What ya gonna do?

Join Casey on Facebook. Her page is titledTelluride Dog Blog, of course.  She publishes a lot of great photos there and her facebook page will be more current as she begins her summer travels and limits her blog postings to once a week.

If I’ve heard that once, I’ve heard it a million times.  Skiing comes to a close on Sunday and everyone is figuring out Plan B.  Sometimes Plan B is a forever plan…I’m blowing this popstand and never looking back.  Or, I’m taking off over mud season to Kathmandu and climbing the tallest mountain I can find with only my right arm. Or heading to Patagonia to  ramble around on horseback for a month on my own and live off the vegetation.   The people who live here are adventurous and hard core.

For the record we are not. However, owner and curly haired have an action packed  summer planned.   I get to hang out with them for some of it but I don’t get to go to Italy. The adventure for owner will be seeing how much of it she can handle….what I mean is she has serious foot pain.  Not serious as in  she’s going to lose her foot – at least that is what she was told yesterday, “If it is X, I don’t believe it is bad enough that you would lose your foot over it!” What?  Don’t tell that to owner.  She’ll be on the internet all day looking up worst case scenarios and then chopping off her own foot with an axe just to get the worry over with.  Let me be serious for a  moment, her  problem is that  after she hikes  for an hour she’s in such pain that she can’t walk anymore. She’s been known to be such a baby that she cries when she presses the gas pedal.  She should have organised her surgery years ago but she kept putting it off because it would interfere with her life.  Well….now it is going to interfere big time with her life as she tries to hike in Cinque Terre. Thanks the gods that be that I’ll be off at summer  camp at Wash-n-Watch dogs with Lane.

First though I get to go to Arizona for a few days to hang out with a couple of dog pals, Vigo and what’s his name.  Now I’ve heard there are also  a couple cats hanging around this family. I need to be on my best behaviour because  if it doesn’t go well….I get locked in a courtyard.  This lady gets rattlesnakes visiting her periodically…please keep them out of the courtyard because I have no idea what to do with one except sniff it….and apparently that’s a bad idea.  They must have loved Boris more than me (previous dog family member) because he got sent to snake school where they shocked the hell out of him if he tried to sniff a snake. Electric jolt to the throat equals love in this instance apparently;  let me add Bo  was a quick learner.

Curly haired is going to pretend he’s young again and do some mountain biking in Bumblebee. What kind of place is Bumblebee  except crawling, or should I say flying,  with you know whats….sounds dumb to me.   Once a year he and the boys get together to drink and bike and bike and drink and generally act like the kids they aren’t.  Not at all comparable to owner and her friends pretending they are part pretzel at yoga fest, or so she has whispered in my ear.

Next we zoom to Texas to check out Curly’s new apartment.  He did all the heavy lifting and left the smaller details to us.  I hear there is a sunny speck of grass for me to lie on which sounds heavenly.  Better go dig out my flea and tick medication before we head back.  We will be on the Waterway so I can get some nice walks in if owner will get up and take me.  I probably need another haircut too.  It gets darn hot down there.

As for here, spring is arriving yet again.  The ski hill closes tomorrow.  All the skiers will be out getting in their last  runs. We won’t be doing that. Owner is trying to get in a last time or two on the valley floor.  Yesterday she ran into a silver coyote…he tried to stare her down but she was having none of that. She was freezing and wanted to get home.  They both stopped and checked each other out and then he loped off.  I bet he was ticked too as he was just trying to head to the river to get a drink.  Poor guy, he wasn’t expecting anyone as the trails aren’t groomed out there any more. We are still getting snow and sometimes we can’t even see our own landscape.  Spring is a confusing time in the mountains. 

 

I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired as they say. Every day I get covered in mud and dirt and grit and get subjected to the indignities of being wiped down, hosed off, whatever.  As if I can’t look after myself. 

People are getting out their bikes.   Two river rafts were parked over by Clarkes yesterday. Bike racks are on the back of cars. The season is changing slowly but surely.  We even heard from Steve that last week he got up the Wiebe with NO ice and NO mud…..what the hell were we doing that we missed that?

 

Did I forget to mention I’ve had it with roofalanches. Look at the snow in our yard that has come down off our roof.  You have to be prepared to make a break for it as you run out to the sidewalk.  All day long you hear big snowslides and they are just outside your own window. Enough already!  Good thing Jenny isn’t here, she wouldn’t be able to see anything out her own windows. 

 

Oh by the way, here’s  a family secret.   Benj is breaking up with College for good in May.  Owner and curly haired even know when Benj plans to dump her and they are going out for moral support.  It’s about time is all I can say. He’s heading off to China to visit David and, I guess, mend his broken heart? See ya later.

Telluride Dog Blog on Facebook – become a Fan.  Casey loves FANS. If you were a Facebook follower you would have seen this great photo she found this week…check it out.  Who knew Peruvian Alpacas could surf….surely this Alpaca has Telluride roots….. you heard it here, Telluriders are crazy adventurers. Enjoy this shot – found on the CNN newspage.

Postings are changing to once a week

Owner will be travelling a lot over the next three months….Arizona, Texas, Maine, perhaps Vermont, Italy and Spain.  Because of this my access to her computer will be limited – guess where I’ll be most of the time – BOARDED!  I’m thinking I’ll post Saturdays.  If you are a follower on Facebook, she will be sending me lots of photos so keep your eyes peeled for her adventures.  My adventures will involve hanging around with a bunch of dogs, lying in the sun, playing in Lane’s yard, and basically having a break from the constant chatter of owner.  Ah, bliss….is spelled Boarding!  See ya later.

Dog prej, dog prej, dog prej!

 

Here’s Spring’s welcome mat instead of a photo of me. Don’t forget you can find me on Facebook at Telluride Dog Blog.  See ya there.

Well, THEY can say it is a wonderful world but it ain’t so wonderful from my perspective!  I’ve been cooped up on my mat every Wednesday night for weeks now, living in lock down during singing lessons with Ulli, stepped on a few times during the karaoke party…and then when the big event happens, where am I?  Prisonered in my condo, who cares if that isn’t a word.  Owner is dressed up, out and about, crooning, and here I sit moldering.  It’s enough to make me eat a jacket, chew some drywall,  except it is hard to start irascible behaviour at ten.

I’m not asking to be let into heaven just into the darn church.  This is new stuff for owner and she needed a little cheering section. Curly haired had to go back to Texas on business or he would have been there.  OK, so I don’t clap so well and howling was more Don’s forte than mine…but for Pete’s sake I can “wag” like a son of a gun.  Perhaps I could have sat up near Rhonda to signal the audience to shush.  But no…no one asked, no one cared.  For a town that is so darn dog friendly they sure know how to whip out the “unwelcome” mat when they feel like it.  Hmmph….

 

Nothing beats seeing little kids singing and snapping.  Just hanging around and hearing these little tykes sing would have gladdened my heart and made me forget about my jail sentences the last few months. The tall dark haired boy reminds owner of David when he was little and singing in little school choirs.  He kind of made owner teary eyed for years gone by.  Now this boy probably chose to be in the choir whereas David was likely forced….owner always prayed for one son to enjoy singing and dancing in front of a crowd.  She finally got one…Benj…it just took three tries.

 

 

Tonight I’m kind of glad I don’t have to go to the darn Spring Sing.  It isn’t Spring; it is deep dark mind numbing winter.  No way is owner driving and yet walking looks really daunting.  It is a whiteout at the moment. By the way they called this event Spring Sing. I’d say Old Man Winter is back and he’s one angry dude! I know what Spring is and this ain’t it. Why oh why did I get a haircut? I had to include a photo of owner’s Spring last year in France…now THAT was Spring.

 

 

Oops, how did those pastries get in there?

 

This is what we have today, as she heads over to sing yet again – minus MOI. Of course, we don’t get the green season here, as they do in Texas,  where everything is coated in a thick layer of green pollen, including my feet, my coat, the car windshield.   Here we are still doing white season and may I add we are continuing to do white season vigorously.  She dug out her winter coat, her boots; my God, she grew up in this climate she should know better than to have put them away.  Wishful thinking will get her nowhere.

  

Apparently the choir showed up, there was an audience in attendance, everyone sang well and had a good time.  Choir is over for another season.  Whispers were heard of a Summer Sing, whatever that means. They talked about high heels, short shorts, – on men! Summer sing must be a whole different ball of wax from  Spring Sing. Yikes! Maybe I’ll get to go to that one.  I think it takes place at a secret location out of town….well, I should hope so!

 

 

 

On a more serious note, here is an  important message presented in an adorable format. How do these dogs/cats get to go to the office is what I want to know? Pass this one on please.  It is a message that can’t get out often enough…spay and neuter your pets.  Yes, we love our balls but not enough to want to be a starving, freezing, lonely pet with no home. See ya later. 

Help me Rhonda..help, help me….

 

 

Picture me looking like this as I hid behind the couch during the karaoke revelry that took place Friday night in our condo.  Look at those eyes…I couldn’t have closed them if I tried.  I was kept awake hours past my bedtime….you can’t see the toothpicks  holding my eyes open in this photo but you would have in a Friday night picture.  Is there an anti-animal cruelty law in Telluride regarding a large number of people singing and generally going crazy for hours in the presence of a domesticated beast?

At least behind a bench at the Coffee Wagon I have the opportunity to sniff up a crumb of muffin or something.  No one dropped a tidbit for me to nibble the entire night of the big choir “hair down” event.

 

 

Good Lord.  You would have thought they were 16.  I think they thought they WERE sixteen.  The only song they missed WAS Help Me Rhonda? It would have been so perfect too since the choir director’s name is Rhonda. 

 

Could owner have picked a worse night for  her karaoke party?  Doubt it.  Blowing whiteout snow, the first colder weather in days, wind, ice falling from the roof….however, you get what you get.  The snow and wind didn’t stop anyone from having a  good time and in fact the windows had to be opened to dissipate the heat they generated with all of their crazy gyrations.  It got so hot in their that I drank through TWO waterbowls of water…not one person offered me a sip of beer, can you believe it?  What does a dog have to do to get a beer around this joint?

It was the typical karaoke party.  Everyone arrived, had  a drink,  looked through page one of the songs (Linda…does this ring a bell) and pronounced, “there’s no song I recognise.”  For the rest of the evening they (she)  sang along to every song that came on the screen, well almost every song.  In my mind Twist and Shout was the song that really broke down the barriers.  Suddenly everyone was twisting like it was 1965 in Shea Stadium.  I hid behind the couch with my tail between my legs.

 

Warner and Judy were dancing over by the dining room table.  Anyone who had never karaoked before found out how easy it was.  Some had been worried that they knew lots of songs but didn’t know all the words…well who really knew there were even  words to Wooly Bully?  Ginny kept saying…no way are these the real words, (hinting at them being much ruder perhaps?)

 

 

Slowly people slid home. Curly got worn out running the karaoke system but he never complained, not once.  Will,  Ginny, Pam, Linda and owner kept going until they no longer had a voice.  Ulli and Glory would have been there longer if Glory hadn’t  just flown in from California and then skied all day before partying all night.   Who knew they had Friends in Low Places and why doesn’t owner ever make some of that American Pie?  No one danced on the table and very few articles of clothing were left behind –  ok, one scarf but that is neither here nor there.   Kurt swore he wouldn’t sing a note but he seemed to sing along to every single song as he sat unobtrusively  by the dining room table.  Karaoke does that to you…the oldies but goodies come on and you have  to let loose.  Now once more….Who Let the Dogs Out? See ya later.

Bet you wish YOU lived here!

 

Just so you know the sun on my face is warm for the first time in months. I could lie on this patio all day long but I see long johns coming out and hear talk of cross country.  Oh, I hope it is Priest Lake and not the Valley Floor.

 

This is wintertime patio living…..snuggled up in a comforter in the far corner.  I love to lie out here but need my warmth.  These arthritic bones find it tough if they get too cold. And by the way, don’t give owner a bad rap…I beg to go out on the patio so I can stay in tune with who’s wandering by…could be Zak or Shipper and I need to bark to let them know I’m around too. 

Springtime  patio living only requires a small mat…mine has Santa Claus on it but what the heck, it works.  I’m giving myself a good scratch here.  Sure I can write but I can’t talk so my scratch indicates don’t forget to buy some flea meds for next month.  Doubt she understood my sign language but it is always worth giving it a shot.  Some day she’ll catch on to my secret lingo.

I know the way to the trail so I mosey on over by myself.  Gosh I love the smell of mud in the spring time.  It has a magnificent conglomeration of odours I’d just like to roll around on and wrap myself in ….but I’m no dummy.  Owner would have a conniption if I did that.

 

Owner is obviously a weeny.  Surely she’d prefer to have her toes squelch around in that cooling mud rather than be protected by layers of socks and boots.  I’ll never understand humans.  If they would just go with the flow they’d be so much happier and relaxed.  Boots are a bad invention in my opinion; they keep you from being up close and personal with nature.

It’s four o’clock in the afternoon and this is our view. Can you beat it.  This is just a paltry little shot taken from the car window.  Some people pay a fortune to come and see these views….for us it is view..schmiew!. Can’t help it folks; these photo ops are everywhere.  They still make smiles rise to everyone’s lips however; we are not that blase….YET.

     I may be ten…ouch, is that really seventy? (cripes that IS old) but I still have a spring in my step and joy in my heart.  My new  haircut really makes me feel young and sprightly.  I know we are here for a good hour or more so I’m a very happy camper.  Bring it on….which way you want to go, uphill, downhill, in the track.  I’m good to go guys; in fact to let you in on a secret…at one point I hopped on the back of owner’s skis and skied along with her.  She thought her skis had tons of ice on the bottom and were slowing her down….looking back she saw my paws.  What’s life without teasing, eh?

The snow is soft under my paws. You can hear every stride of the skis. The sun is warm.  Everyone is stripped down to just the bare essentials because otherwise they would get too hot. Thank God for my haircut! Did I mention it was 50 degrees! and it was almost 4 p.m. when we headed out.  My family is worrying the snow will be gone soon and then what will we do?  Hike I guess but gee….nothing beats cross country in the actual country on a sunny day in the San Juan’s.

Love these trees.  Owner uses them as her little mental marker to know she’s on the right path…you know her panic attack phobia about being lost.

Pristine snow as far as the eye can see, don’t get to see that in the city now do you….no soot lining the snowbanks along the trail.

Lacey snowbanks seems to be a hallmark of Spring. Pretty, eh?

Here are curly-haired and I going through some trees that line the trail. We ran into Ulli later but forgot to get the camera out.  Darn! She was as surprised to see us as we were to see her.  She had been rushing home to meet owner and teach her how to sing….CANCELLED!

 

Here I am popping my head up over the snow bank to see where the heck owner is. Of course she took the opportunity to take a candid shot. I hate that….I didn’t have a chance to smile.   We sure had fun that day.  The rivers were melting, the little ponds were open, not one fish could be seen.  Guess they have so much room to swim now that they are away from the trail.  See animal tracks heading down to the water to drink and snack.

 

The local Noridc Centre had a cross country ski race out here on Sunday. Our friend, Midnite, runs that group and he’s always thinking up interesting things for them to do.  WE skipped it because we would hate to come in last….I was actually the big excuse for us not to go out to Priest Lake that day –I’d get in the way of the racers.  Right….I could probably whip everyone’s ass if they just let me run the trail as hard as I can go.  However…..we stayed home. You can see the orange markings in the snow directing everyone on the race course.

 

 

Once we get to this old shack…I  know my time  in the wilderness being a wild dog is almost over for the day.  Me roaming  the forest is likely  going to be my dreamscape tonight. 

  Yup….

back into the car it is.  Off to the Butcher and Baker to get some Chai. I’ll simply lie under a chair and scrounge around for some nice whole wheat blueberry muffin crumbs….my favourite!  See ya later.

Thanks guys.

To all my regular readers (and not so regular too)...a big MERCI, DANK U , THANKS  and GRACIAS. There are so many of you and I, a mere dog, am so grateful. To the readers in Latvia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Philippines, INdonesia.....wow! Who are you and how did you find me? Germany is rampant with readers and so is England, along ...with a few other countries. This blows my mind! Thanks. To the readers in Anchorage--go Iditarod.

If I weren’t so tired, I would have remembered to put this in BEFORE I published today!

I’m exhausted

 

Putting out two blogs a week for eight months has taken its toll.  I’m finally exhausted.  Today is the day I’m taking off folks.  A nice cruise out at Priest Lake and then some downtime on the patio is just what I need.  This dog is whipped….well not literally, but you know what I mean.

With Spring in the air and the Iditarod in its final hours, this seems like the perfect time to post someone else’s writings from the Alaska Dispatch News.  This streamed news has been keeping our house afloat for the past week….we see the photos, the updates, the despair, the lost dog (now found after four days in the wilderness—lured to his unrecognisably goggled owner with a nice piece of salmon), the accidents and the warmth of human kindness  every hour all day long as we sit focused on the race.   I may be a Chowbrador and completely incapable of  pulling a kid’s wagon around the block but I am dog enough to admire the strength and determination of my fellow canines.  Just so you know, more people have reached the top of Everest than have ever completed the Iditarod.  I salute you dogs and mushers!

Anything can happen but it sure looks like Lance Mackey is going for his fourth consecutive win.  His grandchild was born while he was on the trail, he has frostbite in his feet and yet on he goes. Everyone in this race is heroic in my cataract covered eyes.  So, as I take my  well-deserved day off here is an update from Alaska on what is going on up there.  Don’t worry….after the upcoming Karaoke party on Friday night where you get to see the local Telluride choir let their hair down……the Iditarod will become old news.  Hope I haven’t worn you out with the updates but this obsession took over my life and it is hard to shake off.  Thanks for your patience.( Photos of March 15 directly below) And one more thing…I love Lance’s shout out to Nome as he left on the final stretch of the race, “I’ll be there as soon as I can!”

See ya later.  (since the computer keeps erasing kyle hopkins email address I shall put it here in case you are moved to drop him a line about his great coverage….khopkins@adn.com)

 http://alaskadispatch.com/iditarod-category/gallery/62

Mackey hours from record 4th straight win

by Kyle Hopkins  khopkins@adn.com

khopkins@adn.com
khopkins@adn.com

Published: March 16th, 2010 07:43 AM
Last Modified: March 16th, 2010 07:44 AM

More photos

BOB HALLINEN / Anchorage Daily News

Lance Mackey just before heading out onto the ice of Golovin Bay on his way to the White Mountain Checkpoint on Monday March 15, 2010 during the 2010 Iditarod Sled Dog Racekey in White Mountain, 77 miles from win

Into the homestretch, odds favor Mackey

 

WHITE MOUNTAIN -- Lance Mackey left here just before 5 a.m. today, headed for Nome in the final miles of what is looking increasingly likely to be his fourth straight Iditarod victory.

In the race’s 38-year history, no other musher has accomplished the feat. And while there were 77 miles left to race, Mackey’s closest followers said only a major mishap could derail him now.

“My dogs are all fat, they’re going to waddle out of here like a bunch of pigs,” Mackey said this morning, packing his sled and moving leaders Rev and Maple to the front of the team.

The Fairbanks musher left White Mountain, a forced 8-hour pit-stop, with 11 dogs and a two-hour head start on Canadian Hans Gatt, who was scheduled to leave the checkpoint no earlier than 6:40 a.m. Third-place Jeff King, of Denali Park, must wait until 7:06 a.m. to give chase.

As Mackey’s sled disappeared into the early morning darkness, Gatt and King’s teams slept, parked along the banks of the frozen Fish River. Only a disaster could stop the defending champ, Gatt said. “I’m more worried about Jeff catching me than me catching Mackey.”

Mackey estimated the trip to Nome would take around 10 hours, putting him at the finish line in midafternoon.

Before the run to Nome, the top Iditarod mushers spent a leisurely night here at the village hall –- commandeered for the week by Iditarod veterinarians, officials and volunteers.

Mackey had arrived mobbed by autograph seekers, icicles thick as crayons swinging from his mustache. Warm weather had bogged his dogs down earlier in the day – as King had hoped – but Mackey had expected as much.

“I didn’t ask them to do anything special. I just let them cruise at their own speed, which is about as slow as drool,” he said. “But we were moving while other people were stopped.”

Mackey was one step closer to a Dodge truck, the winning prize, along a $50,000 paycheck. “I’m stoked,” he said. “I couldn’t be happier.”

FAMILY REUNION

Arriving late last night inside the checkpoint building -- a wood-paneled collection of offices that will crowd dozens of mushers and volunteers over the course of the week – Mackey hunted for an iPod charger.

His Iditarod soundtrack ranges from classical to reggae to rap, he said. “I have three teenage kids and a wife and a Jamaican (musher Newton Marshall) in my house. And they’ve all taken turns putting something on there.”

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Mackey’s father, 1978 Iditarod winner Dick Mackey, met him at the checkpoint dinner table, where the younger Mackey piled a paper plate with fried chicken, mashed potatoes and two hot dogs slathered in mayonnaise.

The Mackey men talked strategy. Dick had been studying race statistics and couldn’t see how Gatt could catch his son.

Mackey listened, a knee brace pulled over his long underwear, his feet raw and fingers stained from a week on the trail. A rubber band held his hair in a tight braid.

“When he is faster than you, he’s about 0.8 miles an hour faster. And if that’s the case, all you’ve got (to do) is to do your thing,” Dick said. “At this point, it’s your race to lose.”

DRUG TESTING BEGINS

Across the hall from the chow room is the race’s new drug-testing headquarters – a city supply room filled with file containers and cable TV boxes.

Anchorage-based Work Safe, a company known for testing potential workers for employers, is donating the drug-testing services as the Iditarod began checking mushers for illegal substances for the first time this year.

As mushers arrive in White Mountain, they’re being pulled aside for testing. Mackey was the first.

A throat cancer survivor who once had a finger removed after it was rendered useless by nerve damage, Mackey holds a medical marijuana card. He has admitted to using pot on the trail in the past, and felt singled out by the race’s new drug-testing policy, saying it was spurred by jealous competitors. Race officials said the effort was prompted by other Iditarod finishers and conceded he wasn’t off point.

Mackey said before the race he wouldn’t use pot or the marijuana pills prescribed to him. “I don’t think it’s going to show a damn thing,” he said of the test.

The samples will be flown to Spokane, Wash., for analysis with results known by the mushers banquet later this month, said Work Safe general manager Don Bisby.

King called the testing a waste of money Monday night. “If it’s originated because of somebody smoking pot, I really think it’s stupid,” he said.

DINNER OF CHAMPIONS

After feeding his dogs, King sat at the dinner table eating lasagna, a seat away from Hans Gatt. Gatt’s hair poked in every direction.

The Whitehorse musher won the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest in February and is one of several top Iditarod contenders to compete in both races.

It used to be common knowledge you couldn’t win the grueling Quest and the Iditarod in the same year. Then Mackey did it twice.

One theory is that the Quest “hardens” dogs' bodies for the race to Nome. Mackey is racing the Iditarod with six Quest dogs. Gatt brought 13 of his Quest winners to the race.

King asked Gatt about the success of Quest dogs: “You think it could be the training to go slow as much as the metabolic thing?”

“I don’t train slow,” Gatt said at the dinner table.

“You don’t train slow?”

“No.”

“But, you ran the Quest.”

“The Quest was the fastest 1,000-mile race ever,” Gatt said .

Earlier in the night, Gatt had set out bowls of food for his team, only to find at least some of the dogs looking at him groggily, ignoring them.

He rubbed the head of a blond dog named Newman. “Hey Newmie … feed you later, huh?”

“I guess you guys are too tired,” he said to the dogs.

As the sport’s premier event, the Iditarod is poised for a new round of stars. Mackey has said he doesn’t want to do both the Quest and the Iditarod again in the same year anymore, King says he likely won’t run the race again, and Gatt is done with 1,000-mile races, he says.

“I just can’t get excited about it anymore, so why do it?” he said.

Mackey, meantime, has often been a dynamo at checkpoints even as he describes himself as beat up and “wimpier” than in years past.

Before the race, he talked cautiously about being happy with a top 10 finish. Until he reached Ruby – roughly halfway through the race – Mackey figured he could make the top five, but it’d be a struggle.

“I’m realistic. And I know there’s a hell of a lot of good dog teams in this race with exceptional drivers who are very focused and determined,” Mackey said. “Hans Gatt just whipped my butt in the Yukon Quest.”

But a flash decision to push through Kaltag while King rested gave him a lead that he only extended on Monday.

Last night Mackey figured it would take him about 10 hours to reach Nome – putting him across the finish line in midafternoon and adding another chapter to Iditarod record books.

His message for Nome this morning: “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2010/03/16/

 

1185271/mackey-hours-away-from-fourth.html#ixzz0iM8wXdjm

An extra treat for you loyal readers

 

Because you are all so wonderfully loyal….I get tons of hits per day from all around the world….thought you might enjoy some cool Iditarod photos from an Alaska Newspaper.  These are especially posted for all of you who have never lived in snow, never felt so cold you thought your nose would fall off, or never even known dogs are still pulling guys around up in the Arctic on a marathon quest for first prize.  Let’s face it this race is all about the dogs….people are important but without us no sleds would run.   Enjoy!

Don’t forget to share the website with your friends – worldwide friends gratefully received.  Also, I’m on Facebook on the page called  Telluride Dog Blog…sign on and become a fan.  Love to have you join me as I update you on all things doggedly important.  See ya later. Casey.

 

http://alaskadispatch.com/iditarod-category/gallery/55