Location: Anchorage

Time: 8:30 PM

Hello on Day 2!

What a whirlwind tour we had!  It was dog day!  We started by driving north out of Anchorage, heading to Wasilla, about one hour away.  On the way our bus driver pointed out a bald eagle on the left and then a couple of moose calves on the right.  I saw them, but we went by too fast to get pictures.  Hopefully on the trail next week I’ll be able to get some good pictures of them for you.

We went to the Iditarod Trail Headquarters first.  You can see the entrance sign in my picture.  Do you see the flags all over the sign?  Each one represents countries that have had Iditarod participants.  See how many of the flags you recognize.

Inside we met Dr. Stuart Nelson, the chief veterinarian for the race.  He told us all of the vets are volunteers, and most of them come back year after year.  He then explained to us what the vets look for in their pre-race examination, and then we went outside to observe the process.

I took many pictures of the dogs and vets and here are the ones I liked best.  There was a dog with one eye.  I couldn’t find out what happened, because it was too hectic.  None of the dogs looked bothered by the activity.  You can see the dog getting its foot checked.  The dogs were all friendly and loved being petted!

In one of the pictures you can see a rookie being interviewed by CNN.  One of the things she said that I really thought was a good lesson was that instead of looking at the race as over 1000 miles, she was going to look at it as checkpoint to checkpoint.  In that way she would not feel overwhelmed.  I liked that idea a lot!  Look for her name along the trail.  It is Beth Manning.

You’ll also notice in the photos the dogtrucks.  They are so neat!  Each dog has its own special place to travel.  We saw many of these today.

After lunch we went to the Plettner kennels.  Lynda and her husband Dan Govoni have over 150 dogs!  They are both mushers, but only Dan is running this year.  If Miss Nelson has time maybe she can show you the video called “Sled Dogs: An Alaskan Epic.”  Part of it is about Lynda Plettner, and her lead dog Argy.  One of the photos I am sending is Lynda talking to us, and another is of Argy with my roommate Kathy and me.  The last two pictures for today are me on one of Lynda’s sleds and me holding one of her puppies named Zipper.  What a warm feeling!

On that warm thought I think I had better go to bed.  I need to be up tomorrow for a 7AM breakfast meeting.  I am having a wonderful time, learning interesting things and meeting people from all over the country!  Speak to you tomorrow!

Lots of love and puppy thoughts from Mrs. McClintock