Off to Alaska!

Before I forget, we were amazed at how many Quebecers and other English speaking dog drivers wished us well going to Alaska!! They had announced it over the PA that we were planning to go to the Fur Rondy and so many good people came to tell us good luck! Thank you all…..it’s the dream of a lifetime, so to get there is the goal!
I think I left you last arriving home on Tuesday nite – we made good time and no problems with the truck or trailer (in fact the trailer with a furnace and electricity to have the coffe pot brew in the morning is wonderful!!) Got home about 6 and had to unload the dogs in the dark – the funniest thing that happened was the dog we got from Claude Bellerive, Anna was so excited to be outside in the snow in a circle that she did this like “ fairy dance” where she spun around and lept in the air – we have never seen anything like it and I wish I had had the camera!
Wednesday we spent doing some more things to the truck and trailer and I was having difficulty doing my computer work so went in to Fremont –
Thursday Randy trained the dogs 20 miles in preparation for the Rondy race in Anchorage and while he did that I had to go into town again to do my work – dinner with the Jesse DeKuiper grandkids for one last time before the trip!
Friday up at the crack of 8 and one last sit in the hot tub before draining it while we are gone- packing takes a lot longer than you would ever imagine for 2 people and 28 dogs!! Food, equipment, clothes, medicine, first aid supplies……….it’s overwhelming – and as of right now, I can’t remember anything we forgot!! After all that packing, left at 3p (my guess was 2, Randy’s goal was 1) and down thru Chicago!! Even at 7 o’clock the traffic was still bad before we headed north!! Makes me remember why I don’t live even close to a city! Stopped for the nite at a trucker plaza at a nice dead end road – slept well and got up at 8 again (must be our internal clock time to wake up!) and while we were feeding breakfast Randy noticed a fuel leak under the engine – so he walked up to the trucker store and asked around for some place to look at what could be a huge problem! They gave him a card and said it was up north one more exit ………….well we got to the exit, missed it, turned around and it was totally not even in the right state ( we were in Illinois and the actual address of the 24/7 Big Rig fix it shop was in Wisconsin! So we stopped to talk to a couple of police guys and they told up to go north…..way north. We get to the actual address and there is nobody to be seen (so much for the 24/7) and so we call the number on the business card they gave Randy and he calls back and says he will send somebody over = 15 minutes later he arrives, Randy has already diagnosed the problem (a gasket or washer that is leaking on the fuel primer) and the guy tries to tighten it, doesn’t have the right size wrench, tells Randy it’s tight, Randy takes his wrench and tries to tighten it, and says “you can’t tell me it’s tight cause this wrench doesn’t fit it” – the guy goes back to the office (can’t open the door ) and we decide this guy can’t fix it and go down the road calling everybody we could think of to ask if this is a serious, or need to do in the near future-problem; we now have traveled past St. Cloud MN and have already fed the dogs and it is 8:22 so we will probably stop in the next hour to drop again and sleep!