Time to play “catch up”……..this dog racing business takes a lot of time away from my blogging!!!!!!!!

Getting lots of sleep for both of us to stay as well as we can takes time away from it too- have to do what you have to do!
Friday ended up with Randy in 12th – the surprise ( bad surprise) of the day was that out of the 5 yearlings that he took with him the one that he thought for sure would make it all 3 days was “Red” – he had balked at the culverts/tunnels on the Rondy trail and had been dropped for the 2nd and 3rd days, but had trained at the Anchorage dog track and here and was doing fine – he went out OK then started pulling back more and more until Randy had to load him at the 7 mile mark – so he had to drive the sled and the dogs had extra weight to pull for 13 miles – and the worst part is the last couple miles are uphill!! So even thought we were disappointed he didn’t do better – actually both Randy and Red------we thought that the few minutes he was down wouldn’t happen again (because for the 2nd day he dropped all the yearlings that he was just giving experience to and probably would not have to load anybody) but the dogs were just a little slower the 2nd day and though he managed to retain his “rookie of the year” status he stayed in 12th place. The days have been sunny and very warm for dogs – which we thought might be an advantage to us because our dogs have been “inside” for the last month, warm and toasty! We have had people stop and help get to the line like Tom Nixon and Jan Fairbanks (both originally from Michigan that Randy has known for a long time) and then so many people that have stopped just to talk to someone from Michigan – or even remotely close to where they used to live before they moved to Alaska – it’s like they are hungry for a face from the Midwest!! And then there are the people that come to take pictures of our rig……tons of them!!! Yesterday on the loud speaker they were announcing Randy finishing and being rookie of the year and that all the other dog drivers had “truck envy” because of the rig we had!!! One guy that stopped was from Muskegon and is up here in the military and he said he thought he remembered being in the “Muskegon County Bookmobile”!!!! Some lay standing next to us said and “you know you have a book overdue and we have been looking for you”!!! Another couple was here from Saginaw and they come up here intermittently for the retired-doctor husband to work in the urgent care clinic because they have a terrible time staffing medical postions. The first assignment they had was in Dillingham and the first patient he had was a dog with a jaw infection!!!!!!! They had no clue he was supposed to be the vet too!!
After the race Tim MacDonald from Fremont and his lovely significant other Shirley, picked us up at 6 p to come to their house for an Alaskan dinner!! Halibut chowder, crab stuffed halibut and pie made with wild buleberries, raspberries and rhubarb!!!! I have a picture to post of their log cabin – Shirley bought it and they have refurbished it – they live about 10 minutes from the dog track but to get there your have to drive up, over and 1/3 way down the mountain……very steeeeeep!! Tim was a wrestler for Fremont several years after Randy was and he even had some video of Randy wrestling when he was in high school!!!! Apparently Randy was a “legend” to those younger guys! Tim is a retired school superintendent and Shirley is one of 3 Alaskan special needs home-bound teachers/counselors and travels all over Alaska to see her students!
In between all of this activity I had talked to my Mom in Florida who had developed acute bronchitis and didn’t sound very well – so I was happy to hear from my brother Mark later that he had driven over to see her from Orlando area and took her to the hospital last nite to be diagnosed also with a urinary tract infection – can’t take your eye off from those parents for a minute!!
Today the race is at 1p and is 27 miles instead of 20 – just keep your fingers crossed that they all (all 12 of them going) hang in there and Randy keeps the rookie title!! Then tonite is the awards banquet back at the hotel where we had the draw – should be a very nice time!!!
PS don't know how good it will turn out because it's a little hazy but a lady in the neghborhood stopped by this morning to visit and pointed out that you can see Mt. McKinley from here - I'll do my best to get it!