Iditarod - Nome part 1

There is no place like Nome.  There is no place like Nome.  Nome is a small bush town of 3,000 people (that is including all the nearby villages).  Nome is small and compact unlike Bethel which is spread out.  Nome has a lot more to offer to the residents such as a bowling alley, movie theater, recreation center that is used almost 18 hours a day, saunas, and library that welcomes young students. 
Nome takes on a new persona when the Iditarod arrives in town.  The small town has an additional 400+ volunteers and about 400 spectators visit to watch the winner cross the burled arch. This year was the 40th year of the Iditarod Race and it had many firsts.  The first with twins mushing, there were 5 families with multiple family members mushing, Dan Seavey mushed in the 1st Iditarod Race and now the 40th Race , and it was the 100th celebration of the Iditarod mail, gold rush trail.  Dallas Seavey won the race and he is the youngest musher to win the 1049 mile race.  Way to go Dallas.  Dallas is the grandson of Dan Seavey and Mitch Seavey (Dallas's Dad) placed in the top 10 and Conrad Seavey (the youngest Seavey 15 years old) won the Junior Iditarod race.  What a dynasty the Seavey family is to Dog Sledding and the Iditarod.

Nome is the home of the Inupiaq culture in Alaska.  At one time Nome was the largest town in Alaska during the gold rush when the population was about 30,000 people.  Nome had a mishap with the title of the city.  It was the mistake of a cartographer.  The British Officer wrote ? Nome on a map and the cartographer misread it and wrote Cape Nome.  It was referred as Cape Nome for many years.  Eventually the people of Nome wanted their town to be Nome as they knew it and the legislature returned the name of the town to Nome.

 The Board of Trade was called the "Headquarters for the Sins of Nome" during the gold rush.  I am not sure the bar has changed much since the gold rush and has the original dust inside as well.

 Alaska doesn't have a lottery but there are a lot of Bingo Parlors.

 The Nugget Inn is another famous marker in Nome.  Normally the room rate for this Inn is $70 per night.  The room is bare minimum and most of the rooms you share a bathroom.  However, during the Iditarod the room rates are $250 - 300 a night.  What happens in Nome stays in Nome!!!

That is 3309 miles to Chicago.  This is a very familiar post in almost all Alaskan towns. Each town wants you to remember which way you came to help you leave! (that is what a local told me)

 The Iditarod Headquarters is the mini convention when it is hosting the communications, reception desk, medical unit, volunteer check in and musher hang out.  It is very small but useful.

This is a gold pan welcoming everyone to Nome. This is a statue in the Park to memorialize the Serum Run.

The Serum Run was in 1925 when the mushers took the medicine from Seward to Nome because of an outbreak in diphtheria.

 This is the Burled Arch in the middle of street.  The month of the Iditarod (March) the Arch is placed in the middle of the main road and cars take a detour around it.  All other months of the year the Burled Arch is placed between two buildings on main street so any visitor can have their picture taken under the arch.  Here are the Midwest Vixens - Beth, Kara, Niki and Sheryl.

 This is an old rail car from the Gold Mine.  It sits in the park in front of the Church.

This building is the original bunk house for many of the gold miners.  This is a new building face and looks nice but walk around the side or back and you will see a fairly dilapidated building.

 This is how you have to install a fire hydrant in Nome.  The snow covered the top of the hydrant and the public works department came and removed the snow. The children have the warm bus hut to wait inside while the bus makes it way around town.  The school is about 4 miles away.

This is the ONLY grocery store in Nome.  In our taxi from the airport, there was a gentleman who was in Nome to fix the check out terminal.  When the taxi pulled up to this sign the gentleman said, "This is a Safeway"?  Yep said the taxi driver.  He got out rather apprehensively.  By the time we went to the store this man was gone and the check out terminals were printing and working.

Many of you enjoyed seeing the prices of food items in the Bush of Alaska.  Below are some items I took pictures of before the manager came to see what all the camera flashes were about.  I tried to be discrete but when we saw some of the prices we were a bit loud "Oh my goodness look at this item"

This is a unique picture of a family sled to carry all their needs and it sits outside right next to the pink toilet.

This is a very familiar scene in Nome. Many of the locals wear these beautiful parkeys.  They are so gorgeous.  Velvet material outside, down lining and animal fur ruffs.

And another pair of very warm mukluks.

This is such a great picture. In the park is the remnants of a wooden canoe that was used long ago for hunting.

Here are the grocery pictures.

Bacon $9.39 a pound

American cheese slices (David's favorite) is $7.99 for 24 slices

Folgers coffee is $19.09.  There are no Starbucks or coffee shops in Nome.  The Subway and Pizza Place offer coffee if you want to buy it out vs making it at home.

A box of cereal $7.09.  I wonder what the kids eat if cereal is this expensive.

Chocolate milk is like a dessert for Nomeites!  $5.19 a gallon.

We took some time off from working to eat at the Polaris Bar.  They have the best, greasiest, burgers in Nome.  The burger and fries cost $24.00 and that included my Dr. Pepper.

This is a very familiar sight in Nome.  A lot of trucks have these wheels when there is snow on the ground.

The siren goes off every time a musher is about 3 miles away.  We hurried down to the Bering Sea to greet the next musher arriving at Nome.  These local little boys were so excited about us taking their picture. They rushed to our cameras to see their picture as soon as they heard the click of shutter.

We are known as the "Midwest Vixens".  Here we are making the MWV on the Bering Sea with the sun rising in the background.

Sledge Mountain is viewed off the southwest part of Nome and sits about 5 miles off the coast.  Sledge Mountain is volcanic and is only one mile across.  It was named by Captain Cook for several objects he found on the island.

We spotted these crab pot hooks and didn't see any pots so my friends, Beth, Niki, and Kara want to show you how to Pole Dance in Sea using a Crab Pot Holder.

Me on the Sea

This is the golf course on the Sea.  Each team, 3 people, played 9 holes of golf using green glow balls.  There is definitely an art to hitting the ball on snow and ice verses on the Golf Course.  The families plant their Christmas trees in the ice in January. 

Frozen chopped ice on the Bering Sea.

Some of the mushers had decorated their bunny boots.  I thought this was such a great way to decorate the plain looking boot.  He used duct tape.  This musher, Brent, wanted me to make sure I knew HE did not do this but the girls on his dog handling team did the decorating.  He told me he needed something to cover up all the holes in his boots.

And here is why we were in Nome.  The winner of the 2012 Iditarod Race.

Dallas Seavey is the youngest musher to win the race. Dallas is the grandson of Dan Seavey and the son of Mitch Seavey, both very famous mushers.  Mitch is the musher I spent a lot of time with in Nome last year because he sliced his hand open and cut several tendons during last years race trying to open a bale of hay.  He was rushed to Anchorage for surgery and then he wanted to be a part of the ceremony he flew to Nome and waited for the last person to cross the burled Arch.

This is Braxton Peterson (#63)coming into Nome over the Sea.  He finished the race in 10 days, 23 hours and 44 minutes.  Nice job Braxton

Beth, Niki and Kara all volunteered to work the Dog Lot.  This volunteer position requires you stay outside and take care of the dogs (walk them, feed them, clean the poop, and make sure they are warm).  This looks like fun when you walk through the dog lot and see all the dogs resting and wanting you to give them hugs.  BUT, when the girls worked it was from 2 AM until 8 AM.  Did I forget to mention it was 20 degrees below zero.  It was COLD!!!  These are pictures of the dog lot during the day when it was about zero degrees.  What cracks me up is how most of the dogs like to sleep and rest outside their kennel.

This is how I would look if I just ran 1049 miles in about a week.  This year the mushers had a delay because the weather was so back in Unalukleet they stayed over night until most of the storm blew over.

They are so happy snoozing on hay and the sun warming their little bodies.

This guy decided to wear his coat to keep the wind off of him.

And the crowds gathered big time to greet these two mushers into Nome.  These mushers traveled the entire trip together.  They wanted a good time but they said it was more important to do the Iditarod together. And they did.

Welcome Anna (#33) and Kristy (#31) Berrington.  The first set of twins ever to run the Iditarod.  Kristy has completed the Iditarod three times but it was Anna's rookie year.  They finished in 12 days, 2 hours and 17 minutes.  The funny part was they pulled up the shoot and then placed their sled hooks down and hugged each other. While the excited and photos were being taken the Race Official kept saying, "please pull up your team".  They stopped their dog team about 2 feet short of the finish line.  Then they had to decide who was going to move their team up first.  Anna was one second before Kristy according to the race officials.

I had to have my picture taken with this awesome young lady - Kristy. 

I have become friends with Justin Savidis and his wife, Rebeca over the past 2 years.  They live in Palmer and come to Eagle River often.  If you remember Justin from last year.  his dog team stopped and would not move once they left the last check point (the clock was running).  His lead dog, Rosey, accidentally ate one of her booties and it was stuck.  After 3 hours she was so lucky and passed her booty and then they finished the race in 2011.  This year Justin and his team finished in 12 days, 4 hours and 45 minutes.  Rebeca said it was only a 2 cheesecake race.  She eats cheesecake as he races to try and settle her nerves.

Rebeca and Justin Savidis.
Justin raises Rosey to the Burled Arch because Rosey officially retired from racing after she finished the race.  Rosey has completed 6 Iditarod Races.  Nice career for Rosey.  She will now become a house dog if she wants to.  Rebeca said she will probably still want to live and sleep in the kennel with rest of the dogs.

Rosey is so tired and ready to snooze.  This is not an uncommon sight at the finish line.  A lot of dogs take a quick snooze.  According to the mushers, dogs know how to take a "nap" as they run the race.  They are very talented.

This puppy has an itch that needs to be itched.

Ryan Olson finishing the Iditarod in 11 days 1 hour and 20 minutes.

This is Ryan's dog getting checked by the vet at the finish line.  This dog is wearing arm bands probably because of arthritis and to keep him warm.  Notice he is snoozing as well.

It was St.Patrick's Day and we had to dress the part.  Beth wore this cute hat for the day.

We had such a wonderful few days working in Nome.  The rest of our trip is in the next blog.