Alaska Adventure '06: March 2006

I thought i would move my blog over here 'cause you don't need to sign in to see it...here it goes...the pics don't work...so its only gonna be text

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Last Post-Maybe

This will be my last post from this trip...I wanted to do one more post from Alaska, but we had to hurry to get out of the hotel on time...if I get some good pics developed, i might put them on here. Alrighty

So, I woke up on Friday and just kinda laid around watching basketball with dad. I had to hurry to get to breakfast because I wanted one last taste of those blueberry buttermilk pancakes, and they stopped serving breakfast at 11. This time they cooked the blueberries in the pancakes...i liked them better when I had to add them. Went back to the room, watched more bball. We had to wait because we were gonna have lunch downtown. We left and parked downtown, on the same street where they had the start, 4th street. We checked out some souvenir places because we wanted to bring back something for Char...we picked out a cool Ulu, cuttingboard, and dvd package thing. We had lunch at The Glacier Brewhouse, the place where Chas wanted to take us for dinner but the waiting list was too long, and we went to Simon & Seaforts. The Glacier Brewhouse was AWESOME. Such a cool atmosphere. We sat at a small table, and I ordered a rootbeer, they brewed it themselves...sooo smooth. I had ribs and dad had a sandwich...also awesome food...the fries were delectable. We went back to the room, I had to hurry packing because we only had about ten or fifteen minutes until we had to leave..I said goodbye to Kobi and thanked him for teaching me and allowing me to watch him...he also thanked me for helping them out. We also said goodbye to Kate, and she thanked us. Most everybody wanted us to come back next year, that was cool! We left, dad found out that the plane was delayed 30 mins...not too bad. While we waited I read My Antonia. The flight to Seattle was only 2 hours 40 minutes...then we boarded the plane to Eugene, had to wait on it for 30 minutes because they had to fix some paperwork..we almost had to get on another plane. We finally left, and that was only about an hour flight. Got back at about midnite, and while we were waiting for our baggage a film crew was filming a commercial...weird. Mom and Beau picked us up...that was pretty awesome, seein' them. We were telling mom stories and it was kinda funny because she already knew about most of them from the blog. We gave mom her moccasins..she liked em. It was also really good to see Charlie at home...he's getting really big. I read about 60 pages in My Antonia during the traveling...pirdy good. I'm on book 3 now, I might be able to finish it before Monday. We're gonna pick the pics up in a little bit...thank you all for reading, for giving me an audience. Thank you everyone who allowed me to make this wonderful journey and have this wonderful experience...and I thank you, Lord for letting it be a safe and incredible experience, and providing me such a wonderful family.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Moose's Tooth

Dinner was pretty awesome. It was just Levi and Laura and dad and I, but it was still awesome. We met them there, and we ate in a tent connected to the building because it is always soo busy there, and they're building on. The restaraunt was sooo busy, and it was a Thurs night! They said it was mostly a local hangout. Apparently Laura witnessed some kind of bank robber guy get out of his car with a double-barreled shot gun and run while she was in her car...he was later shot by the police...scary stuff! The pizza was awesome, we had spicy chicken w/ jalepenos and meatball...mmmh. Apparently the beer was good...We had some awesome talks..talked about Dad's upbringing and how Chas was when he was a kid, stuff like that. We also learned somemore about Levi and Laura...it was just a really good bonding time. Dad and I got moose's tooth shirts to go with our bear tooth shirts. I wanted the kinda shirt that dad got, but he got one that was long-sleeved, and the only one they had in short-sleeve was tye-dye, and im not a td man. We said goodbye, and came back to the room. I guess Ryan and Camilla and Janet told Levi to tell us goodbye for them. It was too bad that we couldn't see them one last time. We got to the room, I did get to say goodbye to Dr. Jim Brick, and dad put our coats in the dryer...they were soo dirty, and smelled like dog/poop. We were gonna watch the 50-year Old Virgin, but we started it and the picture was jumping all over the place. Dad talked to the front desk, and they said the feed was bad, so we chose the film Derailed. Its an insane complex dark movie....maaan. Alrighty, time for my last night in AK. We didnt see Camilla and Janet, so they're not gonna bunk with us...they were thinkin about it if they were gonna have dinner with us. Time to get ready to bed...nite,

P

BBall Day

Today has been mostly a day of watching NCAA tourney games. It's been alright, but kinda boring. I got a subway for lunch and skipped breakfast because i slept late. We thought we were gonna get in four dogs at 12:30, but it turned out to be 2:30 or so. I went out to the airport with Kate and some other lady, and we picked em up. We brought em back and got em settled in, then I scribed for Kobi. The cases were mainly that they were tired, had diarrhea, didnt eat, were too thin...they all ate, so we didnt do anything with them. We're gettin' closer, its too bad its soo late in the trip. I was saying that gonzaga was playing, and he jumped infront of the tv. Apparently he's become a fan of them...we talked college bball, then we went outside and dad started talking with him about school and how it must be difficult for a vet because they have to know so much about so many different species. They also talked about testing the dogs on the trail. It was cool hearing Kobi talk about it, and it was fun seeing dad and him interact with medical terms and stuff. Kate took the dogs to the prison, then I came back to the dd room with dad. I answered a few calls, one about if a volunteer needed to come in, and one about if we had any dogs in for...Ken Anderson, i think. We had to do some checking around on the comp and found out that we had one at the prison...it was cool working that aspect of the stuff. We're just hangin around now, and are gonna go to dinner with Levi and Laura, possibly see the movie tonight...the 40-Year Old Virgin...just now i went to say goodbye to Dr. Jim Brick, dad said he was leaving. He told dad that we needed to come back next year, and that they would pay us..haha. I wanted to catch him, but this lady in the ddroom had to go to the bathroom, so i had to cover for her and i missed him...its not her fault, its alright. Alrighty, thats about it...oh yah...i'll tell ya a funny story. If you're disgusted about underwear, stop reading..................................................................................................

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Yesterday i was going to subway and I threw on some pants and walked over there. While i was standing in line, there was this attractive girl behind me. I looked down, and saw that my boxers were poking out the bottom of my jeans. Apparently when i went to take a shower i threw off my pants and didnt take my boxers out of them. While i was in line i just cooly bent down and picked the boxers out of the bottom of my pants and pulled them up into my coat...when i got back to the room i saw that they were wet and kinda dirty...apparently they were partially out when i was walking to subway and i got them snowy...pirdy embarassing, but it wasnt too bad....hope that wasnt scarring for you...I'll see ya guys this week,

P

hoppee

Sounds like you had a great time up there aye Peter!? That is really cool you got to do all that and got to help and stuff. Anyways, I hope you guys have a great rest of the trip and a safe flight back. Take care and thanks for keeping us all updated the whole time.

Cheers, Erika

Posted by hoppee on Thursday, March 16, 2006 at 7:29 PM

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

This One's Shorter

Well, today I woke up at about 11, hung out, and got a subway. Dad entered all of the paperwork for yesterday, and I just kinda hung out and read. At about 5pm we got three dogs in...Kobi asked me if I wanted to go to the vet's because they were gonna take two there to check 'em out. I felt i needed to tell dad, and i didnt have time to, so i didnt go..I was kinda frustrated. Kobi said that there would be more tonight, so it was ok. Dad and I went to find the Thai Kitchen resteraunt, and after 40 minutes and conversations with Oma and Mom, we gave up and came back to the hotel. I had a good dish of scallops, and dad had some angel hair pasta with halibut, shrimps and scallops. I left dad early at dinner because i wanted to be ready for the shipment of 40 or so dogs at 7. They came in pretty late, so i just hung in the dd room. As i was saying earlier, two dogs out of the three were taken to the hospital, so there was one by itself. His name was Wasabi and he was taken to the dog drop room, and slept for hours...He was a beautiful white buff dog...he was on Valks team. He's the dutchman that is currently running red lantern(last place). He was so funny. While he slept he moved his feet like he was running. While we were ready for the dogs to be hooked up, I was in the dd room with Dr. Jim Brick, Kobi and Jerry Scodoris. It was really funny hearing them talk and joke. They also kinda talked about Rachael and how and if they should change the time limit people could have on the trail, or do away with it. We went out to the fence and I scribed for Kobi again. He started asking me if they were taking meds instead of looking himself..more trust! We finished and came back to the dd room. He showed me what he was checking for when he would flex the dogs arm and legs on Wasabi. It was cool! Kate then had me take Wasabi out and have him loaded up to be taken to the prison...i felt bad making him get up. I was walking him outside, through the door, and he walked straight into the window and bumped his head! It was kinda funny, but also sad. We didnt go to the hospital tonight, which was good, but also dissapointing. I came back to the room and saw that dad was finishing his movie, Jarhead...and that was the day! Oh yah, Bjornar finished sixth, with sixth dogs! You must finish with no less than five! Oh man! Alrighty, I'm signing off...Nite!

P

Yesterday-AN INSANE DAY

Alrighty, now I have some time to write about what happened yesterday. I don't want to write too much, but a lot of things happened, so we'll see how it goes......

I woke up and had some breakfast..a buttermilk pancake with strawberries, sooo wonderful. I came back to the room and chilled for a little while, it was a slow morning as usual. I finally finished the first book in My Antonia. After that dads shift started, so we went to the dog drop room. Kate said that we could sort bags in a trailer, so we went outside with Dana and started doing that. The trailer was this huge compartment that we usually see attatched to a semi, and it was full of burlap bags with mushers names on them. Before the race in Anchorage, the mushers put all of the stuff that they will need in Nome to take care of their dogs in burlap bags, and their names are marked on them. They are usually exhausted when they finish the race, so Kate thought we would make it easy on them and alphabetize the names. We did that, and boy was it a job...sooo many bags. We barely had room for all of them...at the end we just started kinda approximating where they would go. It wasn't that it was filling up, it was just hard to keep it in an orderly manner. It was extremely windy and was soo loud inside the trailer, it was kinda cool. We came back to the dog drop room and Kate told us that there were more bags at the airport, so we drove with her to the airport to pick them up, then took them back to the trailer, unloaded them, and sorted them. It went faster because we had already sorted others, we just added to the pile. It was pretty cool running across Swingley and King and Buser bags and wondering what was inside them. We reported back to the dog drop room and heard that there would be 25 or so dogs coming in at the airport at 4pm, and another 50 at 7pm. It was a little after three and dad and I knew that if we were to survive we needed to get something to eat, so we went to the bar and I had a burger and he had a salad. Halfway through the meal dad asked for a box to put his salad in incase they said we needed to go to the airport immediately, and sure enough, we were interrupted while we were almost finished, and dad had to pack up his food and we raced to the airport. When we got there we learned that there were actually 40 or so dogs, and we only had 20 or so holes on the trailer because Kate had sent the others to a checkpoint to have dogs loaded into. She said that we would have to chain some up to the fence and wait for them. We unloaded the dogs, and boy was it nasty. There was a crate covered in poop, and it was a terrible sight, seeing a dog on top of it. I think Kate got the poopy one...We chained about 20 to the fence, and dad and I elected to stay there with the dogs and wait for them to come back. It was soooooooooooo coooooollllldd. You have no idea. It was only about 25 degrees, which is pretty warm, but there were big big gusts of wind, and it made it freezing. There was no hay, so the dogs were just standing in the snow. Some started to shiver, so I blocked the wind from some and I straddled another trying to keep it warm. After what seemed like forever, Kate came back and we loaded them up. By that time i felt like my bladder was going to burst, so right when we got back to the hotel and unloaded the dogs, i raced into the bathroom. I got back to see a boy about my age, maybe 18, that is new and from Georgia, here with his mom and sister who are also helping with dog drop, scribing for Kobi. It really frustrated me because I felt like i paid my dues and I was there to do that kind of work, but i guess, as the saying goes, you snooze, (or you pee), you lose. I was also getting frustrated with his mom for no apparent reason, i think i was just stressed.I kinda started feeling not right. I still don't know what it was, but I felt scattered and rushed and just, I dont' know, it was weird. I thought I might faint. People were just rushing around and it was insanity, so I came back inside and rested for about 10 minutes to get my bearings. While all this was going on there were these huge gusts of wind, and i put on my face-cover thingy and that kept me kinda warm, along with my cool new hat. Dads new boots also kept him warm! I went back out to the fence, feeling exhausted. Because there were so many dogs coming later, we didnt have enough room on the fence for 75 or whatever dogs, so we had to get them processed fast, vet checked, and to the jail. Because it is so late in the week, many volunteers have either left or are just not showing up. I was jockeying to go to the vet with Kobi, because he had to take a dog there. I told Kate i was going to do that, and she said "No, I can't have you do that." She needed me to go to the prison because there were very few handlers left, just my dad and I, dana, and Kate. They had to call in this other woman, Carolyn, i think it is, that was sick, and she helped us out. Before we left it was complete insanity. We had to find certain dogs to go to the prison, because musher handlers were going to pick up their dogs at the hotel. My dad had a list of dogs that couldnt go to the prison, then some other lady came out and said forget dads list and had her own. People yelling dog tag numbers and getting frustrated at one another. It seemed like there were five new people that wanted to be in control ordering people around and saying what dog should go where. It was really frustrating me and stringing me out. On the car ride to the prison, which is about a half hour, i was feeling sick, and was freaking that i might throw up. I was soo exhausted, Kate was asking me if i was alright because I was sooo quiet. I just kinda stared ahead, trying to process everything. I drank some water and ate some of a sandwich that Kate made for us, and I started to kinda feel better. We finally got to the prison, and had to wait at the gate. We saw the prisoners come out, and the guard or whatever opened the gate. This was the peak of my sickness...i started to feel really hot...maybe because of all the clothing, but i was feeling better after that. We unloaded the dogs and handed them to the prisoners. We had to hurry because there were other dogs back at the airport that we needed to pick up. Before we handed them to the prisoners we had to tell them the tag number and whether they were a male or female. Looking took too long, so we had to stick our hand between their legs and feel what sex they were. Dad had already done this,and explained it to me like it was a damaging experiece. It wasnt bad at all. It's not like we were touching the penises, only the sheaths, or papuces. The prisoners took pride in caring for the dogs, and apparently the women of the prison made dog houses for them. I thought that was pretty awesome. It was amazing, tho. We didnt get patted down or anything. It would have been soo easy to pass them guns or knives or wire clippers. They could easily have had their buddy volunteer, then come in and help spring them. They could have gotten in the cab and hid, although there were guards, so it would have been hard. I'm not saying that we were thinking of springing them, i was just amazed at how lax security was. After we unloaded them we hurried back to the airport. We didnt have to actually load and unload dogs because the dog crates or whatever that had 10 holes in them apiece that Kate had sent up earlier were coming back with dogs. The forklifter just lifted off the empty ones and put the crates full of dogs on the trailer. It took forever! It was tough because she had to be super careful because of the dogs, plus the wheel wells on the trailer were in a tough position, and we needed to get to all the doors to get the dogs out. Finally, at around 9pm, the forklifer was done, but we had about 13 dogs that we couldnt put on the trailer, so we had to leave them back at the airport for a little while. We finally arrived back at the hotel. I thought i was gonna burst again, so i had to fix that, then this time i got back to the fence and helped dana with microchipping. After that, the vets started checking them, and this time Kobi didnt have a scribe, and asked me if i wanted to do it. I didnt have a headlamp, so i roughed it for a little, then dad gave me his. It was soo awesome working with him. We are finally bonding and he trusts me. We were movin fast through the dogs, and i was getting the writing down. We would check that we had the right dog by the tag number, he would say affirmative, then we would check to see why the dog was dropped. I had to mark off a square on the sheet to write in, write ANC for anchorage at the top, then he would usually have me write BAR(bright, alert,responsive), then put that the lungs are clear, write down the hearrate, hydration normal, all four front splits if their feet were in bad shape...i forgot the specifics of that..maybe the feet had small lacerations, i dont kno. I had to write meds or no meds, stuff like that. I couldnt put a glove on my right hand because i needed to write, and i was shivering all over. I hung with it, and when we were finished, instead of me hangin out there and taking care of the dogs, i went inside with him while he made the medicines up. He said i was a trooper for sticking in there with my hand. I know i sound like a puppy drinking up praise from his master, but you have to understand that Dr. Kobi Johnson is where i would like to be. Chas told me that he is one of the most prestegious vets in the world. This isnt blowing things out of proportion. He is very well documented, and just soo professional. After he mixed up the meds, we went back out to check the other dogs that we had left at the airport that just came in. After that I asked him if he needed help at the hospital, because i had heard that he wanted to take a couple o dogs there. He said that i could ride along, and I was stoked. I told dad, then we went back to the dog drop room. He told me that we had about 15 minutes till we left, so i ran in here and made those notes on my blog because so much stuff had happened, and it all runs together at the end of the day. I went back, and we left for the hospital. Dr. Jim Brick came with us too. I had to hold on to one dog because we didnt have a crate for him. I led him into the hospital, and they set up shop. Dr. Brick and i fixed three cages up with food and water cause we had three dogs. They were worried about some for pneumonia, and xrayed them. Dr. Brick pointed things out to me on the xray, where the heart was, the trachea, food in the stomach, how the lungs were supposed to be all black but werent, stuff like that. He really is a good teacher. Another dog had vomited when he/she was at the fence, and im not sure why they were worried about it, but they xrayed her, too. It was now about 12pm. We had to draw blood, and Dr. Brick had me help him with that. I pressed down on the vein of the dog, and he drew the blood, then i put my thumb over the incision, then put the dogs back. I was kinda frightened that i was squeamish, but i wasnt sure. I hope that goes away, because i really want to do this kind of work. Kobi checked the bloodwork and it was ok. They really used me...and i helped them. It felt really cool! We then put them in their cages and took off to the emergency hospital because a dog was getting a blood transfusion and Kobi wanted to check him out. It looked pretty good, and he also checked out some xrays of a cat that was one of the vets that had some kind of surgery. It was cool because they were joking with me on the way there, saying that i would like this place because there were women there, but they were 'mature'. They also asked me if i saw the girl from Georgia that was working dog drop, and said that she was beautiful, which she is. It was cool to have guy talk with them. Around 1am we finally got back to the hotel. I thanked them for teaching me stuff and they thanked me for helping them. We thought we had missed the leader coming into nome, but we came back and they had it on the tv in the dog drop room...(it was also on the iditarod insider live...) We watched it and watched while King came in...they had a little bit of technical difficulties, and I thought of Chas. It was awesome seeing the finish, my first ever iditarod finish, and I experienced the whole thing here at the hotel, the whole race. What a time. Chas probably isn't getting any sleep, updating the press on who's finishing when...ive been thinking about him, and we have been missing him. We came back to the room, dad and I. He didnt make the last prison run, which was good...they got back laaate. I snacked a little cause i was deathly hungry, laid around, and got to bed at around two. Thank you Lord for this day! This is the reason why i am here, to do this stuff!! I was soo relieved and stoked. The next mornin i woke up at around 11...not bad! That is all, i believe...hope you guys are doing well. I love you!

P

P.S. I got a cool sticker that they put on the dog crates when the fly them that says McGrath on it...I'm stoked...I'll see if i can get more from more checkpoints! I could have gotten on from unalakleet, but i didnt kno then that i could take them!

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Notes for tomorrow

I will write an entry for this tomorrow...too much stuff to write about and its already 11:30pm and we're gonna go to the animal hospital...sooo busy, gtg, love ya all,
P

breakfast, chill, read, sort bags, airport, sort bags, ate, interrupted, airport, hooked dogs to fence, unloaded dogs, took others to prison, picked up crates at airport, brought dogs back, scribed for kobi, going to hospital...

Update as of 1:27 am-Jeff King won! We watched it on tv, pretty special. The vet's office was awesome! Will talk more about it tomorrow...nite,
P

Cool Pics

This is an Aliy Zirkle dog, Heidi. Picture taken at the Ruby checkpoint on the 10th.

Aliy Zirkle, also on the 10th.

I really want you guys to see some of these awesome pics, but I don't want to keep on posting them on my blog 'cause it takes up soo much space. Please check out the gallery. The link is below, I think you guys will really be stunned by some of the pictures.
http://iditaweb-1.gci.net/gdc/gallery.php?id=4&p=1

Crazy stuff to come

I woke up at 9:30 this mornin and have just been chilling. I finished book one in My Antonia, im really far behind, hoping to catch up on the plane. We're supposed to be getting in 53 dogs at 7 tonight...ahhh! Hopefully we'll have time to watch the 40-Year Old Virgin, should be funny. We're expecting the leaders to get in to Nome tonight...dads computing the times now to predict a winner. I'm hoping for DeeDee, but i think its gonna be King. Better than Swingley!

P

Monday, March 13, 2006

Cool buys

Alrighty, Im at the blog again...I'll try to keep it shorter than last night..that was waay too long. Woke up this mornin and had some awesome buttermilk pancakes with blueberries. I've been doing breakfast mostly with myself because dad has had to volunteer early. We hung out because it was another slow day, and i got some more reading done in My Antonia while dad worked. We also signed up for the Iditarod Insider. If anybody is at all interested, my view is that you should pay the $20 and be amazed. The videos follow the mushers up the trail with interviews of the mushers. They also have a helicopter that takes awesome vids. We had a subway, then went in the dog drop room at about 2. dad and I went downtown to where the restart was, where there were shops. Dad's Sorels are too small, so they have been making his feet cold. There are some sweet norwegian boots that the vets and some other people have been wearing around. They are boiled felt. Pretty sweet. We went to that store today and he bought a pair. I also saw a sweet felt hat, and we walked around, then went back to the norwegian store and bought it. Boy does it keep me warm! Then we came back to the hotel. Kate said we could clean out the dog boxes on the trailer, so we did. There was some frozen diarhea that dad had to clean up. We came back to the dog drop room, then went to the airport. It was my first trip to the airport to pick up dogs...soo crazy. There were soo many dogs...some were four to a crate. We let them out of their crates and transfered them to our dog boxes on the trailer...it was terrible because they were peeing and stuff, and were in poop in the kennels. I even saw one eat its own poop...disgusting. It was terrible to see them like that, and we got some on ourselves. Kate was going crazy and gettin kinda mean, but we got everything figured out. We had soo many dogs because there were a bunch of scratched teams, so we had to take the dogs out of our trailer and disperse them amongst the handlers. Then we took five dogs back to the hotel, all females, and some in heat. I showed dad how to check the microchip, and got some cool pics. I scribed for Kobi, that was a cool experience. Dad took pics of me with him, and Dana, another volunteer, got some good pics of dad and I with a sweet dog. I also got some good pics of dad loving on a dog. We processed them, and then dad and i were talking about taking off. Right then Kate said that she had to go to the airport for 27 more dogs, and she needed one of us, so I went. I spotted a moose eating! (dad also spotted one when we were at Willow). Soo large! We waited for ten minutes, then the plane came in. We pulled onto the tarmac, then put the dogs in the boxes. Crazy, again. All 27 dogs wanted out of the plane at once, plus there were three or four mushers aboard that had scratched. We loaded them all up, then brought them back to the hotel. We unloaded them, then dad and I took off at about 7:30 for dinner. We went to the Sea Galley, a really cool ocean-themed resteraunt with little nooks for places to eat...we didnt sit in the cool places, but that was alright. Dad had a steak and I had deepfried clam strips. He also ordered snow crab instead of king crab...big mistake. It wasn't worth the effort for the snow crab's meat...we came back to the hotel, and are now chill'n. I bought a really good coffee table-like book full of Iditarod pics that I'll let you guys borrow. Nite...only 49 hits until 500! Oh yah, the first Iditarod finisher should be in tomorrow! Exciting!!!!! Sleep well,

P

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Busy Days

Last night I was in Willow, so I didn't have access to a computer. Chas is gone, and I'm using my dads computer, so things have worked out regarding that. Yesterday mornin' we got ready to leave for the day. We packed and everything..Chas was going crazy getting everything together and tying up the loose ends before he left. I felt like I was kinda getting in his way because i kept asking for him to put the pics on a disk for me so I could use them in my powerpoint for spanish..he said I wasn't, tho. He put them on a disk, but it didnt work...we tried to e-mail it...didnt work, only one email was sent. I had to resize some, then upload them, then put them on the blog..i had it all done, then Chas had to work, and it got x'd out, so i had to go in the dog drop room and post it again...its aight. Also Chas had to search around for the box for his printer that i used...i felt kinda bad about that. We left the hotel and caravanned over to the new house they are building in Wasilla. Boy, what a mansion! It is amazing. You can see Pioneer Peak from the living room. HUUUGE ceiling, a fireplace thats gonna have stone that goes to the roof, gas outside on the deck for Chas so he can smoke stuff, man! Janet designed it, so there are a lot of things that are custom. She even designed a nook where they can put the litter boxes for the cats! There's a downstairs for visitors, like us, where we can stay when we visit. It really is a beautiful house. The master bath has a two-sided fireplace! Janet was deciding what stone to use for the fireplace while were were there...oh yah, Mom! They're gonnna have a sunroom with these beautiful wooden beams overhead. The view, like i said, is stunning. Huge mountains with jagged peaks, dusted with snow! Forgive me for my rambling and being all over the place..the house just excites me, plus I am tired. Ok..so, after the house we went to have lunch at the Great Bear Brewery in Wasilla. Holly Getlein was there..back from Fiji. She got back soon because her mother just died in a car accident..totally a terrible terrible thing. She is such an amazing woman. Hasn't been doing sculptures for a while because she's been gone, but boy, she can do some beautful stuff. We said goodbye to Chas because that was going to be the last time we would see him till either this summer or next year. Just writing about it kinda chokes me up. He was kinda teary, and told me that he loved me and to send his love to Oma. He is just an incredible man. We then hung out at Janet's gallery, then went over to Ryan and Tera's for bbq. We hung out and talked, and dad and I told them of my encounter the day before with that amazing woman. Ryan gave dad and I hats with his new company's logo on it...its called Lead Dog. It's a snow-removal company. It was so wonderful to see Tera and Ryan, Chase and Riley. I love those people so much! I only met them five years ago, but I feel a very close bond with them. I really feel like I am Tera's cousin, and she treats me that way. My wish is that we could all be together, all of my family, but I know that wish will never come true. It's alright, visiting them is still wonderful. The bbq was incredible...ribs and chicken. Joe, Logan and Madison were also there...Holly had a migrane(sp?). I showed them Sean's myspace with the pics of the big guns. Janet thought it was interesting. Joe had to leave with the kids before dinner to take care of Holly. After dinner we talked a bit, then Camilla, Dad, Janet and I headed to the cabin. I rode with Janet, and Camilla with dad, Camilla driving. It was kinda funny, Camilla took a different route than us...a longer route. It's alright, she got there. Janet and I had an incredible, deep, candid talk. If this wasnt a public blog i would talk about it, but its private. We hung out and watched tv, then turned in. Before i went to bed i went outside because it was -5 degrees, and thats the coldest temp ive ever been in. It didnt seem too cold because there was no wind...also, we didnt see any northern lights...The next morning i hung out with Freckles, Cinder and Bonnie. I love those animals, along with Shadow, but he rarely comes out. We had breakfast, said goodbye to Janet and Camilla, and Dad and I drove to Wasilla. We met Ryan, Riley and Chase at Carrs where we got licenses, were on the way to the lake, Levi passed dad and I, and we all went out onto the lake together. It was so beautiful. Such a sunny day today, we were stripping down. We drilled holes in the lake with augers, and fished. The ice was about four feet thick! There were beautiful cracks from where it had settled, and you could here it settle, big booms....amazing sounds. Some kids had set up an ice rink and the kids and I played on it. Thats my first experience, other than at the restart, on a big body of ice. I had to soak it all in and get my playing in on it! The first spot we were at we got nothin', so we moved to a different spot. Then we all started getting hits. Levi had a pole in the water, stuck in the snow, and it got a hit, so he told me to take it and i reeled it in. Then i got two other fish, all by my self...I'm such a big boy! Dad also caught one, as well as Ryan, but Levi got skunked. The biggest ones were about fourteen to fifteen inches, and they were beautiful bright rainbows with very deep color. Yes mom, I did get some pictures...haha. The kids and I cleared off the snow in another area and slid on that..they would lay on their backs and i would push them by their feet...they had a lot of fun. Then we wrestled in the snow. I love those kids so much, and I had and have so much fun with them. It helps that they like me, too! After the initial hits, everything quieted down, and other hits were hard to come by. I had three cokes, which was way too much, and i think the reason why i got dehydrated later. Levi started a fire on the ice...that was cool to see, and the ice just melted about two inches. Man, let me tell you about the snow. It is so awesome! They call it champagne powder. Soo dry and soo light. It is literally powder, lighter than sand, and almost as fine. I have never seen anything like it. After the fishing we headed to Laura and Levi's, dropping off the auger at Levi's friend's house. We were going to go to the Moose's Tooth, a place owned by the same people that own the Bears Tooth, but that serves pizza. We felt really tired so we decided to do it another time...I also felt sick..naseous(sp?) and dehydrated and hot. I drank some water and I'm better. We did see their house, tho. It's right across from where Levi's work, the school, is. Their house is small and nice, but i guess it wasnt finished when they bought it and the neighborhood is bad...We came back to the hotel, found out that our keys didnt work. Chas warned us that something sketchy might happen with that. That freaked us, but they fixed it..dad hooked up the comp, i started typing, dad got fries, we ate dinner while watching Walk the Line, (which i didnt think was too amazing...didnt like how it ended up), then here i am now. The race is shaping up and getting really exciting. Just a couple more checkpoints. We have lost three dogs so far, it really is terrible. Oh yah, on NPR dad and I heard Chas being interviewed about the new technology they are using to cover the race and the Insider and stuff. We didn't know he did it, and it was pretty awesome hearing him! Alrighty, I'm all typed out. Have an awesome night all,

P

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Pics of Dad and I

These are pics at the restart in Willow on Sunday...I'll try to post more pics, but we're having some problems...Chas's taking off today, so things are hectic...

James From RealLifeSpace...™

hey...wait a minute.....isnt pulling like that called...CHEATING!!!!

Posted by James From RealLifeSpace...™ on Saturday, March 11, 2006 at 9:15 PM

hoppee

Nice pictures! Can't wait to see more. Take care and enjoy the cold!

Erika

Posted by hoppee on Saturday, March 11, 2006 at 9:50 PM

G-hopps

ey! nice hat bro! where'd ya get it?

Posted by G-hopps on Sunday, March 12, 2006 at 11:08 PM

SaintGeorge

some girl learned how to crochet and made it for me...its keeping me warm

Posted by SaintGeorge on Sunday, March 12, 2006 at 11:28 PM

Friday, March 10, 2006

For the Texans

Well, I'm kinda excited because dad informed me that Linc's co-workers are interested in the Iditarod because of my blog. Pretty exciting! He also told me that they have some technical questions about the Iditarod, and I'm going to attempt to answer a few of these questions...

Time layovers and Breaks- Alrighty...I'll attempt to explain this..It's very difficult to see who is in the lead because of the rests and layovers that are necessary to complete the Iditarod race. First of all, there is a mandatory 24 hour layover, which can be taken anytime, and two mandatory 8 hour layovers, one which must be taken at the White Mountain checkpoint and one that can be taken at a couple of different checkpoints. Also, you have to look at the other resting that the mushers are doing. The dogs need rest to maximize performance, so you must find the balance between resting and racing. Also, which is not shown on the leader board thing, is when the mushers rest between checkpoints. They do this because it is quieter to rest outside of a checkpoint and it also throws the other mushers off...kinda a tactical thing.

Dog Drop-Ok, another question that dad told me was specifics on the dog drop, why it happens, stuff like that. Alright, so...when a dog doesn't perform to its maximum ability, the dog may be dropped at any one of the checkpoints along the trail. Some reasons that we have seen for them being dropped is that they were lame, not pulling, sore bicep, problems with the pads, too big for the trail, dog fight, stuff like that. Some also get dropped toward the end of the race because they are not needed anymore, and it makes the team faster with fewer but more elite dogs. When the dogs are dropped at the checkpoint, they are flown back to the Millenium Hotel that we are staying at. They are usually flown on small bush planes, or on float planes. We take them out, hook them up to the fence, read their microchips, the vets check them, we give em straw, and feed em. They are either then picked up by handlers or taken to the prison where the prisoners take care of them until their handlers pick them up. If they are in bad shape they may be taken to the animal hospital...

Ok, i hope that explained some stuff for you guys. I really want to here from you guys if you have any questions about anything Iditarod or anything...just shoot me an e-mail at pjstg@comcast.net and i will answer it on my blog...oh yah, for better information on technical stuff on the iditarod, check out this article.., http://www.iditarod.com/1-1.html ...then click on the article titled "Who Is in The Lead?"...this is written by a young dude that ran the race...also, if you like the pics that i have put on here, go to the front page of iditarod.com and go to the bottom...there will be an icon that says Images from the 2006 Trail ...
Alright...hope this helps,

P

Spiritual Experience

Whoa...what a crazy and spiritual night...i just want to warn you that most of you reading this might not believe me, but I'm just writing this so that i can remember what took place. Alright, so we went out to dinner...first we went to the Glacier Brewery, but the waiting list was an hour and a half, so we went to Simon & Seaforts and sat in the lounge. It overlooked the Cook Inlet, and was very cool atmosphere. Dad and i had hot dungeness crab sandwichess with artichoke hearts and chas had some kind of shellfish thing. We talked mainly about how to broaden the Iditarod and how to market it to more people. While we were talking some lady to the left of us, sitting alone, kept looking at Chas. Chas finally said hi, and she kinda left us alone. She went to go to the bathroom, and asked if I could watch her stuff. I said sure, and she left. Once she got back i gave her the ok sign and went back to eating. A little while later she sidled up right next to me and put an arm around me, looking kinda giddy. She started talking about how I was such an amazing 'man' and how mature and full of integrity i was. I looked at Chas to see if he knew her, and he kinda gave me the look that he didn't. I started to get nervous because she had kinda a loose shirt on and i felt like she was coming on to me or something, and i thought that she might have had too much to drink. Over and over again she told me that i was an very strong and capable man. Then she started talking about how I have to follow my dreams. I have to do what I want to do no matter what other people think. She told my father that he has an amazing son, and said that i was fortunate that he loved me so much. She also apologized to dad, then said something like, "Your father might want to hold you back, but do what you feel is right. Don't let anybody tell you what you should do." Things like that. Her message pretty much was, "Live your life full of passion and don't let anyone hinder you." At this moment you can probably understand that i was feeling incredibly uncomfortable. Here's this woman next to me, our hips in contact, looking straight into my eyes and telling me very deep things about life. I just thought she had too much to drink. She said stuff like "I just got back from Iraq". I had to take my coat off because i was getting hot, and i totally lost my appetite. Later I told Dad and Chas that I thought i was going to a) pass out or b) throw up. She told us that she was 47, which was very surprising. She was affectionately touching my arm and my cheek and gave me a kiss on the cheek. She was with us for about 15 minutes, and told us some stories that didn't really make sense, of when she was a child marching against wars with her father and hoping to see the pink panthers, but being frustrated that she didn't see them. Just as I was thinking, "Boy, this lady is kooky", she said, "I am dying. I have pancreatic cancer, and I am going to die." At first I thought she was making things up, but then it made sense: everything this woman was saying was completely sincere. This was a woman with maybe six months to live and she had nothing to gain or nothing to lose. Everything she said to me totally made sense, and I felt like we were old friends. It was very tough for her to leave us. Somebody kept calling her cell phone to pick her up, and she would say,"Give me two minutes." A person called and she just silenced it and kept on talking. She thanked me for just being me and being so full of integrity. My dad told her that I was full of integrity and to a fault, and she said, "I know". She left, and as i was watching her leave, it felt like i was watching an angel walk out of the resteraunt. I just sat back stunned...Chas told me that i had taken it well...Dad also said that he didnt think she was making up the fact that she was dying because very few people know about pancreatic cancer. Chas said that we had all heard a very important message, and that she needed to get that stuff out. She knows she has little time to live, and I felt like she just wanted to step out of the 'social mold' and become...i dont know, a friend to all. I don't really know what to say...i just know that i was moved, and we all were. She was an amazing lady...later, as we were in a gallery, dad said, "I think she called you Peter." I think she did also...nobody told her that was my name. I feel asthough the Lord sent down a messenger and used that lady to convey a very important message to us all. What a night... you can take it or leave it..i don't really care, i just know that that's what happened and I will never forget her...

P

SaintGeorge

I asked my dad to comment on what he thought of the amazing event of the night...here's what he said...

Hi, this is Franz, Peter's dad..

Here is my impression of what happened tonight. This woman, who knows she is dying is examining her past life. She sees Peter, and his youth prompts her to give him a message for his life-which is basically getting ready to take off into adulthood. She tells him to follow his passions in life, not to sell himself short and to go for the moon. I can't deny that this made me uncomfortable, but such messages from the heart can be very intense. I could keep talking about this extraordinary event, but I think that I'll keep this simple.

Franz

Posted by SaintGeorge on Friday, March 10, 2006 at 11:05 PM

hoppee

Very very cool and very very true Peter! This is really neat...wow! Goodness me. WOW! That is really all ya can say. Yeah. Thank you soooo much for sharing that. Gosh...that kinda stuff does just blow you right out of the water huh? I haven't known ya long though and I believe her you do have something very special about you, you seem really strong, and determined in what you want to do. I too think you have a lot of integrity and I'm excited to hear more about your adventures and what you continue to learn about what the Lord has planned for you.

I think he always has bigger plans than we know! =]

Erika

Posted by hoppee on Saturday, March 11, 2006 at 9:48 PM

Ninja Roots

That's way cool, man.

Posted by Ninja Roots on Sunday, March 12, 2006 at 9:55 PM

SaintGeorge

Hey, I didn't know that you are reading this!! That's tight, man!

Posted by SaintGeorge on Sunday, March 12, 2006 at 10:31 PM

Nothin'

Today we really haven't done anything. No planes have gotten in so we've just been laying around watching basketball. There was supposed to be a plane coming in around 4. It changed to 6, and now its supposed to come in at 9 tonight. The weather was pretty cold today...this morning it was 10 degrees i think...now its around 34, but it was coooold. Judy Hoppe emailed me about daylight...saying that she thought it would be darker here...its actually lighter here longer than it is in Eugene right now. Its like the middle of the day right now, and its six pm. It's spring, and the sunlight is starting to turn in to what its like in the summer. We watched a few bball games, went to a coldweather outfitters place that was pretty cool, r.e.i., then a bookstore. Got some awesome hot choc, then came back to the room...we are SOOO bored. Excited for the game tonight against Cal, tho. We might see it on tv, im not sure. We'll have to go to the bar and see...I'll leave you with kinda a funny pic...If anything extraordinary happens i might blog tonight, but if not, ill just do it tomorrow. Oh yah, either tomorrow or sunday Chas leaves for Nome, taking his comp with him. The computer situation might get a little hairy because to use the comp at the hotel, we have to pay 5 bucks a day. Dad has a computer that we might be able to use, but i dont kno because it is a work computer. We'll see, ill try my best to get to the internet...hey, just wanted to let you know im up to 327 hits on my blog since its started...its pretty tight! Dads talking to Lincoln right now. I guess Linc's office is reading this, its pretty cool! Hey guys! Give Linc a hard time for me! Alrighty...Later

Petuhr

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Victory!

The game wasnt on tv here in AK, so we watched the boxscore on the computer. We updated the computer soo much soo fast, and watched us score! We won! Adrian Stelly had 5! Yah! Sweet! We were behind by 11 or so and came back and won it!! Alrighty, we called papa but he didnt pick up...well, now we're watchin the 10 o clock news, high on victory. Chas said he's gonna be on the news, so that should be fun...night~

hoppee

Sounds like you are still having a good time aye? Go Bball! He he he! That is funny that you had to watch it or update the scores on the computer super fast! Funny! Poor Axel. Gosh...that would be painful. Hopefully he gets to being better soon.

Anyways, onward for me. Lots of homework on. Good times. Oh well. College had school today even though all the highschools in Eugene had it off I guess! Goodness me!

Have fun, I'm going snowshoing tomorrow at Mary's Peak...gotta enjoy the snow while I can.

Erika

Posted by hoppee on Friday, March 10, 2006 at 1:52 PM

Full

Well, after i scribed i just came back to the room and rested. I was gonna sleep 'till 4:30 or so, but my cell phone alarm didn't go off, so I slept 'till about six. Dad came in about 3:50 or so, all fixed up..he's relieved. It's a temporary thing..he'll get it fixed in Eugene. Dad and I then hung out with that dog with testicular frostbite, Axel. We hung out with him in the dog drop room. Then we went to Gwennie's Old Alaskan Resteraunt. A cool resteraunt with two levels. A small trickling waterfall came down from the second level into a pool, under a small bridge. There were also mounted heads of moose and musk oxen. Kinda a cool atmosphere. I had ribs and dad had fish and chips. The lady kept calling me 'baby' and dad 'sweetie'. A cute little lady with hair about a foot longer that Gina's was when it was its longest..(sorry Gina, i had to measure it somehow). I had about 7 or 8 ribs, it was bottomless. We headed to the hotel, are now watching the box score of the Oregon/Washington game on the computer. Aaron Brooks got thrown out because of a dirty play...DUDEEEEEe..come on. Chas has been in and out of meetings the last couple o hours, so its just dad and I in the room watching some bball...nite, and ill hope for snow!

da Paeter

SaintGeorge

Hi Peter, We have 4 inches of snow this AM. Beau loves it! Schools are all closed, sorry you are missing the only snow day of your school career. Ha, I guess you're having 2 weeks of snow days. I haven't ventured off the hill yet, maybe this afternoon. Keep up the updates, they're fun to read. Love you, Mom

Posted by SaintGeorge on Friday, March 10, 2006 at 8:56 AM

Pics

Im gonna put up some pics so you guys can put a pic with the info ive given you..im gonna try to put up some pics of my dad and myself at the restart that chas took..we'll see. Dad just got off the phone with Levi, ice fishing Sunday afternoon!

This is at the ceremonial start in Anchorage. That's what I was in the middle of, right next to the dogs! The musher is Mitch Seavey.

Those are the handlers on the right...thats what dad and I did!

This was the first musher we handled for, Dave Tresino. We're probably just out of the picture.

These last three pictures are from the restart in Willow. This took place on a frozen lake.

An excited athlete.

Those are the handlers, the people that are holding onto the dogs. Picture dad and I there.

This is musher Ryan Redington. I worked for his father the summer before last, when I was in Alaska for six weeks.

A nice pic of some handlers.

Pic of Dr. Carl Rogge

Dr. Carl Rogge with a scribe

This is the fence that i have been talking about that we hook the dogs up to, and the chain is what i helped set up on one of the first days. The lady is scribing...what i wrote about on my last blog...

hoppee

Yeah! Very cool! More pictures would be sweet. Have a good one.

Erika

Posted by hoppee on Thursday, March 09, 2006 at 7:07 PM

Dentists and Vets

Well, last night my dad was chewing on some jelly bellies before he went to bed and popped off one of his crowns...It kinda freaked him, and now its the next day and he's at the dentist...i hope he's gonna be fine. This morning we had some scratched dogs come in (dogs from mushers who scratched) so we didn't have to do paperwork for them or anything, i just fed them. My dad unloaded one from a float plane and i got a pic of him. Then we got maybe 15 or 20 dropped dogs in. I unloaded some of them from the plane, which is pretty cool. We waited for the vets, and they finally came out. Two or three of the dogs had frostbite...one had frostbite of the testicle...ouch. He's gonna be fine, though. It wasn't too bad. Jenna, one of the vets, was out there and she didn't have a scribe. She asked me to do it. I told here that i hadnt done it before, but she kinda walked me through it. The scribe writes down on a form what the vet says about the condition of the dogs. These are some things we wrote down: Sore left tricep, pale gums, sore right tricep, inflamed prepuce (sheath), stuff like that. It was pretty tight. Learned some good stuff. I also calmed down a dog that was barking pretty loud...that felt good. Alrighty, now we're waiting for the next wave o' dogs to come in...oh..i heard it snowed in Eugene! Cool, you guys can get a taste of what I have...oh, sorry, that was low...haha, im smiling now! Alright, later!

Petir

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

It Finally Has Happened

Man am i tired. This day is what i was hoping and expecting from my experience here at the Iditarod. Alrighty, i awoke in the morning and had my breakfast and learned that Kobi still wasn't in. I hooked up with Dr. Carl Rogge from Maryland. He told me that when he was gonna do some vet stuff he would come to my room and get me. I went back to my room and kinda hung out, surfed the net and watched tv. Dad went off and did some dog drop stuff, and i just chilled. Someone knocked on the door and let me know that Carl was going down to the fence to do some physicals. I got my cold-weather gear on and headed down there, and man, did i get involved. At first i applied foot ointment for a dog who had a crack between his digits (toes, i think), kinda an open wound. Dad got some pics! Then i took their temperatures...rectal temperatures...man, that was crazy, but i did it, with a SpongeBob thermometer. Then Kobi showed up. He's a bald guy in his 30's, i would say, with a long System of a Down-like beard with snowboard pants, really a cool guy. He wanted to check out the dogs at the hospital. He was about to leave so i asked him if i could ride along with him. He said sure, and we drove to the hospital. It was really cool there, seeing Kobi interact with the other vets, looking at xrays and making sure the dogs were doing well. Being in the thick of it was extremely interesting. Before we left for the hospital, Dr. Jim Brick, who is another vet and the guy who rented the van, told us to not change the radio station. When we left the rental car Kobi made sure that we had turned the radio to a hip-hop station and had it loud...Jim is in his 60's, so it is funny picturing him turning on the car and being surprised by some hardcore rap instead of country. We then checked out more dogs. Kobi said that the next bunch of dropped dogs should come in in about 2 hours, so i went back to the room to read. Yah, right. I was going to, but instead i took a nap. Woke up at about four, went out to the fence behind the hotel where the dogs are kept. Nothin much was happenin there so i hung out in the dog drop room. Things are going sooo well. I am being respected by these other volunteers finally. They are calling me Pete or Peter, and most of them know my name. I think they've finally got past the ageism thing and it seems like they are even kinda looking up to me for opinions and stuff. Very very cool. I helped Kobi find a box for some catheters for a vet that was being lifted out (a box which Chas needed) then kinda hung out. The dogs were brought in, and i helped hook them up to the chain on the fence. I followed the vets around, running back to the dog drop room through the restaraunt to get some dog coats whenever we would see dogs shivering. Boy the wind was terrible today..sooooooooo freezing! Kobi lost his stethoscope in Skwentna so i helped him with the sharing of Carl's. There was even a loose dog for a second that i discovered and hooked back up! I read off dog numbers to the dog drop coordinator. These details arent that interesting, but im kinda showing how im fitting in and becoming a integral part of this operation. I don't know what integral means, but it sounds right. One dog was written down as not eating, and Kobi and another vet asked me to fix up some food. I got some hot water and mixed it with the kibble and brought it to the dog. My first batch of food...and he scarfed it up! We were soo relieved. Then another dog that hadn't eaten ate, not really because of me, but it was cool. I asked Kobi if he wanted me to report back to him if she ate seconds, and he said yes. I forgot which dog it was, had to go to the dog drop room and ask him, then the dish was gone so i didnt know if she ate. I talked to the feeding people and they told me she ate, so i reported back to him and told him that she ate. The main dog drop people really like me and are really bringing me in the loop, i can't express how excited i am. We were working 'till 7:30, when i told dad that i needed food. I came back to the room to get some nuts and mango, and was headed back out when i saw dad in the hall. He told me he was going to the jail, 30 minutes away, and said that i should just get dinner w/ Chas. The jail is where they take the dogs after they have been checked out by vets and fed, and the inmates take care of them. Pirdy cool, eh? Alrighty, soo Chas and I had dinner. We had to leave the bar because it was too smokey in there. We talked to Jerry Scidoris, the father of Rachael, the musher. What an intense guy...maaan. Well, we came back to the room and decided to get ready for bed. I've had to stop a few times from writing this because Chas is soo busy. He was talking to Fox Sports on his cell phone at dinner. Wow, so professional. It was pretty cool, him talking about whats going on and how exciting it is. Dad walked in about half an hour ago, at around 9:55, and is now eating dinner. I'm gonna sign off...I love all you guys! Thanks for reading,

Peeeta

hoppee

Sounds like a blast Peter...and you did use integral in the right context! Good on ya!

Erika

Posted by hoppee on Thursday, March 09, 2006 at 7:05 PM

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

'Bout My Dad

well, my dad had a much more interesting day than i did, so ill let ya in on that from what he told me. He was hanging in the dog drop room doing some stuff on excel. They got word that they had to drive to Birchwood to pick up some dogs because the snow was too thick here in anchorage. He went to pick them up and they found three dogs that were in serious shape. They needed someone to hold one of the dogs on the way to the animal hospital because they only had one crate in the car, so my dad volunteered. On the way to the hospital they had to pull over to give the dogs injections. They got to the hospital and worked on the dogs for several hours. My dad helped the vets, icing the dogs temps down (they were soo high), feeding them, stuff like that. They took xrays and figured out that there may be a problem with their lungs. At this moment we don't know how well they are doing. They took two dogs to the emergency room, so they strapped one of the dogs to a stretcher which my dad carried and took them there. My dad was at the hospital for about six hours, and when he got back he was exhausted and high on adrenaline. It was kinda a role reversal, i was supposed to be doing the stuff that he was doing and vice versa, but im glad for him that he got the experience. He said it felt wonderful to be able to actually help Jane, the dog that he was mainly in charge of. If Cobe doesnt get in tomorrow, im gonna probably trail one of the vets that dad worked with...im gonna have him read this over and edit it because some things can't be public, so you might get the watered-down version, but thats aight, eh? Well...i hope you can get a taste of the excitement here, cause man, its hoppin'.!!!

~Peter...with editing by Franz

Lookin' Up

Well, after that dreadful morning, i wasn't doing very well, as you may have read. My dad called and i told him what was going on, in my 'poor me' attitude. He told me to go to the dog drop room and see if there was anything for me to do...DUH! Why didnt i do that before? Well, i went there and they said they didnt really have anything for me to do in there, but then they said that they were about to get 20 more dogs in, and the ones already on the fence could use some lovin'. I put on my cold weather clothes and went out to the fence. I loved on a couple of dogs and covered some of them with hay so they stayed warm. It was snowing quite a bit...i didnt really believe the picture that is my icon because i thought that the snow would melt off, but thats kinda what the dogs looked like, maybe not that extreme, but the same idea. Then the trailer with all of the kennels came, bringing us 13 dogs. I unloaded three...the last one i had to pick up...they asked me if i knew how to do it, i said yes, and i picked him up. They had to correct me, to switch my hand over to the other side....i felt like an idiot. Whateva, learning experience, eh? Now i know how to do it. A lady asked me to use the microchip reader to read the numbers to her. I didnt know how to do it, but she taught me, so i did that. The chips were behind most of their left ears. The contraption looked the kind of guns that measure the speed of a baseball. You just pull down both triggers and scan the dog until you find it. It gives you a nine or twelve digit number, i forgot. First someone would read us their tag number, which was something like 49D. 49 would be the bib number of the musher and D is the specific dog. Then i would read the microchip number. After that the vets would check em out. After some of them were checked, we fed them. It was a mixture of dry food with hot water and boy did they inhale it, most of em. It was cool...then i petted some, and i came in. Dad is still at the hospital. I think he had two or three dogs. He said they were pretty serious, with a couple of vets there trying to figure it out. Good luck to those dogs...The snow is now to about 6-8 inches of new powder on the ground. It snowed last night and through the day, and it now looks like it may have stopped...or is barely coming down. It's beautiful. The snow is so dry that it looks like powdered sugar. At the moment it is 29 degrees, not too bad. How are the school days goin, can somebody tell me what's happenin? Gina? Later guys

Petar

G-hopps

ey! I'm glad things are goin better after the other day. I need to be doing homework because I have sooooo much but I have to read your bloggy things! SOunds like things are goin good...I guess I'll write a e-mail to you about everything that's goin on...nothing tooo exciting but we'll see what I can think up. Have fun!

~Gina

Posted by G-hopps on Tuesday, March 07, 2006 at 7:51 PM

SaintGeorge

I'm not checkin my emails but i guess i will now...thanks for the response, it really keeps me going. I love hearing from you guys...if you read it and like it, please let me know! It's encouraging! Thanks G!

Posted by SaintGeorge on Tuesday, March 07, 2006 at 7:55 PM

hoppee

Hey there Petah! Sounds like that was a betta day huh? That is really cool that they are letting you help out with some stuff now. Should just keep getting busier aye? Good Times Good Times! Keep the stuff coming good to know what you get up to up there in ol AK!

Erika

Posted by hoppee on Wednesday, March 08, 2006 at 5:30 PM

Bummer Day

This has been kinda a bummer day. Looks like the vet that im gonna follow, cobe, isnt gonna get in today either. They said they didn't really need me in the dog drop area, so i have just been kinda laying around in the room. I got tired of reading and fell asleep. Dad has been working on some computer stuff in the dog drop area, and he also went with some other people to Birchwood to pick up some dogs. He should be back, but he went to the hospital with a dog. Some lady came after me and said, "Are you Peter? There is a message for you...your father went to the hospital with a dog". At first i didnt really compute the 'with a dog' part, and it freaked me for less than a second, but i figured it out. Now im just waiting for him, and maybe we can make something out of this day. I know this sounds really depressing, but its cool, things will pick up. Cobe just needs to get in. On the bright side I met the Chief Veterinarian Stu...he's a pretty cool guy. Anyways, hope your guys' school day was good~Peter

Oh yah, one cool thing is that it is snowing and has been all day...'bout two inches now, more to come!

Monday, March 06, 2006

Good Grub

ahh, dinner was good. Ate at the Bear Tooth...its kinda a cool place. There are two restaraunts in the one building..one is the grill, and the other is where they have a movie theatre, with theatre chairs with tables in front of them for pizza. Levi says that the beer is good...hmm. I had an AWESOME steak burrito and dad had some linguine with scallops. The avocados in the burrito were amazing. We had a great talk with Levi and Laura. Levi invited us to go ice fishing on Saturday or Sunday. I'm excited. We've just been chilln at the hotel looking at the standings. Its soo interesting looking at it, looking at the rest times. There are soo many variables for the iditarod. Obviously its the shortest time from a to b, but the dogs must rest, mushers must rest, the weather is HUGE, dogs can get sick, mushers can get sick, moose can attack dogs, gang line or other lines can break, sled can break...need i say more? It is soo cool and exciting. I am in love with it and i wish i could be at one of the checkpoints or Nome. Maybe next year?? Oh, and definitely have to sign up for the Iditarod Insider, its 19.95 a year with awesome video and stuff. Chas does a huge part of it and does an amazing job with it. Also dad and i got sweet Bear's Tooth shirts. Pirdy exciting. Everbody sleep well, eh? Night~
Petah

hoppee

Sounds like an exciting couple of days for ya huh Peter! That is real cool aye? Glad you guys won those mocasins! Very cool, actually they are probably very warm. That is really awesome. Goodness, get that reading done! =] Nah...have fun! Keep the updates coming. Very cool.

Have fun ice fishing. Erika

Posted by hoppee on Tuesday, March 07, 2006 at 7:48 AM

Down day

I don't have too much to write about, but i guess thats kinda good, ive been writing a lot lately. Woke up at about 8:30, which is pretty late. After breakfast Chas introduced me to the head lady in the dog drop room. I didnt get hooked up with the vet today because he is stuck in Skwentna because of weather. We had to get an area along a fence ready for the dogs to stay when they come in, which is right on the frozen lake where the planes land with them. We shoveled snow, hooked up a chain for them to get hooked up with. Some of the ladies i worked with annoyed me and frustrated me because i felt like they had the age prejudice thing against me. They had done it last year and were not listening to me...actually, they did do something i suggested...whatever, it was frustrating. I then came back to the room and did some reading. As i was coming back to the room after reading, the head lady told me that some dogs were in. I went down there and right away a vet sent me on an errand to drop some stuff off in the dog drop room. I then returned to them to see the vets check them, hay be put down for them, and see them fed. Dad and i returned to the room, hung out, then did a workout and took a steam bath! Tonight we are gonna go to the Bear's Tooth resteraunt with Laura and Levi and possibly Boyd and his gf. I think chas is gonna be on a lot tonight, so ill update this tomorrow. Later,

Peter

Ha, sorry, i wasnt done. I was about to post this and Chas said he needed the comp so i gave it to him, then took a shower. I just wanted to say that at the silent auction my dad won some sweet moccasins made by inuits or eskimos or one of the indigenous peoples. It was cool, with five minutes left i went out there...we were behind, so i upped our bid $5. I then sat in a chair about 15 feet and watched it, seeing the silent auction officials kinda keeping how much time was left...finally he said, "That's it", and we won...it was tight...that is all. Sorry about my lame writing, im tired and hungry. Now I'm gonna go to the bar and drink a pepsi with my papa...should be sweet. Oh, and i read 5 chapters today in that book for lit. Pretty saweet!
PEACELOVE

Sunday, March 05, 2006

AHhhh

Thats how I feel right now...completely exhausted....k, so we got into willow last night and i just chilled with my cousin while my dad and aunt and uncle went to the musher's ball. I just laid around...i was soo tired. i think i went to sleep at 10 or so. I woke up when they got back from the ball and dad showed me a cool pic that he and janet and chas took with some sled dogs. Chas also got presented a framed bootie and some cards signed by Joe Redington, Sr., the father of the Iditarod...i woke up this morning and we got ready to go to the re-start. It was pretty warm, id say around 25-26 when we got there. It was the coolest thing...the whole restart took place on a frozen lake. Cars with trailers were driven on it, and thats where all the mushers hooked their dogs up. We arrived at 11, like we were supposed to, and hung out until 1:30. We ate lunch inside the community center where the re-start was. We saw Ramey and Barb and talked with Ramey for awhile. It was awesome to talk to them again. Ramey gave us some inside information, and told us how wonderful the Norwegians were with their dogs. This was significant because there was some article about how the norwegians worked their dogs too hard...anyway, we met back at the ITC Handler truck and were assigned our first musher. Dad and i got bib #4, Jim Lanier, first. He was a cool older guy, and he is carrying the ashes of explorer Norman Vaughn to spread at some of the checkpoints. The mushers were all parked in a horse-shoe shaped position, so our job was to help swing the team around and to the starting line, making sure the gang line was taught. It was soo incredible the first time my father and i did it. We got into the chute with the dogs...then the announcers talked about the mushers for about two minutes...people were leaning over the fences for 200 yards down the trail, excited with cameras. The press was there, as well as a helicopter overhead. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and we would get out of the way and the mushers would race away. Seeing them take off and knowing what they would soon face was amazing. We also took out bib 39, Terry Adkins, who was actually the first veterinarian that volunteered for the iditarod when it started. 62, Dave Sawatzky, where i broke up a small dogfight right outside the start. Our las was 83, Steve Madsen. There was a handler that was telling me what to do, and i got frustrated...haha, thats alright. Mom, Chas took pics of dad and I, so that is good...After the finish dad and I rolled up part of the fencing, and went to find Chas. He was with Camilla, she watched part of it with her friend and cheered us on. We went back to the cabin and i got some really cool pics of the frozen Willow Creek. Some sweet ice shots! I said goodbye to Cinder(cause she was the only cat i saw) and we left for Anchorage...exhausted. We got here and had dinner..hmmm...Buffalo Burger with awesome fries. Talked Iditarod, then headed back to the room. Dad and I got distracted with the Iditarod board that they have at the hotel. They update it with the positions of all the mushers. Dad is soo hooked, he was crunching numbers for almost 20 minutes, trying to figure it out. He stayed there even after i left him! I bought an iditarod sticker, a sled ornament and a map of the trail. Dad was poring over that also, as well as myself. I started blogging, then Chas had to use the computer, and now i am back blogging, and i am caught up. We just saw a couple cool news pieces that was on the ten o clock news. We are excited for tomorrow. I will be dealing with the vets, and Dad is gonna do the dog drop.

Why is there a start, restart?-The start is in Anchorage. It is kinda to bring the whole community together and to really get the hype up for the iditarod. It was down one of the main drags of anchorage. The times don't matter, the clock is not started. Still, one of the frontrunner Bjornar Anderson of Norway passed five mushers to just intimidate them...Ramey told us that he was laughing. And its only like 11 miles! The restart is then done the next day, and that is when the clock starts. here the mushers are intense and ready for the adventure, outfitted with their headlamps and daggers.

What is Idita-rider?-Idita-rider is a program that raises money for the Iditarod. People all over the world bid on each musher, and the money goes to the ITC, i think. The winner gets to ride in the sled with the musher during the ceremonial start. I think it would be pretty awesome, eh?

Just another thing...you probably arent wondering about this, but ill explain it anyway. The bib numbers start at number two because there is a ceremonial musher. This person is the winner of the Jr. Iditarod, which is for mushers between 14 and 17. He or she is bib 1, and only mushes in the ceremonial start...okey dokey, just wanted to say one more thing. If you want to know whats goin on with the standings in the race, go to iditarod.com . They have a thing on the front page that they update pretty regularly with the standings and stuff...alright, its about 10:50, and i should turn in. Nite ya guys...
oh, yah...for hw, ive only read one chapter of the book...im doing sooo good!!

Peace y'all,

Peter

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Insanity

These past two days have been complete insanity. I couldnt add to my blog for a little while because the computer crashed. So i think i left off with the dog handling class. We went to that and got briefed. There was a little confusion about me being 17, because the rule is 18. We kinda just went past that and the leader guy told me to say i was 18. All we did was go around the parking lot with the dogs connected to the dog sled, holding the gangline and harnesses and making sure that the dogs stayed in a straight line. I did two runs, and dad did four or five. They also told us how to fall and roll out of the way of the sled if we tripped, but i didnt do it. It was funny seein my dad do it. I then took a nap. We then went to some kind of banquet where they had a silent auction and a live auction. Dad and I won something cool in the silent auction. I'm not gonna say what it is because mom is reading this, and i want it to be a surprise. The dinner was amazing, SEVEN COURSES! I had never been to a live auction before, with the "can i get a seven, and a half, and a half," just crazy stuff like that. Thats how the guy talked. There were some crazy bidders that spent a lot of money. They had race bibs that were signed by past champions as well as some card that the mushers carried around to every checkpoint in the past, stuff like that. It was a benefit for the ITC, so it was cool. We then went into the bar and met Levi and Laura. It was soo good to see my cousins cause i didnt see em last year. This was the first time that i had seen them married. They were joking and stuff, and then Chas did some tricks with the Iditarod beer coasters that were funny. He took it to another table and tried to teach them...pretty comical. We turned in at about 11 or 11:30. This morning we woke up at 6 to get ready for the start of the Iditarod. We had breakfast and my stomache was going crazy because it was soo early, i ate really early, and i was excited. We then left for the start and got there at about 7:35, just in time to miss the handler's briefing. Thats all right, they did it again. We got our handler armbands that allowed us to be in the chute and we also got sweet volunteer hats. We then walked around for two hours, then reported back at 9:30. At first the boss man didnt assign us to mushers, but the second or third time he did. My dad and i found the musher and chilled with him with another couple, petting the dogs. Then, when it was his turn, we both had leashes attatched to the gangline to make sure that the gangline was taught, and we had to run all the way down the shute, maybe 300 yards, in this sand-like snow. They had to truck in snow because anchorage has been warm, and it was terrible. Sooo grainy. Our first musher was musher number 26, and our second one was musher 64. I'll post their names later...I found a dog bootie and a nylon thing they put on the dogs back that i kept for kinda a souvenir. It was sweet. Man, it was such a big production. Running down the chute with the dog team, people yelling, taking pictures, professional photographers, video cameras, the hype, it was sweet! I felt so awesome. I can't wait for the restart tomorrow at Willow. If i get more time on the computer i will explain the whole restarting thing, and maybe the idita-rider program. We then met up with Chas, watched the last of the teams leave, and dad and i got a brautwerst. Then we drove back to the hotel, and we have been chill'n ever since. Dad and I got sunburned...oh, and the weather. This morning it was 17, but it warmed up to about 32 later. It was really foggy this morning, and kinda dark, so it was eery because there were only the volunteers and the workers at the start. Then it burned off and really turned into an amazing day...i had to unzip my coat! The hotel is soo sweet. It has been converted into the Iditarod HQ...i know ive said that before, but its tight. Most everybody is walking around with Iditarod stuff on...i got a tight Iditarod Cabela fleece, as well as my father. Everybody is soo pumped about the race, it is just electric. They have a board that they will be updating on the times of the mushers to every checkpoint. Im hoping for Rachael Scidoris...i think thats how you spell it...shes from bend and she has a rare disorder that has left her mostly blind. Id like her to win, but i think its a Jeff King year. What do i know, im just spouting out names so you think that i know what im talking about...ok, my hands gonna fall off...we're about to head to the cabin in willow...im soo excited to see camilla, the cats and bonnie. YESSSS!

Please, if you're reading this, comment on it so i can get some feedback and see whos reading it. Thanks....

Peter-from AK

Kellie

I would like to say that what you are doing is really cool. Living in Bend, Rachael Scidoris is a real hometown hero, so I've been hearing a lot about the Iditarod. It's really cool that you are there! Keep blogging, its really fun to read about what you get to do!

~Kellie

Posted by Kellie on Saturday, March 04, 2006 at 5:54 PM

SaintGeorge

Hey Peter!
Sounds like an AMAZING time-wow!! What a great experience for you and your dad to share...you'll remember it always! A sunburn would be nice...it was nice here today but just my luck I am still fighting the flu and was sleeping in as well as took a long nap...oh well. I would rather be better sooner rather than later.
Keep having a great time, for me too, ok. You are doing a great job describing what it's like!!

~Emily

Posted by SaintGeorge on Saturday, March 04, 2006 at 9:49 PM

G-hopps

JEEZ, why don't you just write a book when you get back?! haha...no it sounds like you're having an AWESOME time and I'm glad to hear it. Meanwhile...i'm at home, typing up math papers and reading books for lit...sigh. Basically I'm really jealous but keep havin fun...c ya lata!(that's so exciting you got to unzip your coat...wow! Boy, if I had the chance to do that everyday...man)

~Gina

Posted by G-hopps on Saturday, March 04, 2006 at 11:14 PM

hoppee

Go Peter! I agree with my sis on this one. You should just write a book. It could be titled Peter's Alaska Adventures...no, actually you could come up with a better one than that! Good deal. Shoot do keep having a great time and keep the blogs coming. Love to hear what you've been up to. Anyways, yeah...not much exciting here...we'll just have to live vicariously through you and your Dad. So keep on writing!

Cheers, Erika

Posted by hoppee on Sunday, March 05, 2006 at 8:10 PM

Friday, March 03, 2006

FINALLY!

I am finally here! Wow, we got in at 10:0 ak time last night...it was a long flight. Now we are in anchorage at the millenium hotel. I'm still really tired because we got to bed at about 2 last night i think, and thats like 3 our time. My uncle is going crazy, talking on the phone with two people at the same time, sending out press releases to ap reporters, its insane. The rooms have been converted into board rooms and offices, its kinda cool. In two hours Chas, my uncle, got 67 emails! Man! Alright, in about ten minutes the dog handling class starts. I think i know all about it, but we'll see. Oh, and the weather. Last night we waited for the shuttle at the airport and i thought my ears were going to fall off-it was only 20 degrees! The race's ceremonial start is here in anchorage, but its actual start is in a place called Willow where my uncle has a cabin that we're gonna stay at. He said it was -20 or something. Thats cold, folks. It snowed last night also...ha, its tight. I gtg, i'll report on how the class went.

Peace!

Thursday, March 02, 2006

ALmost there!!!

Almost ready to go....ahhh....I can't stand it. I'm gonna be with some of my favorite people, i am soo excited! Nervous about the plane, but thats normal..YEEEEEHAAAAW!

Delayed.....

Well, the plane has been delayed four hours. Whatever, now instead of gettin in at 7:30 it will be 10:30. That's alright...i cut Silk's nails and cleaned out his cage and stuff...I could have gone to school, but...hmmm...naw. Dad and I can now chill out. I think we're gonna visit Oma a little later...whatever. I'm guessing I'm not gonna write tonight 'cause it'll be too late. Please pray for a safe flight!

will do sir

Posted by DK on Thursday, March 02, 2006 at 12:05 PM

hoppee

Sounds like a good ol' AK adventure to me Peter! Enjoy the COLD weathe for me. Bring back some good pictures. Thanks for sharing your travels.

Take care, Erika

Posted by hoppee on Sunday, March 05, 2006 at 8:02 PM

Alaska Adventure '06

Friday, March 24, 2006

Slideshow

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

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Sunday, March 19, 2006

Pics!!!

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