Iditarod

Knowing that the Iditarod front-runners were nearing the coast and the Unalakleet checkpoint, I was keeping a close eye on the current standings through last weekend. Sometime Monday morning, I saw that Lance Mackey had gotten to the Koyuk checkpoint. Koyuk is the checkpoint before Elim. Once a musher leaves Koyuk, it's 6-7 hours to Elim. I kept an eye on the standings all afternoon, but he was still chilling in Koyuk. Melody and I had decided to go and see him come through, but I didn't want it to be too late of a night. Mackey didn't leave Koyuk until almost 9 that night. That would put him in here around 3 in the morning. I decided to go to bed for a few hours. Less than 4 hours later, Melody and I got up and got dressed. It takes a lot of time to get bundled up to go outside into a wind chill of -30. Melody, Anna (next door neighbor and fellow teacher) and I headed down to the fire station (where the checkpoint is located) about 2:30. It was a beautiful, albeit cold, night. Clear sky full of stars. I've never seen so many stars in my entire life. We heard that Mackey was still at Moses Point, 10 miles out, and wasn't moving. He had probably stopped to rest his dogs and take a break from the 20-30 mph winds. We decided that standing around outside sounded like a bad idea, so we headed back. Melody and I sat down to watch the end of Night at the Museum, which we had started over the weekend, but hadn't finished. Just after 4, we bundled back up again. We got to the checkpoint just minutes after Lance Mackey got there. We watched him spread straw to bed down the dogs and take their booties off. (Dogs wear booties to protect their feet and help keep them warm.) He started to heat up dog food as the vets did their jobs checking the dogs. Melody, Anna, and I didn't stay long; it was really cold and really early in the morning. We got back about 5.

I didn't go back to bed. I knew that if I did, I would be more groggy than if I didn't. I just took a shower and got to school at about the normal time: 6:30. I had a lot to get done, but it was hard to stay awake. I was sitting at my desk writing my lesson plans for next week, and I couldn't keep my eyes open. I had to get up and walk around the halls a couple of times just to keep myself awake. I knew it was going to be a long day. The bell rang, school started as normal, and I hoped the morning would go quickly. We started hearing rumors that the whole school was going down to see Mackey and his team. Nobody tells me anything, so I just tried to ignore the noise in the hall and started our calendar time, as usual. Just as we got done, Funny (the secretary) said that the whole elementary end was going down to the checkpoint. We got the kids bundled up, and the whole elementary, along with miscellaneous junior high and high school students headed down to the checkpoint. (I think the older students were the only students there that day, due to the fact that our boys basketball team was at the state tournament in Anchorage, and it was the day before spring break, and an early release day.) Mackey was still there, and our kids got to talk to him. He was eating and drinking coffee and resting, knowing that he had a huge lead and the push to White Mountain was going to be a long one. He is such a nice guy. As we all crowded inside the building, he said, "Wow, you must have brought all the kids from the area. Elim doesn't have this many people!" He joked with the kids and talked with them, and I could tell some of them were really inspired. While they are enamored with TV/movie celebrities like other kids, these guys have a whole different set of celebrities to emulate - and I must say that I would rather they emulate mushers than some of our current TV/movie celebrities.

The rest of the school day passed just like any other day right before a major break. Not a lot of academics, but we got some work done. I managed to get a phonics lesson in, and we did some work with the St. Patrick's Day book that we had read earlier in the week. It was an early release day for the students, but we teachers had to put in a full 7 hour work day. I can't say I got a lot done that afternoon. I was tired! For those of you who know me, I'm an 8-hour-a-night type of girl. I don't function too well on much less than that. I guess now I know that I can survive on less than 4 hours, but my mind was pretty foggy.