By the time you get this, it will be a good morning to you all! Our apologies for the late night blog, but we just got done with a 15 hour day and are now heavily drinking a $37 18-pack of MGD. Game on! What a day! We have had quite a few dogs drop in MCG today, a broken caravan (the plane that takes most, if not all, of the dropped/scratched dogs and various people to other checkpoints or back to Anchorage). In short, the caravan is a very important (only "big") plane that we have to cart people all over The Race. By the afternoon, the plane was back up and running so we were able to get about 40 dogs out. Tomorrow, things are looking up and quite a few more will head out. The dogs are soooo cute!!!!! They are all so excited about life (even with shin splints and other various ailments and hopefully not too serious ailments) and are fun to be around. We have had the opportunity to go down to the "dog drop" and help load the dogs into the caravan. Until their departure, they are rested in straw and have 5 star treatment while they stay in McGrath. The vets and vet techs treat them better than they would treat a human being and that's no joke.
The logistics/comm room was a hopping place again today. After watching Mark Nordman, Stu Nelson, Nan, Wes, etc. sit in a room for two hours last night planning out today, things sure changed and I'm left to wonder if they should just put the day's events in a coffee can on pieces of paper and draw them out instead of writing them on a giant dry erase board. A broken plane can really cramp a person's style. Even at day 4 I'm still blown away at how chipper everyone is. There are certainly times where things can get a little tense between people (Nan and I have managed to not get testy with one another by feeding our angst with red vines when an episode is about to occur), but by the end of the day things are back to normal. Friends and strangers alike are all sitting around like tables drinking a beer, sipping on tea, checking their email or talking about their everyday lives. I love this place!!!! Nan might have a new roommate in McGrath soon....
The last musher is supposed to come through tonight so things will begin to slow down. Then, maybe we will begin to clean things up and catch up on our logs books, and many other fun, misc chores. This is definitely a working vacation (for me, whereas this is now Nan's life) and I wouldn't have it any other way. This has been time well spent.
Nicole and I sneaked away to the checkpoint today to visit Wattie McDonald (the Scottish musher). Nicole is from Newcastle and have a very kindred heart for Scots. Wattie called up on the radio and told her to come down and visit--I tagged along for the ride on the "snowmachine", as those not in the lower 48 call it. Wattie was kind enough to take a picture with us. He was impressed with Nicole and her accent, but not so much by my MT accent.
Nan will hopefully write the next blog tomorrow, as it will probably be much more insightful than my outsider view....
Tiger update:
He slept at the top of my pillow last night. I'm officially convinced he likes me. I'm moving up in the world! Nan had a vet check him out today and he has a clean bill of health. Now Nan can rest easily and hopefully we can finally turn the repeat button off the Brandi Carlsile (sp?) cd that plays repeatedly on the player (per one of the other vet's recommendations).
Well, off to look at the Northern Lights!
Over and out 10-4.
~N & L
The logistics/comm room was a hopping place again today. After watching Mark Nordman, Stu Nelson, Nan, Wes, etc. sit in a room for two hours last night planning out today, things sure changed and I'm left to wonder if they should just put the day's events in a coffee can on pieces of paper and draw them out instead of writing them on a giant dry erase board. A broken plane can really cramp a person's style. Even at day 4 I'm still blown away at how chipper everyone is. There are certainly times where things can get a little tense between people (Nan and I have managed to not get testy with one another by feeding our angst with red vines when an episode is about to occur), but by the end of the day things are back to normal. Friends and strangers alike are all sitting around like tables drinking a beer, sipping on tea, checking their email or talking about their everyday lives. I love this place!!!! Nan might have a new roommate in McGrath soon....
The last musher is supposed to come through tonight so things will begin to slow down. Then, maybe we will begin to clean things up and catch up on our logs books, and many other fun, misc chores. This is definitely a working vacation (for me, whereas this is now Nan's life) and I wouldn't have it any other way. This has been time well spent.
Nicole and I sneaked away to the checkpoint today to visit Wattie McDonald (the Scottish musher). Nicole is from Newcastle and have a very kindred heart for Scots. Wattie called up on the radio and told her to come down and visit--I tagged along for the ride on the "snowmachine", as those not in the lower 48 call it. Wattie was kind enough to take a picture with us. He was impressed with Nicole and her accent, but not so much by my MT accent.
Nan will hopefully write the next blog tomorrow, as it will probably be much more insightful than my outsider view....
Tiger update:
He slept at the top of my pillow last night. I'm officially convinced he likes me. I'm moving up in the world! Nan had a vet check him out today and he has a clean bill of health. Now Nan can rest easily and hopefully we can finally turn the repeat button off the Brandi Carlsile (sp?) cd that plays repeatedly on the player (per one of the other vet's recommendations).
Well, off to look at the Northern Lights!
Over and out 10-4.
~N & L
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