idita-Unksville
Update as of 4:33pm, Sunday March 13th
Right now all the top ten teams have left Kaltag and are on their way to Unalakleet. Robert Sorlie is in first, and Ramy Brooks is an hour behind him. Martin Buser is an hour behind Ramy in third place, John Baker from Kotzabue in 4th, Jeff King in 5th with defending champion Mitch Seavey about 20 minutes behind. Ed Iten in 7th, Bjonar Anderson in 8th and DeeDee Jonrowe in 9th. The last person to leave Kaltag was Doug Swingley in 10th position. Its about 90 miles from Kaltag to Unakaleet, and the first musher is expected in around 6:00 tonight.
I’m here in Unalakleet waiting for mushers to get in. I’ll head up to Koyuk tomorrow before going home tomorrow evening. Here is a blog entry that I wrote last night about my experences in Unksville
(written at 11:00pm, Saturday March 12th)
Well, what a day this has been. Every time I think about the amazing opportunities that We’ve had since moving to Alaska, I’m just in awe. It shows you that if you give God something precious to you, like a year of service away from your friends and family, he will talk that gift and bless it. I really feel blessed with the great opportunities that we have been given. I can’t speak for Lydia, she is Miss travels around to villages on a regular basis, but this is only my second time out to one. I’m just blown away at how different it is than life at home in Seattle, its even different that Nome!
I’ve had a great time here so far, and have lots of time left. I flew in around 4:30, and after getting off the place started talking to another passenger, come to find out it was a reporter for the Nome Nugget Newspaper. We both had no idea what to do, so we start making the walk into town, when we are offered a ride to the checkpoint. Once there, we met an iditarod volunteer from Norway, and the three of us went to Dinner at Unalakleet’s pizza place. It was very cool, about halfway through dinner the owner and a friend started playing guitars and singing. It was such a surreal experience to be having pizza in a remote Alaskan village with two strangers I didn’t know 2 hours earlier, one from Norway, the other a former attorney from Ohio turned Journalist…all while being sung original compositions by some dude at his restraunt.
We headed back to the checkpoint and I decided that I should go check out the place I was going to stay, while my nugget friend went looking for one. I found my way to the Covenant Church an met Joel & Olga. After getting the rundown and having some coffee with the family, I headed back to the checkpoint. There wasn’t to much going on so I started walking around town. I ran into another Iditarod volunteer, this guy was around my age and from New Hampshire. He was on his way to the UNK basketball game with a few others, and I asked if I could join. Again, an hour later I found myself in a small high school gym, watching basketball with three more complete strangers, a dog handler from Minnesota, a dude from New Hampshire, and a native from Unksville. Around 10 I thought I should get going back to the house I was staying at. I visited with Olga and her daughter Evia who is a few years older than I. We played the covenant “do you know?” game for a while, then I went to bed. Sunday some teams should arrive.
Well atleast it was a Covenant ‘do you know’ game. I went to dinner with a bunch of people in my new mission and they playde the RCA (Reformed Church of America) do you know game. I knew no one, but found out they were all from Iowa and Michigan 😉