G. B. JONES-ONCE OF UTAH, WON'T BE RACING THE 2026 IDITAROD IN ALASKA

I know, I know, it is a difficult thing to accept, but his siblings down here in the Lower 48 will miss G.B. not pursing the Red Lantern at next year's Iditarod. That race is more or less the distance of 1049 miles, and various rules apply to the management and care of the dogs, and needless to say it is not just a weekend 5-K for the Musher or the Mutts. In Nephi, Utah, where Gary grew up and still calls it his hometown, he has been told by all of us that his town is not what it used to be when he graduated in 1966. In Alaska-the last frontier, there is no other sports quite like the Iditarod. To us folks down here in Ruralville, working or Little League is a critical thing to start off with, and although we no longer have the great dirt roads we used to, a good family like the Wright's in Beaver County, Utah still does and have the biggest rodeo fans in the lower 48, and some of us just returned from Las Vegas, where we watched three brothers take Championship buckles home, and a million dollars of cold hard cash. What the boys may have forgot, however, is they left their wives and sisters at home to take care of the horses and cattle while they are hitting rodeos, and they- more than City Slickers have earned their rightful share of the profits! G.B. has raced in several of the Iditarod races, and as may be noted by an attached Utah paper clipping, he has an absolute love for those dogs he trained and ran with, and did so without money from the big profit folks that we often see other professionals get addicted to. As such, he is the idol of school kids, and a gifted speaker. When any of G.B's dogs wear out, he will give them to a proper home or other Musher and did send "Nick" home to his sister here in Nephi. In his spare time, he is a writer of books that motivates the best in all of us, and his latest one may hit home with many in "The Man From Booger Hollow" and available at: AlaskanGardens.com or contact GB directly at GBJones@gmail.com. When he grew up down here he won various accolades as a gifted speaker, winning in speech and written contests. Back then he was known as Gary B. Jones; then when he hit the blizzards of The Last Frontier, he went with G.B. Jones, and now with his latest book, he uses his full name of Gary Bryan Jones. Many of the folks here remember he was the Jones Boy who was born with a gift to be a Musher, as he grew up in a barn, where he took care of chickens, ducks; miniature bovines, horses, swine and started us in the sheep business. When he went in the United States Army,  he sat right up front to be the gifted Ranger he was during the Era we called Viet Nam, but us teenagers at Juab High, we didn't know where Japan or Korea was, even though we had recent wars with those countries too. G.B. was then called up in the National Guard to be on Stand By for the first Middle East War, but that war was over before those folks had finished their cup of shai or Mint tea. That's a Rap!