Mason Whipker, a student at Northside Middle School in Columbus, IN, is dressed and ready to hit the 2018 Iditarod Trail. To his right is science teacher, Mike Reed. Thanks for having us back again—twice in one school year! Noggin and I always feel right at home in your lovely library.
MUSH!
Thank you, Tracey Collier—an awesome Iditarod teacher and longtime fan of dog mushing—for inviting us to Morristown Elementary! Noggin and I had great fun with your third grade class. Enjoy following the race!
Pack your sled and hook up your dogs! Iditarod starts Saturday, March 3rd …
The 1000-mile Yukon Quest is happening RIGHT NOW! Follow the race at www.yukonquest.com. Everyone always asks me if I’ll ever run the Iditarod again—this is the race I’d love to experience at some point in my life. BIG country, great people, and challenging terrain with a “smaller” 14-dog team (Iditarod is a 16-dog team)—I’ve always found the Yukon Quest intriguing. The Quest website has beautiful videos from past races. Click on their Youtube channel to live a little bit of the trail yourself …
The Iditarod starts on March 3, 2018. Follow the race at www.iditarod.com. Teachers click on the EDUCATION page to follow the Teacher on the Trail, watch videos, and access race resources. Throughout the race, I also frequent the Anchorage Daily News website (www.adn.com) for free daily updates and beautiful photography.
I still have some dates open for Iditarod school or public library talks at your location OR via Skype. Contact me now (mymusher at Yahoo dot com) to set a date!
Romano might be pushing 15 years old but he’s still Skyping and loving it! This will be my 18th year presenting Iditarod talks at schools and public libraries across the country, and my third year giving presentations via Skype. Email Romano now at mymusher@yahoo.com to reserve a date on his busy schedule…
Noggin and Romano are headed back to school! Email them now to schedule Fall 2017 and Winter/Spring 2018 Iditarod Dog Mushing talks…
Photos from our talks at the Eiteljorg Museum’s Exhibit — DOGS: Faithful and True —have been trickling into my INBOX. Here are a few…
Future musher, Katelyn Harvey, looks like a pro behind my Iditarod sled.
Noggin receiving some loving at Friday’s Eiteljorg school talks.
Thank you to everyone who attended our presentations. Noggin and I enjoyed seeing old friends and making new ones. See you up the trail!
Noggin is finally starting to get the hang of posing for photographs which was a good thing last Thursday night at our talk in Hope, Indiana. We had a fun crowd at the Bartholomew County Public Library (Hope branch) and everyone wanted shots with Noggin, the rowdy star, who for once didn’t snooze on her bed the entire talk, but instead browsed the aisles looking for a good book. She is a VERY smart dog, you know!
A big hug and thank you to our friends, Sue and Larry and GOAT, for stopping in and surprising us. We always love seeing you. Goat, Romano’s brother, is quite the sweet talker and has the most creative vocabulary of ANY dog I know. Noggin was quite impressed!
…yesterday, it was the Warsaw Community Public Library, and today we visited with the awesome 5th grade classes at Bunker Hill Elementary (pictured above) and Adams Elementary. Next stop… Hope Public Library, March 16th at 6:30 pm.
Thank you to the Rural Alliance for the Arts for sponsoring our Batesville Intermediate School visits for the second year in a row!
As always, the teachers had their students well-prepared for our time together, and we enjoyed lively discussions about the 1,049-mile Iditarod Sled Dog Race which, of course, is happening RIGHT NOW! Noggin and I gave five talks at the school over the course of two days. Each and every third grader has picked a musher and dog team to follow daily throughout the race so they were ready to talk trail. And Noggin, as always, was ready for a little sled dog TLC…
Noggin, Chloe, Romano, Jigs and I witnessed a long and lovely sunrise this morning driving east towards Dayton, Ohio.
For the second year in a row, we presented our Iditarod talk to a 6-week “Iditarod Class”organized by our good friends, “Marty and Kenny,” at the beautiful University of Dayton.
We enjoyed visiting with everyone, and look forward to seeing you all next year! Both Noggin and I especially loved talking with Chuck Ritter — Professor Emeritus, University of Dayton Geology Department — who gave me a wonderful pep talk supporting my current studies aimed towards a geology degree. I could have chatted with him for hours. Thanks, Chuck!
All that love can be exhausting…
String of Dogs 