FRIDAY IN MANLEY

Well, we ended up staying another day in Manley. The weather has been gusty with snow flurries all day. The dogs had another rest day and they are all starting to get restless. I clipped toe nails this morning and then I took care of feet.

I made a bunch of new neck lines and tug lines...one of Terrance's dogs decided to eat a few neck and tug lines. Now I have a good supply. We had to place an order for dog food to be trucked in. I ordered a 40 bag of kibble and also a 50 pounds of beef for the dogs. We also bought 10 pizzas and batteries. Kind of an interesting combination. I also ordered stainless steel dog bowls. They stack so much better than the cut down paint buckets that I have been using. They are very light weight but take up so much room. They also are easily chewed and will blow away in the wind.

This evening I put dog coats on the dogs and gave them some fresh straw. I also gave them an evening feeding. I will get up early in the morning and feed them a half meal and a heavy watering.

We are planning on heading out at 9 am. I will be going out with the second group of three mushers. We have decided that we will stick together and travel with each other. It is a peace of mind for me. Scott and I travel at the same speed and we also run about the same run rest schedule, so that will be good.

Our first 19 miles will be traveling on a plowed road. We will stay hooked up to a snowmobile, to control our speed until we are out of town and past a couple of turns. Then we will release ourselves from the snowmachines and they will travel ahead of us, putting in the trail. While on the road, we will not be able to set a hook and stop our teams. I have a really nice drag matt and should do OK on the road. We will also have a snowmachine at a hazard to make sure that all the mushers make it through it OK.

Tomorrow will be our longest run of 62 miles. We are hoping for good weather, but with temps falling. Soon we will be at -30. I will put on extra base layers tomorrow. I may also take out my beaver mitts. They are so very warm.

Last night I went to Linda Johnson's and she sewed for me. She made some fleece booties and also stitched fox tails to belly bands so that I have pee pee protectors for my not so hairy males. My experience of the people we have met in Manley is that they are all so very nice. They have gone out of their way to be helpful and I personally have appreciated all they have done for me. I will be thinking of Chuck when I am driving my sled with my modified drag tomorrow. Thank you Linda and Chuck.

I think that I will enjoy the stays that we have at the schools. It is really neat to be able to spend time with the school children. While in Manley, we passed out tooth brushes and I had pencils and knit gloves and notepads that I passed out to the kids. The big message that we gave the kids is to believe in themselves and to dream big. The school children took great care of us and seemed to enjoy our visit as much as we did of theirs.

I am not sure when the next place that we will have email on the trail. We are staying in the community center in Tanana. When we stay in schools, that is where we will have Internet access. I have heard that we should have cell service in Tanana. If that is the case I will be able to call Ricky and he can update the blog for me.

Jerry, one of our Veterinarians, took out my stitches. My finger has been doing really well. I have been able to keep it free of infection and it is healing nicely. It is still quite sore to the touch and more of a bother than anything as it is one of my primary use fingers and it slows me down a bit.

A big thank you for the many emails. I love hearing from everyone. Please know that my time on any of the school computers is limited and that I would like to respond to each and every email, but it is not always possible. I do appreciate hearing from you.

A very big thank you for those who have sponsored me...you play a very big part of my team getting down the trail to Nome !

Well, I should get to sleep as it will be an early wake up to feed and water dogs. Then I will have to pack my sled and be ready to go.

Good night.