As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
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If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Just as a heads up, Dallas Seavey's main sponsor JJ Keller (it's a law firm, of all things!) has a youtube channel up covering the race, not as many updates as last year, but I think that's due to the fact that Dallas is running the Iditarod this year and not their go to man on the trail...
you'll notice the ridiculous fur hat Dallas is wearing, that is a costume piece from the Wildride Sled Dog Rodeo. "Bubba" wears it as part of his mushing gear. I thought Dallas was joking when he said he'd use it for the race, figured when I saw him wearing it in Anchorage it was a one time deal. Looks like I was wrong. *facepalm*
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Well, team Norway took a beating earlier this week and kept it quiet. Now Bjorner Anderson - one of the teams looking to win this year - is out due to possible internal injuries sustained while running between Rohn and Nikolai. The burn took it's toll... this is the really scary story of the Iditarod. Much worse than that little mishap in the gorge this year. The article can be found here - Seriously hurt musher waits days to quit race: 2009 Iditarod 37 | adn.com - I'm also sad to read that Team Norway is debating even continuing to come over and run. While we normally don't cheer for the outsiders, Alaskans have somewhat taken Team Norway as ours (unlike the Montana mushers... most especially Doug Swingley lol... we no like them! )
Most everyone has taken their 24 hour layover - and by everyone I mean the ones competiting for the title, of course lol. Buser and Lanier are in Ophir taking their respective rests, which means we have the giant leapfrog affect. Next up, the Yukon River. This is where we see the change in trails every year. There's the Northern Route and the Southern Route. It alternates years which one is the one they travel on. This year, being Odd, they're taking the Southern Route. Now, according to Dallas this is the harder of the two trails because instead of having the wind at your back you have the frigid yukon wind in your face.
Now, the first one into Iditarod gets the gold nuggest prize, Iditarod is also the half way mark. Yes, that's right folks, we're half way there! The serious race begins in just a few more checkpoints!
At this moment it looks like Aaron Burmeister will be getting that pouch of Gold, but anything could happen. This is a long stretch of trail and it's all about strategy and priorities.
Following behind in third is Lance Mackey, 6th Jeff King, 7th Mitch Seavey, 8th Paul Gebhardt. Dallas Seavey (yay!) is in 13th.
Jonrowe's in 19th, Buser is 22nd (and taking his 24), Lanier 23rd (also taking 24), Swenson rounds out the top 25.
Teams are still strong, only Paul has dropped more than two dogs (he has a team of 13). That is another team strategy. You don't NEED 16 dogs to get to Nome. In fact you don't really WANT that many.
I forgot to give this link earlier but I love reading the descriptions of the check points and the trail - Route & Checkpoints - great link.
Toni, thanks for the continual updates and commentary. We have the insider and are enjoying every minute of the videos. The ones that I really like are when they show a team coming into a checkpoint at night and all you can see is those multiple sets of eyes glowing. Spooky but cool!!! Hoping the northern lights get going and someone posts a video of them.
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Love your updates! I wasn't that interested, just curious, until I read your posts! Now, I am all about the Iditarod!!! Thanks for doing these posts you have opened my eyes to something new and interesting. I am going to Google the race and some of the mushers you mentioned.
I can't wait to read more!
Danielle
BTW - Great photo of the dogs.
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WDW Oct . 2012
Since Minnie's chair is gone, I had to find a new place to have our photo taken this past Oct. Not sure this will be the permanent place.
fairestofthemall (which when I'm reading it I think "Fairest of the Mall" btw lol) a great resource is The Official Site of the IditarodŪ <--many other 'outsiders' to the race love the site and have learned a great deal in a short time...
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He's really taken quite a lead too. It's really interesting to see the leap frog between several of them.
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šOš ~*~
Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
This morning several teams went in and quickly left Iditarod. Mackey is still in first with Mitch Seavey in 4th ( ), Gebhardt is 7th, King 8th. And *drumroll* Dallas Seavey has jumped to 11th!
Rick Swenson made a move that now has him in 12th place.
Mackey is still leading the charge! He's the first (and still only) team into Anvik. Jeff King is a few hours behind him having stayed a spell in Shageluk. Seavey is 5th as of a few minutes ago. He's still in Shageluk while others have headed out. Dallas is in 10th. Swenson 17th, Jonrowe 19th, Buser 21st.
Oh and Anvik is where the 7 course meal is this year. yum, yum, Lance. enjoy it. Normally it's King who gets to chow down. Aw well. Maybe while Lance is stuffing his face King will take his place as the lead. And according to this article - http://www.adn.com/iditarod/2009/story/722185.html - Mackey once again had trouble on this stretch of the race with wrong turns. This marks AT LEAST the third year he's done this. Seriously? You'd think he'd know better by now. And I don't buy his excuse that the dogs just don't listen.
nothing else really to report... TGIF! Maybe I'll keep up with the race this weekend!
WDW Oct . 2012
Since Minnie's chair is gone, I had to find a new place to have our photo taken this past Oct. Not sure this will be the permanent place.
I watched a video of when Lance came in after getting lost. He lost like 45 minutes. Then he had that HUGE meal along with a nice cash prize and caught some zzzzz's. You'd have to after a meal like that. There were 3 starter courses with one being pasta and crab and another boulibasses (sp?) then a 14 oz ribeye, cheese plate, finished off with flaming strawberries. That's a lot of food.
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šOš ~*~
Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
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), Gebhardt is 7th, King 8th. And *drumroll* Dallas Seavey has jumped to 11th!
readers can really get a feel for the race thru them
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