Iditarod Anyone....?

 On this fine day in Alaska we got to go on a dogsled ride!!!!! It was sooooooo cold. I thought I could handle it but even my human sized heater was cold. It turns out that it was -15 while we were mushing around in the snow. The dogs are very different looking than what I originally thought they would. They are very slender, not fluffy, and LOVE being outside pulling the sled. The musher doesn't need to tell them to run, they do it on their own!! I found this out the hard way. I was so cold that while Dario was telling us about the dogs I decided to stay in the basket that I was riding in. The dogs were REALLY excited and took off running........good thing he jumped onto the back of the sled in time, otherwise I would have gone for a ride all alone, which I didn't want to do! We had to stop about every fifteen to twenty minutes because the dogs needed to cool off. Yes you read that correctly, cool off. Optimal running temperature for them is -20 degrees so it was warm to them. As soon as we would stop all the dogs would roll around in the snow and eat it. It was pretty funny to watch, especially because I was  huddling next to Tony to stay WARM. Dario also gave us the chance to drive the back sled while he drove the front sled. I tried it but I think I prefer to be a passenger. Its hard work to drive that thing.

After playing with the dogs we went back to our hotel to get warm and stay out of the weather for a little bit. It was a great way to spend our Christmas Eve. We changed out of our snowboarding gear and went into Anchorage to go find the statue of Balto. This is where the Iditarod race starts every year. It is 1100 miles and was first completed in 21 days and is now finished in 8!!!