We arrived in Wasilla late on Sunday night. We headed up to Jacques and Magali's place on Sunday before we left Fairbanks. Warren immediately went out to drag a trail to go run the Quest dogs on as all the rest of us worked on packing up the stuff we had left at their place. We now have the back of the truck loaded up with extra meat and dog crates that will be sent up to Nome to fly home the Iditarod finishers. Thanks to Jacques and Magali for the storage space. It was fun for the kids to see a real Alaskan kennel out in the bush, they really enjoyed it. It is a beautiful spot and feels like another home to Warren and I. The dogs took just a short 5 mile run to stretch them out and test out Warren's sled repairs. The dogs were definitely surprised by the short distance of the run and the sled held up well.

The trip down was pretty uneventful- no moose or caribou in sight which was just fine. Warren rested as I drove. We stopped at a very appreciated restaurant in Cantwell, the "Time to Eat" and boy was it for our crew. Hardly a word was spoken at dinner as we all inhaled the tasty burgers and fries - the staple diet during this time of year is seems - no matter where you are you know it is a safe thing to eat. After dinner, all but myself took a much needed nap until we arrived in Wasilla. The hotel we had arranged for the gang is not quite what was portrayed but will be ok. Disappointingly the pool is under repair so the kids are sad not to play in the water.

We had our vet checks, the bloodwork, electrocardiograms, and complete physical for each dog last night. It is a long process as the kids found out but a necessary part of preparing for the race. We should have the bloodwork and ecg results back in a few days. It is quite impressive the amount of vet care involved in this race. We have 21 dogs in the running for the Iditarod team at this point that went through the full process. We will be headed out here soon to run the dogs and there will be some challenging decisions to make in the next few days to figure out the final team roster. The plan is for the Quest finishers to run a short run 10-15 miles and the rest of the Iditarod pool to run a 30-40 mile run. At this point in the process, just Warren will be running the dogs as he needs to be watching them all closely in order to make his final decisions. My role will be the pit crew coordinator for this week. We will be running them today and tomorrow and then tomorrow afternoon head into Anchorage to be there on Thursday morning for Warren's prerace meetings beginning at 9am. While he is at those I will be watching the dogs and getting things prepared, repaired, laundered and ready as necessary. Luckily this year there are some extra hands around to spread out the chores - much appreciated.
All for now.
Cheers, Kate