Well by now you probably know how the race turned out.......Randy in last becuse the guys that he was ahead of the previous 2 days had really good days and Spec and 747 were not really working for him most of the trail. In spite of his place he really enjoyed the race and never had to load a dog!
We started the day with Randy talking to one of the guys that works on the trail and found out what the "intense" late nite meeting was about last nite - they had had numerous complaints from witnesses and bystanders and even a video, about Buddy Streeper swearing at Luke Sampson and hitting him in the shoulder as he passed his team on Cordova Hill - from the video that we watched, it appeared that Luke didn't know Buddy was flying up the hill behind him, got off and started to run with his team up the hill, and it may have deterred Buddy's team from passing perfectly. There was a statement from Buddy published in the Anchorage Daily News that you can find on Sled Dog Central. Our impression is that there were so many complaints and it happened in such a highly visible area, and that the only recourse stated in the ASDRA rules is that "Unsportsmanlike conduct in the race area and on the racecourse is prohibited" and "Violation of these rules will be cause for disqualification from the race in which the violation occurs" so the board was faced with making a very difficult decision without any other options for penalty as stated in their rules. Terry Streeper was at the race yesterday parked across from us and helped with the Iditarod driver, Aaron Burmeister who had leased a team from them for the race and came in 5th.
When Randy got around to starting the truck to go to the race site downtown, he remembered he had not plugged it in last nite, so we had to plug it in and wait for the block to warm up - that caused an increase anxiety level along with the already present pre-race jitters - we did get down to the parking place almost on time and the way they have it arranged on the 3rd day is that even though the slowest teams go out first (us being 3rd then) they also park in the very back!!! so we were 3 blocks from the start line!! We had help again today from Pam Schamber (sorry if I butchered her name,......) and got up to the line and off without problems. Before he left we questioned whether Seabiscuit's lifting of his feet was because he was hurt or just had cold feet and Randy had thought about whether he should leave Spec at the truck --- Pam was able to park in the lot near the finish and as soon as Randy left we jumped in her car to go out to the Tudor road crossing (1/4 mile from the clubhouse where we stay) and we were able to see Randy come through - I didn't say anything until he was past us not wanting dogs to think that because I was there it must be time to stop!!! Randy did yell at me though he should have left Spec on the truck!
He finished in a flurry with 4 teams crossing the finish line almost simultaneously!!! I was down the block so I didn't see it well - I need to be far along towards the truck in order to keep up with them coming back.....
Watched the award ceremony downtown (couldn't take any pictures because just before we left to see Randy on the trail my camera battery died.....did get a picture of him and George Attla just before though!!) and then pulled over to the Office Depot lot which was right near where the awards banquet was = fed dogs and dropped them and went to the delicious banquet and Randy took special time accepting his award for me to have taken on the extra work while he has been "incapacitated" - he did that even though he said he wouldn't thank me in his speech when he talked about it - so it would be like a surprise!! We also found out the other 2 people that we saw in the video that caught his sled on the 1st day and were able to thank them personally and in the speech - Heather Hardy (she did the Rondy last year) and her husband that tackled the sled, John Schultheiss (again with the spelling...)
Got back to the clubhouse about 10:30 and had to drop again - so this morning was a waaaaaaay sleep in morning - til 9:30!!!!!!!!
Today we are training my team and it's a beautiful sunny "warm" day - Carolyn and Sherrie Johnson are here to train too - more later!!!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
2nd day of the Rondy
Woke up to much colder weather - about 11 degrees and a terrible wind developed through the morning and into the afternoon - we went out 3rd because of reverse start and therefore also got to park even close to the finish line than yesterday!!! We had help from Doug's wife, Pam, the FedEx pilot from yesterday (I thought Pam was a nurse for some reason until I introduced her today and she corrected me by saying she is a pediatrician1) and 2 of her friends Kirsten and her boyfriend that also skijour race - Randy got off without a hitch today........
While he was out Pam and I made a visit to the Wood's truck where they have a party for racer's wives, with race car flags on the appetizers and all!!
While we were visiting waiting for Randy to come in we heard the radio guy talking about Randy on the radio and how he had lost his finger and then yesterday's accident and because some of the other racers have nicknames they think they should call Randy "Ironman"!!!! we also found out from Charlie Champagne and Terry Killiam that Randy was on the tv last nite!!! so I found the video on the web and the address is www.ktva.com/ci_17485804- it doens't really mention him by name but it's a dandy video showing the wipeout!!
Stopped at McDonald's for burgers on the way back to the club house because Randy was ravenous - got here and thought we would get a final result from today but the copy machine wasn't working so we got a partial - and they were having a "top secret" meeting so I didn't want to bother them more....we think that Randy moved up one place and for sure he was 4 minutes faster today - he did drop one dog today, Red because he was sick yesterday and tomorrow will also drop Ace cause she pooped out today- Randy says they surely knew when they had gone 20 miles and were ready to be done (that's how far we had been training for at home...and thought that was the right distance to "peak them") So one more day, hopefully no more sickness or injuries and the banquet tomorrow nite - will let you know how it goes as soon as I can!
While he was out Pam and I made a visit to the Wood's truck where they have a party for racer's wives, with race car flags on the appetizers and all!!
While we were visiting waiting for Randy to come in we heard the radio guy talking about Randy on the radio and how he had lost his finger and then yesterday's accident and because some of the other racers have nicknames they think they should call Randy "Ironman"!!!! we also found out from Charlie Champagne and Terry Killiam that Randy was on the tv last nite!!! so I found the video on the web and the address is www.ktva.com/ci_17485804- it doens't really mention him by name but it's a dandy video showing the wipeout!!
Stopped at McDonald's for burgers on the way back to the club house because Randy was ravenous - got here and thought we would get a final result from today but the copy machine wasn't working so we got a partial - and they were having a "top secret" meeting so I didn't want to bother them more....we think that Randy moved up one place and for sure he was 4 minutes faster today - he did drop one dog today, Red because he was sick yesterday and tomorrow will also drop Ace cause she pooped out today- Randy says they surely knew when they had gone 20 miles and were ready to be done (that's how far we had been training for at home...and thought that was the right distance to "peak them") So one more day, hopefully no more sickness or injuries and the banquet tomorrow nite - will let you know how it goes as soon as I can!
Friday, February 25, 2011
I know you are going to think I am making this up.......
just to have interesting reading on the blog.........but I don't have THIS good of an imagination!!!!!!!!
Got up on Friday morning to a "balmy" day - cloudy, foggy and 37degrees - fed dogs and Randy and headed for downtown for the race on 4th avenue. No problem parking even though because of the warm temp the snow was pretty mushy and I thought more than once we would have to put the chains on (Sue and Mike you have no idea how many times those studded tires have saved us!!!) This year because he is going out 8th we got to park only a block and a half away from the starting line! instead of the 3 blocks we had last year - A guy, Doug who is the husband of a ski jourer, Pam, we met at the track last week came to help us out - he is also a FedEx pilot and Jess, he said to tell you that he deserves a "Zulu Bravo" - I thing that's a FedEx inside joke......
So we get the 12 dogs hooked up and the snowmobile takes us up to the line. I get the leaders (Neenah and Birdie) started out good - and all of a sudden I look at the back of the team and the sled is dragging out of the chute on its side and I can't see Randy and the team takes off down the trail/road by themselves - now I'm not in as good a shape as when I used to foot race, but I ran the block down to where the dogs were caught by spectators faster than I even thought I could...... come to find out they were not just "any" spectators- it was Libby Riddles (1st woman to win the Iditarod - she was just there taking pictures.....) and a competitor's wife (Faye Cousins, wife of Don, who had just saved his team when they turned off the trail, and it appeared were heading off to the carnival a block away!!)- by the time I got there they were already straightening the tangles out and Randy was not far behind me and he jumped on the sled and took off!
Now, here's the deal.....the reason Randy's sled flipped on its side at the start was because (instead of having a painted line in the snow for the starting line) they had a rope laying in the snow for the starting line - when he started either the drag or the brake hooked that rope and stopped the sled so abruptly that he flipped and then dragged into a old guy, lost the team, HIT HIS HEAD ON THE SNOW HOOK (laceration above his eyebrow but not bad enough to need stithches - and did re-injure his amputated finger, but not too bad....), and then got up and ran, all the while trying to keep the blood off his glasses so he could see - after he took off again he couldn't see at all and just put his glasses in the sled bag and had faith the leaders would stay on the trail!
Not only did he have a bad start, but 2 of his team dogs vomited on the trail....
All in all, he is 20th of 22.......not where he wanted to be......but things could always be worse.........tomorrow is another day........
Got up on Friday morning to a "balmy" day - cloudy, foggy and 37degrees - fed dogs and Randy and headed for downtown for the race on 4th avenue. No problem parking even though because of the warm temp the snow was pretty mushy and I thought more than once we would have to put the chains on (Sue and Mike you have no idea how many times those studded tires have saved us!!!) This year because he is going out 8th we got to park only a block and a half away from the starting line! instead of the 3 blocks we had last year - A guy, Doug who is the husband of a ski jourer, Pam, we met at the track last week came to help us out - he is also a FedEx pilot and Jess, he said to tell you that he deserves a "Zulu Bravo" - I thing that's a FedEx inside joke......
So we get the 12 dogs hooked up and the snowmobile takes us up to the line. I get the leaders (Neenah and Birdie) started out good - and all of a sudden I look at the back of the team and the sled is dragging out of the chute on its side and I can't see Randy and the team takes off down the trail/road by themselves - now I'm not in as good a shape as when I used to foot race, but I ran the block down to where the dogs were caught by spectators faster than I even thought I could...... come to find out they were not just "any" spectators- it was Libby Riddles (1st woman to win the Iditarod - she was just there taking pictures.....) and a competitor's wife (Faye Cousins, wife of Don, who had just saved his team when they turned off the trail, and it appeared were heading off to the carnival a block away!!)- by the time I got there they were already straightening the tangles out and Randy was not far behind me and he jumped on the sled and took off!
Now, here's the deal.....the reason Randy's sled flipped on its side at the start was because (instead of having a painted line in the snow for the starting line) they had a rope laying in the snow for the starting line - when he started either the drag or the brake hooked that rope and stopped the sled so abruptly that he flipped and then dragged into a old guy, lost the team, HIT HIS HEAD ON THE SNOW HOOK (laceration above his eyebrow but not bad enough to need stithches - and did re-injure his amputated finger, but not too bad....), and then got up and ran, all the while trying to keep the blood off his glasses so he could see - after he took off again he couldn't see at all and just put his glasses in the sled bag and had faith the leaders would stay on the trail!
Not only did he have a bad start, but 2 of his team dogs vomited on the trail....
All in all, he is 20th of 22.......not where he wanted to be......but things could always be worse.........tomorrow is another day........
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Thursday, Feb 24
Yesterday after I fixed us some lunch/breakfast we decided to take a walk down 1/4 mile to the gas station to buy milk - it's a sidewald
k on a very busy road and we couldn't believe how much wind the passing vehicles make when you are that close to the road! Bought milk, a donut, a bag of Alaskan kettle korn to rate compared to ours, a bag of nuts and 1.5 dozen eggs for a mere $17!!!
Watched some "Remington Steele" on Hulu (for some odd reason now I am getting an internet signal up next to the clubhouse.....), fed dogs, dropped dogs and to bed. Had some "restless leg syndrome" going on last nite and generally I get up and read for a while and then it passes.......but with the size of our living quarters that's not an option, so I found every position imaginable trying to get it to go away!
Set the alarm for 7:30 because we knew we had to give breakfast to dogs before we could go to breakfast ourselves at 9am -
Awoke to the sun coming up over the mountains with pinkish/orange sky (which we don't ususally se because we don't get up till 8:30 or so..) and served doggy breakfast. It looks like we are having a new round of diarrhea of a different color going thru' - Andy today - good thing we bought 4 bottles of immodium!!!!
Walked across the street to the bingo hall for the breakfast - I thought about not going because I can never eat $12 worth but it was very good breakfast with mexican omelets, chicken fried steak, bisquits and gravy, sausage, hash browns, corned beef hash, rolls and fruit and juice! we won't have to eat until nite time!!
Came back to the trailer and dropped the dogs just in time to have the charter school kids I had promised to do a short "dogsledding" class for while Randy was in the driver's meeting- about 12 kids and 3 adults came - I had Patent out for them to pet and gave them a tour of the trailer - very well behaved and they were very appreciative!
Now I am in the trailer writing to you (have coverage again.....yippee!) and Randy is out on the Rondy trail - they ask all the drivers to go out on snow machines and help put the road crossing and fences up the day before the race - so don't know what time he will be back - will give you a report then
I forgot to tell you this little story......last week a some point Randy said "you know a part of me will always be in Alaska......." and I thought, well isn't that nice - he is being reflective and philosophical.......then I got it......he was talking about his finger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
k on a very busy road and we couldn't believe how much wind the passing vehicles make when you are that close to the road! Bought milk, a donut, a bag of Alaskan kettle korn to rate compared to ours, a bag of nuts and 1.5 dozen eggs for a mere $17!!!
Watched some "Remington Steele" on Hulu (for some odd reason now I am getting an internet signal up next to the clubhouse.....), fed dogs, dropped dogs and to bed. Had some "restless leg syndrome" going on last nite and generally I get up and read for a while and then it passes.......but with the size of our living quarters that's not an option, so I found every position imaginable trying to get it to go away!
Set the alarm for 7:30 because we knew we had to give breakfast to dogs before we could go to breakfast ourselves at 9am -
Awoke to the sun coming up over the mountains with pinkish/orange sky (which we don't ususally se because we don't get up till 8:30 or so..) and served doggy breakfast. It looks like we are having a new round of diarrhea of a different color going thru' - Andy today - good thing we bought 4 bottles of immodium!!!!
Walked across the street to the bingo hall for the breakfast - I thought about not going because I can never eat $12 worth but it was very good breakfast with mexican omelets, chicken fried steak, bisquits and gravy, sausage, hash browns, corned beef hash, rolls and fruit and juice! we won't have to eat until nite time!!
Came back to the trailer and dropped the dogs just in time to have the charter school kids I had promised to do a short "dogsledding" class for while Randy was in the driver's meeting- about 12 kids and 3 adults came - I had Patent out for them to pet and gave them a tour of the trailer - very well behaved and they were very appreciative!
Now I am in the trailer writing to you (have coverage again.....yippee!) and Randy is out on the Rondy trail - they ask all the drivers to go out on snow machines and help put the road crossing and fences up the day before the race - so don't know what time he will be back - will give you a report then
I forgot to tell you this little story......last week a some point Randy said "you know a part of me will always be in Alaska......." and I thought, well isn't that nice - he is being reflective and philosophical.......then I got it......he was talking about his finger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Wed cont.
So here it is 12:30 and we have yet to eat anything - as soon as I post this we will move back up behind the clubhouse where I don't have internet again -
This is how the celebrity radio guy's ride went........His radio name is Johnny T-bone and he will be on the radio doing interviews downtown all 3 days of the race.
We were only going to do a ride if he really wanted to .....come to find out, that was the only thing he was planning to do - so we put both sleds out and used 5 of my 6-dog team and Randy gave his sled driving basics while I harnessed - they took off planning to do 2.3 miles and even though Christine Tozier had blocked the trail Spiff tried to through the fence because that is the way he has gone all 10 or so times he has run the trail - then they missed the 2.3 mile turn off because it wasn't blocked off - and Mr. T-bone fell 3 times in 4.5 miles.........one of the times was just before going over the bridge so Randy heard my sled "crack" and thought oh, no, there goes the $2000 sled.....no damage that we can see. So Mr. T-bone comes with some cotton gloves on and not dressed very warm and before he goes out I get him some of our mitts so at least his hands wouldn't freeze!! He almost forgot to give them back before he left! Like Christine and Randy said, he will have a whole new appreciation for dogsled drivers after his experience!! Could it have been that it's kind of hard to double sled (Randy says that the back sled is better for a novice because if you are in the middle the wheel dogs pull you into the edge of the corner). I guess we will never know but it may be a very good thing we didn't send him out with a team by himself!!
Bye for now - have to make us some food!!!
This is how the celebrity radio guy's ride went........His radio name is Johnny T-bone and he will be on the radio doing interviews downtown all 3 days of the race.
We were only going to do a ride if he really wanted to .....come to find out, that was the only thing he was planning to do - so we put both sleds out and used 5 of my 6-dog team and Randy gave his sled driving basics while I harnessed - they took off planning to do 2.3 miles and even though Christine Tozier had blocked the trail Spiff tried to through the fence because that is the way he has gone all 10 or so times he has run the trail - then they missed the 2.3 mile turn off because it wasn't blocked off - and Mr. T-bone fell 3 times in 4.5 miles.........one of the times was just before going over the bridge so Randy heard my sled "crack" and thought oh, no, there goes the $2000 sled.....no damage that we can see. So Mr. T-bone comes with some cotton gloves on and not dressed very warm and before he goes out I get him some of our mitts so at least his hands wouldn't freeze!! He almost forgot to give them back before he left! Like Christine and Randy said, he will have a whole new appreciation for dogsled drivers after his experience!! Could it have been that it's kind of hard to double sled (Randy says that the back sled is better for a novice because if you are in the middle the wheel dogs pull you into the edge of the corner). I guess we will never know but it may be a very good thing we didn't send him out with a team by himself!!
Bye for now - have to make us some food!!!
Wednesday, Feb 23
Up at 8:30 and got back in from feeding breakfast - have to write quick - we have to be back at the track at 11 to meet with a radio personality that supposedly wants to ride the sled with some dogs and interview Randy - it's only about 15 back to the track but we would rather be early than late - will let you know how it goes!!
A total misconception..............
Before I forget, yesterday when we were at the junkyard, as Randy was walking in to the office, an amazing (hope it's gonn'a be an omen........) thing happened, an eagle flew right over Randy - probably 20 ft. over his head!!!
So.........the misconception........
We checked in to the motel and found our room - while we were doing a mini-settling in heard a constant pounding noise from the room on the 2nd floor above us - my comment to Randy is that if they are going to keep that up we are going to have to move to a different room........couldn't for some reason plug into their outside outlet without tripping their breaker so moved the truck over to the place we parked last year and come to find out there were 4 police cruisers in the front of the motel, a fire truck and an emergency rescue vehicle - the sound we heard was CPR compressions......when we came back in the desk clerk told us he had not made it = talk about not reading the signal right on my part.......
Went to the draw meeting and had good food and spent almost $1000 to enter- it is an extremely specia occasion to sit at the table with Arleigh Reynolds and Marivn Cokrine and Egil Ellis at the next and feel a part of the "community of open drivers - the best in the world" -
Randy drew 8th and likely will have Arleigh and Marvine pass him so he already told them to shout "trail" because he wouldn't hear them!
Time to drop dogs for the nite!!
We love you all!!
So.........the misconception........
We checked in to the motel and found our room - while we were doing a mini-settling in heard a constant pounding noise from the room on the 2nd floor above us - my comment to Randy is that if they are going to keep that up we are going to have to move to a different room........couldn't for some reason plug into their outside outlet without tripping their breaker so moved the truck over to the place we parked last year and come to find out there were 4 police cruisers in the front of the motel, a fire truck and an emergency rescue vehicle - the sound we heard was CPR compressions......when we came back in the desk clerk told us he had not made it = talk about not reading the signal right on my part.......
Went to the draw meeting and had good food and spent almost $1000 to enter- it is an extremely specia occasion to sit at the table with Arleigh Reynolds and Marivn Cokrine and Egil Ellis at the next and feel a part of the "community of open drivers - the best in the world" -
Randy drew 8th and likely will have Arleigh and Marvine pass him so he already told them to shout "trail" because he wouldn't hear them!
Time to drop dogs for the nite!!
We love you all!!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Tues at Motel 6!
Had a lovely dinner with Becky and Dave and Kim Wells last nite - Salmon for dinner and even a salmon spread appetizer!! delicious!! They printed off a picture they took of me racing here a week ago and printed for me and Becky gave me two bags of books to read!!
This morning up to a sunny day and about 22 again - fed dogs, packed up and are here at Motel 6 only a few steps from where the draw meeting is tonite at 6 at the Crowne Plaza.
Yesterday when we were getting salmon meat from Yummy Chummies (a salmon meat plant for dogs) Randy went into a junk yard office and they gave him a title for a vehicle they had so that he could get a license plate from Alaska as an Iditarod finisher - I am going to have to go on the DMV website to see what else we need to do or have to get it!
Will let you know how the meeting goes tonite = time to cut Randy's hair and beard -it's gotten really long and I think he is going to miss it on his head when it's cold again!!!
This morning up to a sunny day and about 22 again - fed dogs, packed up and are here at Motel 6 only a few steps from where the draw meeting is tonite at 6 at the Crowne Plaza.
Yesterday when we were getting salmon meat from Yummy Chummies (a salmon meat plant for dogs) Randy went into a junk yard office and they gave him a title for a vehicle they had so that he could get a license plate from Alaska as an Iditarod finisher - I am going to have to go on the DMV website to see what else we need to do or have to get it!
Will let you know how the meeting goes tonite = time to cut Randy's hair and beard -it's gotten really long and I think he is going to miss it on his head when it's cold again!!!
Monday, February 21, 2011
Monday down at the track again -
had a few scary moments when it seemed like I wouldn't be able to get on the internet even down in my usual successful spot!!!
From last nite, Randy had a good run with the yearling Snapper in lead with my leader Spiff - not other events -
I watched yet another movie (as when we are plugged in to the electric at the clubhouse I don't have internet) and thus far have watched all but one of the 20
+ movies that I borrowed from my sister Bec - the only one left is "Free Willy"!
This morning we awoke to sun and cold, seems like it was 22 but felt colder- fed dogs and us and washed my hair and moved down to the track - Randy took out 2 teams of 9 and 10 and came back disillusioned and disappointed - we don't know if they are sour or what but they didn't run well for him - so he is not feeling too optimistic about the race chances - of course my optimistic response is that we did the training the traveling and we are here and can't do anything about it so we may as well make the best of it- we'll see how that goes...........
They had several people here today that were running small teams for inexperienced drivers and new sled trials and the "Rondy photographer" John Gomes was here taking pictures, don't know if I was, RAndy was or any of our dogs were in them!
Tonite salmon dinner at Becky's house!!! Then tomorrow morning we are going to get a room at the Motel 6 and be cutting some hair off Randy's head!!!! this is probably the longest it has been in 5 years or so!! he almost needs butchwax to make his hair stand up in a crew cut!
So I will have to see what internet connection I have tomorrow - if I remember correctly, the motel has it!!
From last nite, Randy had a good run with the yearling Snapper in lead with my leader Spiff - not other events -
I watched yet another movie (as when we are plugged in to the electric at the clubhouse I don't have internet) and thus far have watched all but one of the 20
+ movies that I borrowed from my sister Bec - the only one left is "Free Willy"!
This morning we awoke to sun and cold, seems like it was 22 but felt colder- fed dogs and us and washed my hair and moved down to the track - Randy took out 2 teams of 9 and 10 and came back disillusioned and disappointed - we don't know if they are sour or what but they didn't run well for him - so he is not feeling too optimistic about the race chances - of course my optimistic response is that we did the training the traveling and we are here and can't do anything about it so we may as well make the best of it- we'll see how that goes...........
They had several people here today that were running small teams for inexperienced drivers and new sled trials and the "Rondy photographer" John Gomes was here taking pictures, don't know if I was, RAndy was or any of our dogs were in them!
Tonite salmon dinner at Becky's house!!! Then tomorrow morning we are going to get a room at the Motel 6 and be cutting some hair off Randy's head!!!! this is probably the longest it has been in 5 years or so!! he almost needs butchwax to make his hair stand up in a crew cut!
So I will have to see what internet connection I have tomorrow - if I remember correctly, the motel has it!!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Sunday, Feb 20th
It did really get cold by the time Randy got in with the 2nd team - he wanted to be sure and have enough daylight for the second run so he left with the first team harnessed on the side of the truck for me to put away - one of the disadvantages of having someone to be inside - when you are alone it's one dog at a time up into the truck, put them in the box and then out for the next one.
Both runs were uneventful and Sarah did good almost all the way of the 14 miles he took - we know she won't be in shape for the Rondy but sure hope she will be for the Open North American in Fairbanks in 3 and 1/2 weeks.
Spent the nite watching a movie and eating discounted Vanlentine's Day candy we got at Walmart yesterday!
Up at 9:30 today - Fed and ate our breakfast and watched more kids take off and come in for the last day of the Jr. Rondy - Sherry Johnson had been in 2nd place to start toay, but her team came in without her and she was riding on the back of a sled not too long after - didn't want to bother her today asking what happened - some people (like Randy) don't much like telling the story right away.....
Race is over and we pulled down to the track for Randy to take out my team trying Snapper (he is one of the 3 yearlings in my team, all brothers, Speeder has been leading with Spiff, their father) - he took of good so we will hear the report from Randy when he gets back!!! If all 3 of those brothers turn out to be leaders....Wow!! Plus their sister, Spiffy is back in Michigan with Edges - it would be amazing if all 4 of them lead like their parents!! (Fig is their mother)
I forgot to tell you about a person named Heidi that stopped by the track a few days ago - she was looking for a dog team driver to come to her school to show her students the dogs and equipment - I told her there is a list of schools that all the Rondy drivers are expected to visit as assigned and she should get on the list = the fun thing is what she had in her back of the car - a kick sled - now maybe you have seen one before but I had not - it's 2 runners with like a bicycle handle bar, low so you bend over to hang on and are constantly in a 'kick position" - she says she gets a really good workout with 1 or 2 dogs!! should have taken a picture of it -tomorrow we are going to Becky Voris and Dave's house for dinner - time to wash the hair with the water bottles!!
Both runs were uneventful and Sarah did good almost all the way of the 14 miles he took - we know she won't be in shape for the Rondy but sure hope she will be for the Open North American in Fairbanks in 3 and 1/2 weeks.
Spent the nite watching a movie and eating discounted Vanlentine's Day candy we got at Walmart yesterday!
Up at 9:30 today - Fed and ate our breakfast and watched more kids take off and come in for the last day of the Jr. Rondy - Sherry Johnson had been in 2nd place to start toay, but her team came in without her and she was riding on the back of a sled not too long after - didn't want to bother her today asking what happened - some people (like Randy) don't much like telling the story right away.....
Race is over and we pulled down to the track for Randy to take out my team trying Snapper (he is one of the 3 yearlings in my team, all brothers, Speeder has been leading with Spiff, their father) - he took of good so we will hear the report from Randy when he gets back!!! If all 3 of those brothers turn out to be leaders....Wow!! Plus their sister, Spiffy is back in Michigan with Edges - it would be amazing if all 4 of them lead like their parents!! (Fig is their mother)
I forgot to tell you about a person named Heidi that stopped by the track a few days ago - she was looking for a dog team driver to come to her school to show her students the dogs and equipment - I told her there is a list of schools that all the Rondy drivers are expected to visit as assigned and she should get on the list = the fun thing is what she had in her back of the car - a kick sled - now maybe you have seen one before but I had not - it's 2 runners with like a bicycle handle bar, low so you bend over to hang on and are constantly in a 'kick position" - she says she gets a really good workout with 1 or 2 dogs!! should have taken a picture of it -tomorrow we are going to Becky Voris and Dave's house for dinner - time to wash the hair with the water bottles!!
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Just thought I would share the great response we got from the trooper's sargeant!
Randy-
I really appreciate you taking the time to say something. We are
saturated with so much negative that the simple "thank you" we
occasionally get goes a long way.
I have written the three Troopers an atta boy for their performance and
attached your kind email.
I know they appreciate it.
What an Alaska adventure story you have to tell! Make sure you begin it
with, "So there I was..." It always gets everyone's attention. :)
As bad as it was, I'm glad it wasn't any worse. Most pilots up here say
"Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing."
I'm glad you were able to walk away.
M
Sergeant Mike Roberts
Alaska State Troopers
Fairbanks Post
I really appreciate you taking the time to say something. We are
saturated with so much negative that the simple "thank you" we
occasionally get goes a long way.
I have written the three Troopers an atta boy for their performance and
attached your kind email.
I know they appreciate it.
What an Alaska adventure story you have to tell! Make sure you begin it
with, "So there I was..." It always gets everyone's attention. :)
As bad as it was, I'm glad it wasn't any worse. Most pilots up here say
"Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing."
I'm glad you were able to walk away.
M
Sergeant Mike Roberts
Alaska State Troopers
Fairbanks Post
Friday and Sat.
Didn't get a chance to "blog" yesterday because we never parked in the area that works best - strangely up by the clubhouse we can't get on the internet but if we are parked down in the racing area I can!! So that's where we are now!
So today I will say Happy Birthday to Lucas yesterday and today to Bec!!!!!!!!
Yesterday was the first day of 3 of the Fur Rondevous Jr. World Championship and the place was full of trucks and kids until 3 o'clock!! Mike Stitt, originally from Hesperia but now lives in Willow and his son Skeeter were here for Skeeter to race in the 7 dog race so we had a nice "catching up" visit with him.
Since we could not train and had trained the day before, we decided to do something really exciting......laundry.....from 5 weeks worth!!! Found the laundromat and spent $10 on 2 washing machines and had to buy laundry soap because the bottle that I had purchased planning for this day, was frozen!! I didn't really think it would but it did!! So 4 garbage bags of clothes $15 and 2 hours later, voila!!! clean clothes!
We woke up Saturday to pretty cold weather (-10) but as the sun came out it got up to 30! More kids and dogs around today - saw Sherry Johnson take off again today (yesterday she had a bit of trouble with her leaders nipping each other and didn't have a very smooth take off but today went better for her and she started in second place - didn't get to see the finish times by the time we got back last afternoon - perhaps today I will see them on the internet.
Probably the biggest event today was that it was the day we were supposed to take the stitches out!!! Randy decided that since he couldn't think of anything else to do he would do it himself....so I held the light and we got most of them out without too much problem - there's only one small area where it looks to me like he pulled the tissue apart pulling on the stitch. All in all, I think it is healing pretty well - I hope he doesn't do anything today to un-do the healing.....I suggested he could wait to have the stitches out till after training, but my influence doesn't carry much weight!.........at least in some things........
Randy is out training 16 miles with 8 dogs and then wants to run another team when he gets back - it is still sunny but as the sun goes down it gets cold fast - there are other open drivers out on the trail training as well like Buddy Streeper and Carolyn Johnson.
I will let you know if there are any "events" from today's training!
So today I will say Happy Birthday to Lucas yesterday and today to Bec!!!!!!!!
Yesterday was the first day of 3 of the Fur Rondevous Jr. World Championship and the place was full of trucks and kids until 3 o'clock!! Mike Stitt, originally from Hesperia but now lives in Willow and his son Skeeter were here for Skeeter to race in the 7 dog race so we had a nice "catching up" visit with him.
Since we could not train and had trained the day before, we decided to do something really exciting......laundry.....from 5 weeks worth!!! Found the laundromat and spent $10 on 2 washing machines and had to buy laundry soap because the bottle that I had purchased planning for this day, was frozen!! I didn't really think it would but it did!! So 4 garbage bags of clothes $15 and 2 hours later, voila!!! clean clothes!
We woke up Saturday to pretty cold weather (-10) but as the sun came out it got up to 30! More kids and dogs around today - saw Sherry Johnson take off again today (yesterday she had a bit of trouble with her leaders nipping each other and didn't have a very smooth take off but today went better for her and she started in second place - didn't get to see the finish times by the time we got back last afternoon - perhaps today I will see them on the internet.
Probably the biggest event today was that it was the day we were supposed to take the stitches out!!! Randy decided that since he couldn't think of anything else to do he would do it himself....so I held the light and we got most of them out without too much problem - there's only one small area where it looks to me like he pulled the tissue apart pulling on the stitch. All in all, I think it is healing pretty well - I hope he doesn't do anything today to un-do the healing.....I suggested he could wait to have the stitches out till after training, but my influence doesn't carry much weight!.........at least in some things........
Randy is out training 16 miles with 8 dogs and then wants to run another team when he gets back - it is still sunny but as the sun goes down it gets cold fast - there are other open drivers out on the trail training as well like Buddy Streeper and Carolyn Johnson.
I will let you know if there are any "events" from today's training!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Thursday cont.
Lots more people in and out today training - it's a regular hub of activity, people showing up all times of the day to use the trails - Randy ran the first team of his dogs and decided that they were not all that enthusiastic about the 16 mile run he decided to only run my team with Sarah in it - she did excellent again and that is good news -he still won't be able to run her for the Rondy because she won't have re-captured her stamina to run that far after having not ran much for the last few weeks.
Randy did some electrician work on the outlets in the "house" (it was a loose ground wire) and I broke 2 grocery bags of bread up for the next couple of days of dinners for dogs - called my brother Mark's friend who is an aviation professor at Alaska University to say hello and see if we could meet sometime over the next 2 weeks.
It's 6 o'clock now and we are waiting for our friend Becky Voris to bring us some hot water for supper for dogs and then we will move up to the clubhouse where we can plug in and save ourselves some diesel fuel.
Randy did some electrician work on the outlets in the "house" (it was a loose ground wire) and I broke 2 grocery bags of bread up for the next couple of days of dinners for dogs - called my brother Mark's friend who is an aviation professor at Alaska University to say hello and see if we could meet sometime over the next 2 weeks.
It's 6 o'clock now and we are waiting for our friend Becky Voris to bring us some hot water for supper for dogs and then we will move up to the clubhouse where we can plug in and save ourselves some diesel fuel.
Thursday
Guess who just popped in.......Buddy Streeper - they just got in to town late last nite and are here at the track to train - for those who don't know they have been down in Wyoming being successful at stage racing!
Randy's training runs went very well yesterday - he was quicker than we thought with only 8 dogs running the same trail that he raced on last weekend - 16 miles. He did have a moment of distraction (trying to figure out whether the trails could be laid out without so many twists and turns..) and missed a corner and dived into a snow bank - they stopped and he popped up and continued!
Didn't do much after that except read and watch some TV on the computer and move the truck back up by the building after getting hot water at the Jiffy Lube.
Randy wants to run at least 2 teams today, so time to get busy!!
Randy's training runs went very well yesterday - he was quicker than we thought with only 8 dogs running the same trail that he raced on last weekend - 16 miles. He did have a moment of distraction (trying to figure out whether the trails could be laid out without so many twists and turns..) and missed a corner and dived into a snow bank - they stopped and he popped up and continued!
Didn't do much after that except read and watch some TV on the computer and move the truck back up by the building after getting hot water at the Jiffy Lube.
Randy wants to run at least 2 teams today, so time to get busy!!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Wednesday, Feb 9
Not too much going on today - we pulled up by the clubhouse for the nite so we could plug in and not use the generator all nite - but then I didn't have internet coverage for some reason - baffles me how it can come and go.....
We smelled the strong evergreen odor again last nite - I was disillusioned to find out yesterday that it isn't a natural phenomenon......the city of Anchorage collects Christmas trees and chips them and then spreads them on the club's property......
Today we were both tired again......seems like I should be getting in shape pretty soon!!!
Randy is out right now with 8 dogs for the 16 mile trail he did in the race and is planning to take out 8 more - it's 2p now and he said he would be an 75 to 90 minutes - so I am not sure he will be able to fit another run if before dark - although the days are really getting longer - it's still light out at 6p!!!
While Randy has been out I have been helping some gals get ready to go out with 6 dogs - Kim Wells and Bev Stevens (the winner of the 6 dog race that I came in last- and she even hit a fence going around a corner too fast and ran into a metal fence post, and still won ........and she's 67!!!) and a nurse Amy, who grew up in Scottville MI and another cardiac nurse, Cathy, who took 4 dogs out on the 3 mile trail. That's something you don't see as often - there are alot of women who train and race independently up here.
Time to get the snack ready for the dogs when Randy gets back!!
We smelled the strong evergreen odor again last nite - I was disillusioned to find out yesterday that it isn't a natural phenomenon......the city of Anchorage collects Christmas trees and chips them and then spreads them on the club's property......
Today we were both tired again......seems like I should be getting in shape pretty soon!!!
Randy is out right now with 8 dogs for the 16 mile trail he did in the race and is planning to take out 8 more - it's 2p now and he said he would be an 75 to 90 minutes - so I am not sure he will be able to fit another run if before dark - although the days are really getting longer - it's still light out at 6p!!!
While Randy has been out I have been helping some gals get ready to go out with 6 dogs - Kim Wells and Bev Stevens (the winner of the 6 dog race that I came in last- and she even hit a fence going around a corner too fast and ran into a metal fence post, and still won ........and she's 67!!!) and a nurse Amy, who grew up in Scottville MI and another cardiac nurse, Cathy, who took 4 dogs out on the 3 mile trail. That's something you don't see as often - there are alot of women who train and race independently up here.
Time to get the snack ready for the dogs when Randy gets back!!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Tues the 15th
Last nite while we were feeding the dogs Ricky Taylor and his girlfriend Angie invited us to go with them to the Golden Corrall - kink of like a free-for-all buffet!! tons of people in there, maybe for Valentine's Day??!! Ricky surprised us by actually buying us dinner - an extremely generous thing to do for people we just met on Sat because they were parked next to us at the race! That is one thing we have found here in Alaska, people are so genuinely kind and caring - people are always offering to do for us - in fact one lady brought us some canned fish heads because she heard Randy saying that our dog Hedwig wasn't eating well!!
Pretty chilly again this morning - first time in awhile I have had to use mittens to serve "breakfast" -
Wrote a thank you email to the state troopers' sargeant for the help that they were the day of Randy's "avulsion" injury (that's for the medical people in the audience) We sure appreciated their help and their demeanor in a "not-so-nice-situation" -
Today after the second drop Randy trained my team with 2 more including Sarah - she did great and is going to use her again tomorrow in lead!! Having Birdie and Sarah, his best 2 leaders back in lead could help his team tremendously!
Carolyn Johnson was here to train 2 teams and Sherrie her daughter is going to try and train some 6 month old pups they brought along with them - and Randy is in "naptime mode" again! Talk to you soon!
Pretty chilly again this morning - first time in awhile I have had to use mittens to serve "breakfast" -
Wrote a thank you email to the state troopers' sargeant for the help that they were the day of Randy's "avulsion" injury (that's for the medical people in the audience) We sure appreciated their help and their demeanor in a "not-so-nice-situation" -
Today after the second drop Randy trained my team with 2 more including Sarah - she did great and is going to use her again tomorrow in lead!! Having Birdie and Sarah, his best 2 leaders back in lead could help his team tremendously!
Carolyn Johnson was here to train 2 teams and Sherrie her daughter is going to try and train some 6 month old pups they brought along with them - and Randy is in "naptime mode" again! Talk to you soon!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Happy Valentine's Day Everybody!!
Boy were we tired!!! Racing those 2 teams and the regular work really wore us out!!!
To prove it, after we fed breakfast this morning, Randy took an hour nap! I have sore muscles where I forgot I had muscles!
It was -10 this morning, in the dog trailer = but surprisingly it doesn't feel that cold to us - no training today- I think we were too worn out and so are the dogs. Tomorrow at at the very least, Randy will take a small team out to run here at the track, including Sarah, his best leader who has been out of service for the last 3 weeks due to a false pregnancy -
So the highlight of our day was going to fill the generator tank (another $75 -but cheaper than a motel for these luxury accommodations!!) and then to Walmart where I got Randy Oreos for Valentine's Day!!
A big deal also today was washing my hair in the trailer - I figured out (using the basin that we got when Randy had his Emergency Room visit) that if I put shampoo in a water bottle and then kept rinsing it would work......and it did!!!! clean hair for the holiday!!!
Randy's hand is doing well and he can accomplish a little bit more every day keeping it protected - still need a picture of it per Luke's request!!
To prove it, after we fed breakfast this morning, Randy took an hour nap! I have sore muscles where I forgot I had muscles!
It was -10 this morning, in the dog trailer = but surprisingly it doesn't feel that cold to us - no training today- I think we were too worn out and so are the dogs. Tomorrow at at the very least, Randy will take a small team out to run here at the track, including Sarah, his best leader who has been out of service for the last 3 weeks due to a false pregnancy -
So the highlight of our day was going to fill the generator tank (another $75 -but cheaper than a motel for these luxury accommodations!!) and then to Walmart where I got Randy Oreos for Valentine's Day!!
A big deal also today was washing my hair in the trailer - I figured out (using the basin that we got when Randy had his Emergency Room visit) that if I put shampoo in a water bottle and then kept rinsing it would work......and it did!!!! clean hair for the holiday!!!
Randy's hand is doing well and he can accomplish a little bit more every day keeping it protected - still need a picture of it per Luke's request!!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
TA DAAAAA!!! No injuries - but no money either!
It felt warmer this morning at 8am and a little bit lighter than yesterday - we fed and I went out 11th/last so I didn't have any worries about somebody needing to pass me today (I did give a good pass to one team yesterday which accounted for some of my time..). I did have problems with my goggles again today even thought I didn't wear a neck warmer and breathed through my nose hoping not to fog them-----didn't help - maybe it had to do with the spray cleaner I used on them Sat morn - Becky Voris did suggest that I put dish liquid on them but I didn't get her phone message soon enough - it wasn't as bad as yesterday - today I could see through about 1/2 of the lenses!! so I did better as I felt more comfortable having seen the trail once and could actually see better and Randy advised that I could probably use the mat a little less - and so I did - I didn't get my final time but I took 2 minutes off my time from yesterday!
Randy went out feeling pretty good but his dogs were a bit tired today and he actually was 4 minutes longer and dropped down to 19th - we can only hope that because he has trained them to go a moderated speed to be able to do the 20 and 25 mile races that they are just in that frame of mind and that 16 miles just wasn't long enough. He didn't have any problems and no passes today - so other than being out of the money, he had a good run.
1/2 hour after the race finish they had the awards ceremony across the street at the Tudor Bingo Hall - free to the racers dinner of shrimp, chicken, beef sides and a salad bar! no cooking for me tonite! At the meeting they had someone from the ABC tv station that wanted to interview racers that had done this race and were also going to do the Fur Rondy - so Randy went up and got interviewed - it is supposed to be on tv but I don't know when - just wanted to know where we were from etc. Sooooo, it's 6 our time and we are both exhausted - going to feed at 6:30 and then drop and to bed at 9 - I tell ya' I never looked forward to bedtime more as I have in the last 4 weeks!!!!!!!
Randy went out feeling pretty good but his dogs were a bit tired today and he actually was 4 minutes longer and dropped down to 19th - we can only hope that because he has trained them to go a moderated speed to be able to do the 20 and 25 mile races that they are just in that frame of mind and that 16 miles just wasn't long enough. He didn't have any problems and no passes today - so other than being out of the money, he had a good run.
1/2 hour after the race finish they had the awards ceremony across the street at the Tudor Bingo Hall - free to the racers dinner of shrimp, chicken, beef sides and a salad bar! no cooking for me tonite! At the meeting they had someone from the ABC tv station that wanted to interview racers that had done this race and were also going to do the Fur Rondy - so Randy went up and got interviewed - it is supposed to be on tv but I don't know when - just wanted to know where we were from etc. Sooooo, it's 6 our time and we are both exhausted - going to feed at 6:30 and then drop and to bed at 9 - I tell ya' I never looked forward to bedtime more as I have in the last 4 weeks!!!!!!!
Saturday, February 12, 2011
What I should tell you.....
is that even though you can't really tell from the pictures, the starting line-up is set up around a half-circle of posts for you to hook onto to enter the chute - so everyone is about the same distance away from the start/finish
Saturday - 1st day of the Exxon Mobile
It was quite cold this morning at 8 am when we got up to feed breakfast to the dogs - moon"s" still out but much lighter than it has been and was up in Fairbanks! and the strong smell of evergreen in the air! Put the dogs back in and then took them out at 10 then took mine back out at 10:30 - the course was very fast and hard - I started out with a little bit of frozen fog on my goggles and then the gradually got worse and worse till I was looking out of a little corner of the lens and it was even foggy - kept my foot on the drag alot of the time because I couldn't see ahead very well and didn't remember if this was the same trail I ran practice on last year - it wasn't because I did 7.7 miles - I thought I would never get back - took me 29 minutes and something and so I am in last but got back safe without anything wrong except the goggles - don't know for sure what I will do tomorrow - they have never fogged up on me like that before -
Randy splinted his hand and we had lots of nice people help us get up to the line - and he was off with 18 dogs- he came back in one piece and with only a little blood on the dressing of his finger - he had to stop once because Hedwig was in a tangle again (the same dogs that caused the problem last Sunday because they are yearlings???!!!) and said the trail was a bit scary in several places- I agree with Ken Chezik's assessment of the trail - it's 16 miles long, 5 miles are flat and the rest is either downhill or uphill and always around a curve! Final place for today was 17th - not what he wanted but I guess you have to consider the circumstances and that the dogs haven't run in a week - tomorrow is supposed to be a bit colder but the day turned out to be very nice with the sun out -I didn't go up to it until Randy came back and the dogs were taken care of but the red and white tent you will see when I attach the pictures is where they had food and souveniers - I don't know if they had the 1000 people they expected but it was very nice!
Randy splinted his hand and we had lots of nice people help us get up to the line - and he was off with 18 dogs- he came back in one piece and with only a little blood on the dressing of his finger - he had to stop once because Hedwig was in a tangle again (the same dogs that caused the problem last Sunday because they are yearlings???!!!) and said the trail was a bit scary in several places- I agree with Ken Chezik's assessment of the trail - it's 16 miles long, 5 miles are flat and the rest is either downhill or uphill and always around a curve! Final place for today was 17th - not what he wanted but I guess you have to consider the circumstances and that the dogs haven't run in a week - tomorrow is supposed to be a bit colder but the day turned out to be very nice with the sun out -I didn't go up to it until Randy came back and the dogs were taken care of but the red and white tent you will see when I attach the pictures is where they had food and souveniers - I don't know if they had the 1000 people they expected but it was very nice!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Friday, cont.
Just fed the dogs and it doesn't seem to be any colder -if anything, working, it felt warmer to me. I don't know if I mentioned it last year but Tozier Track is in the city on the entrance side and then a forest of evergreens on the racing side - last year and then again tonite, if the temp and humidity are just right you have this overwhelming smell - a good one- of evergreens!!!! Oh yeah, and Amy came up with a search engine answer for my moon question (which is doing the same thing tonite) - it's caused by cold temps and ice crystals around the halo and makes 'moon dogs' or mock moons." Prize for her!!!!!
Randy's hand is still not painful and tomorrow he plans to splint the 2 worst fingers and wear his usual mitten and hold on with his thumb and index finger - you know I didn't tell you, the one and only time he wears the fur mitts that I bought him about 8 years ago to dogsled and wouldn't you know, he ends up getting the palm
"red dyed" with his hand in it walking back the 6 miles!! Oh well, at least he used them!!
Kim Wells stopped by (she is running a 4 dog team tomorrow and one of them is 10 years old - they live in the house with her) and wanted to know if we needed water but we had already stopped at the Jiffy LUbe to get it today! Getting some pre-race jitters...hope they calm down!
Randy's hand is still not painful and tomorrow he plans to splint the 2 worst fingers and wear his usual mitten and hold on with his thumb and index finger - you know I didn't tell you, the one and only time he wears the fur mitts that I bought him about 8 years ago to dogsled and wouldn't you know, he ends up getting the palm
"red dyed" with his hand in it walking back the 6 miles!! Oh well, at least he used them!!
Kim Wells stopped by (she is running a 4 dog team tomorrow and one of them is 10 years old - they live in the house with her) and wanted to know if we needed water but we had already stopped at the Jiffy LUbe to get it today! Getting some pre-race jitters...hope they calm down!
Friday, Feb 11
Got up to much colder weather this morning - A cold front is supposed to come down from the north and it could be 0 degrees tomorrow morning - light snow which the guy at the gas station said it a result of the moist air being dried out by the cold (I thought that's what it always was........)
Last nite at the meeting we drew and I go out 10th of 11 in the 6 dog and Randy goes out 11th out of 20 in the open. The trail should be fast as well as they groom it and as cold as it is supposed to be.
Today's big event was going to the gas station to get more diesel for the generator - we are going through quite a bit at $3.77 per gallon here - between the diesel and more propane $110 today!
We moved the rig down to our parking spot for the race so we're all set - they are putting up a big heated tent in front of the clubhouse because they are having celebrity races tomorrow, like the mayor of Anchorage and some others I don't know - no Sarah Palin isn't one of them!
Will keep working on trying to get the movie of Caitlin riding Zero posted but everytime I try it like I have done in the past it makes it into a jpg........
Last nite at the meeting we drew and I go out 10th of 11 in the 6 dog and Randy goes out 11th out of 20 in the open. The trail should be fast as well as they groom it and as cold as it is supposed to be.
Today's big event was going to the gas station to get more diesel for the generator - we are going through quite a bit at $3.77 per gallon here - between the diesel and more propane $110 today!
We moved the rig down to our parking spot for the race so we're all set - they are putting up a big heated tent in front of the clubhouse because they are having celebrity races tomorrow, like the mayor of Anchorage and some others I don't know - no Sarah Palin isn't one of them!
Will keep working on trying to get the movie of Caitlin riding Zero posted but everytime I try it like I have done in the past it makes it into a jpg........
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Hooray!!! Another trip milestone.......made it to Anchorage!!
Left Fairbanks right after the appointment with the surgeon (it was nice that he and the PA agreed with me that Randy should not have put band-aids on his fingers.......causes the tissue to get "macerated" and won't heal well......all those years as an occ health nurse and he still won't believe me........) He said the finger looked good and he wanted Randy to keep a splint on the middle finger - the one that is fractured and slightly bent. I am to take the stitches out in 14 days since we will be in Anchorage then. He didn't blink an eye when Randy told him he probably would race this weekend!
Took off from Fairbanks in 13 degree weather at 12:30- sl cloudy and roads good - ran into snow and increasingly snow-covered roads the farther south we went - the roads got ice-covered again and thankfully we were out of the mountains. As we neared Healy we saw a sign that warned for caribou and bam!!! there were 10 or 12 out in the field right next to us! As it got to be dusk we saw a moose on the side of the road! Can't figure out why we are seeing so much more wildlife this year than last!!
I thought as we went thru Healy I was seeing McKinley but today as I look at the map it must have been another peak - as we got past Healy and it got darker it almost was misting and we saw one bank that said it was 37 degrees!! About 7pm made it to Willow where we spent the nite at the same location that they have the re-start of the Iditarod! The night was uneventful and short as we fed as soon as we got there, waited 1 1/2 hours and then dropped and to bed.
Up this morning to foggy weather and headed to Anchorage - it almost felt like rain again but snowed also intermittently - in Wasilla we stopped at the Iditarod Headquarters and Randy bought a Lance Mackey book to read (Iditarod 4 time winner) and we got the tel number for Leo Rasmussen from Nome to see him if he comes down for the Iditarod (and maybe could get us passed to be in the race area like he did the year we got married up here). We asked if anyone there knew Cheryl Cheadle Mativa and someone did but did not have her phone number - so we left a note for someone that might. The roads after were clear and dry and stopped at Fred Meyer store cause Randy broke his watch band - bought donuts for the guys at the lube shop across the street from the Tozier dogsled race track so that we can get hot water from them while we stay here and got the water and now we are sitting at the track and I am delighted to find they have wifi here!!!! Don't know if I will have it all the time so thought I should post as soon as I can!!! The driver's meeting/draw is tonite at 7 in the clubhouse and tomorrow who knows what we will do!!
Say, I have another interesting phenomenon for someone to explain to me - when we were in Fairbanks and I was looking up at the sliver of moon, it looked like 3 or 4 of them layered on top of each other......like I was having double/triple vision....and that was without any "chemical influences"!!!! I can only think it must have to do with the cold temp.......or maybe a "northern lites effect"?????
Took off from Fairbanks in 13 degree weather at 12:30- sl cloudy and roads good - ran into snow and increasingly snow-covered roads the farther south we went - the roads got ice-covered again and thankfully we were out of the mountains. As we neared Healy we saw a sign that warned for caribou and bam!!! there were 10 or 12 out in the field right next to us! As it got to be dusk we saw a moose on the side of the road! Can't figure out why we are seeing so much more wildlife this year than last!!
I thought as we went thru Healy I was seeing McKinley but today as I look at the map it must have been another peak - as we got past Healy and it got darker it almost was misting and we saw one bank that said it was 37 degrees!! About 7pm made it to Willow where we spent the nite at the same location that they have the re-start of the Iditarod! The night was uneventful and short as we fed as soon as we got there, waited 1 1/2 hours and then dropped and to bed.
Up this morning to foggy weather and headed to Anchorage - it almost felt like rain again but snowed also intermittently - in Wasilla we stopped at the Iditarod Headquarters and Randy bought a Lance Mackey book to read (Iditarod 4 time winner) and we got the tel number for Leo Rasmussen from Nome to see him if he comes down for the Iditarod (and maybe could get us passed to be in the race area like he did the year we got married up here). We asked if anyone there knew Cheryl Cheadle Mativa and someone did but did not have her phone number - so we left a note for someone that might. The roads after were clear and dry and stopped at Fred Meyer store cause Randy broke his watch band - bought donuts for the guys at the lube shop across the street from the Tozier dogsled race track so that we can get hot water from them while we stay here and got the water and now we are sitting at the track and I am delighted to find they have wifi here!!!! Don't know if I will have it all the time so thought I should post as soon as I can!!! The driver's meeting/draw is tonite at 7 in the clubhouse and tomorrow who knows what we will do!!
Say, I have another interesting phenomenon for someone to explain to me - when we were in Fairbanks and I was looking up at the sliver of moon, it looked like 3 or 4 of them layered on top of each other......like I was having double/triple vision....and that was without any "chemical influences"!!!! I can only think it must have to do with the cold temp.......or maybe a "northern lites effect"?????
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Addendum...
For those of you that are wondering, and you shouldn't be surprised.......yes, he is considering running the Exxon race this Sat - it all depends on how he feels by Thurs nite - which is actually only tomorrow nite- we will see how driving/shifting all the way to Anchorage goes!
Wednesday, Feb 9
We are sitting in the doctor's office this morning having gotten up at 8:30 and dropped/fed dogs, quick washed my hair and changed clothes and off to the appointment to follow up on the finger before we leave for Anchorage. A very nice surprise this morning, the guy we loaned Spiff to for his son in the one dog race last Sat dropped off two different kinds of salmon dinners for us - as he had promised he wanted to do!
Another surprise, Jan Fairbanks stopped by yesterday morning and wanted to know if we needed someone to drive the truck - so far his finger is only painful when I bump it, he uses it or today he got it stuck in the wheel trying to turn the truck - the dressing fell off last nite when we were undressing from dropping dogs and so he got a look at the handiwork for the first time - it looks really good to me - just shorter and lots of stitches!!
Yesterday we mostly shopped and did errands -had to buy some plexiglass to put on the dog door where Ron tried to claw out and bought food and even went out to dinner at Chilis - I asked Randy if we were going out because he felt sorry for all the new "assignments" I have since he got hurt and he said "yes" ------ hard for him not to be able to do all the things he usually does and now can't and probably more painful to watch me trying!!!! like chopping up the meat with the splitting mall - I am better today but am pretty pitiful!!!
Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers - even though you didn't know we needed them at the time - we still need them!
Will let you know the outcome of today's appointment but am pretty sure it is doing well - looks like I will be taking out some stitches!!
Another surprise, Jan Fairbanks stopped by yesterday morning and wanted to know if we needed someone to drive the truck - so far his finger is only painful when I bump it, he uses it or today he got it stuck in the wheel trying to turn the truck - the dressing fell off last nite when we were undressing from dropping dogs and so he got a look at the handiwork for the first time - it looks really good to me - just shorter and lots of stitches!!
Yesterday we mostly shopped and did errands -had to buy some plexiglass to put on the dog door where Ron tried to claw out and bought food and even went out to dinner at Chilis - I asked Randy if we were going out because he felt sorry for all the new "assignments" I have since he got hurt and he said "yes" ------ hard for him not to be able to do all the things he usually does and now can't and probably more painful to watch me trying!!!! like chopping up the meat with the splitting mall - I am better today but am pretty pitiful!!!
Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers - even though you didn't know we needed them at the time - we still need them!
Will let you know the outcome of today's appointment but am pretty sure it is doing well - looks like I will be taking out some stitches!!
Monday, February 7, 2011
Sunday, Feb 6
Sunday:
Well this turned out to be a very special day…………not in a good way……….
I went out first in the 6 dog, and this should be no surprise to you, was blinded by the sun just coming over the mountains, didn’t see the corner till too late, got caught in the deep snow and wiped out – lost the team, walked for what seemed to be a mile, found the team with another woman racer with her sled tangle in mine, got her unstuck, then tried to pull my snow hook out and could not – not even chancing it by standing right over the top of it and pulling with both hands, not even hooking neck lines to the handle to get a better angle on it, not even pulling back on the sled while there was an infrequent slack moment from the team – bark and pull and whine and bark, bark bark………I don’t know how many teams went by but they started the 8 and 10 dogs classes and I started telling people going by that I couldn’t get my snow hook out and to send help…….about ½ hour later, Randy came on the snow machine with another guy and loosened it by pulling up on the rope in front of the snow hook and bam, it came out – so I finished the race without any further problems, but of course was disqualified. The trails are beautiful and twisty but not too many bad turns – I went 7.9 miles and by the time I got back, being hot and sweaty and then cold on the trail I was chilled. Well, the not so good news was that because Randy had come out to help me he missed his start time!!!!! So he told them that he wanted to run the trail still, even for a training run. So we got him out the chute almost an hour after the first open team went out and had only a minor mishap with him almost hitting the fence with the sled and having to drag on his knees for a few feet – he took 19 dogs because he had given me 2 of the 1-year olds (Snapper and Andy) because he felt they were not going to be able to keep up for the 20 miles. So I go in and change clothes and talk to a guy from 3 hours north of Circle that you can only get to by snow mobile or boat and hear his interesting life’s history and because he left at 1:13 I am thinking he should be back about 2:35 – now as I am looking around there are getting to be fewer and fewer trucks in the lot and I am starting to get worried that if he has trouble of any kind, there wouldn’t be anyone here to help me. So I wait another 15 minutes or so and I see 2 dogs running the trail by themselves and they run up to the truck – then 2 more (now Randy has asked me who came in in what order and I must have been so stressed I didn’t keep track –just kept hooking them to the truck and un-harnessing and putting away in the trailer) –not long after 5 more dogs come back alone with the lines on them literally in a ball so tight you couldn’t possibly see beginning or end and the main line looks like it was cut– I wait a few minutes and call the president of the dog club and leave a message on her phone telling her that ½ the team is back and Randy is out there and some of the dogs have blood on their coats- a few more minutes and no answer from her and I called 911 who connected me with the state troopers – it seemed like forever before they came but luckily 2 of them had snowmobiles with them (one is a wildlife trooper and the other is a trooper for 15 remote villages) and while those 2 are out looking for Randy the 3rd is trying to keep me from losing it – at 4 pm still no sign of Randy or more dogs and no sightings by the trooper on snowmobiles. Shortly after 2 more and then 2 more dogs run in. Finally we can see Randy walking the incoming trail with 3 dogs in tow – I run out the trail and call the dogs and am running towards him to see how he is and he lets the dogs go and they run past me and he yells at me to catch the dogs (so I know at least he is not seriously injured……) and before I can run back to the truck, the dog that he was leading (with great difficulty for 6 miles to keep her from getting bred) is in fact, getting bred at the truck……….. When I finally get to talk to Randy he tells me he has lost the tip of his finger and needs to go to the hospital – tip of the finger was an exaggeration………and under-exaggeration…… it looked like a shark had bitten his finger off!!!! Ring finger, right hand to just about the first joint!
The team had taken a wrong turn and he had to turn them back on themselves to get them back on the right trail, which created major tangles. He had untangled the front ½ and they all still had their tug lines off and were only pulling off their neck lines- while he was untangling yearling dogs at the back of the team the main line snapped and the front ½ of the team ran away and the end of his finger popped off and flew out into the snow somewhere (he can only guess that there were lines around his fingers and when the string of dogs snapped the line it noosed around his finger and the Kevlar line was stronger than his finger and off it came……). So he hooked up what dogs he had left and tried to keep going down the trail with the sled – after several attempts, I stop, because they won’t go ahead. Right then he saw the front half of the team tangled in a mess. Next, mind you with a decapitated finger that’s bleeding, he tries to unhook as many dogs as he can so that they wouldn’t get any more tangled and they took off down the trail – he walked back to the back ½ of the team and unhooked everybody and just took the in-season dog and spooky Holly and leading them with 3 neck lines and start walking the trail knowing that he had to stay on the main trail to get back even thought many times the sun indicated he was going in the opposite direction of the clubhouse.
One of the troopers took us to the hospital (after Randy refused treatment by the firemen..) and a plastic surgeon (a very tall, Native with alligator boots and a long braid) took the bone and tissue out down to the joint and sewed him up! The middle finger is also fractured and laceration and there is a skin tear on his index finger. We were there until 10p and the trooper told us to call the station when we were done and if there were no robberies, etc. maybe someone would be able to take us back to the truck (the hospital is probably 20 minutes away) and the trooper that kept me from getting hysterical was the one that brought us back! When we got here we looked at the generator and knew we were almost out of fuel so Randy had the trooper spray ether in the engine to get the truck started so we could drive to the gas station for fuel. Now for those of you that don’t know this, Randy had a 10 speed transmission put in the truck this summer………and this is his right hand we are talking about…….and there is no way I am prepared to learn how to drive this monster truck tonite – so he limps along shifting and I have to push and pull the air shift for him. We get the fuel, make it back to the club house and it’s time to drop the dogs and feed them. Well my job is usually to be the one inside and letting the dogs in and out of their individual boxes………guess what my job is now?! Wrestling the octopus Ron in and out and onto his hook on the truck – mind you I didn’t lose a finger, but I did catch all 19 dogs and put them in the truck one by one by myself and I am beginning to wear out – we finally get everybody fed and back in the trailer and I feed Randy and give him one of his pain pills (percocet) in case the numbing medicine wears off in the middle of the nite.
We wake this morning at the crack of 9 and he says his hand still doesn’t hurt and 3 fingers are numb – so that could be a good thing because it doesn’t hurt yet or maybe not so good depending on how long they stay numb……..
We fed breakfast this morning, got them back in, ate our breakfast, talked to Shannon Earhart –the club president to fill her in- wrote this note- and it’s time to drop dogs……….Randy on the inside with one hand and me on the outside with the octopus………
Well this turned out to be a very special day…………not in a good way……….
I went out first in the 6 dog, and this should be no surprise to you, was blinded by the sun just coming over the mountains, didn’t see the corner till too late, got caught in the deep snow and wiped out – lost the team, walked for what seemed to be a mile, found the team with another woman racer with her sled tangle in mine, got her unstuck, then tried to pull my snow hook out and could not – not even chancing it by standing right over the top of it and pulling with both hands, not even hooking neck lines to the handle to get a better angle on it, not even pulling back on the sled while there was an infrequent slack moment from the team – bark and pull and whine and bark, bark bark………I don’t know how many teams went by but they started the 8 and 10 dogs classes and I started telling people going by that I couldn’t get my snow hook out and to send help…….about ½ hour later, Randy came on the snow machine with another guy and loosened it by pulling up on the rope in front of the snow hook and bam, it came out – so I finished the race without any further problems, but of course was disqualified. The trails are beautiful and twisty but not too many bad turns – I went 7.9 miles and by the time I got back, being hot and sweaty and then cold on the trail I was chilled. Well, the not so good news was that because Randy had come out to help me he missed his start time!!!!! So he told them that he wanted to run the trail still, even for a training run. So we got him out the chute almost an hour after the first open team went out and had only a minor mishap with him almost hitting the fence with the sled and having to drag on his knees for a few feet – he took 19 dogs because he had given me 2 of the 1-year olds (Snapper and Andy) because he felt they were not going to be able to keep up for the 20 miles. So I go in and change clothes and talk to a guy from 3 hours north of Circle that you can only get to by snow mobile or boat and hear his interesting life’s history and because he left at 1:13 I am thinking he should be back about 2:35 – now as I am looking around there are getting to be fewer and fewer trucks in the lot and I am starting to get worried that if he has trouble of any kind, there wouldn’t be anyone here to help me. So I wait another 15 minutes or so and I see 2 dogs running the trail by themselves and they run up to the truck – then 2 more (now Randy has asked me who came in in what order and I must have been so stressed I didn’t keep track –just kept hooking them to the truck and un-harnessing and putting away in the trailer) –not long after 5 more dogs come back alone with the lines on them literally in a ball so tight you couldn’t possibly see beginning or end and the main line looks like it was cut– I wait a few minutes and call the president of the dog club and leave a message on her phone telling her that ½ the team is back and Randy is out there and some of the dogs have blood on their coats- a few more minutes and no answer from her and I called 911 who connected me with the state troopers – it seemed like forever before they came but luckily 2 of them had snowmobiles with them (one is a wildlife trooper and the other is a trooper for 15 remote villages) and while those 2 are out looking for Randy the 3rd is trying to keep me from losing it – at 4 pm still no sign of Randy or more dogs and no sightings by the trooper on snowmobiles. Shortly after 2 more and then 2 more dogs run in. Finally we can see Randy walking the incoming trail with 3 dogs in tow – I run out the trail and call the dogs and am running towards him to see how he is and he lets the dogs go and they run past me and he yells at me to catch the dogs (so I know at least he is not seriously injured……) and before I can run back to the truck, the dog that he was leading (with great difficulty for 6 miles to keep her from getting bred) is in fact, getting bred at the truck……….. When I finally get to talk to Randy he tells me he has lost the tip of his finger and needs to go to the hospital – tip of the finger was an exaggeration………and under-exaggeration…… it looked like a shark had bitten his finger off!!!! Ring finger, right hand to just about the first joint!
The team had taken a wrong turn and he had to turn them back on themselves to get them back on the right trail, which created major tangles. He had untangled the front ½ and they all still had their tug lines off and were only pulling off their neck lines- while he was untangling yearling dogs at the back of the team the main line snapped and the front ½ of the team ran away and the end of his finger popped off and flew out into the snow somewhere (he can only guess that there were lines around his fingers and when the string of dogs snapped the line it noosed around his finger and the Kevlar line was stronger than his finger and off it came……). So he hooked up what dogs he had left and tried to keep going down the trail with the sled – after several attempts, I stop, because they won’t go ahead. Right then he saw the front half of the team tangled in a mess. Next, mind you with a decapitated finger that’s bleeding, he tries to unhook as many dogs as he can so that they wouldn’t get any more tangled and they took off down the trail – he walked back to the back ½ of the team and unhooked everybody and just took the in-season dog and spooky Holly and leading them with 3 neck lines and start walking the trail knowing that he had to stay on the main trail to get back even thought many times the sun indicated he was going in the opposite direction of the clubhouse.
One of the troopers took us to the hospital (after Randy refused treatment by the firemen..) and a plastic surgeon (a very tall, Native with alligator boots and a long braid) took the bone and tissue out down to the joint and sewed him up! The middle finger is also fractured and laceration and there is a skin tear on his index finger. We were there until 10p and the trooper told us to call the station when we were done and if there were no robberies, etc. maybe someone would be able to take us back to the truck (the hospital is probably 20 minutes away) and the trooper that kept me from getting hysterical was the one that brought us back! When we got here we looked at the generator and knew we were almost out of fuel so Randy had the trooper spray ether in the engine to get the truck started so we could drive to the gas station for fuel. Now for those of you that don’t know this, Randy had a 10 speed transmission put in the truck this summer………and this is his right hand we are talking about…….and there is no way I am prepared to learn how to drive this monster truck tonite – so he limps along shifting and I have to push and pull the air shift for him. We get the fuel, make it back to the club house and it’s time to drop the dogs and feed them. Well my job is usually to be the one inside and letting the dogs in and out of their individual boxes………guess what my job is now?! Wrestling the octopus Ron in and out and onto his hook on the truck – mind you I didn’t lose a finger, but I did catch all 19 dogs and put them in the truck one by one by myself and I am beginning to wear out – we finally get everybody fed and back in the trailer and I feed Randy and give him one of his pain pills (percocet) in case the numbing medicine wears off in the middle of the nite.
We wake this morning at the crack of 9 and he says his hand still doesn’t hurt and 3 fingers are numb – so that could be a good thing because it doesn’t hurt yet or maybe not so good depending on how long they stay numb……..
We fed breakfast this morning, got them back in, ate our breakfast, talked to Shannon Earhart –the club president to fill her in- wrote this note- and it’s time to drop dogs……….Randy on the inside with one hand and me on the outside with the octopus………
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Sunday, Feb 6
Well we are signed up for the race today - the first to sign up goes out first - so we are both first!!! Uneventful nite and even set the alarm so we would be sure to have the dogs water before time to race - we set it for 8am and it was just beginning to be light out!!! Will let you know how the race goes!!!
Saturday, February 5, 2011
We're in the big city, Fairbanks!
Thursday:
Made it to the dog track and exchanged the dog with Jennifer who seemed pleased with how he looked. Fed dogs and while we were out a father and son walked up to us and engaged in conversation which eventually led to a kind of “come to Jesus meeting” – not high pressure but just wanting to know if we were Christians, and if not wanted the opportunity to convert us……
Friday:
Big day shopping – fed the dogs and then went to the Fred Meyer store (not a relation to the one in Michigan-) and picked up a prescription for one of the dogs and got some groceries – then to Coldspot Feeds to try and buy some chicken skins for Hedwig, our fussy eater, but they didn’t have any (they have to buy something like a full truckload from Charlie Champagne and they chose not to this year cause we got some there last year)and were waiting for a shipment to come from Medford, WI of Eureka. Then to Walmart and got some special gifts for special grandchildren, then to NAPA to get another belt for the trailer generator, then to Pioneer Park (which must be really something in the summer, historic touristy place) to drop the dogs, then to the only pawn shop in town. They have a ton of stuff and lots of authentic Alaskan-type clothing and hats and jewelry but nothing was terribly reasonable price-wise – so we didn’t buy anything. Randy did offer to buy me a $700 Eskimo coat that looks kind of like a kuspuk (the traditional Eskimo dress) but I thought it to be too much- but very sweet of him! Next stop was the transfer station that I described last year – where everybody brings their garbage and anything else they want to get rid of including clothes and furniture and appliances and then other people go through the some 20 boxes to look and see if there is anything that could be their “treasure” – I went on a mission from Randy to find a piece of insulation to fit into the vent space in our “living room” so that the condensation wouldn’t drip on him like it did the other nite when he stuffed a blanket up into it! I managed to find a piece of carpet padding and all for free!!!
Back to the track to spend the nite where another man came up to talk to use who was waiting to meet his sons here (it’s a very popular meeting place – vehicles are constantly in and out of the parking lot) and he was from a place named Bettles 250 miles northwest of here and he only comes out 4 times a year to get provisions!!! This trip was to get a 500 gallon propane tank filled which will be their hot water and cooking fuel for the year! I asked him how he made a living in a town with only 75 residents and he said he was the pastor, weather station manager, and on the town board and also did handy man work. They have lived there 20 years! The population is shrinking over the last few years because he said that the government funding has decreased. So in less than 12 hours 2 pastors had struck up conversations with me………………….are you trying to tell me something??
Saturday:
Up at 9am and the sun was still not all the way up!! Beautiful sunny day and -14 degrees – doesn’t really feel that cold - we fed dogs and were dropping them when a guy came up and asked if he could borrow a dog for his son for the one dog race – they are having a juniors race here today. So he is borrowing Spiff my leader and Ocean’s dog!! His dad said that his truck and dogs were stuck up in the mountains! In exchange for using the dog he gave us a bag of moose meat for the dogs!!!!
After this one dog race we are going to go to Lowes and buy some metal to cover the inside wood door on Ron’s box – he is soooo hard to load (I know Mark and Austin can understand that!!!!!) the “pass through box” is really the only box that will work and when he wants to be out he just claws at the door!!
Then after that we will train here – then tomorrow there is supposed to be a one day race which will give us a chance to run the dogs again!
One of the young women we met last year is here with some pups from George Attla that he has for sale – out of a Jennifer Probert dog, a Rudy Ropertz dog and an Attla dog!! We will see if Randy thinks that would be a good deal at $300d!!! Randy looked at them and at 6 months they are bigger than a lot of our dogs – too big!!!
Finally got the right wifi password for the Alaskan Dog Mushing Assoc. so I should be able to post tomorrow when there is more to say!!!
Made it to the dog track and exchanged the dog with Jennifer who seemed pleased with how he looked. Fed dogs and while we were out a father and son walked up to us and engaged in conversation which eventually led to a kind of “come to Jesus meeting” – not high pressure but just wanting to know if we were Christians, and if not wanted the opportunity to convert us……
Friday:
Big day shopping – fed the dogs and then went to the Fred Meyer store (not a relation to the one in Michigan-) and picked up a prescription for one of the dogs and got some groceries – then to Coldspot Feeds to try and buy some chicken skins for Hedwig, our fussy eater, but they didn’t have any (they have to buy something like a full truckload from Charlie Champagne and they chose not to this year cause we got some there last year)and were waiting for a shipment to come from Medford, WI of Eureka. Then to Walmart and got some special gifts for special grandchildren, then to NAPA to get another belt for the trailer generator, then to Pioneer Park (which must be really something in the summer, historic touristy place) to drop the dogs, then to the only pawn shop in town. They have a ton of stuff and lots of authentic Alaskan-type clothing and hats and jewelry but nothing was terribly reasonable price-wise – so we didn’t buy anything. Randy did offer to buy me a $700 Eskimo coat that looks kind of like a kuspuk (the traditional Eskimo dress) but I thought it to be too much- but very sweet of him! Next stop was the transfer station that I described last year – where everybody brings their garbage and anything else they want to get rid of including clothes and furniture and appliances and then other people go through the some 20 boxes to look and see if there is anything that could be their “treasure” – I went on a mission from Randy to find a piece of insulation to fit into the vent space in our “living room” so that the condensation wouldn’t drip on him like it did the other nite when he stuffed a blanket up into it! I managed to find a piece of carpet padding and all for free!!!
Back to the track to spend the nite where another man came up to talk to use who was waiting to meet his sons here (it’s a very popular meeting place – vehicles are constantly in and out of the parking lot) and he was from a place named Bettles 250 miles northwest of here and he only comes out 4 times a year to get provisions!!! This trip was to get a 500 gallon propane tank filled which will be their hot water and cooking fuel for the year! I asked him how he made a living in a town with only 75 residents and he said he was the pastor, weather station manager, and on the town board and also did handy man work. They have lived there 20 years! The population is shrinking over the last few years because he said that the government funding has decreased. So in less than 12 hours 2 pastors had struck up conversations with me………………….are you trying to tell me something??
Saturday:
Up at 9am and the sun was still not all the way up!! Beautiful sunny day and -14 degrees – doesn’t really feel that cold - we fed dogs and were dropping them when a guy came up and asked if he could borrow a dog for his son for the one dog race – they are having a juniors race here today. So he is borrowing Spiff my leader and Ocean’s dog!! His dad said that his truck and dogs were stuck up in the mountains! In exchange for using the dog he gave us a bag of moose meat for the dogs!!!!
After this one dog race we are going to go to Lowes and buy some metal to cover the inside wood door on Ron’s box – he is soooo hard to load (I know Mark and Austin can understand that!!!!!) the “pass through box” is really the only box that will work and when he wants to be out he just claws at the door!!
Then after that we will train here – then tomorrow there is supposed to be a one day race which will give us a chance to run the dogs again!
One of the young women we met last year is here with some pups from George Attla that he has for sale – out of a Jennifer Probert dog, a Rudy Ropertz dog and an Attla dog!! We will see if Randy thinks that would be a good deal at $300d!!! Randy looked at them and at 6 months they are bigger than a lot of our dogs – too big!!!
Finally got the right wifi password for the Alaskan Dog Mushing Assoc. so I should be able to post tomorrow when there is more to say!!!
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