Saturday

Long time ago - Willie and Tracy and I lived on a ranch in Colorado, pretty country. They built this new gate down at the road, and someone took our picture in front of it.

Years later, when Tracy lived in Aspen, we drove up to Ragged Mountain and found the ranch. So I took Tracy's picture in front of the gate. It is now padlocked. The Volks still live on the lower part of the ranch, but we lived up on the mountain, and the Mormon Church had bought it for a retreat. We called Volks, got the combination for the gate, and went up to visit with them. George called the Mormons and got permission for us to come up to look around. Had to go through two more gates with padlocks.



Loved seeing the old place again. The house we lived in had someone in it, so we didn't go in. We went down to the lodge, which they used as a kitchen and meeting hall, and found Tracy's handprint in the concrete floor, where she had put it when the floor was poured.

Maybe I'll post more pictures tomorrow of the house and the mountains and the beaver pond. The house was a barn that had been converted into a house. I loved it.

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The Iditarod is into its exciting phase. Until the mushers take their mandatory 24 hour layover, it's anyone's guess how they will finish. The front of the pack is now on the Yukon River. Jeff King is currently in the lead, but there are at least four other teams close enough that they could take it. Pretty exciting.

One musher lost a dog from his team near McGrath. He is still there, flying every day looking for him, and a bunch of volunteers from McGrath are out on snow machines. Sure hope they find him.

Barrie's friend is running in 54th place right now. He has had to drop 7 dogs, so don't know how it will all work out for him.