SAFETY TO NOME

After hours of a ground blizzard we pulled into Safety.  I went inside and changed out my socks, and put new foot warmers, toe warmers and hand warmers in my Neos.   I also put in new hand warmer in my mitts, and changed out my neck warmer. 

Safety Checkpoint

We had a cross wind leaving Safety for about 6 miles and then had a head wind going up the east side of Cape Nome.   Here we are heading to Nome and we have another hill and winds.  It seemed like we were traveling forever as we had left White Mountain 65 miles ago and we had traveled about 10 miles through a ground blizzard.  At the top of Cape Nome we laid on top of our sleds and took a cat nap.  I woke up when my hands got really cold.  It was time then to move on. 

When we were about a mile and a half outside of Nome, the sirens blew.  We could see the lights of Nome ahead of us.  As we came up over the sea wall we were escorted by Nome's finest on Front Street.   Off in the distance we could see the brightly lit up Burled Arches.  There were numerous people there to greet us as Bob arrived under the Burled Arches at 2:55 am and I followed at 2:57 am.   Good friend Angie Taggart was there for our finish.  It was so great to see her.   I was awarded the Red Lantern and the 2012 Iditarod was officially over.  I was so glad that I made it all the way to Nome and it was an accomplishment far greater than I had imagined. 

We then drove our teams to the dog holding area near the Nome convention center.  Angie helped put the dogs out on the stake out chains and we prepared a big meal for them.  They were snacked with lamb, salmon, tripe, and race mix.   We then took our bale of straw and made individual nests for each dog.  They curled up and when they were all settled in we left for our Host, Myra Boje.  When I got to her house I was so exhausted that I just crashed.   I figured that the shower would come in the morning. 

I actually woke up without an alarm after 4 and a half hours of sleep.   I decided that a bath was far more inviting than a shower.   I so loved the hot soak and my muscles were so happy.  I looked over my many bruises and wished that I had taken pictures of them when I saw them at McGrath.  Then they were so incredibly colorful.  Now they were beginning to be more shades of green and yellow. 

I headed down to the dog lot and fed and watered the team.  Angie met me at the dog lot and then she went to Northern Air Cargo to pick up our dog crates that we were to use flying the dogs home from Nome.  While there she looked for Bob's crates and none of his were there to be found.  We then found out that they were never shipped.  Bob spent the morning assembling my dogs crates while I spent the morning on the phone trying to rustle up dog crates for him.  We were successful at piecing together enough dog crates from local mushers and then our luck turned and we received a call from a scratched musher who had all of his crates sitting at Northern Air Cargo waiting to be shipped home.  We in turn picked up his crates and were set to go.  It was a win/win situation, as we saved him the cost of shipping his crates back and we didn't have to borrow crates from Nome and then ship them back to Nome. 

At 6:00 we had a Red Lantern Musher's Banquet and it was a very relaxed gathering of mushers, volunteers, well wishers, and local Nome residents.  To put it in perspective, the Nome convention center was packed.  Outstanding food, good times, great tales of the trail by numerous mushers who were still in Nome and the presentation of the Red Lantern award by Wells Fargo.  It was a fun time had by all. 

Seven thirty Wednesday morning Mike, our cab driver picked us up and took us down to the dog lot.  We loaded up 6 of Bob's dogs into kennels and they were transported by taxi to Northern Air Cargo.  The rest of the team and sled were transported by Mike Owens.  We said our good byes to the dogs and headed back to front street where we had breakfast and then it was time to meet Alaska Airlines at the dog lot.   They came in a large van and within minutes my whole team was loaded into dog kennels and then the sled was loaded up and away they went to Alaska Airlines. 

Mike our Cab Driver while in Nome

We headed back to Myra's and packed our bags and cleaned up our space.  Then we called Mike our cab driver and we too were off to Alaska Airlines to return to Anchorage. 







Beth Wheeler picked up Bob's team at Northern Air Cargo and then drove to Alaska Airlines to pick the two of us up.  We then went to Alaska Air Cargo and picked up my team and sled.   Thanks to Beth, Angie and Rick, everything went like clockwork and there were no glitches.  We were soon on our way to Willow.