We got back to Nome an hour after the Great Alaska Sweepstakes started but I stayed for the finish - what a treat.
It's the first time in 25 years that the SweepStakes has been run - a 408 mile dog race from Nome to Candle and Back - no mandatory breaks, winner takes all - and that "take all" is $100,000; quite the incentive to win! A flat out race - some around here call it "old school racing." In the end, it came down to less than 9 minutes between Mitch Seavey who finished in 2 days 13 hours, 3 minutes and second place Jeff King (who also finished second in the Iditarod).
Here's a tired Mitch and his two leaders!
A Poem from Leonard Cohen (click here for more Cohen)
--Love Itself--
The light came through the window now
straight from the sun above,
and so inside my little room
there plunged the rays of Love.
In streams of light I clearly saw
the dust you seldom see,
the dust the Nameless makes to speak
a Name for one like me.
And all mixed up with sunlight now
the flecks did float and dance
and I was tumbled up with them
in formless circumstance.
I'll try to say a little more:
this Love went on and on
until it reached an open door -
Then Love itself was gone.
The self-same moment words were seen
from every window frame,
but there was nothing left between
the Nameless and the Name.
--Love Itself--
The light came through the window now
straight from the sun above,
and so inside my little room
there plunged the rays of Love.
In streams of light I clearly saw
the dust you seldom see,
the dust the Nameless makes to speak
a Name for one like me.
And all mixed up with sunlight now
the flecks did float and dance
and I was tumbled up with them
in formless circumstance.
I'll try to say a little more:
this Love went on and on
until it reached an open door -
Then Love itself was gone.
The self-same moment words were seen
from every window frame,
but there was nothing left between
the Nameless and the Name.