7/5/2009 Mud Bogging in Seward

What a gorgeous day we have today. We are moving to town, a whole six miles, and will be staying in the Army's Seward Resort for the next 5 days or so. I'll have pictures of the area later today.

First I want to tell you that the camera I fished out of the toilet...it works! I wish I could figure out how to find the owner of this camera. There are so many pictures on it from their Alaskan vacation and considering what they are of, they can't be replaced or re-done. Since it looks like some may have been taken in a RV park environment I'll post to the RV forums and who knows they could read it! And if they don't, well, we'll have a backup camera. I will have to buy the cord needed to download the pictures to the computer but that shouldn't be a problem. And an instruction manual! Definitely need one of those.

So we packed up, made the move and didn't do anything more than drop the 5th wheel. We didn't set up because we had a date a mud pit. But we didn't leave until I took in our view from our new campsite.

Oh yeah, I can look at this for a week!

So we headed to the MUD BOG RACES. Now I have never been to one of these before and had no idea what to expect. Bob and I used to go to tractor pulls way back in the day and they were held in stadiums or at least a place where there were bleachers and bathrooms and smooth walkways. Uhhh....not here. We pulled into dirt field parking lot, paid our $5.00 a piece and then made our way to the spectator's field.

I stood guard over the space we wanted and Bob went back to the truck to get our chairs. I have no idea why we didn't think to take them with us in the first place, but we didn't.

Quite a crowd was gathering. There were several hundred specators by the time it started.

The vehicles started lining up, waiting their turn.

The object of this race? To drive through this very deep pit of mud and water as fast as you can.....if you can without getting stuck.

Here goes the first one.

Mud just flies everywhere! Luckily, we were far enough away that we didn't have to worry about being covered in the brown stuff.

Here's what this jeep type vehicle looked like when it was done.

I wonder what this bride thought when she found out she was spending her honeymoon Mud Bog Racing?

They didn't make it through mud and here they are being pulled out by the dozer.

Another one who gave it a good try....

.....but ended up being pulled out. This is not as easy as it looks!

The spectators were really getting into this.

These next pictures are especially for our friend Lyell. Take note how this FORD makes it all the way through buddy!

.....and it returned under its own steam. This truck just seemed to float over this mud.

This truck/jeep type vehicle was throwing mud everywhere!

It made it through, totally covered in mud.

There even women in the mud bog race. This is Heather from Fairbanks.

This woman was moving! Evidently she's really into this and her truck is made for this! She went through the course so fast that she is definitely a contender for the first prize.

After the street trucks, the modified and the super modified trucks got done it was time for the ATV's. This is the youngest racer we saw. His mother must have nerves of steel....or she's home!

Covered in mud and lovin' life!

While all the scores were being tallied and there was a break in the action, all the little kids had a chance to enter a race. A foot race through this mud. Winner gets twenty bucks.

This was so much fun to watch! Keep your eye on the little guy on the right hand side of the picture. Red shorts, no shirt.

They're off!

This little boy wanted no part of this! He didn't even take a step and from the look on his face when his mom came out, he didn't like the feeling of mud squishing up between his toes.

This little was determined to finish!

I can see the bathtub rings already!

A pic of the trophies these racers are going for.

This is an annual 4th of July weekend event in Seward and it is well received by looking at the turnout today. They sell hot dogs, brats and hamburgers, sno-cones and sell 50-50 tickets to make money to support this event. We bought one ticket each for the 50-50, paid $10 to get in and for parking, bought one hot dog and two brats. We feel as though we did our part. But then it got even better. I won the 50-50! $270.00!!!!! Of course then we went to the store to buy lunchmeat and other stuff Bob needed for his fishing trip, a new small cooler, a book he's been looking for and a few things for me and there went $68.00.

Then when we got home and got set up it was dinnertime and I didn't have anything taken out so we went to the cafe here in the resort and there was another $28.00. I'm hiding the rest of the winnings!

On the way home we stopped to take these pictures of Seward from the other side of the bay.

What a great place to be!