UNALAKLEET TO NOME

Another beautiful day. Saw a few mushers come in. Bret made us a big breakfast and spent some time with him. Flight to Nome today (mail run). Bret took us to the airport but the flight was delayed a few hours (for whatever reason). Davida, Bret's wife works at Bering Air so we didn't have to pay extra for bags. Each person is allowed 50 lbs TOTAL. They weigh you as well---my favorite! One fellow didn't have bags so Davida said he would be our 50 lbs.
As we had time here we went to see the "dropped" dogs" in the parking lot. They are dogs dropped by the mushers for many different reasons- sick, not pulling their own, tired--whatever. We visited with them. We came by and all of them got up--about 40 dogs. They had just sent 16 back.They send them back to Anchorage, to the Headquarters at the Millenimium Hotel,All by commercial airlines. They are much more "civil" than the passengers!!! Then met a vet from last year taking care of these dogs and three new vets on their way to Nome. They will be the vets for the end of the race. The dogs are then checked as well and drug tested. Sweet sweet dogs.
Our pilot happened to be Davida's cousin and I befriended him. He said I could be co-pilot with him and Hank was at the window behind me. WHAT A FLIGHT!! We were the mail plane so we stopped at Shagtuluck and White Mountain then Nome. It was so crystal clear, we "buzzed" the Iditrod trail, saw 2 teams, all the checkpoints and majestic scenery. We even had pizza on the flight. Peace On Earth had sent us a pizza for the trip. Great airline food!!!Took a taxi into Nome ($5 worth, not far) to our hotel Nugget Inn. We settled then to the Iditarod Headquarters to make sure we could sign up for the dog lot. The first musher in would be between 8 am and 10 am the next day. The town was all abuzz with excitement. Would Ramey Smyth catch John Baker. Many thought  as Ramey has had the fastest time from Safety to Nome 7 times! Sun didn't start to go down till about 10pm fooling some of us. Forgot about dinner. Went to eat at Molino"s Italian--and so did EVERYONE else. Packed. Good dinner, watched the broadcasts about Japan and the nuclear dangers. Horrible! To bed so we can be up early and wait for the winner to come in!