I have survived the Iditarod! Okay, well I survived the fun of watching the Iditarod start while I was in Alaska. As you probably know (especially if you read this column last month), our home town girl, Laura Daugereau, ran in the Iditarod again this year. My mom, daughter and I were there to cheer her on.

I knew there were lots of folks here at home wanting to cheer Laura on as well, so before I left I stopped at Wolfle and Gordon to let the kids sign a poster of good-luck wishes for her. The kids were very enthusiastic as they wrote her messages, drew her pictures and asked a whole lot of questions about Laura and the Iditarod. Many of them remembered meeting her or hearing her talk about her Iditarod adventures. All of them were excited about her upcoming adventure and happy to be a part of sending her good wishes.

This year, Laura didn’t finish the race. The weather was unseasonably warm causing deep, crusty snow conditions that were really hard on the dogs. After having to remove several dogs from the race due to potential injury, she was down to just one lead dog. Since the lead dogs usually take turns leading, having just one was too much to ask of the one left, so Laura removed herself from the race. I can only imagine what a difficult decision that must have been to make after all the time, effort and expense of getting there. Once again, I tip my hat to Laura for having such a great sense of priorities and remaining consistent in her values.