Smiles & a shameless self promotion

Lets just start off with the shameless self promotion. I am very excited to be traveling to Curtis Michigan for the Midwest Sled Dog Symposium (Oct 1). ~and it is not to late to register, learn more~ If you have ever wanted to know what I sound like in person, or if I speak with the same style and flavor as my writing (Or lack there of, if you don’t like my blog. But if you didn’t like the blog why are you still reading? Hmmm, I am going to go with the assumption y’all find me at least mildly entertaining.  But I digress…)
now’s your chance.

Actually really looking forward to it.  Spending a weekend with mushers talking dogs is cool enough, but this time I get a small vacation as well. I will be traveling to a part of the country I have never had the pleasure of visiting before. And when I get there I get to stay in a hotel,  and as always that means I am looking forward to taking a bath.

Our beautiful 3 sided log outhouse~

Yes I equate travel and hotels with the ability to take bubble baths. Bubble baths while watching cable TV even; in a well designed hotel room that is. Our little cabin does have a well and the luxury of running water, a shower, dishwasher, and washer dryer. What it lacks is a bathtub. (OK a bathtub and a toilet. But seriously Dan and I had lived without plumbing for so long, and once you get used to the outhouse it is no big deal. Just get a comfy seat made of blue foam, much preferable to a toilet seat, which can be amazingly hard and cold at sub zero temps. Plus you see the most amazing Northern Lights on those before bed late night trips to the outhouse.  It is hardly that unusual, 40% of the worlds population does not have a toilet. Once again I digress…)

Ribdon and Sparrow as puppies (summer 09) playing with the outhouse in the background

I am also very much looking forward to meeting online friends in person and the opportunity to meet new mushers and mushing enthusiasts. But there is one part I am having mixed feelings about, the keynote. A little nervous about the keynote. Want to make it interesting ’cause lets face it; these cool people I am excited about meeting are actually paying money to come be a part of the symposium. Now I won’t speak for you, but, when I pay money for something I expect it to be worthwhile. Which means now I feel the need to be worthwhile. Or at least entertaining. (yes I know, some of you are saying, “hey wait, don’t you teach for a living?” Why yes I do. I even teach audio conference classes through the Interior-Aleutians Campus, which people pay tuition for, and yes that does involve a lot of talking. I also do group presentations and plenty of public speaking. No logical reason for worry over a speaking engagement   other then my desire to have something “worthwhile” to say.  Ah yes,  I digress once more…)

While thinking about what people might consider “worthwhile” you must also consider how you might entertain them. (Digression Alert! But how can I not insert the great W.C. Fields quote ~ If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull. ~)

Thus the idea for the slide show~
~which takes us to the smiling part.

I decided it would be fun to open the keynote with a slide show.  I choose a song who’s lyrics have always struck me as valuable. As an added bonus it was a song that was repeatedly, at different times on this years Yukon Quest and Iditarod, stuck in my brain. The best part of this plan was it gave me an excuse to spend hours looking through our kennel photos. I browsed through years of images stored in dated folders on my laptop.  Our photos are a documented map through our past. Allowing us to travel back, at least in memory, to the places and people we love dearly. While trying to find the perfect images to go with the song I got to: flashback to some of our earlier races, see our current team in their puppy craziness, feel thankful for the wonderful friends we have, and remember some of our most fun runs and trips. It was during this photo journey that something really struck me about the mushing pictures, everyone is always smiling! OK, not really Everyone All the time, but seriously in a majority of the photos I am going through people are happy. Cold, tired, sore, and hungry, and yet HAPPY!

Are we insane? some of these pictures are taken 100’s of miles into the toughest long distance dog races in the world! Are we nuts? cause the ice in those photos is real, it is that cold out. Are we delusional? cause mushers are operating on amazingly little sleep for days. Well yeah maybe but:

Are we truly happy cause we get to go out with the dogs we love on an amazing adventures? that’s a bit closer to the truth. And so today I am pleased to share with you some of my favorite smiles in the hopes it makes you smile. With the wish you also have something you do in your life that you love so much you smile just thinking about it, and grin from ear to ear when doing it.

Mike and Sue at the start of the 2009 Yukon Quest

Tamra and Harvey in Dawson, 2009 Yukon Quest

Newton and Gerry at McCabe Creek, Yukon Quest 2009

Michelle just getting into the Ruby checkpoint, Iditarod 2010

Rick and Darren at MacClaren Lodge (handler & volunteer) Denali Doubles 2010

Kristy at the Ruby checkpoint, Iditarod 2010

Gino at the Fort Yukon spring carnival sprint races 2009

DeeDee and Libby at the finish of the 2010 Iditarod

Bruce in Ruby, Iditarod 2010

Shameless self portrait to go with the shameless self promotion, Denali Doubles 2010

Yukon Quest volunteer Alex and Charlotte at the start of the 2009 race

Michelle in Pelly, Yukon Quest 2009

Ramy in Ruby, Iditarod 2010

Kyla working it as a handler Two Rivers checkpoint, Yukon Quest 2009

Ryan heading into the Ruby Checkpoint, Iditarod 2010

Sam at the start of Iditarod 2010

Abbie watching the sprit races after the Yukon Flats 300, 2009

Yukon Quest volunteer Mark at the 2009 Whitehorse start

And my personal favorite smile: Dan putting on booties and getting ready to leave the Two Rivers checkpoint, Yukon Quest 2009