The Re-Start -- and so the game begins

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

The Cremation of Sam MacGee
by Robert Service


Tonight 67 mushers and 1071 dogs are spending their first of many nights in the Alaskan Wilderness. . .

For some fans, they can watch the progress of the mushers on the Trail on the via the Iditarod web site tracker for the Insiders who have paid the subscription, for the rest of us we have to follow the old fashioned way – by checking often the Current Standings page at:
http://iditarod.com/race/race/currentstandings.html

But all of us will continue to bounce between the web sites, the blogs, and the emails flying between friends following news, speculation and wild rumors. In other words – just another typical Iditarod race watched by the Idita-nuts in the Outside.

I have lit two candles, one for the Mushers and one for the Dogs which will burn until the last Musher and team arrive in Nome and the Widow’s Lantern is extinguished….thus ending the race.

The story of the FROG in a Sled: http://www.alaska.net/~freefrog/home.html

Photo by Donna Quante

And Photos of Lance’s tag sled on its side can be found on Backstage Iditarod Blog – link on the left side of my blog.

Pictures of Eric’s tag sled flipped is on the Anchorage Daily News Photo Essay of the Start.

Off to bed – to continue the internet quest in the morning – at least I have a nice warm and dry bed to curl up in – but then, catching a catnap surrounded by my team is not such a bad dream either.