Hi Boys and Girls,

Isn’t the race exciting.  How are your mushers doing?  There are still 3 mushers who have not finished their 24 hours rest. Have you been reading Sanka’s updates?  That lucky dog is traveling down the trail with the teams.  She’s having a great time reporting some interesting stories.

Now for today’s update:

DATE: 3/9/2012

TIME: 14:48

LEADERS:

1. Aily Zirkle, 2. Mitch Seavey, 3. Dallas Seavey, 4. John Baker, 5. Aaron Burmeister

WHERE ARE THE MUSHERS: Aily and Mitch have left Ruby.  Aily has a 5 hour lead on Mitch.  There are 16 mushers in Ruby.  20 mushers have left Cripple and are traveling to Ruby.  10 Mushes are in Cripple, 9 mushers have left Ophir and are headed to Cripple, 3 mushers are in Ophir, 2 mushers are traveling between Takotna and Ophir, and one musher is still in Takotna.

THE RED LANTERN POSITION: Dan Seavey, Dan is still in Takotna and has not finished his 24 hour rest yet.

WEATHER: The weather in Ruby is 4 degrees F and mostly sunny. Tonights forecast is -3 degrees F and mostly clear. In

SCRATCHED: No one since this mornings report.

Answer to yesterdays question: The red lantern is presented to the musher who crosses the finish line in Nome in last place.  Now I want you to do some research to find out why it’s called the Red Lantern?  Is there another name that it is sometimes called?

QUESTION OF THE DAY: I have been posted weather in degrees F or Fahrenheit.  Some of our readers from other countries report their weather in degrees C or Celsius.  What is the difference between Fahrenheit and Celsius?

FAN QUESTION: Grey asked a good question.  It’s: Where does the Iditarod find all of the volunteers needed to run the event?

Volunteers come from all over the United States and some are even from other countries.  If you are going to be in Alaska during the race, you can sign up to be a volunteer at the Iditarod website.  There is a list of jobs you can sign up for and the Volunteer committee will match you to the jobs you would like to do.

Hope you are enjoying the race.  It’s the weekend now and I’d love to stay busy answering your comments and questions.  Please keep me busy   The busier I am the less chores I’ll have to do around the house!

Check back tomorrow for another update.

Until then,

Gypsy