Brenda's 2003 Daily Iditarod Coverage
Countdown to Iditarod 2003 Restart — Fairbanks, Alaska, USA
February
25–27 28 29
March
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

March 19 , 2004

Leaving Nome But the Race is Still On .

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!!

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2004 Iditarod's Final Results.

 

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Click below for links to a List 2004 IDITAROD MUSHERS

WEBCAMS:
Iditarod FINISH LINE (View One)
Iditarod FINISH LINE (View Two)