Good evening all,
To say that the last 36 hours have been full and busy would be a grand understatement. In fact much of the last week feels like a big blur as the activity has been nonstop. Warren was pretty wiped out when he got to Nome but in great spirits. He was incredibly impressed with the dogs. Initial standouts were Cash, Guiness, Dobie, Goblin and Caper but I have only heard a very minor part of the stories from the trail as yet. It is good we have a long drive back home! He already knows some of the ways he will be changing his race plan for next year, but I will allow him to elaborate on the details after he returns from Nome and has had some sleep. He did stick pretty closely to his race plan this year. The slow trails changed dynamics a bit. I believe he will be changing some of the long runs that her did this year into smaller sections. There is for each musher on the trail, a stategy, their "race plan" that they try to adhere to, some more than others. One often hears of mushers "running their own race"- this means they are following their own race plan and not changing their plans because other mushers may be doing something else. The race plan is a huge part of each mushers pre race planning and countless hours and energy  are invested in it. The dogs all looked good coming in and are all eating and resting well now. I flew back with them yesterday - pretty much an all day affair. We got down to the dog lot just after 9am and had just enough time to water the dogs, put all the fronts on the crates and load them up at 1030am for the trip to the airport. We then had a quick meal with friends Rick and Sandy Larsen before I had to run out to the airport to pay for the dogs an my transport back to Anchorage. Rick had finished with his team just a few hours before so we were glad to see him and hear some of his stories from the trail. I met back up with Warren at our host family after the airport trip and he drove me out to the airport again and the dogs and I were off around 130pm. The plane flew northeast to Kotzebue(sp?) first where we had an unsuccessful first landing  due to low fog but after a second pass we were able to land and pick up  a very full load of people and head offf to Anchorage. I sat with Paul Gebhart's handlers on the plane so we shared a good visit and handler stories. I got over to the cargo area around 5pm and met up with Karen who was more than happy to hand over the keys to our rather large truck and trailer combo to me. Great job on getting the rig down from Willow Karen! The dogs arrived much more quickly than the last time which was nice. We spent the next hour or so  getting the dogs settled back on the truck - they were very happy to be back at home. Karen did a great job breaking down all the dog crates while I fed and watered all the dogs. After a longer dinner than expected in Anchorage we headed back to Willow to arrive around 10pm where we briefly visited with Mari and Katie, and Lena who is doing really well. Then we fed all the dogs and realized how tired we were. I think I am experiencing the reality that Iditarod 2008 is over and all the stress, excitement, anxiousness involved with the race has subsided and now the fatigue will settle in. Alas, in dog mushing, there is no rest for the weary! But for this evening, that is all for this story as the morning will be here soon and for us it will be an early one as Karen is leaving from Anchorage early in the morning.
Take care,
Kate