Wow, what a day it has been already. The ceremonial start went realy well this year. As usual, the trucks are all staged throughout the streets close to 4th Ave and the crew that creates the snow covered streets overnight where there had been almost none did a great job. There was snow for us to run on. We had a spectacular Iditarider this year that made it all the more fun for us. She is Denali Adams from down on the Aluetian Islands here  in Alaska ( sorry Denali, the name of your town escapes my tired brain at the moment!) She is seven years old and a great personality who our dogs took to immediately, even Caper wasn't shy with her and Cyclone and Widgi couldn't get enough of her. She got to harness her first sled dog, Frank,  and helped me with booties and the Canadian flag bandanas for our lead dogs. I also really enjoyed meeting her Dad David who drove over to the finish line with Doug and I. Thanks for all your positive energy David.
And I got to ride a sled for the first time this year since hurting my knee...I rode on one of Warren's runners up to the starting line. We discovered a great Canadian hat for Warren to wear - a jester's hat with the maple leaf on it and man did we get Go Canada cheers all the way up 4th Avenue, and a few cheers for the Canadian Olympic hockey teams! Annie rode the second sled through town and had a blast.
Warren is now napping as I am doing packing prep work for the sled for tomorrow. We have a delicious dinner awaiting us from Mari, her gumbo which is becoming a tradition for us on the eve of the restart here in Willow.

The twelve dogs who ran today are all eligilbe for running the race. Warren vet checked 20 dogs and the final 16 for the race will come from that group. He has not made it final team roster yet, possibly after the nap this afternoon, and more likely tomorrow morning. The twelve that ran today were Frank and Naboo in lead, Widgi, Hurricane, Hula, Hulk, Oyster, Ozzy, Onyx, Cyclone, Iza and Mogur. Most of this crew have never seen crowds like the ceremonial start  before but they all came through it with flying colors. They are all resting now but I know they can feel our excitement and theirs will continue to build over the next hours.
All for now, back to work for me.
Kate