Tuesday the 15th: The Teams are Coming! The Teams are Coming!

These young ladies had waited for Hugh Neff to arrive-there were many cat in the hats in the crowd because Hugh supports a big reading program in the schools. Many of the beautiful sled dogs got snacked after crossing the finish line-frozen trout and thick strips of fat seemed to be the favorites, but I saw fish and meat both. Some mushers paused before getting off the ice in Norton Sound to rest their teams. After crossing and having their sleds checked for mail and required gear-their official times were announced. John Baker and Ramey Smyth had broken new records. Lance Mackey, who came in this morning, had the fastest Safety to Nome run ever recorded with 7 dogs. Hans Gatt ran a great race, came in third, and after being gifted with Swiss chocolates, announced it was his last Iditarod race. Everyone's family was there for them, there was lots of hugs and plenty of applause hooting, and hollering. I called it good at 8 pm last night with Ray Reddington, Jr. crossing the finish line. I saw one musher coming in after I returned home to my B&B. There were lights of trucks along the road following them in-and I could see the outline of the musher in the lights......wow, what a close to the day!

Today was like no other. I found myself at the front desk and got a 10 minute relief to run out the door (Thanks to my friend Deb) and see John Baker cross the finish line with his team. His extended family and King Island Singers were there to greet him. I magine the sound of arctic drums being held high in the air to welcome you to Nome! It was an auditory delight! There was a big crowd of course-at one point I looked up into City Hall top floor where all the workers were crowded in to watch the pagentry!!

Later, back at the mini, Baker's dog handlers brought in the two lead dogs-carrying them with their bundles of yellow roses around their necks. The dogs were very tired. "Velvet" and "Snickers" loved being carried, and sat patiently on the stage so people could ask their handlers questions. Then John came in and told a few stories, and then he was off to the dog yard attending to his team. Mushers and their handlers are the only ones allowed in the yard-along with vets, dog yard officials-and guess what? Volunteers!! I get t0 work the dog yard-beginning Thursday.

My friend Deb is an official handler-went to school to get her card-and, she handles for Zirkels team-which got in after 1 am this morning. Allthe teams and dropped dogs from Unalakleet west stay in the dog yard until they are shipped home.

I however, crashed at 9pm, exhausted. I had watched the first seven teams come in. There were home crowd favorites. The handlers remove the booties and throw them to the children in the crowd (See my long caption, above).

Where,amongst all this is Angie Taggart?? Making great progress, she was is still progressing along the trail, and is on her way to Unalakleet today, until the sun comes up and it gets to hot for her dogs. She still has 12 dogs. She is making good time, following her plan, and everything seems to be going fine. After three scratches yesterday, we are thankful that she is well and progressing. The Ketchikan contingent is amassing in Nome-it will be quite a homecoming, and she is expected in three days or so. Meanwhile, we are working as volunteers-enjoying the people of Nome, going to events when we can, and staying warm (yesterday morning I used the handwarmers for the first time).