<\/div>\n Written by Nancy Duresky<\/span> <\/p>\n Wednesday, March 18, 2009 Pt. One<\/span><\/p>\n I am at LAX on my way to Nome, Alaska to work in the Iditarod’s Dog Lot and watch the mushers arrive at the Iditarod Finish Line. <\/span>This is my 10th<\/sup> year doing this. <\/span>You would think that 9 other times would be enough. <\/span>There is something special here. I want to watch the musher come in and be a part of it in some small way. <\/span>There is lots to experience here. <\/span><\/p>\n I want to walk on the Bering Sea. <\/span>The sea freezes about two miles out. <\/span>In past years, the residents of Nome stood their Christmas Trees up on the ice and called it the Nome National Forest. <\/span>They hold a golf tournament every year on the Sea Ice. <\/span><\/p>\n I want to talk with some Native Americans. Usually, one night during the week there is Eskimo Dancing at a church. <\/span>I’ve gotten up and danced with them. <\/span>It is such fun and beautiful to watch when done ‘right.’ What I really like about the culture there is the art. <\/span>I go to the Art show every year. <\/span>Once I bought a carved ivory rose bud on a baleen stem. <\/span>I want to get something really good this year. <\/p>\n I want to visit with the friends I have made over the years. And I also want to eat. I want a hot dog from the convention center. <\/span>After working in the Dog Lot a few hours, that hot dog is good! <\/span>I want to go to a potluck at one of the churches and have some caribou stew. I want some ice cream from The Glue Pot. <\/span><\/p>\n But mostly, after seeing my friends, I want to work with the dogs. Those are the true athletes of the Iditarod. <\/span>Last time I went there was a T-shirt that read, “Real athletes run 1,000 miles, naked through the snow.” <\/span>Their athletic ability is amazing. <\/span>But it is more. They have unconditional love for their musher. <\/span>The dogs love to pull a sled. <\/span>They are happiest when they are in harness, on a team and accomplishing something. <\/span>Beyond that, if their musher asks them to ‘hike’ in a blizzard to get to the next checkpoint, they will go, without question, into the snow and pull with every fiber of their being. <\/span>The mushers return the love. <\/span>If dogs slip into ice overflow and get stuck, their musher goes right in after them. <\/span>No hesitation, no questions. <\/span>Now that is love. <\/span><\/p>\n Susan Butcher, a musher who recently died, was on the trail in the bush. A moose showed up and attacked her team. <\/span>She had no gun. <\/span>She pulled her ax out of her sled and went after the moose. <\/span>The next musher coming down the trail helped her and later teased her about whacking at a full-grown bull moose with her handy dandy axe. <\/span><\/p>\n That spirit draws me back again and again. <\/span>The mushers don’t describe it as deep love. <\/span>They say, “It gets into your blood.” <\/span>But even though they are some of the toughest, most solid people I have ever met, their real stories inspire me and have taught me so much about how to live life to the fullest. <\/span><\/p>\n So hurry up, people! <\/span>Stow your bags, get in your seat and buckle up. I’m off to the best vacation of the year. <\/span><\/p>\n Stay tuned for more from Nancy!<\/span><\/p>\n \n <\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our brave correspondent, Nancy Duresky, is sending back dispatches while working in Alaska as an Iditarod volunteer. You don’t want to miss these stories!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4394"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=4394"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}