Race day #1

Last nite/afternoon’s big excitement was when the dog Cook’s lost was herded back on the trail to the clubhouse by snowmobiles ; once they told us the dog was coming soon we put Speeder out so the dog would maybe stop and then also 3 people had snow fence lying across the end of the chute so that when the dog tried to pass by them they would set the fence up and trap him – so we see the dog running towards us followed by Ed Woods on the snowmobile; as soon as the dog saw the people, she turned around and ran back towards Ed; he jumped off the snowmobile, and did my “ninja position” and turned her around; as she got near the end of the chute, they lifted the snow fence………………one end lifted one way………and the other end lifted the other way………..leaving the fence up in the air, the dog ran under it and through the parking lot, over a 15 foot high snowbank and on to a very busy street with 4 lanes……….haven’t heard anything about her since then, but will let you know.
Our afternoon (after shoe shopping) consisted visiting with other dog drivers (after they went around the trail and Randy was conspicuously absent…….) and with each other, Randy changed runner surfaces/plastic on his sled; the 3 men repaired Andy’s and Dancer’s feet (pad sliced off) with moleskin and superglue; fed dogs, dropped dogs and then Kukals went back to the Ramada.
Up this morning at 8am to make sure the dogs got watered plenty early; left by 9 and barely, barely, barely made it the 3 blocks from the barriers to our parking spot because the normally almost bare sides of the street have 8+ inches of not-packed snow on it!!!!!!!! Randy gunned it starting on the pavement and never let off, almost getting stuck a bazillion times, making big trenches all the way!! He broke the chains on the tires doing it and Mark and Randy have spent the last ½ hour trying to repair them.
So we are here, it’s 10:56, Randy has the driver’s meeting at 11:15, we let the dogs out while he is gone and harness, then when he comes back he matches them (like a suppository so they will poop here instead while running cause some of them think they have to stop to poop and that doesn’t work well in a race…..) and puts Zeus Juice on everybody’s feet and boots on about ½ of them and Randy leaves at 12:18!!!!!

After Randy left the chute with Rocky leading hard and Chelsey holding back a bit for the first 50 ft. (we have been nervous about her leading in a race because we got her from Claude Bellerive and they said she shied at photographers in a race) but then went good - Mark and Austin and I went to the fur auction, which is not till tomorrow - and then to the Hilton to see the stuffed bears, then to the Rondy office where Austin and I found good deals on outdated shirts - then waited for Randy - he did come in........that's the good news......not as soon as he wanted .....the bad news.....had to load Andy after a kid on a snowbank made a hard ice boulder fall down the bank and Andy hit it with his head and wasn't very "oriented" or coordinated after that - and then Dancer started to get way too tired (1 year old) and so Randy took Andy out and put Dancer in - to top it off at some point poor Andy's neck line snap was also hooked in to the main line so Randy had to stop and unhook that! not so good luck.......so today Randy is 21st with 5 minutes behind 20th - when you consider that carrying a dog in the bag most of the trail costs you at least 30 seconds a mile he would have been 12 minutes faster at least! So who knows how many dogs we will use tomorrow- will let you know soon as I can. We are back parked at the track and exhausted......lots of Tylenol tonite and Kukals are coming over to feed dogs and will get pizza or something for dinner! Prayers, please!
We are extremely to report that Kenny Chezik is in first place - he was so fun - on Cloud 9 - his first first at a big race in unlimited in Alaska!!!