This is truly one of my favorite days in Alaska- the Ceremonial Start of the Iditarod. The mushers ride right through the trail in our old neighborhood. We meet up with friends and cheer the mushers as they go by. The kids collect dog booties and other goodies thrown by the sled riders and at some point during the morning many of the kids become huskies themselves. It is a real community event and we get to meet up with many of the same folks we see every year.
Maren & Amei waving to a musher.
The Daily News publishes a listing of all the mushers and the order they will appear. We all follow along and cheers each musher by name. I happen to do A LOT of cheering. I get really jazzed and before I know it I am chanting and screaming and using my entire body to encourage mushers down the trail. I even cheered for a few random folks riding bikes down the trail. There is such great evergy along the trail as the mushers whiz by and as you can see our whole crowd REALLY got into the cheering. A few highlights of the day include catching two hats from the mushers, catching a few mushers eyes with my loud exuberance and most fun was singing "Rocky Top" to a rookie musher from Tennessee and seeing his eyes really light up. Fist pumping in the air he yelled, "Yea Tennessee!"Safe travels mushers!
We found these lost sled dogs on the side of the trail...
... so we brought them home!
No comments:
Post a Comment