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Boarding a plane to fly to Atlanta turned into
a logistical nightmare. Bill called to confirm Tonto's reservation
and was told that everything was squared away. When we arrived at
Ted Stevens Memorial Airport in Anchorage, it seems that Northwest
Airlines' right hand did not know what its left hand was doing.
They decided that it was too cold for an Iditarod dog to fly!! The
expected temperature in Minneapolis was -6F and their rule is below
+10F is too cold for a dog. Never mind that Tonto was in -60F last
year on the race with Bill. The option was to wait and hope for
a warming trend, which put all of our Atlanta plans askew or for
me to go ahead and leave Bill behind. That made the most sense as
they were expecting +12F by midday in Minnesota and Tonto should
be able to fly. I flew on Sunday night by myself, leaving Bill and
Tonto behind.
Luckily Doug Grilliot, a musher who withdrew earlier
from this year's Iditarod, and is a pilot with Northwest, was in
the airport. Kindly, Doug offered his dog truck to Bill so that
he and Tonto could get to a hotel and not make the late drive back
to Wasilla only to be back at the airport by 7:00AM in rush hour
traffic. Instead of finding a hotel room, Bill drove to the Millennium
Headquarters where Lois and Joanne let Bill have one of the ITC
Volunteer cots for the night. That was a lifesaver. Monday morning,
when Bill and Tonto arrived back at the airport to fly, one of the
counter clerks for Northwest decided that now Tonto's kennel was
too small. They made Bill buy another one for $100 that added a
whopping 3" in height over the one we already had. The difference
was tiny and meant that Tonto could stand with his head up instead
of with his head down. Mushers and veterinarians will tell you that
excessive space is more damaging to the animal as they can bump
around too much inside the container. But Northwest got their $100
and created one unhappy customer. Long story short, everyone made
it back to Atlanta. Jordan is thrilled to have Tonto home. And Bill
did say that when he went to find Tonto in Minneapolis to take him
for a walk, the Pet Care ladies there were very nice and also were
Iditarod fans. Tonto had instant status!!
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HERE FOR CURRENT MUSHER STANDINGS
While we were in the air, the race seemed to maintain
a similar appearance, with Robert Sorlie leading, Ramy Brooks and
Jeff King at his heels. Robert Sorlie received the Gold Coast Award
for being first to reach the coast and had a gourmet dinner compliments
of the Millennium Hotel for being First Off the Yukon, an award
that was changed this year to reflect the unusual race route. In
reviewing the articles from Anchorage Daily News, it seems that
King has sped up. Has he got something up his sleeve? "More
than 700 miles into the Iditarod, all of the teams are now slower.
Teams never speed up. The winner simply loses less speed than the
losers." Everyone is guessing if King has been hiding his team's
true speed, since he is known to come from behind to win. That is
the big question and one we will have to wait to have answered soon.
We were sorry to find that G.B. Jones had scratched when we were
able to check ITC standings again.
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