The
last time I was able to post was when we were still camped out in the parking
lot of the Fleet and Farm Store………well Friday morning we heard banging on the
door and neither of us was able to answer it…………more banging and Randy finally
got some clothes on and it was the store manager and his security guard there
to tell us they don’t allow overnite parking… Randy said he guessed we wore out
out welcome!! We had planned to go
to the race site anyhow so we fed the dogs and drove the 5 or so miles to the race
site. Beautiful spot, on top
of scenic rolling hills with a great big red round barn with a metal roof right
in the middle!! They had a front
end loader making the parking lot for the dog trucks in the middle of the
cornfield as we arrived so it was good we didn’t get there any earlier! We had noticed it might be easy to get stuck so we put on
the chains and drove in!! There
was literally corn stalks sticking up everywhere around us! The dogs had great fun when we dropped
them what with the stalks and ears of corn all around to play with! Spent the nite there and early Saturday
morning trucks began to arrive –
the driver’s meeting was held in an old town hall building that the owners had
moved to this spot from about a mile away – they had also moved the round
barn. The wife runs this as a
tourist spot/gardens and her husband is a vet who just happened to be up on the
Iditarod trail vetting! Randy and
I both got number 2 – which in most cases is a good thing,,,,,,,,,,,,,but on
some occasions can be bad….like if the trail isn’t very good. So I got myself ready to out at 12:01
and took off –within the first mile it seemed like there were about 5 90 degree
turns……….none of them easy-----and up and down and up and down hills – I was
doing pretty well negotiating all
the turns (I didn’t get to count but I could swear there must have been 60 in
six miles…………) but was getting exhausted reefing on the sled getting around the
turns and then I hit a soft birm and wiped out………dragged I the hip-deep snow for
a ways, got the sled tipped upright and they took off again with me dragging on
my knees- I did for a ways and alllllllllllmost got my knees onto the runners
but they kept slipping off cause my pants were nylon and I couldn’t hang on any
more……..got up took off my snow packed glasses and started walking – not too
long a snowmobiler stopped and asked if I wanted a ride to catch my team and
his passenger jumped of and me on and he took off to turn around in the
snow…………and dumped both of us in the hip-deep snow!!! Back on and got onto the trail to look for my team- found
them at the last road crossing and jumped
back on the sled and finished shaking and exhausted but none the worse
for wear!!! I tried to explain to
Randy about all the turns and I am sure he thought I was exaggerating!! I didn’t feel so bad when I found out
that Ken Castaldi had also wiped out twice but didn’t lose his team. So Randy goes out in the 10 dog 10 miles and when he comes back I can
tell he was now “a believer”…..it was hard for my husband with 42 years of
dogsledding experience! It
ended up that I was 12th
out of 15 and Randy 5th out of 12!!!
That
nite they put on an “Alaskan Dinner” and had sourdough bread, berry pie, salmon
chowder, reindeer sausaged and stew that might have had moose in it – it was
delicious!!!!
Next
morning I debating in my head whether I am wise to go out on the trail again –
first I was going to use less dogs and then Randy said that probably wouldn’t
really make a difference and said that if her weren’t in 5th place
he might not even go out and do it again!
That made my mind up – if I wasn’t going to have fun doing it –which
Saturday wasn’t - then why risk getting hurt- so I scratched.
Randy
went out and said he “lost it”
going around the first 90 degree turn and had to drag on one knee for a ways
and that if anything, the trail was slickeryer – so I was glad I had decided
not to run it again. I give those
Wisconsin Trailblazers (especially Duncan McRae who ran in the 10 dog and beat
Randy by a second on Sunday at the age of 78 or 79 – he couldn’t remember……) a
lot of credit for handling a wild and crazy ride!!!
Took
off after the awards – Randy made back our entry fees with a few dollars to
spare – and we made it as far as Escanaba – feels good to be back in Michigan –
stopped for the nite in a mall parking lot and went to Pizza Hut where I
planned to catch up on my posting and they brought the Not-all-that-great pizza
out so fast and then told us they were closing so I didn’t get anything done –
at dinner we talked about possibly going to Daquaam Quebec for their last race
and we pretty much had ourselves talked into it but we considered that
yesterday on our grand-daughter Aeja’s
birthday when we talked to her she had a big surprise and that surprise
was that she was going to hold off having her birthday party until we got home
(because , you see, we always miss her birthday because we are always racing
sled dogs about now)…………the best reason to get home faster! what a sweetheart! Plus her Mom is going to have baby
number five any day now- another good reason!
I
was explaining to Aeja how Grandma fell and dragged behind the sled and she
said that when she and her brothers Ocean and Oak do that when they are riding
their dogsleds behind the snowmobile the call it doing a “Grandma and Grandpa”!!! (if you remember about the time
Randy dragged until his windpants, long underwear and then underwear all bunched
up around his ankles…..)
Got
to the bridge at about 1:30 and figured to be home about 5:30 and we were! Got to the driveway and it was
still light out and figured we would put the chains on and give it a try –
looked to be about 10 inches in some places with only Mark Kukal having driven
in to the house to get dog meat with his 4 wheel drive truck = Randy tried backing in and we got the
truck frame hung up on snow –shoveled and shoveled and couldn’t free it- called
Mark Kukal and he and Austin came to the rescue! Not only did Mark pull us out (because we were stuck with
the nose of the truck still out in the road….) so that we could pull it back
into the drive way but they helped us put the dogs back out in their
circles…they were so excited to be back home!!!!
By
that time it was 7:30 so we ate dinner and slept in the trailer overnite –
since the house was stone cold and the water turned off!
This
morning awoke to sunshine and slept in until 9:30 with no dogs to drop and
feed!!
House
is open and fire in the woodstove and TV on so we are home!!
Blessings
and safe travels to everyone else out there racing and to our family (actual
and extended!!) for their support!
It wasn’t the season that we expected it to be, but Randy always says
there must be a reason for us not to be where we thought we should have
been……..
God
Bless you all and I’ll talk at you next year!!!