Anchorage

2011 Iditarod news: A great thing for an Alaskan newbie like me is that the torrential winds of the last few weeks have finally subsided. Living in Palmer, Alaska, I woke up this morning to things I haven't heard in several weeks, including the sound of airplane engines at the local airport, and neighborhood dogs barking.

In addition to the latest Iditarod news, here's one more great piece of information: The hurricane-like winds have stopped just in time for the Iditarod. I noticed last night around 10 pm that the apartment wasn't making all the usual noises, so I stepped outside, and sure enough, the wind had calmed down, and the flags on the flag pole two blocks away were just hanging on the flagpole.

Whoops, which reminds me, here's a video of the Alaska wind action from a few days ago:

2011 Iditarod news: Wow, do I have a lot to learn about the Iditarod. It turns out this morning (Saturday) is just the ceremonial start of the Iditarod in Anchorage, and even more importantly (for me), tomorrow morning (Sunday) is that Iditarod restart in Willow, Alaska. That's extremely good to know, because I was getting all ready to head out to Willow later this morning to watch the restart, lol.

As I try to learn more about the 2011 Iditarod sled dog race, I just found a little bit of information about the race restart in Willow. It sounds like the first part of the race from Anchorage to Willow, Alaska is largely ceremonial. They just get everyone up to Willow, and the real racing begins from there.

Here's a quote from an article I just found on the MSNBC website:

I just did a little research to try to learn more about the Iditarod race route, and found this information on the official Iditarod website. I don't meant to plagiarize their content, but to share this information, so if you'd rather read it on their much longer web page, just follow this link to the Iditarod website "learn" page.

That being said, here's the specific Iditarod race route information from that page:

2011 Iditarod Race News: Okay, it's that time, now less than 24 hours until the start of the 2011 Iditarod sled dog race. The race starts in Anchorage, Alaska on March 5, 2011, at 10am, and then there is a "restart" in Willow, Alaska at 2pm. Sorry, I don't yet know much about this start and restart business, but I'll try to learn more, and despite the continuing high winds here, I'll be in either Anchorage or Willow tomorrow, depending on what I learn.

I've been meaning to write for the last few weeks that the gasoline here smells very different in the winter, specifically when I'm first warming up my car. At first I thought there might be something wrong with my car, but I've noticed that my neighbor's cars produce this same "winter gasoline" smell -- it smells like the glue or "dope" my dad used to use when making model airplanes -- so I decided to research it a little bit.

The Seward, Alaska scenic drive: As I mentioned in an earlier post today, I just came back from a short vacation in beautiful Seward, Alaska. One of the things many Alaskans may take for granted is that the drive alone down to Seward is a beautiful vacation for tourists. Most of the drive is through a national forest, it's lined with mountains and bodies of water, and there isn't much traffic, especially this time of year.

Wow, there's a lot going on in Alaska in February. Dallas Seavey won the Yukon Quest about a week ago, the Iron Dog snowmachine race just started yesterday, Fur Rondy begins next weekend, and then the Iditarod begins the following weekend.

Dana Stabenow news: In this, my first winter in Alaska, I've been reading the Dana Stabenow "Kate Shugak" mystery series, and for some reason this morning I was reminded that there was an effort to make a Kate Shugak tv series. As I Google'd to find out what might be going on, I ran across this tv series page on Ms. Stabenow's website.