Sunday Morning

Good morning.  I trust you slept well and long.  Of course if you forgot to set your clocks ahead last night you may have slept longer than you should have.  It's too early for me to come up with a cute segue into the topic of the day, so I'll just start typing and we'll see what falls off of my fingertips.

Apparently the volunteer(s) responsible for updating the Iditarod leader-board waited for the first place team to arrive in Unalakleet and then decided it was time for some shuteye.  Since that was Lance Mackey, and he arrived at 3:30 in the morning, one can't blame him (or her) for dozing off for a few hours.  According to the GPS tracker Jeff King is also in the checkpoint, and Hugh Neff is about four miles out with Hans Gatt only a couple of miles behind.  Mitch Seavey and John Baker appear to be traveling together a couple of hours behind Gatt.  Ken Anderson, Sebastian Schnuelle, Sonny Lindner, Gerry Willomitzer, Aliy Zirkle and Jessie Royer are all also on the trail out of Kaltag. 

The weather forecast along the coast is pretty darned nice for this time of year.  According to weather underground the racers will face clear skies, only moderate winds, and temperatures ranging from lows of - 20 to high's in the low +20s.  Although sudden storms can blow in at any second out there, the forecast is pretty favorable. 

Back in the early 1980s there was a popular bumper stickers, seen everywhere in America, that simply read "Sh*t Happens".  Sh*t happens anytime, any place.  Back near McGrath rookie Justin Savidis lost a dog, Whitey, from his team.  He is still there, looking for Whitey and has officially scratched from the race to focus on the search.  There is more to the story, though.  Apparently Justin didn't just loose Whitey, he lost his entire team for a while.  In a video posted on the SP Kennel Blog, Allen Moore tells the story of catching the lost team. 

I've been given the morning off, so in a bit I'll head down to the restaurant for breakfast and then ease into the afternoon of medical training.  I believe the schedule for today includes some emergency dental procedures and some wound care stuff.  It will almost certainly involve some case reviews as well.  I expect it to be a pretty laid back day today. 

If things go according to schedule I'll be home late Monday afternoon, but only long enough to unpack my suitcase, do a load of laundry and repack for the trip to work on Tuesday and simultaneously start packing the big suitcase for a week of clinical training Outside.  It's a busy time with work related stuff for me at the moment and I'm afraid that when I'm finally finished my mushing season will be over.