Nome, Day 3

Not much to post... today was busy.  We started being treated to breakfast by one of the local volunteers -- a Florida boy who came up here in '83 for what was supposed to be two years.  He's still here, going strong.  He's an Iditarod finisher himself, and his daughter is racing in this year's. 

After the church people finished their service, we took over the kitchen and finished moving in all our equipment and food.  We sat down and planned out the menus and started thawing out meats for various dishes.  We precooked bacon and sausage for breakfasts for the next couple of days, baked two batches of cookies, made an egg-casserole for breakfast tomorrow, made two batches of jambalaya and had dinner ready to go at 6:30 -- not bad for 6 hours work!

Only problem was that no one showed up at 6:30.  One group called to tell us they'd be late, then we got word that another guy who was coming in was still holding in Unakleet for the fog to lift and wouldn't be in until after 8.  We finally got dinner on the table at about 7:45... and most of the conversation was about the missing guy from Unakleet.  (Anchorage HQ kept telling our team that he was already in Nome, but nobody could find him and he wasn't answering his phone.  Everyone left about 8:30.

As I was finishing the dishes, the driver popped in with one person, and delivered a message that he was returning to the airport for the missing guy from Unakleet.  I rewarmed a bowl of jambalaya for the first guy and he was just finishing when the driver returned with not one, but EIGHT people.  So the food came out again and at 10 pm we fed a team of vet techs, dropped dog team members, and communications people.  Things finally wound down around 11 pm.  We are pooped!!!

Across the street from HQ!