Cindy Gallea and Clint Warnake are out of Finger Lakes:

I want to introduce you to another musher-Cindy Gallea. Why Cindy? Well, she is a 55 year old woman who has been a nurse practitioner for 16 years!!! She grew up on a farm in Minnesota and began mushing in 1987. She moved to Montana in 1990 to mush dogs, enjoy the beauty of the state and for work. A graduate of St Olaf with a BS in Nursing in 1973 and from the University of Washinton with a MS in Nursing in 1990.
I loved her stats!!! I graduated with my BS in 1976 (four years later)-we both graduated with a BS in a time when most nurses were diploma trained. I seem to be consistently lagging behind her by about 3-4 years. She graduated with her MS in 1990 and I graduated in 1994. And she is 3 years older than me. So, I decided we need to follow this NP's progress and cheer her from the sidelines...or computer desk.
I signed on to check on our mushers and discovered that they are doing very well!!! Cindy is at position 34 and Chris is right behind her in 35!!! Good job guys!!!

A little information about Finger Lake: This check point is at mile 194-less than 1,000 to go now!! It has a population of 2-Kirsten and Carl Dixon who run this checkpoint on the eastern fringe of the Alaska Range.

I thought I'd tell you a little bit about some of the behind the scenes stuff (did you know that it takes 1,800 volunteers to put this race on?). Specifically I thought I'd talk about 2 of the big sponsors and their special projects. Of course, this is highly commercialized and the sponsors get lots of exposure but they do some really good stuff. Alaska Airlines is involved in all sorts of facets of the race from the start to the finish, however, their primary focus is the canine athletes. They sponsor 35 vets who come from all over the world to provide prerace physicals and work along the trail to ensure the safety and health of the dogs. They transport supplies, dog food, dog "booties" and kennels. Their pilots serve in the "Idiarod Air Force" which is an elite group of bush pilots who volunteer to fly vets, supplies, and volunteers to remote checkpoints along the trail that can only be reached by light craft. A group of their employees volunteer as the "Dog Squad." They work around the clock to assist the mushers' teams at the race finish, making sure the "real heroes" of the race have a comfortable ride back to Anchorage. And finally, they present the "coveted" Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award to the musher who takes the best care of his or her dogs through the course of the race. According to what I have read this is voted on by the trail vets and considered to be among the highest honors an Iditarod musher can receive (this is according to the info provided by Alaska Airlines....I suspect it is somewhere below actually winning the race...but, I think it is wonderful that the care of the animals is recognized).

Next is Wells Fargo's Teacher on the Trail project (this is a great link for teachers: lesson plans, teaching resources, curriculum information, etc). This year's winner is Florida educator, Kim Slade. During the race she will fly to checkpoints with the Iditarod Air Force. Her observations and experiences will be recorded in her daily journal on the Iditarod's website allowing students, teachers and fans to learn from her experiences. A feature of her website include the project, "One Small Square" which is a tool teachers can use in the classroom for various educational activities.

Well, that is enough for one blog....I don't want to give away all my information at once. I'll end with this final trivia:

More adventurers have climbed Mount Everest than have finished the Iditarod over the last 34 years.