Day 2- MCG!

Greetings from MCG! Well, we are halfway through our working day here and things are going smoothly. However, I hear this is the calm before the storm so we shall see how things pick up. We have a friendly little pool going in the logistics room as to when the first musher will arrive tonight. I think it will be 9:10, but it seems to be the general consensus that it will be sometime this afternoon.

Just to give you a little overview of what we're up to out here...

We have a station set up in a room of the cafe, which is located right across the road from the airstrip. We have a board set up and pilots, media and volunteers (vets, trail crews, etc) coming in and out of McGrath. The pilots haul loads back and forth to the checkpoints. Their loads consist of anything from vinegar (for chili) and M&Ms (the essentials of course) to dropped dogs. Coordinating all of this is actually quite the task, and there's a whole big logistics and communications team behind the scenes. Nan is one of the main coordinators in MCG and I consider myself her assistant extraordinaire.

The weather here has been brisk in the morning (-20 degrees) but warms up to a balmy 20-30 degrees during the day. We are headed to the Chinese auction tonight at the local bar, McGuires, which consists of a coffee can passed around that everyone drops change into. There are various items up for bid and if you are lucky enough to have the pot stop at you, you win the item. The prizes range from PenAir tickets, gold nuggets, to homemade cookies. I'll keep my fingers crossed!!!

Well, back to work! Hope you are all well.

~Nan and Laura

Best quotes so far:

When I met the pilot I had radioed to earlier that day, he asked "So, are you going to be on the radio quite a bit?" I don't think that was a compliment.