She's 58 years old and lives on a corn and soybean farm in Iowa. Vacationing with her husband on the North Shore last summer, she had picked up a dogsledding brochure in the lobby of a resort. The brochure was for Chilly Dogs Sled Dog Trips in Ely, Minn.
"It looked like so much fun," recalled Ramona Bracker of Neola, Iowa.
She showed her husband the brochure.
"I'm going to do this someday," she told him.
This winter, she pulled out the brochure and called Chilly Dogs to book her trip.
"I went solo because my husband thought I was crazy to go," Bracker said. "He was pretty sure I'd freeze to death."
Of course, it gets cold in the border country near Ely this time of year. But Bracker couldn't put the idea of a dogsledding adventure out of her mind. She shared her story with me through the course of several emails and a phone conversation.
Bracker had first contacted me soon after her trip, not seeking any exposure but to comment on something I had written. I responded to her and later asked if she would be willing to share her story. I was struck by a couple of elements in her account _ first, the spirit of a woman her age to venture on her own into unfamiliar country to tackle something she had never done before, and, second, the unbridled feeling of joy that nearly always accompanies someone's first dogsledding experience.
