The Iditarod banquet is a great evening for catching up with old friends, making new ones and is a chance for mushers to thank their family, friends, sponsors and supporters. A packed house tonight saw 79 mushers draw their bib numbers ready for the starts on Saturday and Monday.
We also heard from the family of the honorary musher Philip Esai from Nikolai who passed away in May last year. He and his wife Dora have been volunteers for the Iditarod since it began, doing everything from working on the original trail from Rohn towards McGrath to cooking pots of stew for mushers. The memory of Philip goes down the trail in the Ceremonial Start wearing bib #1.
Aliy in the spotlight
Aliy meets a bunch of new friends!
Meeting more new friends; with Ally from Make-A-Wish! (Learn more about Ally at akwa.wish.org/iditarod)
A bunch of us at our table played "Bib Draw Bingo" where we each chose three numbers for Aliy and three for Allen that we thought they might draw. As each musher drew their bibs we would cross off any that were picked. None of us picked either of them correctly so it's not such a great story, but it was fun at the time.
Allen was first up and drew bib #57. We were sitting at table #57. Allen is 57 years old and was born in 1957 - spooky… He and the Black Team will leave the starting chute at 11.52am.
Allen is amazed at the #57!, A2
Aliy then took to the stage and started out thanking her dogs, particularly Nacho, Quito and Chica - she said they are the heart and soul of her team. She then thanked all of you - the website sponsors, whether you are a dog sponsor, dog fan club member or if you've joined one of our teams. She said it keeps it down to earth and makes it special for us so if you have joined anything or even made a comment, we really appreciate you! Aliy drew bib #32 so she and the Red team leave the start chute on Saturday at 11.02am.
Dog tags for Numbers 32 and 57
At the same time Doug (Aliy's Dad) and VIP kennel sponsors Tom and Cindy Eckhoff attended the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame awards ceremony and there will be a separate post about that.
