My experiences with the Quebec media!

Before I get to the "yesterday stuff", Cindy (our loving, wonderful daughter-in-law) reminded me that we didn't report what place Randy finished in the open class at Warren- it was 4th - and knowing what we know now about him not having a runner surface probably both days, he may have finished 1st, so he is very happy with his team. If ever you want to see the results of the races, you can go to sleddogcentral.com and look in race results, sprint, Canada (or wherever we happen to be racing). And we want to say a special hello to our grandkids, Aeja and Ocean!!

So, yesterday was very cold (as is today) the dogs don't really like getting out of their boxes- I think -3 or 4 in F. We got up and fed dogs breakfast at 8 and Max the owner of the Daaquam Lodge and the man behind the whole World Championship came over to Randy while we were out and asked him if he would please come to Quebec City with him to do some interviews being gone from 9am to 6p. Randy said no he wanted to train dogs that day so would Max like me to go and to ask me - well I knew Randy really didn't want me to go either because it is so much harder to train by himself but he wanted to help Max out with advertising for the race, so....I agreed to go, slapped some makeup and clean clothes and my Mushing USA team jacket and and after driving around the town for an hour trying to help the guy from the Czech Republic get his motor home fixed (he and his little "devil boy" - the 2 year old I babysat were actually supposed to come with us for the day which would have been a nightmare!!!) we (Max, his wife, Mary Claude and I) headed for Quebec City and the provincial tv station, late and going down the road over the speed limit on snow covered roads in Max's Suburban (starting late set the tone for the day in being late and in a hurry through the rest of the day) over very, very, very mountainous terrain!!! .......and yes, I got my seatbelt on!
At the tv station the guy who interviewed was supposedly the best sports newscaster in the province and he had more make-up on than I did! Real Turmel was there with his dog truck and 3 sled dogs and Max brought one of their Siberian huskies from their dogsled ride business. They had invited Real because he is an unlimited driver racing at this race and lives in Quebec City and of course speaks French. So they did a live interview of Max and Real outside in the bitter cold and I tried to keep warm (not having dressed for being outside) and watched. Then we went into the station to get warm and waited until it was time for a second interview, this one with a guy interviewing them from inside with Max and Real wired to hear his questions. This one I stayed inside and watched and much to my amazement, while they were talking, they showed clips from the same footage that we saw Sat nite on the levillagedemusher website, so Randy and I were on provincial tv too!!! (they showed the parts of me leading the team to the start line and Randy racing).
So next was lunch at old Quebec City- very touristy but very pretty and quaint with all of the old ornate buildings. We met 2 reporters (from the 2 biggest newspapers in Quebec) at an old hotel (built in 1640) and they took some pictures of Max, Real the dogs and me - though I don't know if they will use the ones with me in them) outside in the cold again! Mary Claude had ordered lunch for us of carrot soup (surprisingly delicious) and hamburg with french fries. I couldn't figure out the flavor of the hamburg and didn't want to ask, but did figure out half way through the burger that the other funny flavor was cream cheese!!!! Never heard of that one! The reporters did take my name but didn't really interview me much, mostly talked in French (try having lunch with 8 people and not understand anything that is being said- only guessing from bits and pieces of words and hand gestures!
After lunch off to the radio station and then to another radio station, and then to pick up a fixed computer at a friends and saw myself again on the 5:30 news, and then to pick up signs and then to pick up the kids school food from Mary Claude's mothers house, then drive fast back to the lodge at 7:30 when Randy thought I would be back by 6! A delightful, long day!! Mary Claude speaks good English so we talked a bit but her cell phone was constantly ringing - her trying to find a special brand of dog food she promised to provide for someone from another country and trying to find out where the other Czhek team was that should have arrived 24 hours ago but no one had heard from and she was going to report it to the police if they didn't show up by 5p (which they did!). Went in to the lodge for a bit after eating in our cozy motor home and met the Norwegian team- I will never be able to remember all these names, especially since they are so foreign to me!
Today no training, washed my hair in the bathroom sink in the lodge, borrowed a truck from a friend and went to the little town of St. Just- de- Bretennieres to the hardware and manged to communicate what Randy wanted from the guy who spoke absolutely no English!!

Lisa and Steve, our e-mail address is dekuiperkettlekorn@gmail.com
Amy, I am answering all my emails!
Mitz and Kathi- yes Randy is going to be checking runner surfaces from now on!!
Jess- as cold as it is here, 69 sounds great!!! Dad just bought plexiglass to put an extra layer over the windows and just tried to start the truck and it wouldn't and the hot water line outside of the lodge is frozen!!

PS- Please post a quick comment if you are reading the blog so I have more fun knowing who is out there reading!!!!!!

Stay warm, love,
Cris and Randy