Iditarod 2014: The Fancy Moose Meet and Greet - Bet

Howdy Ho Everybodies!!!!

As you probably heard on the Facebooks, the Musher and the Pretty Curly Tails are back at North Wapiti North and all are resting and recuperating.  I'm doing my best Florence Nightingale impersonation and making sure the Musher takes her pain meds, stays in bed and doesn't use her squished left handy hand

Coffee cup in right hand little missy!!!!!

Anyhoo, since the race was cut pretty short, we're catching up on all of the fun festivities that happened before the unfortunate festivity that cut the race pretty short and so we present to you, without commercial break, the Meet and Greet at the Fancy Shmantzy Moose Bar place.

So... after the Mandatory Musher Meeting on 27 February 2014, the Musher met her legion of fans in the Fancy Moose Bar at the amazing Millennium Alaskan Hotel.

Before I get into the whole meety and greety thing, I just wanted to set the stage for the ambiance that is the Millennium Alaskan Hotel.  It is chock full of stuffed stuffs and things.

This is a Wolverine (not to be confused with Hugh Jackman) but the Cartoonist was disappointed because she thought it was a Honey Badger, because Honey Badgers... well, they don't care.

There was also a hugey huge polar bear in the lobby that was very scary looking

They also have Iditarod pictures and a whole corner that they use for pictures (but none of the Musher and Pretty Curly Tails... harumpf)

It's also where they keep their "First Musher to the Yukon Award"

And when the race starts, they put up the official status board and peoples come out everyone hour or so to write the new information on it.

So, that's the whole ambiance of the hotel lobby area for you, and nestled between the front desk and the official status board is the Fancy Moose bar thing.

Come on in, order a drink, and sit a spell

Bar is on the left, tables on the right, and the whole gang (except for me, I was back at North Wapiti North giving last minute training tips to Irving) settled in for a raucous... I mean quaint meet and greet with the fans and hand out banquet tickets to the winners!

The ever adorable Iditarider Rita Skipper

A good time was had by all, but that wasn't the best part!  The best part (and I wished I had been there to see it) was when my bestest fan Caren Stutzman met the Musher and presented her with my hand made designer coat!!!

Caren was very upset when I couldn't afford my fancy designer coat that I really, really, REALLY wanted, so she took matters into her own hand and designed one JUST.FOR.ME!

LOOK AT ITS BEAUTY!

All hand made, each tiny little adorable stitch and "northern lights" effect patchworky things and stuffs, and on the other side it has a whole bunch of things she hand stitched to commemorate the Musher's adventures, like a bicycle, the Burled Arch and Timmy's... the picture below does NOT do it justice at all, it's GORgeous!

But wait, there's more!!  What FABulous coat would be without a scarf.  I KNOW!!!

Oh yes, Matching.SCARF!!!

But it gets even more better, and you're probably saying to yourself... matching coat and scarf ensemble... what could be better...

KD SCARF!!!!  My pet will have a matching ensemble JUST.LIKE.ME!!!

I wanted to send out very special thank you's to the ever fantabulous Caren Stutzman for all of the hard work and dedication she put into making me this most fantastical ensemble ever.

I was the best dressed Border Collie in all of Alaska, and I had many, many compliments when I wore it to the Open house the next day... more on that... later when I write that bloggity blog!

- Bet