Polar
Cub Café is one other place in Nome to have good coffee and
some breakfast. We packed our things from the Church and walked
over to the restaurant. While we were there, Jeff Peterson, Teacher
on The Trail, came over to talk a bit about the program and his
experiences. It sounded liked he had a great time out on the trail.
Jeff was wishing aloud that he could hop a ride back out to see
some of the back-of-the-pack mushers who were still coming in. He
gave Bill a Wells Fargo Iditarod tee shirt. Peryl Kyzer was driving
her team down Front Street as we left town.
First chore on our agenda was to make sure the plane was preheated.
The temperature had hit –14F and some of the engine parts
and cylinder heads needed to be warmed. Earl’s little stovepipe
setup had them ready in no time. We said our goodbyes to Pastor
John and taxied away. It was a clear day for flying and we passed
over several teams who were mushing towards Nome, probably Bernard
Schuchert, Dexter Kancer, and Noah Burmeister. I believe we flew
over Sue Allen near the Moses Point VOR, on her way to Elim, because
we saw her red parka with the “W” on the back.
The
weather was cooperating nicely so Earl pulled into Elim. I had never
been there before and was curious to see a new town. Here we caught
up with Harmony Barron and ‘her’ pack of rookies, Jim
Conner, Jacob Lysyshyn, Cliff Wang and Matt Weik. These guys were
up from naps and were motivating around to leave a bit later in
the afternoon. They were sitting around in the Elim Fire Hall, which
served as the checkpoint, drinking bottled water and Capri Suns
while gear was hanging up to dry all over. The dogs were all resting
in the sun. We only stayed about 45 minutes but Bill was glad to
talk to Jim Conner again. Jim had some trouble with his team wanting
to stop outside Shaktoolik. He recanted the story of how he lined
them out and led them for several miles only to have them stop over
and over. Once he got tired, sweaty and miserable, he took their
dog coats off and they finally made some progress. We started our
walk back to the airport and a very nice lady offered me a ride
on
back of her snowmachine. That was appreciated.
After we left Elim, our only other stop was in Galena for fuel.
I managed to sleep through most of the rest of the flight and only
woke up when we hit a bump or two in the air. Earl’s friend,
Otis Rowland, picked us up from the airport and gave us a ride.
Earls’ wife, Lynn, and Melissa Rowland had made a scrumptious
dinner of ribs, corn on the cob, and all the trimmings. We enjoyed
getting to know another new family of friends. What a nice way to
end such a great trip!! Tomorrow we drive back to Wasilla, pick
up our snowmachines from the shop and start on our long list of
business things to finish up before we fly to Atlanta early on Tuesday
morning. Best wishes to all the mushers still out on the trail.
We are pulling for all of them and wish we were going to be there
to see G.B. Jones get his red lantern and to see Mitch receive his
new truck!!
Check back on this page
soon for more pictures
and the availability
to purchase prints.
2004
Iditarod's Final Results.
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