After 6 L-O-N-G weeks, Clayton and the rest of the 525 made it home yesterday afternoon. It was the TDY gone wrong, to say the least. But they're all back and all 14 jets, miracle of miracle, made it back to Elmendorf (the F22s are "fussy"). The volcano that was supposedly keeping them out of Alaska never did anything so the monkeys, I mean people in charge in Hawaii (!?!?) decided to bring all the banished planes and pilots home.
Today, Saturday, was the ceremonial start of the Iditarod dog sled race. I know you've all at least heard about it down in the lower 48 :) It's a 1150 mile race from Wasilla, AK, to Nome, AK. It takes 10-17 days. It's QUITE a big deal up here... the mushers are like Alaska's version of a superstar. It's hard to explain, just take my word for it.. so what they did today was bring all the teams out to do a mini-race through Anchorage. We took the kids down to the "finish" line and they raced right past us. The doggies are kind of mangey looking. I thought they'd be all fat and fluffy but I guess they're dogs of another feather, these working dogs. Anyway, our kids cheered and waved and it was fun (and cold).
Clay-Clay and one of the first teams. There are like 12-16 dogs per sled.
The group of us watching the dogs. A few sleds (who carried paying, sometimes celebrity {Dorothy Hamill} riders) threw candy... but our kids didn't get any. They liked the candy at the Canada parade so much they heckled other teams. Not my proudest moment as these guys/gals are practically royalty around here.
I didn't take this picture, it comes from our online newspaper
This is really how the dogs looked jogging past. They wear little booties and sometimes little cape things. Obviously, I now want a rescue mushing dog but that's another post for another day.
All of us this morning watching the dogs. Come to AK the first weekend in March and you, too, can watch the Iditarod dogs mush!!
So now that Clayton is home, we're going to try and make up for some lost time and get some skiing in... Thanks to everyone who was supportive of my rants while Clayton was gone. It's good to have him back and to be "normal" again (ha ha).
3 comments:
So, we read this entire post and Jake looks at the last picture and says, "Did Clayton get new glasses?" Sorry, but that won out over the dogs. Looks like it was fun...Jake loved mushing with the dogs in Alaska. So, did Clayton get new glasses...you need a post on that one.
So glad he is home and glad you get to have time as a family...I know it is hard and I am so proud of you for hanging in there while he was gone. You are awesome...
Loved the dogs!!! I can totally see Sister doing that...she loves to run and loves the snow.
How fun! Reminds me of that movie...Iron Will I think.
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