While it has only been two calendar days since the ceremonial start it seems like many more days have passed. When the moments are filled with the intensity we are dealing with here, time seems to pass quickly and yet to stand still, often at the same time. Now that Warren is out on the trail time is moving very slowly, as I am sure most of you can understand. There is so little snow in Anchorage we were wondering how the race was going to pull off a 4th street start. Happily, and I am sure due to the efforts of countless volunteers, they did pull it off. Snow was trucked in from somewhere and there was a race track that wound through downtown first and then through a few culverts, over a highway overpass and through forested areas, eventually finishing at the airstrip at the other end of town. We arrived downtown around 8 in the morning. The first teams were scheduled to depart at 10am; our departure was 11:24. We had fed and dropped the dogs at the hotel before coming down so they could stay up in the truck and relax and watch the festivities. With our trailer set up so that the dogs are inside they rest well even when throngs of people are checking them out and taking pictures. Some of our dogs are major posers for the camera, people are always excited to see them relaxing so well and countless pictures of them snoozing were taken on Saturday. For the beginning part of the morning, crowds are allowed to wander through the dog truck area at will. Around 9:30 they kick out everyone except mushers and handlers who wear an armband signifying their special status. These armbands are almost as good as gold in this town this time of year. For the time that the public is walking through, the street in front of our trailer was full with well wishers and curious questioners, as Warren and I were bustling about trying to get the sleds and lines and things ready for the dogs to run. Various media, Mushing magazine, the Anchorage Daily News, interviewed Warren and the local radio among others. Dad was exceptionally helpful at this point in hanging up all of our flags, the NWT flag, the city of Yellowknife flags, and all the various size Canadian flags. We put our largest Canadian flag on the second sled that I rode through town while Warren’s sled had a flag from M&M Meats, one of our lead dog sponsors. Dad also was the main magazine man distributing Uphere magazines to the public. It was cool to hear how many people were already familiar with the magazine and recognize the quality magazine that it is. While there was enough snow to cover the ground there definitely was not enough snow to set a hook so when we headed to the start line we were very thankful for the extra help with the dogs, some of the volunteers were part of the main Iditarod volunteer crew, some we just met on Saturday, some like Diana from Nome I met late Friday night as she was searching for another musher, and all of them helped for us to have a safe trip to the starting line. Thank you to you all! I ran up front with the leaders, Frank and Edenei. I had a short leash attached to Frank’s collar but within the first block he slipped his collar so I just ran in front of them. They did great. By far one of the best parts of our ceremonial start this year was our Iditarider, Michelle from Montana. She is one of those people you meet and you feel like you have known her forever and want to spend more time with her. She was so excited to be there with us and so full of positive energy it was contagious to us and to the dogs. She is someone we look forward to knowing more. She has loaned Warren a good luck charm for the race, a carved polar bear claw that was given to her by a woman in a small community in Nunavut whose husband had harvested the bear for his family. Michelle, Warren is honored to wear it and will send it home with stories from the trail. We finished the run arriving to the iced up parking lot of the airstrip only to find that the truck wasn’t quite there yet - oops. Our great friend Laura Crocker was driving it over for us along with my father as navigator and I think they were having so much fun talking they missed the final turn which meant they had some creative turning around of our trailer, a 32 foot gooseneck trailer. Well, they were probably the only trailer to take a tour of suburban Anchorage, and they arrived shortly after we had hooked off to a fence so all was good. We did not stay too long at the airstrip after all the dogs were put away and we said our goodbyes with Michelle as we still had preparations for the restart occupying our minds. From the airstrip Warren, Dad and I headed back to Willow to John and Mari’s where we were welcomed by them and the smell of Mari’s home cooked gumbo to feed our hungry selves. Our friend Jacques Philip was on his way to Anchorage to fly out Sunday morning so he came by for the night and we all listened to his tales of his early Iditarods with keen interest and lots of laughter. We all had a really enjoyable evening together. Warren completely had the night off. I did all of the dog chores and organized things for the morning and actually got him to bed early for a much needed good night’s rest prior to departure. I followed fairly close behind him. I did spend a few moments prior to retiring for bed to enjoy the snow falling softly around me with the dogs final evening howl. Kate