First day of the Rondy!!

 We arrived downtown (after warmed up leftovers from our breakfast at the White Spot Cafe - reindeer sausage and hash) at the race start area at 4th and D Stl about 10 am, did some walking around talking to people that we knew from racing here 2010-12, both racers and race organizers - like Janet Clark the race marshal, Christine Tozier (her father was very active in the racing community here and the race track by Tudor Road is named after him - that trail system at the Alaska Sled Dog Racing Association- ASDRA= is used in both the Rondy and in the ceremonial start of the Iditarod - we were also invited by Janet Clark to have bar b que at the ADMA clubhouse today after the race) Karoush Partow, Jennifer Probert and Carl Ehrhart, Greg Taylor, Michael Tetzner, Eddie Dayton, Remy and Lily Coste, and many more I can't remember right now!!!   and lots of new people one of which is a racer out of Huslia AK name Jon - Huslia is the town where George Attla (aka the Huslia Hustler) is from - one time when George was down from AK to race, Randy was also at the race and there wasn't enough snow for the planned open class race (story of our lives anymore..........)) and so they put on a one dog short race and Randy beat George (which was pretty much not happening in the lower 48!!!)  and in another heat Randy and George were neck and neck and George leaned over and put his hand on Randy's sled and said "lay your sled down" in not quite as delicate as those words, and Randy did and George won!  Another side note, we have a sled that George broke during the period of time in Michigan and it is now a part of our home decor and sits above my hanging pots and pans rack in the kitchen!!

So back to the race..........we were still walking around and Janet Clark stopped me and gave me a job to do..........go to each of the teams and show them a sign that gave them a 2 minute warning!!!  which meant that I walked through the slushy snow to each driver's truck from one end of the lineup to the other for2 hours!!!  Here I thought I was going to have a cushy job like Randy standing in the starting chute and helping out when needed to hold or untangle a dog!!!!

We were done with our "race duties" about 2 when all the teams came back in (still have not found the race results on line so don't know for sure but we heard that Remy was in first and Karoush in second and they had done the course in about 9 minutes - more details about that when I get a paper copy to take a picture of.......... We hurried over to the White Spot Cafe so we could have their halibut sandwich for lunch before they closed = it took about 20 minute to get there 3 blocks away from where we parked at the race start because of all the one way streets and so many of them blocked because of the snow on them for the race!!!

the sandwich was great but both of us could not eat the bun so the waiter said "I guess you guys needed the halibut platter instead!!"

After Randy napped and I ironed my kuspuk (the traditional women's dress of AK, usually worn with a fur coat underneath with the fur on the skin of the woman) which I work when we got married in Nome in 1998 = 

Left and went to the Egan Center for the Trapper's Ball - which has pretty much been transformed into what ever interests the people that would really attend - which was country western this time - while I was one of about 10 wearing what someone that was a trapper's wife or a native/1st nation woman might wear, most everybody else was dressed in cowboy fashion!!!!!  Danced about 5 dances (Randy didn't want to re-injure his knee) and left at 9 to come  home again!

Up at 7 and plan to get to the race site by 11 and see what happens today!!!