The mayor of Nome shakes hands with every arriving musher. Then the musher mounts the podium and fields questions from the press, while veterinarians and handlers examine the dogs. The answers are conveyed to the crowd by a speaker system and directly linked to KNOM radio, which covers the Iditarod finish of every musher. From the finish chute, the dogs happily trot the last one hundred and fifty yards to a dog yard set up amongst empty container vans. Stout gang chains running between the vans are allotted to each team.
Dogs are unharnessed and put on the gang line, bedded down with straw, fed, and left to rest.
In two days the dogs will be barking and lunging at their chain, prompting kennel volunteers to ask if proper arrangements have been made to fly the dogs out of Nome and back to Anchorage. Wives or husbands or friends who have come to the finish are relieved that their musher has arrived safely, and inwardly hope that this adventure has satisfied all mysterious callings to the wild. Definitely, I am going to do a few things differently. An awkward hush silences the dog yard. Even the huskies hold their breath and are still.