Where I used to live

This is my friend Rick, sledding to a first-place finish in a recent race in Unalakleet. OK, so I didn't technically live in Unalakleet - when we met we all lived in Elim, which is maybe a couple hundred miles away. But this - with the snow and the colors - this is much like Elim.

Look how happy those dogs are - I used to love the Iditarod race coming through Elim. After a 20 minute nap and feeding, the dogs were ready to go again, and they'd take off like gangbusters for White Mountain, yipping and howling with joy (and Selma used to sit on the front porch and scream warnings at them for going on the ocean ice).

I wonder if their dogs I knew - Chiku and Chatauqua - are in the team? They were such sweet puppies, and when they'd get loose, for some reason Chiku tended to head towards my apartment ("Um, Rick? Chiku's sitting here in my living room. Do you want her to visit for awhile?"). That white dog looking at the camera smiling - that one looks like kind of like Chiku.

Thanks to Tiffany for sending this pic and making me nostalgic.