Hello web-friends.

Its been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, my hometown….that’s the second time I’ve started a blog entry off by jacking Garrison Keillor’s opening phrase, but it seems so natural sometimes.

Last weekend I celebrated Saturday by taking some time off work because Easter Sunday was a big work day for the little Christian radio station that I currently work at. I got up early (for me) Sunday morning and helped Dennis take equipment down to the Nome Bingo Hall, where our special services were going to be held. We took a ton of stuff from KICY, and a ton of stuff from church. I was taken back to my younglife days of hectic sound setups as we rushed to get everything in working order before we went live at 50,000 watts.

The services were combined with Nome Covenant Church and the Nome Assembly of God. Apparently this Easter service had been attempted in the past, and even warranted an article in the Covenant Companion, although it was the first time that I had ever celebrated the resurrection of Christ above a saloon. I’m guessing it was a success, there were a ton of people there, and things went off pretty smoothly.

This week Neil has been traveling in villages, so it has left the host microphone of the Coffee Crew to me and me alone. It’s awkward to host a radio show by yourself when you are normally used to having a second voice. I did the edge by myself once this week too, and couldn’t take it so I called in as one of the characters that I do every so often….it was a new low point, but a funny one (the laughing at me type of funny, not with me).

This evening Lydia and I had wonderful delicious crab fresh from the Bering Sea. Its funny how many “Alaska” moments I have while on the fourwheeler, but I had another one today when I realized I had a live crab bungeed down to the front of my ATV, and was driving at 30 mph across a frozen creek bed….something I probably won’t experience to many other times in my life.

Tomorrow I’m going to Brevig Mission, a village of about 200 people. They are getting their very own concert, and KICY is broadcasting it. Should be fun. I’m also planning a fantastic cliched radio experience for the Edge on April 1st.

We’ve got new photos!

	Nome Businessmans Sled Dog Race
	Red Lantern Winner
	Sommermans visit Nome

To view the Iditarod Gallery (click here)
-To read the blog entries and hear the audio (click here)

Well, its *all* over now, the final musher came in on Monday evening, around 8:00pm. Its pretty crazy how light it is now, and how late it goes in the day. I’m also having trouble adjusting to all this extra time that I have now! Iditarod was really a great experience, but it sure made me busy for a few months, both with prep work, and the actual coverage of the event.

**Make sure you are watching OLN starting April 2nd when they air the Iditarod specials. The Outdoor Life Network took a bunch of KICY audio over the course of the race and apparently a lot of it has made it into the show. It should be cool to watch.

We had a great time with the Sommermans over the weekend, Jerry and I raced in the Nome Kennel club’s annual businessman’s race. It was very fun, but very exhausting. You would have thought that you could just stand on the back of a sled and enjoy the ride, you’d be wrong though. With a Irene (from KICY) racing just two starts behind me, I felt the pressure to keep the dogs moving, and to keep them moving required that I get off and run with them a lot. It didn’t help that the dog owner told me he took them on a long trip the day before. I’ve got a new edition of the Edge with the Sommerman family that I need to post online soon.

We attempted to get crabs from the seafood plant while Jerry, Susan and Sarah were here, but because of all the visitors to Nome, they were out of fresh crab. We tried continually, but were unable to get our hands on some of the delicious seafood.

This week has been going pretty well, things are good at the radio station and I’ve been working on an April newsletter. Thanks to everyone who visited the site over the Iditarod week, so far for the month of March, we’ve been averaging over 150 people to the website a day!

Here is a bunch of Iditarod audio, in chronological order:

From Unalakleet:

1 – Report from Unalakleet (click here)

2 – Report on the Bering Straight School District (click here)

3 – Report from Unalakleet on Lance Mackey & Hugh Neff (click here)

4 – OLN version of the live Unalakleet (click here)

5 – OLN version of a White Mountian Report (click here)

Robert Sorlie’s 2005 Iditarod Win:

1 – Neil Live from Topkok Cabin 1 (click here)

2 – Neil Live from Topkock Cabin 2 (click here)

3 – Neil Live from Safety (click here)

4 – **All Live Audio from Wednesday Morning (click here)

5 – **Audio from Wednesday Afternoon (click here)

6 – OLN version of the finish (click here)

Other:

Teacher on the Trail – 03/13 (click here)

You’ve followed the race, now see the pictures.

After 1,049 miles the Iditarod came to a finish here in Nome, with Robert Sorlie Winning. I was there broadcasting with KICY and took some really fun pictures.

I’ve also just added in a bunch of new Iditarod audio, its over in the blog.

-To view the Finish Line Gallery (click here)
-To read the blog entries and hear the audio (click here)

I took a blogging day off yesterday after going for so long with a new post each day. But I’m back for a while, and I’ll continue to tell you about what its like to live in a crazy place like Nome.

Lydia’s parents are in town, they arrived yesterday morning, and her sister comes tomorrow (Saturday). Its been fun showing them around town again, they were here in October but we had a huge storm so they didn’t get to see to much. Last night we went to a reindeer stew fundraiser for the Christian pilots association here in town, then we went to a Eskimo dance “concert”. It was pretty cool to see these people do dances that have been passed down for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. It really shows the deep routed culture and history these people have. Kids 10 and 12 were doing their dances, and older people were doing the “grandpa dance”.

Today Jerry & I followed the Iditarod trail up for a few miles and got to see some more mushers come into town. It was really cool to see them in their element, not on a city street. It was also really fun to go snow machining when it wasn’t so cold or windy. We went and watched Lydia play basketball, and tonight we are going to a halibut fry.

Tomorrow Jerry, & I, along with Lon and Irene (from KICY) are competing in the Nome Kennel Club’s businessman’s race. It should be fun, after spending my early childhood in Alaska its been a dream of mine for quite a while to get behind some sled dogs, and I’m excited to do it tomorrow.

- I’ve posted some pictures I took of the Iditarod Finish (click here)

- Audio Report of Robert Sorlie winning the Iditarod (click here)

(yes, the idita-names are done with!!)

Well, what a day it has been. We’ve had a mushers family staying in our upstairs room, its made things a bit more hectic around the house…but I’m glad we could help out. Lydia’s parents arrive tomorrow morning, that will be exciting! Today was a very long day, I woke up around 5:00am and am just finishing work at 8:39pm. We’ve had a lot of mushers come into town, and I’ve tried to be downtown on front street for most all of them.

Robert Sorlie came in first, Ed Iten in second, Mitch Seavey third, Bjornar Andersen fourth, Ramy Brooks in fifth, John Baker arrived sixth, Lance Mackey seventh, Jessie Royer eighth, Paul Gebhardt ninth, and DeeDee Jonrowe came in 10th.

Here is a link a audio report that talks about Robert Sorlie winning the race (click here). If you’re interested, I still have to put up other audio from the past week.

I should have pictures of the finish up tomorrow!

Sorlie Wins!!!!! He came in at 08:39 this morning. Ed Iten is in at 9:13

I’ll have pictures, stories and audio later in the day. But Now I have to head back down to the finish line.

Alrighty Folks, I’m back in Nome and the Race is on!

As of Late Tuesday Evening

As of this update, Robert Sorlie has left White Mountain at 8:59, after his eight hour layover and I’m sure is pushing his team hard all the way to Nome. Behind Sorlie, set to leave at 10:50 is Ed Iten, at 10:56 is Mitch Seavey. Ramey Brooks will leave at 11:23, John Baker at 11:36, and Bjornar Anderson at 11:49.

As you can see the times in the top 6 are pretty close, especially within the top 3. The piece of information worth noting is that Sorlie only has 8 dogs, and it took him 8 hours and 45 minutes to get to White Mountain from his last checkpoint. On the other hand, Ed Iten has 11 dogs and it took him 7 hours to get there, Mitch Seavey has 11 dogs, and it took him 7 hours 30 minutes to get from Elim to White Mountian. Robert is slowing down, and the others are speeding up. You could see three very close finishes tomorrow morning, and Sorlie won’t necessarily be on the winning side.

I’ll be downtown Nome all morning at the race finish brining Nome the finish.

Check me out, I’ll be on the KICY scaffolding, and you can view it on the (webcam).

I’ve got some great Iditarod memorabilia I’ll send out to you for the first few people who can email me good shots off the webcam of me broadcasting the finish.