On The Road Day One - Bet

Howdy Ho Everybodies!!!!!

We are on the road to Alaska!!!  WOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!

I would have blogged earlier, but in the rush to make sure we had everything and everybodies, and then packing the truck, and convincing KD that there was tasty foods in the house so she wouldn't try to run after the truck like she did the first time we tried to leave

sniff... I already miss my little pet, but she'll be fine under the wonderful care of Bait and Tic... errrm... ummmm... sigh.

Anyhooooooooo

First off I must introduce the amazing Sophia Dalidakis!

You may remember Sophia from the Musher's adventures in the Land Down Under (Australia), and the great things she and the Musher (and all of the Australian peoples, well not ALL of them, but the sledding peoples) did while she was over there.

Sophia and the Musher and some stompy horses

Sophia flew alllllll the way from Australia to help the Musher drive to Alaska!  Isn't that neat!!!!!

When Sophia left Australia, it was 30º (Celsius), which equates to about 3,457º Fahrenheit here in the states.  She was a bit unprepared for that initial... temperature variation.

To get her up to speed and acclimated to the cold, the Musher threw her on a sled

And she did very well, didn't run into anything or break anything!

So then we all got busy, busy, busy packing up the truck and gathering our things and making sure we had everything and it was all just a whirlwind of events and stuffs and things.

I made sure I brought along my mobile cloud

 

A girl has to bring her accessories you know.  I'm a bit upset that the Musher didn't put on my traveling plaid coat or my Ugg booties, which is why I'm not looking at the camera... harumpf!

I would also like to point out that I don't have a cup holder for the many Timmy's and Starbucks stops... hello?

As usual, we stopped to let the Pretty Curly Tails out to stretch and eat.

By now I can just hear you all squee'ing and trying to guess as to who is making the trip with us, so without further ado, I present to you the "2014 Iditarod Alaska Pretty Curly Tails who went with us and may or may not be running the 2014 Iditarod because we won't know until the last minute who makes the cut or not but you'll at least know who is in Alaska with us" list.

In alphabetical order:

Astro

Boo

Crackle

Fletch

Kelly

Irving

Missy

Molly

Neo

Pop

Ryka

Scud

See

Skecher

Smartie

Snap

Squib

Tess

Todd

Tramp

blah, blah, yammer, yammer, yammer

Turtle

Wifi

Wolvie

 

- Bet

A Few More Odds and Ends and Some Really Odd - Bet

Howdy Ho everybodies!

It's getting closer, can you feel it?????  I can, mostly because I'm busy, busy, busy packing my ensembles!

I'm a bit sad that I will have to leave my pet KD at home for this trip... sigh.  She's just too young, inexperienced, won't fit in my suitcase, and the Musher found my secret hidey hole space for her and now checks all the time.

Yep, that is THE actual sled bag!  Isn't it pretty!?  It's from the FABULOUS Dog Booties.com peoples.

Dog Booties.com fantabulous sponsor of the Pretty Curly Tails!

Anyhooooooo, we've created an FAQ page for peoples to review.  We'll be updating it as soon as more peoples ask us questions or we know answers about.

So far, the biggest two questions we've gotten are:

1.) When is the Open House and what can we do at the Open House... that's answered

2.) Can we handle the Pretty Curly Tails at the starts?  That's answered.

I'm proud to announce that we've added KD to the list of North Wapiti Support Crew.  You can go to the sponsor page here, or the GoFundMe page and sponsor her if you want... she's cheap.

We are very happy happy really cool happy to announce that all of the checkpoints have either been sponsored, or peoples are making up snack bags!  Thank you everybodies!!!

As far as the supplies go, we still have the following available:

50 Handwarmers
36 Juice boxes
31 Bottles of water

Go here if you want to donate to those and then the Musher will have warm hands and stay hydrated.

Time is getting short on order an exclusive Van Zyle, so get your order in jiffy quick please!!!!

Don't forget the Winter Celebration Art show thingie where you can meet both Mr. Van Zyle and the Musher and get your print if you'll be in Anchorage on January 24th.

Last but not least (and this is where the really odd thing comes in)... peoples have been asking which Minions will be there, and if a specific, annoying, Nyquil-swigging Minion will be there.

Here is the official Iditarod Minion list:

Watch And Learn, Young Grasshopper!

Bait's obsession with our bathroom has been well documented over the years.

It is mostly a 'winter obsession' and anytime anyone in the house moves towards the bathroom, the thunder of paws is heard on the floor as he races to get there first.

It is pretty much the only exercise he gets in the winter and we have all pretty much gotten used to his presence in there.

This morning he decided to show KD the 'wonders' of the 'water room'.

"I don't get it. This is boring"

"Cause you are doing it all wrong. Let me show you"

"First get HER to turn on the water. It is way easy when HE is home, but she'll sometimes do it too"

"That is AMAZING!!!"

"Now you try"

"This is AWESOME!!"

"Thanks  Bro. You are THE BESTEST!!"

*sigh*

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to disinfect the bathroom sink.

Karen

Odds and Ends and Deadlines - Bet

Howdy Ho Everybodies!!!

It will be your soon to be roving roving Border Collie Reporter, Bet, here!!!!

In case you missed the biggie big hugey huge announcement on my birthday blog announcement thingie, I WILL be traveling to Anchorage and staying at North Wapiti mobile HQ to help train the Pretty Curly Tails and do my Dog On the Scene bloggity blog reporting!

With that said, we are running up on some deadlines here, so I want to send reminders out to everybodies as the time for Iditarod gets closer and closer and things start happening really fast.

1.) I put up a counter on the bloggity blog (look over to the upper right hand side [you mobile bloggers won't see it, so get to a real computer]) there's a countdown clock on how many days, hours, minutes and even seconds are left until the Musher and Pretty Curly Tails go careening down main street in Anchorage for the Ceremonial Start!

2.) The Musher, Pretty Curly Tail main and second string and I will be leaving for Alaska soon, and yes, I've already picked out and packed my fashionable ensembles for the trip.  Once there I will set up the nerve center Border Collie Broadcasting Center (BCBC) where I will report all the happenings.

3.) Don't forget to order your exclusive, one of a kind, no place else to get them, signed by artist and Musher Van Zyle exclusive "Race Fans" print.  You can get them by clicking here. There's also a tab at the top of the bloggity blog.

4.) SNACK BAGS!!!!!!!!!  The deadline for sponsoring or getting your snack bag items to Kathryn Snack Bag Minion is 15 January 2014!!!!!!  The following check points don't have a sponsor or anyone making them so get it while you can:

OPHIR
NULATO (not to be confused by the tasty bread spread Nutello)
SHAKTOOLIK (I cut and pasted it so I would spell it right)
NOME (need 2 snack bags there, one for Musher, and one for the handler).

5.) Snack bag essentials: still have oodles of things that haven't been sponsored, including Prilosec for the Pretty Curly Tails.  Don't make me remind all of you about Snickers, and all of the good work the Iditarod vets and other organizations have done to eliminate this horrible condition all with one little pill each day...   What are you waiting for?  Hmmmm????  Click here, scroll down... even one or two items will help defray all of the expenses of running.

6.) The Monolopy Iditarod game auction ends on 1 February 2014, highest bidder is listed on the upper right hand side of the bloggity blog... just sayin.

Oh, and yes, I will have a meet and greet at the Open House (details later), but please don't surround me suddenly with your adoration... I'm actually kinda shy at first, you may scare me.

- Bet

KD vs the Great Outdoors

So KD got to experience the Great Outdoors for a brief moment today.

Far, far away from the dog yard - and it's pretty easy to 'control' where she travels as cross country travel in not an option when the snow in the yard is over 3 feet deep!

She thought it was all VERY exciting and once she thoroughly washed all her paws to get all the 'icky', cold snow off them and warmed up she had to tell Bait ALL about her adventure.

In GREAT (and hugely exaggerated) detail....

...he was THRILLED.

"HEY! Are you listening???"

 "Yeah Kid, I'm listening"

"What???? There were wolves!! Lots of them! I swear!"

Today is my Birthday Everybodies! - Bet

WOOT!

Today is my birthday!!!!  I'm SEVEN!!!!

The Musher said that we were going to go out and do some girlie bonding time for my birthday, and I was all like WOOT again because I was thinking we'd go get a lava rock sauna spa thing

Then we'd get a mani pedi thing and do some gossip and drink fancy drinks

So I was all ready when the Musher told me to get my coat... but I wasn't expecting THIS

Camping?  Seriously?  Our girlie time is out in the freezy freezy cold, the snow up the wazzoo, all of the Pretty Curly Tails snuggled in their straw while we "bond" in a tent out in the middle of nowhere?

Seriously???

No fancy hot drinks, no lava rock sauna??? No pretty pretty nail colors????

THIS????  Not to mention no bouncy castle, no pony rides?  No designer cake???

But then the Musher called me into the tent and gave me my birthday gift

BEST.BIRTHDAY.GIFT.EVER Peoples!!!!

See you all in Anchorage!

Bet

Ch. NorthWapiti's Loki

Ch. North Wapiti's Loki

(Tumnatki's Bosun NorthWapiti x Multi BIS Ch. Chuchinka's Dance in the Wind SDX)

July 27, 1999 - December 19, 2013

I held him for his first and last breath. He was loved, cherished and valued for every moment in between. 

Special thanks to Dr. Trevor Jackson of the Westlock Vet Clinic. Trevor was the vet that performed the C-section when Loki was born and was the one that helped him pass today. Always grateful for your skill and compassion. 

-Karen

apologies for not posting this on the blog earlier.