There's only one road to freedom

OK, my poop mouth has been giving me grief lately so I'm going to tone it down a little. But, you have to understand, sometimes that's just how I speak and this blog is me. All too often that little filter that holds back the offensive words and actions fails me. It's there when I have to be mildly professional, but these days, I've been hanging out with my dogs and other mushers, so a rough exterior is mandatory. I'm still the sweet Canadian writer that I always was though....snort...
So, I'm back in Fairbanks and the Christmas tree is still up. Sam must know how much I love taking it down and picking up pine needles...what a sweetheart...but seriously, I did miss life here in the Interior and it's good to be back. I'm heading North in the morning to the White Mountains and snowy trails to start building up the miles again before I leave for Whitehorse and Quest 300 on February 10. I'll be training out of Jodi Bailey and Dan Kaduce's yard which is a few miles farther than where I usually go when heading into the Whites, but with the option of catching up with good friends and having coffee after a run, well, the extra miles are well worth it. I'll be borrowing at least a couple of dogs from them for the Quest as Hazel is out for the season and a few of my dogs are questionable. I dropped Hazel on the GinGin with what I thought was a sore wrist, but it turns out she has a pulled tendon which will take considerably more time to heal. She's been going on loose walks though and is still has happy and excitable as ever. Capiche's shoulder has healed up, as has Bully's harness rub from the GinGin, I really hope they'll stay healthy for the 300 as they are my most experienced dogs. Sister is out. She decided she doesn't want to be a sled dog anymore and so she's been promoted (demoted?) to house-dog status. Actually, she's outside mostly until she can learn that peeing on the furniture is not acceptable. Let's see...Summer, Sipsi, Crush, Doyon and Sneaky Pete are my superstars. Brady is a question mark. Some runs he's so good and others he hardly pulls at all. He's a big boy with a huge heart and I sure would like to have him on the team, but we'll see. I'll be using Rich's leaders Ku and Rohn again as they are really reliable and strong. Hitchcock is a question mark as well. Sometimes she's great and other times not so much. She's so funny though, I really hope she makes it. Today I'll be cutting meat to pack into my drop bags for the race. The drop bags will be sent to the checkpoints ahead of time so I can resupply along the way. I think I've got everything I need though I still haven't figured out how I'm going to pay for gas to make the 900-mile trip to Whitehorse. I've got several stories on the go, three for Mushing Magazine and one for the Anchorage Daily News, but payday for those won't come until after the race. Sigh. Well, that's part of being a dog driver, I guess: a foul mouth and an empty bank account.
Peace.