One Down and Seven To Go

Day one is over!  It has been a long, long day.  After several hours at the vet check we had to rush to the musher’s meeting to spend a few more hours while the drivers signed banners and they brought us up to speed on rules and trail markers.  The markers this year are unreal and the trail boss did an awesome job.  Just wish we had this guy at some of the local races.  This year they are putting a marker every 10 miles so you know how far into the race you are.  Just before the meeting, Anna and I snuck off to a French Bakery to grab something to eat and left with a bag of delicious pastries.  It made sitting through the driver’s meeting a pleasure   Immediately after the meeting we ran back to drop dogs and the driver’s went to have a group photo taken.  We had a 1/2 hour before they would let us in the staging area and when we got there we did a few quick chores to prepare for the start.  We had about 20 minutes and ran downtown for some grub and split a plate of BBQ.  There were tons of people in town and every type of dog imaginable.  Lot’s of puppies too.  It was the usual start everyone discussing how many dogs to take.  It varied from 4 to 6.  We went out with 6, but tried to keep the big boys off the team so Bruce would have some control going through the city streets.  Cracker and Indigo led followed by Mikka and Mary and in wheel we had Pepper and Ivan.  All the dogs did great with the crowds and actually seemed to really enjoy it.  We tried to video tape the start, but the camera had an error message that it was too cold!  Piece of junk     Bruce had a safe and uneventful run through town and finished a little faster than he wanted.  We always shoot for middle of the pack, but it’s always hard to gage.  He was the 6th fastest time so he will be the 6th from last to go out in Lander.  After the run we went to the ski hill to eat snacks, watch fireworks and the lighted skiiers coming down the mountain.  Tomorrow we will make the 3+ hour drive to Lander.