assemblies I did today, I like to talk to kids about goal setting and I ask the teachers to have the kids write down goals that they have. The Harborview Elementary students wrote down some of their goals and I wanted to share some of those with you. Here they are:

To work in a pet shop;
Become a better break dancer;
Be a dinosaur bone finder;
I want to be a scientist;
I'd like to be a doctor;
Walk from the tip of Alaska to the end of Canada;
I'd like to be an orthodontist;
I want to be a basketball player;
I want to get straight A's;
Become an engineer;
Pitch 180 strikes in one day;
Get better at spelling;
To be a veterinarian;
I want to get into college;
I'd like to get better at downhill skiing;
I want to get my homework done more often;
Become an Olympian.

Those are just some of the things that the students of Harborview Elementary want to accomplish or be in the future. They've already taken the first step toward their goals by thinking about it and writing it down. Congratulations! You're already on your way to your goals!

I want to once again thank Scott and Katharine Miller for allowing me to stay at their home in Juneau for the past several days. They have truly helped to get P.A.C.E. Trek 2009 launched successfully and I truly appreciate their kindness and hospitality. Scott and I ran track together back in high school and it has been so good to spend time with he and his family.

Pictures From Some Team Leaders:

I've received some pictures from team leaders and wanted to share some of them with you! Please click on any picture below to see a larger image:

That's all from this Alaska milepost! Thanks for stopping by and be sure to run back here tomorrow.