Finally, after, oh I don't know, twelve hours? Fifteen hours? Too many hours... I saw the lights of a big city down below. Anchorage! At last.

My friend Mary and her husband were nice enough to let me stay at their house that night. I sure needed some sleep! The next morning I spoke at the Chugach School in Anchorage. What a cool school! They have real stuffed birds in their library and terrariums and skulls. Everybody was really friendly, too. I drew this picture in my sketchbook while I was sitting in their library.

After school, it was time for me to fly to Nome. Imagine- Nome Alaska. I secretly tried to draw some of the interesting characters that were getting on the plane.

In Nome, I stayed at another house owned by a different friend named Mary and her husband. They have a store downstairs that has books and stuff, and you can even get a soda, if you want. But what's really interesting is that upstairs, where they live, they have Wyatt Earp's favorite barber chair. It's just sitting there- right in their living room! I had to draw THAT (I had to sit in it, too).

Outside the second floor window was Nome's main street. There were only a few cars. Most people travelled around on snow machines. Hanging over the snow covered street were lots of colored lights. Someone told me that there's very few trees around here. So the people get their Christmas trees from other parts of the state. After Christmas is over, they gather all the old Christmas trees together and stick them in the ice on the Bering Sea. Then they put up a sign that says NOME NATIONAL FOREST. People have been telling me a lot of stories up here. Some I believe, some...hmmm...

The next day, I was talking to a group of people. A person told me that one of the city officials wants to put a dome over Nome, so it would be easier to study. But, I wondered, wouldn't that change the temperature and make what they are studying different? We all sat around imagining what that would be like. How would people and cars and snow machines get in and out? One guy asked me where I was going while researching my book. I told him- Solomon,Unalakleet, Koyuk, Elim and Golovin. He told me scary stories about each place and said not to eat any of the food or drink any of the water. And to sleep with one eye open. Oh, great. Here's a drawing of the old burled arch that the Iditarod mushers used to go under at the finish of the race. They've got a new one now because this old one got broken. And how that happened is a whole 'nother story, of which I heard three different versions......but I will admit, I like hearing stories......       A new friend offered to take me out to the village of Solomon. He said that he thought it might be a ghost town now, but that it was only about an hour by snow machine. "But I've never driven a snow machine," I told him. "No problem," he said. We went over to his friend's house, met up with other friends and before I knew it I was easing out the throttle on my snow machine. We stopped at a store to pick up a little food and some drinks for the ride to Solomon. "Just in case........" he said.       I must admit it was a lot of fun driving along the streets of Nome on a snow machine. It didn't take us long to get out of town. And then my companions really took off. Click on a number below to find out more about the making of TOGO! 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6- 7- 8- 9 Click here to check out the inside stories on AKIAK LITTLE DEVILS, and FLEDGLING !!!