Closeup of the burled arch from the other side. This shot looks down Front Street in Nome.

Then we stopped at the OTHER end of the burled arch, the finish line of the Iditarod. I had to get a picture of looking at it from the other direction.

I got a picture of this dog in mid-howl.

They treat these dogs very well.

We also saw where they let the dogs hang out. We hear that they sleep for three solid days but are then raring to go again!

Lance Mackey. Came in a solid 10th place in the 2006 Iditarod.

The coolest thing that happened was when we met Lance Mackey. My family loved that one picture that I took of him coming up the hill into Nome so much that we printed a couple of photos off to have him sign. We are going to frame one and Amy's dad is going to get one. He looked at it closely, making sure it was him, and then asked us where we got it. He probably thought it was a commercial photo. We told him that I took it and then he said to us, "Oh, I was going to ask where I could get one!" Amy and I will be at the banquet tomorrow night so we said we'd bring him one. He also wrote on the back of one of those little yellow bumper stickers there his address in case we missed him at the banquet. That is pretty neat that he liked my picture. It's been my desktop image for a couple of days now--perfect for a desktop photo. And now I have his signature on it. His father and brother both won the Iditarod before and he himself beat cancer a few years ago.

Here's a photo of Jeff King, winner of the 2006 Iditarod, signing autographs.

Here's the crowd, all lined up at the stairs, waiting to get in there and get autographs.

We weren't even allowed down in the pit until 1 pm.

The mushers were all at tables at 1 pm and then you could go around and have them sign things. We were getting our trail map posters signed. Some people were having hats and shirts signed. Some even had the specially made Iditarod and Alaska Monopoly board to be signed. We got a good dozen signatures, including Jeff King, Martin Buser, Jeff Swenson, and Lance Mackey.

It was busy inside. Funny thing is that Nomeites are saying that it is too busy for our little town. I think over half the town was there.

Went into town today to Meet the Mushers down at Iditarod Race Headquarters, aka the mini-convention center. We got to walk around and talk to the mushers and get their autographs. It was like going to a comic book convention, except no quarter bins.

Lance Mackey and his sled dog team. I really like this picture.

Up the hill...

Here comes Lance Mackey up the hill.

Lance Mackey coming in.

We were getting cold so we decided to get going. We had heard the siren going off but the girls were just too cold to wait. As we started driving away, we saw a crowd gathering on the hill where the mushers get up from the ice and onto Front Street. We stopped to watch our fifth musher come in (fourth in a row) and the last of the top ten finishers. This is Lance Mackey, fan favorite, coming in off the ice.

There goes Mitch Seavey.

These dogs are a lot smaller than we figured. Distance runners.