The big question answered

This was sent to me via Email from a long time friend:

    “Welcome back!  We followed you and Catlin’s comments during the race, and are proud of your progress down the trail.  (Great Photos, by the way).  And, now we’re looking forward to your Iditarod account.
     So, get busy!  WRITE, WRITE, WRITE… we know you can do it.  We want to know what you experienced on the trail, and how you felt about it.  You know the big question, everyone is going to ask, don’t you?  … i.e. Will you do it again?  You might have to address this, before too long, too.”

    I was just finishing up part two of my Iditarod wrap up, which chronicles our time in Anchorage and the ceremonial start, (which will be posted no later than tomorrow morning, I promise.)  Part 2 of my Iditarod experience does not however answer the question that everybody is going to ask.  Honestly I hadn’t thought that the question everybody was going to ask was a question at all.  A huge part of the reason it takes me so long to get material posted is because I’m already busy preparing for the 2012 Iditarod, running two teams of yearlings everyday.  My afternoons are occupied running two teams of puppies, in preparation for the 2013 Iditarod.  Oh yeah, and this time of year we also invest a ton of our time dealing with our breeding program which would take us into the 2014 Iditarod.  (ATTN: anybody driving to Alaska via Arkansas, please give me a call I have a new lead dog down there that needs a ride.)  ANY MORE QUESTIONS!

    Yes I plan to run the Iditarod until my knees, back, and fingers completely give out, or until there is a mini  me  wishing to take over,  (hint, hint.)

    Shortly before the re-start in Willow a good friend Mike Ellis, (crazy Quester,) stopped by our rig, and while we were talking I commented that I couldn’t wait until next year, and he laughed and said your already thinking about next year, and I said Mike you gotta see what I’ve got at home.

    Jason Reppert who I worked with briefly during my tenure at Jeff King’s operation, was one of the volunteers at Nikolai.  He called Caitlin shortly after his stint in Nikolai to report that I was totally in my element.  

    Don’t get me wrong, I often wish this wasn’t the case.  During my 24 in Takotna, I was talking with Sonny Linder, he asked me how it was going and I told him that I sort of wished that I was having a miserable time of it, so that I could give this crazy lifestyle up, and live a normal life, maybe take an annual vacation with the wife to Hawaii or someplace where normal people vacation, maybe even have the money to have plumbing installed in the house, (man I often dream about flushing something, anything.)  I might even take the time to see my doctor more than once every ten years, (huh, funny, if I got a doctor I can’t remember his or her name,) I probably would even start thinking about a retirement account or something like that, (Anybody have any Idea who the hell this IRA fella is, has he ever run the Iditarod?)   

    The bottom line:  It took me almost twenty years to admit it, but I’ve got a serious problem.  I’m an addict.  Dogs, dog mushing, and the Iditarod are all that I think about.  Poor Caitlin.

WOOF