At vet check Wednesday, Handler was particularly glad to see a couple of neighbors. Given that we’re Wisconsinites, and vet check is in Alaska, one really wouldn’t expect to be rubbing elbows with folks from home.

The first neighbor Handler ran into was musher, Jodi Bailey. She was a rookie in the Yukon Quest, run in the early part of February. The weather was not kind but the mushers persevered. Jodi finished in 7th place out of the 13 that finished that Quest. Now the cool thing is this, she’s also running her rookie Iditarod this year. First time efforts in a couple of thousand mile races in one year? This woman must love her dogs and the out of doors! The neighbor part of Jodi is that she’s married to Dan Kaduce, who was born and raised in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. That’s only ten miles from my doghouse! Dan claimed Rookie of the Year honors last year in Iditarod finishing in 21st place with a time of ten days and fifty minutes. Dan and Jodi aren’t close neighbors anymore; they now live in Chantanika, Alaska.

The other neighbor was Ed Stielstra, a musher from McMillan in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Yeah, Ed’s done Iditarod five times. He loads a couple dozen of his best dogs into the dog truck, drives 3,488 miles in three days and there he was at vet check. Can you imagine driving that distance with stopping every four hours to drop 25 dogs so they can eliminate, eat a little and exercise a little then load them all back up, drive another 4 hours and do the same thing again. Map Quest says the trip should take 62 hours not counting on the travelers having dogs. Ed had to do a bundle of pre pre-planning. Before the end of January, his drop bags – 3 for each of 22 checkpoints – had to be shipped to Tacoma, Washington to be barged up to the food drop in Anchorage before the fly out date of February 20th. Nature’s Kennel isn’t exactly next door to my doghouse but Upper Peninsula Michigan is next door to Wisconsin so we feel like neighbors.

Watch my neighbors, Ed Stielstra and Jody Bailey, in the Last Great Race. Let PRIDE be your guide.

Born to Run,
Sanka