Dropped Dogs

As of the last time I checked, Lance Mackey was leading.  He was the first musher in at the Rainy Pass checkpoint.  Several of the mushers have dropped dogs due to illness and injury.  We went over to the Millenium Hotel to watch the planes bring in dropped dogs.  The ski planes land on a frozen lake behind the hotel.  Once there, the dogs are checked out by a vet, given any necessary medical attention, given straw bedding, fed and are returned to the race teams after being medically cleared.  If the race team is unable to pick up a dog right away, it is sent to the prison where the prisoners care for the dogs until they are picked up.  For the most part, the dogs look tired but are in good shape.  There were a couple who had minor injuries.

We head home in the wee hours of the morning...  See you all soon.

  Dogs being unloaded from the airplane

Getting some TLC from the vet

Waiting to go home

Saturday and Sunday - Ceremonial Start of the Iditarod and Restart in Willow

We were up before dawn to start our volunteer jobs.  Mary was very successful in getting us assignments as chip readers for both the ceremonial start and the restart.  Each group of chip readers was assigned several mushers. We would approach the musher and explain that were were there to check the microchips that each of the dogs carries. The musher would identify the dogs that were to go out in the team and each chip was checked to verify that it matched with the dogs that had been declared earlier in the week.  At this point the musher is declaring who his team of dogs is to be.

An added bonus was The Running of the Reindeer (think the running of the bulls in Pamplona except with snow, drunk people in a variety of costumes or a lack of clothing, and reindeer).

Over the last few days we have become partial to a few of the mushers.  It is hard not to root for Lance Mackey as he goes for five in a row.  Wattie McDonald is also a favorite.  It takes a real man to mush in a kilt! Gotta love it!  And being from the tropics, we have all come to love Newton Marshall.  Newton is from Jamaica and is a protege of Lance Mackey.  Mary and I had the privledge of checking his dogs (see the photos below). When he heard we were from Florida, he gave us great big hugs.

We had a great day but are totally exhausted!  That's all for now...

  Breakfast Time

Running of the Reindeer

Restart in Willow

Mary, Barb and Laural at the Start Line

Barb and Mary with Newton Marshall

Mary and Barb Checking Newton's Dogs

Barb and Mary chip checking dogs

Back to Anchorage

Yesterday we headed back to Anchorage after a wonderful stay at Cast Aways.  The scenery on the drive back was beautiful. The weather has been wonderful.  Even though the temperature was 19 degrees, we were outside taking photos without jackets.

We stopped at a wildlife rehabilitation facility where we saw caribou, a brown bear, musk ox, wood bison, brown bear cubs, and more moose.

Last night we attended the Mushers Banquet where we met most of the mushers including Newton Marshall, the Jamaican Dog Sledder, and Lance Mackey who will be going for his 5th consecutive win.

Tomorrow will be an early morning for us.  We have to be at the starting line at 6 am to scan dogs for the ceremonial start.

More Later...

 

Brown Bear

Barb with Newton Marshall

Laural with Lance Mackey

Down to Homer

We headed down to Homer this morning.  We stopped at Ninilchik which is a Russian fishing village.  We saw lots of bald eagles, moose, and ate lunch and drank ice cold Alaskan beer at the Lands End. The scenery is beautiful and the people are so friendly. We will head back to Anchorage in the morning.

Woke up this morning and said...WTF happened?

Guess we're dressing in layers today,,,

Down to the Kenai Peninsula

We headed down to the Kenai Peninsula this morning.  The drive was beautiful! We are staying at Cast Away, an Alaska Lodge on the Kenai River.  We saw a momma moose and her baby off the deck this afternoon.  Our hosts LaVon and Chuck fixed a beautiful salmon dinner for us.

Our bags made it it too! Life's good!

We made it but our clothes didn't

We managed to make our Anchorage connection with seconds to spare. Laurel and I were last to board the plane. Unfortunately our suitcases didn't make the connection. If we're lucky, we might get them tonight.

It's cold here. But it's a dry cold...