Say goodbye to Alaska!!!

Sad as it is to leave good friends and beautiful trails......the time has come!!

Friday nite’s banquet was as wonderful as usual!! I even had 2 helpings – I had saved my appetite up all day! I don’t think there were as many “local specialties” as years before, but many of the dishes were casseroles so I wasn’t really sure what was in them………
Saturday was a beautiful day for people but too warm for dogs – it was still cool out (like about 20 degrees) when the six dog went out at 9 am but got gradually very warm the rest of the day with the sun out! My race didn’t go so hot since the biggest dog in my team, Enzo, didn’t ever pull during the 6 miles – he was sore after Randy ran him in the ONAC race 2 weeks ago and we thought he was OK but apparently not – so that landed me in last place out of 32 teams.
Randy took out 13 dogs and had no problems but 4 of them didn’t work very hard so he is leaving them out day 2. He came in 17th out of just over 20.
All day long the Hartum kids were playing with our new pup,, Ghost – he was worn right out last nite!! They have him trained to jump in and out of the truck and his coop! He is getting lots and lots of leash training!
After the race we fed and went over to Dale Raito’s cabin about 5 miles from here – once again he had a big place plowed for our truck to fit in!! We had delicious grilled steaks wrapped in bacon and then I got the honor of starting the bonfire!!!! It started out about 8 feet tall!!! Before long we were ready to turn in and had to drop dogs – we planned to get up at 6:30 again but didn’t really get up till 7:30!
My run today with only 5 dogs went much better and actually I was in only 28th place for the day even with only 5 pulling ahead!! But I ended up in last ………it was a beautiful, perfect ending to my racing season!!
Randy goes out this afternoon at 1:32 and I hope his run goes at least as well as mine did!!!
Indeeed things did go well for him – he left with only 9 dogs and they ran along steady and didn’t have any problems -he moved up to 15th and the very best part of the whole weekend was that he had the 1 year old, Scar in lead and she did great!!!
The awards are handed out and people are leaving and it’s time for us to start the 4,000 mile trip home!!!!! We will be in Canada in about 2 hours so I won’t have phone service and the wifi will be iffy over the next week! Will write when I can- we love you all!!!