update

Before I forget I will add more from my conversation with the Native from Huslia – he said that they hadn’t yet hard to start “wolf patrols” – the wolves have already driven the moose into town (so much so that they have people out to guard the children on their way to school) and that soon the wolves would be in the town!
Yesterday while I was waiting the 4 hours for the trailer to be fixed I had some conversation with the owner. He moved up here from California as his father was a state policeman all over Alaska for about 20 years – He is 40 and has had several different businesses/jobs in the 20 years he’s been in Fairbanks – he says a lot of people are leaving Fairbanks to move back to the lower 48 primarily because fuel oil which most people use to heat their homes, has gotten higher and higher - $4+ in Fairbanks and out in the bush more like $8! They have studied and studied putting a natural gas pipeline that would run right next to the gas pipeline but that’s as far as it had gotten because there are too many people making big profits off the gas pipeline and don’t want the competition! There is also an area up her where there is a gold and other precious metals vein (supposedly the largest in the world) but the environmentalists are using false advertisements to prevent its development.
Bulletproof has worked on several dog trailers………Jeff King and Ramey Brooks. So we are not the first!
Laat nite we made it to Healy without incident – somewhat of a rarity for us……..when we got there we fed and thought about going further south but the lady in the gas station said if we drove another 2 hours we would be at Cantwell and it would be colder and windier – so we watched a movie and had dinner and then dropped for the nite.
Off again in the morning and made it to 20 miles north of Anchorage when Randy noticed smoke coming from the trailer tires – I won’t even try to express the mounting anxiety and frustration………. Both tires on the passenger side were flat . So we call AAA and they don’t have anybody local that can help us and it’s almost 5pm – miraculously, Kris Rasey, a gal we know from dog racing up here – she does mostly 6 and 8 dog –and she also is a Matco Tool rep – she was down in Anchorage training her dogs at the track and was on her way home when she recognized our truck on the side of the expressway and turned around and stopped to see if she could help – well she helped alright – she helped jack the trailer up with us and got the tires off and called someone she knew to stay open to fix them and then took Randy there in her vehicle. We got the tires back on (had to purchase one I think cause I waited in the truck in case the cops came) We got to her house and turned around in her driveway and one of the tires was already going flat! She invited us to pizza dinner with her sister and we got numbers of places to call today to find out the problem and then purchase tires and rims that will work –
Today is Wednesday and we fed dogs and Kris had us in for breakfast – she let us use her vehicle to drive around looking for tires and rims so with the GPS Dorothy, we have gone into Anchorage and gotten rims (the guy gave Randy a really nice vetern’s discount…) and got a tire mounted on the rim and Randy has put it on and as we suspected, the rim that will hold the weight of the trailer is too wide and now he is cutting out the wheel wells of the trailer – Oh my, would I like this to be “the fix” – more to come as we know it (kind of sounds like Walter Cronkrite…..)
Today is Thursday (had to look at the computer to be sure…) and we finished cutting out the wheel wells with a circular saw we borrowed from Kris – not only did we take the metal out we cut right into the wood so now you can see through to where the meat buckets are stored under the dog floor!! At some point we are going to have to put a sheet metal panel on the inside to keep water and dirt from coming in but it will have to do for now.
As we were in Chugiak getting the rest of the tires mounted on the new rims a storm began blowing in - Kris had told Randy on the phone that a “Chinook” was coming and that we could get 6 inches of snow with very strong warm winds – it was hard seeing the road as we left Eagle River but as we got closer to Chugiak it cleared up but was still very windy – I don’t know how bad it got down in Anchorage – I guess we will see when we head there today. We are hoping to get some training in finally!!
Last nite Kris’ sister was still here because her flight got cancelled due to the weather and she had picked up steaks for dinner! Delicious!!!
This morning Randy is fixing the hinge on one of the dog doors and then has to find some way to pack the 5 old (but really new cause we just bought them in Iron River, WI….) rims in the back of the trailer with all the other stuff!!!
OK! On to Anchorage!! Left midmorning from Kris’ house and then stopped to buy food at the grocery store and pulled in to the parking lot at the race track and shazaam!!! Stuck!!!!!!!!! Got out to put the snow chains on and a met a very nice couple from Yukon Territory here to compete against Randy at the Rondy (not just Randy – she is here to race it for the first time) their names are Marie and Charlie and this is their first time here. They spent an hour trying to help us get the chains on and finally he pulled us backward with his truck till we got out!!! I’m feeling like we will spend some quality time with them in the future – very nice!
Just drew for the race tomorrow – 10 dog for Randy – he goes out 8th will talk to you tomorrow!!