Meeting a Hero

This was a busy week up North and not just for me. Here's me and Lance Mackey in the airport in Nome, both headed back home to Fairbanks after an exhausting few weeks of sleeping rough and working long into the night. The only difference is, he got $60,000 and a new truck for these last two weeks! Really though, this guy is an inspiration! He won both the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest for two years in a row.

I had a quick but fun overnight in Nome with Bernadette. Thanks, Yaayuuq! She took me around town where we saw mushers coming in, a craft fair, the Iditarod Basketball Tournament, the race headquarters and went out for breakfast. And yes, boss, we also had lots of valuable work talk. Nome weather was beautiful- about -10 windchill, but long daylight and only light snow.

Nome, Kotzebue and Bethel are alike but different. They are all hubs serving huge tundra expanses and villages. Kotz and Bethel are "damp", alcohol can be consumed, just not purchased there and Nome is very wet. Nome is very racially integrated with a rich history of gold mining and Native culture, but Kotz is mostly Inupiaq and Bethel is mostly Yup'ik. Kotz and Bethel have a new wave of Asian (mainly Korean) immigrants, whereas Nome is quite diverse. All 3 villages have strong Native character, AC stores, and lots of village transients. Bethel and Nome have lots of cars and trucks as well as sno-gos and 4 wheelers, whereas Kotz has many fewer cars and trucks. Nome has its own school system, Kotz is part of the Northwest Arctic Borough and Bethel is in an REAA (Rural Education Attendence Area). All 3 are fun to visit, accessible via Alaska Airlines or Frontier and have festivals and tourist attractions throughout the year. I have to go through Anchorage to get to Bethel from here, but Frontier has direct flights from Fairbanks to Kotzebue or Nome for about $194 one way.