Thursday

Papago Reservation in Arizona

Silver Bell was right on the edge of the Papago Reservation, and my friends and I loved to explore out there. Miles and miles of nothing! Any little village like this had a well, and only about eight families lived there. This is Sil Nayka.

This is the Catholic church at Sil Nakya. The man visiting with Dave in front of the church lived there. I read somewhere that the Papago now call themselves "Tahono O'odam." I never knew how these families made a living. Maybe I just missed it, but I don't remember seeing any cattle or sheep, and of course there was no farming there. I remember the women wove beautiful baskets.

The cemetary at Sil Nakya.

My "palace" on wheels in the company mining camp. I think it was 8' x 35' and I thought it was great. The dog is Chiquita, and I got her at the animal shelter in Tucson. She was terrified of thunder, and once went through the window in the trailer while I was at work. She somehow found the office, waiting at the door until someone opened it, and came in and lay on my feet under the desk. She had never been there before, so I don't know how she found me.

The company sent some men to the trailer court to fix the window for me. How nice was that?

I never left Chiquita in the trailer again. If it thundered, she went through the trailer court until she found someone who would let her in.

She had lots of friends!

Ah, my "chariot!" This is what we used to get around on the reservation. The dry river beds were deep sand, and we needed the four wheel drive. It also had air conditioning, which I hadn't had before! Pure luxury.

Quite a story about me buying this Jeep. My friends Dave and Janet went to Tucson with me. We took the jeep for a test drive, and I was driving. The salesman, who I think was about 16, saw a place where concrete chunks had been dumped, and told me to drive out in there. When we got out in the middle, he said "OK, now put her in four wheel drive and see how she pulls herself out of here."

About 45 minutes later, we all stood and watched a wrecker pull the Jeep back onto the road. I'm sure the poor little salesman cried himself to sleep that night. Well, the next day Janet and I went back, and I bought the Jeep. I just never drove it out in the middle of a pile of concrete chunks.

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Thirty teams have finished the Iditarod race so far. There are still 27 teams on the trail

The first rookie got into Nome yesterday. They're not really rookies to sled dog racing. That just means it is their first time for the Iditarod.

Barrie's friend, Chris, is in Koyuk. He still has about 170 miles to go. The GPS tracking system is pretty neat. You can find a musher's location on the trail, see how fast they are traveling, and even see the temperature. I'm not sure how accurate it is, though. Several times it has showed that Chris is traveling in 415 degrees below zero weather!

Fifteen teams have scratched this year.