Jiggety jig all the way home!

Friday and we are up to get ready to leave on our trip – We left after the second drop, shortly before 11 – the first part of the trip is quite mountainous – through the Laurentian Mountains I think – if you look on a map you will see that you can’t hardly get lost – there is only one road going up north!!  By the time we got to La Tuque it was less hilly but we did have some 11% grades going down – that “jake brake” has come in handy on numerous occasions.  You know how when you are the passenger everything seems scarier because you have no control over the driving ? – well I found a way to have a bit of control………….the jake brake!!  When I think we are going downhill too fast I put it on!  It’s positioned on the dash almost in front of me!

We made it up to Lac St. Jean and then headed northwest – about that time I expected to start seeing signs that would tell us which of the turn offs from the highway would take us to Saint Methode –(the gps would only show me the St. Methode way down south and when I spelled it the way it had it on the map it said “no results found” so the gps was no help at all) because I wasn’t for sure which dot on the map was the dot that was Saint Methode- you know how when there are lots of little towns together it’s difficult to tell which dot is which town?! so I started questioning myself , and even more when we had to make a final choice at a Y in the road – I thought it looked like it was off the Y to the right so we went that way – then no more signs saying Saint Methode made me more nervous so I asked Randy to pull over and look at the map to be sure which dot was correct – he looked at the map and didn’t remember for sure which dot is was but thought we should have gone to the left at the Y…………I say this calmly in writing it, but the conversation was not very calm………..  So we turn the rig around in this medium sized town and go back to the Y- then we see a dog truck going the way we had just come from – now we are both not sure which way to go – so we take the left Y and I suggest we stop and ask – so Randy pulls off at some office and I go in and fortunately the man in there spoke quite good English (usually it is show the person the map and say the place you want to go and have them point to it…) and he even drew us a map of where to go – as we are pulling out of the parking lot we see the Bellerives procession go by and try to follow them but couldn’t keep up – we follow the guy’s map and it turns out that both the left and the right legs of the Y make a triangle and so we could have kept going the way we were on the right leg and ended up in the same spot!!!  We finally get to Saint Methode and I see why I couldn’t get the gps to work – lots of towns in Quebec have 2 names – one on the top of the sign and another in parentheses on the bottom- the top name of Saint Methode is St. Felecien!!!!  If I had put that in we wouldn’t have had any trouble but who knew???!!

There were signs directing you to the dog race in the town and we had also gotten directions from Claude – we followed the signs and arrived in a big open field with a spot the size of a football field plowed out and 2 trailers parked – we were the first ones there and there is nothing, I mean nothing here.  We parked where the guy told us and settled in for the nite. 

This morning Melanie went out 4^th and had a good run but said it was very fast and the last 2 miles of the track were ice where the field had melted on the warm days and then frozen (oh yeah I forgot to tell you, it was -32F last nite – the generator only ran out of gas once meaning Randy had to get up and then worried about it the rest of the nite)

Randy is taking out only 10 dogs – it is a lucky coincidence that the track is so icy and we only have 10 healthy, unhurt, motivated dogs on the truck!!  Depending on whether Dee poops before he leaves (she likes to stop the whole team when she has to poop in a race or training) he will have Sterling and Dee or Beika and Sterling in lead. 

Well I know you are dying to find out…………Dee did poop and she did lead!  Randy had a good clean run and averaged 17.23mph to come in 17 out of 20!  He is happy about how they all did – some like T-Bone and Blanche that are older dogs can’t really go any faster than that but the little girls that are 1, Caleb and Trix kept up easy!!  And the powerhouse was the point dog Viper – Randy said that he set the pace better than the leaders did!  Claude is 3^rd (6 seconds separte the first 3 teams!) and Hermel had a tangle passing, couldn’t get his hook out (I know how that feels – that’s why Randy is missing part of a finger –he had to come and help me get my snow hook out and missed his chute time and then went out to train on the trail alone and had the trouble) and is in 16^th – Melanie we think said she was in 2^7th because she held back on the fast trail.  So day one down and one to go!!

Sunday = much warmer – went to a musher’s banquet in town- neighbors in another trailer took us in after he offered us Jack Daniels and gave us some syrup!  We had Lac St. Jean meat pie – it was traditionally made with all wild game but this was with beef and pork and a very thick crust on the top and botton!  Delicious!!!

Used Dee and Sterling in lead again and it went well but they were still too slow – held on to 17^th place, Claude 3^rd and Melanie think 6^th!  Claude left the chute a minute late because one of his leaders wouldn’t go so he had to switch him out and Melanie had problems with a tangle.  Took 4 hours to get home – so by 8:30 we were back at Bellerives.

Monday – Renell and Melanie wanted to have one last meal with us so they took us out to breakfast at the restaurant in town – a very tearful goodbye………it had been long time since we had been able to spend quality time with them and this month made us all remember why our relationships are so good………

Left Charette at 10:30 – one wrong turn going through a very busy Montreal but Dorothy/gps got us back on track without too much problem.  Stopped and fed the east side of Toronto and got to the other side of it in 45 minutes – we were just celebrating how well we were doing when we hit a stopped expressway!!!  After 45 minutes found out it was a overturned semi in the ditch – went a bit farther and found a place in a strip mall to park in Woodstock (all the rest areas were full) – to bed at 11:30 – will let you know how the day goes – hope to be home about 3p

Spent over 1/2 hour at the Blue Water Bridge at customs - they checked the inside of the vehicle in front of us and looked in the back of us and at dog food- looks like it will be 4:30 before we make it home - now in Saginaw!!!

Last race of the season!

Wednesday cont. – had dinner at the Bellerive’s house – chicken caccitore (spelling) I believe – no one could tell me for sure because Lise the housekeeper made the dinner- too much food – I was full and then Claude insisted we have dessert –sugarpie, banana bread and ice cream!  Ooof!!

Thursday we thought about training but the weather changed from spring back to dead of winter !!!  cold enough to think about mittens over the gloves again!  Randy went out to check the trail once and it was very crusty – what we gained by giving them a bit of exercise we might lose by hurting feet.

We were picked up at 6:30 by Renelle and Claude and we joined Melanie and Patrick at the restaurant in town for dinner.  Patrick is feeling better without nearly the pain since he started taking Lyrica but is sleeping a lot – like most of the day and nite. 

Speaking of sleeping- I had a terrible nite Wed nite – it was blowing back in all of the cold air!!  I kept hearing buckets and poop scoops blowing around all nite and it felt like it might blow the whole trailer down the road!!!

We are leaving this morning (Friday) at about 10:30 or so for St. Methode – Randy says we will probably come back here on Monday and spend the nite and then leave Tuesday morning early so we get thru the rush hour at Montreal.  Don’t know if I will have any internet access this weekend so you may not hear from me till Monday!!

Tuesday morning we awoke to an even warmer day.  We decided to train after the second drop and went out with me on the snowmobile with the team that Randy last raced, minus Raisin and Captain – Captain had pulled back so bad at the race that he is not going to use her this weekend at St-Methode and Raisin didn’t work hard so he is not going to race him.  After the training run he decided that Wolf wasn’t working very hard and might not use her!  Other than that the run went fine.  Then we tried taking a group out with Willy (the leader we got from Claude that was sore in the shoulders) and Cloud at lead for a 2 mile run– well we tried 5 or more times to have them leave and every time Willy would stop or turn around –so we don’t know what the deal with him is – whether he needs to know us better, he is testing us or just plain doesn’t want to leave here in lead!  Hermel says he has never done that before and is always charging ahead – so go figure!  We also took Spot (who ended up being in lead with Cloud and did very nice..) General, Jane, Dicksy, and Teddy- it was more for exercise than anything since they are all out of shape to race anyway even if they are not hurting anymore.  We all got back safe and sound with Randy having to get off the snowmobile (they were hooked to it) about 5 times to turn them (Spot and Cloud are not very good at Gee and Haw).

Well it looks like we are going to leave from this weekend’s race to come home (if I have found the right location on Mapquest – it would not make sense to come back to Bellerives since it is south of here and a bit west).  So we could be home as soon as Tuesday nite or Wednesday!  Say, Mark Kukal; if you have to come up and get some dog meat you might drop that snowplow blade down and clear a place for us to back up into…….

Wednesday:  Break out the flip flops and t-shirts!!!!  I spent most of the afternoon outside in a long sleeved t-shirt –you all have probably already had the weather that we are getting now!  I had to turn the furnace down and just use the heater and the it has been plenty warm all day in the trailer – what a change in the weather!!!

Busy day – started at the second drop by cleaning out boxes for the weekend and the trip home .  We had one more bag of soak and one bale of hay and had to totally clean out 7 boxes down to the boards.  Then refilled everybody with more soak and hay.  Then we went shopping – I was looking specifically for a plastic pretend grass mat to put outside the front door what with everything melting and wet boots coming in it can get pretty stinky –also bought an air freshener!!!  First went to Canadian Tire to see about getting some transmission fluid – Randy didn’t think to bring any with us and last weekend Hermel’s truck blew a line and thankfully Claude could find some in his truck – we don’t have the luxury of traveling in pairs……  We looked for a pair of boots like I got there for Randy because they are very light and easy to pull on and off (as opposed to Randy’s Muck boots or his Mickey Mouse boots)- the shelves where they were a couple of weeks ago are now filled with sandals and flip flops!!

Then we went to Walmart – no luck on a rug there either – then we had lunch at the Mcdonalds in Walmart – then to Rona for propane and no luck for a rug there either!

Back at 3 then I cleaned the house and Randy washed the truck and trailer – you can imagine the salt build up over the month!  Things look brand-spankin’-new!!!  So fed dogs and now Randy is waiting to help Claude feed his – then we go up to the house for a chicken dinner after we do our “after dinner drop”-

I was wrong about the weekend race location – apparently it is 5 hours north of here not south (Randy and Claude looked at the map last nite an there must be 2 different St. Methodes) – that means we may or may not stop back here after Sunday – just depends – and then it takes us about a day and ½ to get home.  So I will be able to post tonite and probably even Friday morning before we leave!!!  Who knows if there will be a place in St. Methode – we have never been there, obviously…………

Boy, do I have a story for you!!

Saturday nite was uneventful and we got up even earlier than the morning before to the sounds of dogs being dropped.  At about 10am we heard a lot of activity but thought it was the 4 dogs teams going out - only to learn that it was daylight savings time and Melanie had already gone out in the 6 dog without our help.  She ended up with a very good day and won the 6 dog race!!  It was good we found out Randy had to get ready an hour before we had planned - so we were ready in time and everthing went well.  He used Beika with Sterling in lead and moved other dogs around in the team but went with 14.  Since he was last I watched all of the teams come in and finally Randy- it seemed like he was faster coming in than the 2 minutes between team departures so I hoped he had moved up a place- well that didn't happen!  He had a bit of trouble on the trail----- he fell going around one of those right angle corners (he had mentioned yesterday that they were pretty tricky) dragged for a while, saw trees coming and let go, jumped up and started running after them (the sled was on its side behind the team) , remembered he had seen some snowmobiles a bit ago and started yelling "HELP" - a guy zoomed up to him, he got on the machine sidesaddle, the took off very very fast, winding around corners and curves and when they saw the team the guy was going to try and go past them and stop them and Randy said "No, no,no!!" so he pulled up next to the sled (which was upright miraculously!!) and Randy jumped from the machine onto the runners of the sled and took off!!!  Just like in a Western movie!!!!!!  He never ceases to amaze me!!!!  So the fact that he was able to pull that off was a big win for him even though he still came in last!

We fed the dogs at the race site and left for Bellerives at about 4:30 - it was good weather but oh so slow (20 to 30 mph) for the first 30 miles - we thought about going the way we used to go, but chose to go with a known evil...... tons and tons of frost heaves!!!!  We stopped in a Canadian Tire parking lot and dropped dogs about 1/2 way and arrived at about 8:30.

Slept in till 9 this morning and it was sooo quiet!!  In the house today to do some laundry, washed some rugs in the barn (some smell pretty uriney from coming in the front door!) and got bread out to tear after it's thawed.  It is a beautiful sunny day and the warmest since we left home!!!  Probably need to change out some bedding in about 1/2 the boxes - the stinky ones!  We looked at a trailer that one of the English speaking young dog drivers that we knew from years before (Charles Saucier) and he had built dog boxes in a trailer and had rubber mats on the floor of the boxes and had drainage from each box down into receptacles below!  Now that's a neat design!
More later!!

race results

Randy had a clean run and was only passed by the guy that won it at Laconia = Sterling did a good job at lead, Snapper could never get his tug line tight they were going faster than he can - and Captain and Raisin didn't work most of the trail - resulting in Randy being in last place with an average speed of 17.87 mph - which is what would have won in days gone by or at smaller races - 18 open, over 30 6 dog, and I don't know how many 4 dog and 8 dog!

I was most worried about bringing Randy's team back to the truck after the finish so he mentioned to Max it would be great if the 4 wheelers that brought them up to the start line could also bring them back to the truck - so I was really relieved to find that out...........then when Randy got back he had a 4 wheeler driver that didn't understand "go slow" - it was hard work, Amy - I felt like I was running the 5k with you!!!  took me a full minute to catch my breath!  It's all up hill for 50 yards until you get to the parking lot and then I could keep up - the rest of the time the leaders and point dogs were pulling me up the hill!!  Randy said he made his personal goal which was to not get passed by Claude who started at 16th with Randy at 12th!!

Wine time!!

Saturday at Daaquam

This is so not like it used to be the last time we raced here - when the Saturday race would be over or on Friday nite, we and maybe only one other trailer with people living in it would be here in the parking lot -now it's a whole village!!!  I will have to count but now everybody has a trailer!!!

Along with all those people sleeping here, comes all those dogs getting up earlier in the morning than we had planned to.......so up at 7:15!!!

We had a couple coughing dogs yesterday so we gave them honey in a syringe and today nobody is coughing.

Randy got his number just now and he goes out 12th out of 18.  Hermel got #1 and Claude #16.  Will let you know how it goes!  Randy will be running 13 (or 14 if he decides to take Wolf)
Snapper  Sterling
Viper      Dee
T-Bone   Blanche
Trix        Doe
Caleb      Wolf
Captain   Raisin
Sioux       Beika

Daaquam on Friday

Incredibly we have wifi here at the lodge so I will be able to talk to you again tomorrow.

Left Bellerives at 10am stopped and got a few groceries in Charette then traveled through Quebec city to cross the St. Lawrence - got a bit lost for a minute when I couldn't read the gps as fast as I needed to read the signs and we got off on the wrong exit= I give her credit; Dorothy/gps got us right back on the right track!  We took a slightly different route (recommended by Dorothy....) because we thought we remembered from 5 years ago that the shortest route was extremely hilly (we are in the northern part of the Appalachian mountain) so we thought the gps might have a better route..........not!!!  It was just as hilly if not more and so many frost heaves!!!  every time I would bounce with the bump the seat belt would cut me in the shoulder!  It was fun to see a different part of Quebec, but the road was not better.  So we got here about 4 hours 15 minutes when we thought it should be 3.5 hours - went very slow - like 20mph over the frost heaves - and drove right to the place where we had raced before.  Bellerives left at 11:30 so we thought to see them about an hour after we got here - come 4:15 they finally arrived and the second dog truck break a automatic transmission line and had to find a place to have parts and fluid to fix it!

They are parked right next to us and on the other side is a couple from France who now live in Quebec that we remembered from the last time we raced here.

Bellerives invited us to dinner in the lodge so I had the salmon and carrot soup (I have to try making this - it was excellent!!!)  and Randy had steak- lots of people that we knew from 5 years ago stopped by the table and it was like "old home week"!!!!

Back to the trailer at 9:30 only to find out the generator had quit and so it was 25 degrees in the house!  Randy got it fired up again after we dropped dogs and it's already a balmy 44 in here!!!

A little faster posting this time!!

We did go to Walmart on Tuesday and found all kinds of things to buy!!!  It’s surprising to have it not much different at all than from the
Walmart in Fremont – just a little narrower isles – like ½ the width- and with poles in the middle of the isles and higher prices!  We even got one of the pitchers that Hermel told us about that you just put the plastic bag of milk into, snip the corner and it pours right out!!!  It really, really works!

Tuesday nite we went over to the Bellerives and had call-in from the restaurant – I had fish again –it’s something I don’t get a lot because Randy doesn’t really like fish.  We even brought hors d’ouvres (I can’t even get the correct spelling with spell check!)- “polish roses” which for the culinarily challenged, is green onion wrapped with ham and cream cheese.  The Bellerives had never had them and really liked them!!

Wednesday we decided to train and Randy wanted to try the whole team that he plans to run on Saturday so we hooked up 15 dogs and took off with me on the snowmobile- it was easier to turn but pretty goosey going around the curves – when I waited for Randy at a turn so the dogs could see which way I was going to turn, then they got close and I would have to take off fast to get ahead again and in some of those curves I almost lost it and went off the trail even with the 8 inch birm on the trail!!!  Randy said it was the best run of the year!   The dogs went good and even ran up most of the hills – they are finally getting back into shape.

 They are not always behaving themselves, however.  2 days ago Blanche chewed the wire covers off from the battery wires under the truck and last nite Caleb chewed the air line in half!!!  So that’s the project for today!  It’s crazy because not only have they been a month on the truck and not touched the wires, but as soon as one of them chews on something, every dog we try to put there hoping they won’t chew, somehow knows that a dog before had chewed on it and they do the same!!!

With a visit to the hardware and finding out they didn’t have what we needed to fix the air line, we Randy’s next sure thing- the maintenance garage for Bellerives business!!!! Paydirt!  He had everything Randy needed to patch it and wouldn’t let us pay for it – Randy told him to just bill Claude – joke, joke!

This afternoon we tore up bread for the weekend so we wouldn’t have to do it in the trailer so we thawed it in the barn for a couple of hours and then made 2 dogfood bags full of bread.

We are debating whether to leave right after the first drop tomorrow or wait until the 2^nd one and leave about 10 – I vote for plan B and stopping a few minutes at the grocery store for a couple of things.  It is only 182 miles by the gps so it shouldn’t take more than 3 or so hours – it is near the town of St. Just-de-Bretinere (spellcheck).

Hopefully they will have wifi in the lodge at the race and I can give you updates throughout the weekend!!

I finally got the computer to work!!!!!!! Happy Birthday Aeja!!!!!

Tuesday – 2/24/15

The dogs are waking up with the sun every morning – that means of course, several minutes earlier every day!!!  This morning we got up at 7:10am – an all time “early”!  We have a couple of dogs (especially Captain) that “scream” when they want out of their boxes – and then there’s always the “doggie chorus” – when one starts howling they all join in!!!  It is very cold this morning – the little heater on the floor says it’s 32 degrees.  When we dropped dogs I had to come back in twice- once for another jacket and also for a pair of mittens to put over my insulated leather gloves – that’s a first for this year!  The dogs are crazy to get out and then crazy to get back in again where it’s warm!!

We had a lovely dinner and conversation with Bellerive’s last nite – I thought because Melanie said lasagna at “my house” she meant her real house, but she still refers to her parents house as “my house” and that is where we had dinner!  Followed by a choice of strawberry shortcake cake or, Randy’s favorite, sugar pie!!  It’s like a tradition that when we come here Melanie makes sure that Randy get sugar pie.  It’s kind of like a maple-y surgary pecan-piesh (without the pecans) filling in a pie crust – I can’t imagine the number of calories per slice!!!  Between that and his Oreos……he just says “I’m on vacation”!

Abit of miscommunication – Randy overheard Melanie saying she would be by today at 11:30 to pick me up – she had intended we would both come to her house to get a “tour” since she is mostly done decorating it – but I went and had lunch with just Melanie and Renelle instead – a “girl’s lunch”!  We had subs and wraps and Melanie took about 3 hours from work to do the tour and talk.  It takes 15 minutes just to walk through the house!!!!  It is beautiful – 2 story entrance, with stairs on both side of the entry going upstairs, white marble floors, golf practice area with one wall being the realistic practice range, theater seating 20 with white leather sectionals and her and Patrick’s bedroom has like a living room seating area and their closet is as big as my living room!!!!  She is blessed and she knows it – she has no “airs” about her and her lifestyle!

The rest of the day was just dog chores and a movie.

Wednesday 2/25

Yea – training day (I mean that very very facetiously!)  Things have not been going so well first 3 attempts and I hoped this would be different – not to be so…..

Not so cold as it has been and snowing quite a bit.

For those of you that know the dogs I will just say the first team was the “best” team of the 2 10-dog teams – hoping that it would be easier…… Snapper and Doe in lead – Snapper being our most reliable leader – until he underwent some kink of personality transformation – there was almost nothing he didn’t try to do wrong including stopping and turning almost every turn the wrong direction!!  Then we had to take Doe out because she was shying of Hermel’s team when they passed.  Another disaster – we left a few minutes before Hermel did with a 15 dog team and we head on collided with him 3 times – not just a little bit of tangling, but the full-blown take all the tug lines off and straightening them out kink – and that was with 5 people trying to untangle them!!!!!  2 of them only speaking French!  The main problem was, again, Snapper, the dogs that stays on the left side of the trail and he didn’t budge even with 15 dogs coming at him!!  It could have been avoided had we left after Hermel, but that would have been too easy………..  After we took Doe out of lead, Caleb ended up finishing.

So that was supposed to be the easy team- you can imagine my trepidation!  The next team was lead by Beika (who came from Bellerives) and Sterling (the dog we have only run twice that we just got from Bellerives)  They take the first haw good and then Beika thinks she wants to go back to the barn and not run any more than a mile……3 times I had to drag the whole team over to the trail through the deep snow to get her to go on the right trail – every time I would get them in the trail and let them go she would duck back to go home!!!!  Randy had some pretty choice word of description for her behavior…..  A couple of more times she had to be turned but not as bad as that one!  We did end up having to pass Hermel a couple of times (even though we left much earlier than him this time) but it went well – Sterling did a perfect job and Randy will probably use him lead with Beika for the race this weekend because there will head-on passing.  Is it any wonder I dread training???!!!! 

Today seemed like a beautiful day with it sunny but chillier (we found out when we were going to take a little snowmobile ride (I thought it was for fun but it was really for Randy to have me memorize the trail – so I could lead on the 4 wheeler instead of following…..) but it was so cold on my face I had to cover everything including my eyes (forgot my goggles) so we turned around and came back.  We did get 2 naps in and managed to put more bedding and dry soak in all of the boxes – the majority of the 24 are good about not peeing in their box but about 5 of them, not so much..

Between now and tomorrow morning we need to get directions to where the race is because we will leave tomorrow- the last time we went to a race near here, I followed the map to the town that was in the race’s name – Kamarouska – little did we know that it was also the name of the region and the race was 20 miles from the town!!!

Something very interesting and unexpected (especially in view of the comments he has made to me about doing it…) has happened over the last 2 days………Randy is addicted to computer solitaire!!!   Anybody that knows Randy knows that computers are not his favorite thing!  So know instead of me watching movies and playing solitaire, he’s “hogging” the computer!!!  That leaves me to read the book “Sacajawea” that he just finished – 1342 pages not including the bibliography!

Another thing I could mention is the traffic on the road in front of us – about a hundred yards away – the one we have to cross to train.  I bet you there is double trailer full of logs going by every 5 minutes traveling to the east!!!  We can hear them but not so loud as to bother us.

Friday 2/27/15

Change of plans!!  Last nite Claude came in the trailer to tell us where the race was and that he would get an exact address for us this morning.   He told us that Patrick has been worse the last 3 days and had not even gotten out of bed and they had an appointment with the nuerologist this morning at the hospital in Montreal and that likely he would be admitted for evaluation – so they were not going to the race this weekend so they could support Melanie and Patrick.  The more Randy thought about it, this race was going to have 2 head-on passes every mile and it has been a long time since we have raced here and it wouldn’t be as enjoyable without the Bellerives there –so we are not going ourselves.  Instead we are going to train today as is Hermel.  You can imagine my excitement!!!!!  It will be slightly delayed, however, since Randy just went out to start the truck to move over to our training spot on the other side of the of the barn and the truck wouldn’t start – he thinks because it was so cold last nite and we didn’t start it yesterday that the engine block heater needs to be plugged in to warm up and he put a charger on the battery because it didn’t want to turn over very bad……

2 teams of 9 with Snapper and Sterling out first – actually, it went quite well – it’s sunny but very cold – my throttle thumb froze and I kept almost all of my face covered!  I only had to get off of the 4 wheeler once  and by the time I hit the ground (and of course my elbow….why is it when you have an injury you always seem to bump it more often than normal –one of life’s great myteries…) they had already turned the right way –what a change from Snapper’s previous performance!!  He was as good today as he was bad the other day!!

Next was T-Bone and Sioux in lead – I asked Randy if he really thought Sioux would lead and he said “I hope so” so my next question was what was plan B – he responds with “just keep trying dogs until one will lead” – does that inspire confidence in how well this is going to go???  So we get them all hooked up and it’s my job to jump on the 4 wheeeler and race ahead of the team to look for safe passing over the road – I get to the road and turn around and no team no Randy – I can see that he is still back at the barn and I wait to see if he is going to come soon – I wait and think maybe he’s really having trouble and I should go back and help –so I turn around and race back and he takes off with Cloud instead of Sioux in lead -so I turn around, pass the team and race to the road – from there it went downhill – T-Bone trained with Bellerives here and knew every shortcut to take back home to the barn!!!! I was on and off and on and off and through the deep snow – finally we got to the middle of the trail where there are not as many choices to turn and things went well for awhile until Cloud stopped the team so he could take a “snow bite break”!!!!  Then T-Bone figured he would shave a mile or so off the run again!!! Along the way we met Claude running his team and head-on passed and then met Hermel at a corner and things went blessedly well.

Finally back to the barn and today I hurt only ½ as much as usual from turning the 4 wheeler and jumping on and off – I must be getting into some sort of shape!  Fed dinner and Claude stopped by to say they would pick us up at 6:30 for supper.  We ended up going to Melanie’s house and ordered in from the restaurant.  Randy ordered poutine (might have spelled that wrong) which is French fries with cheese and brown gravy over them and a hamburg – me I had fish.  We ate in the formal dining room and Patrick was able to join us – he was feeling a bit better and did not have to stay at the hospital – they increased his medicine and added a steroid – I think, from the label that I read.

Today up at 8 (the dogs let us sleep in – I have been leaving the radio on for them in the back and I think is seems to calm them…) and for the second drop we were going to move over to the training spot and try to free drop some dogs, but the truck wouldn’t start again – so plug everything back in –

By the time we got the truck started we had already dropped for the 2^nd time – we thought that we would try letting them run around when we dropped them for feeding at 4 pm but it got really windy and colder – when we are in the “training position” we are more out in the open and the wind was really rocking the trailer – the only upside to the wind is that it is bringing warmer temperatures with it!  I am listening to the Quebec talk radio and the give regular weather conditions and predictions.  So we ended up not letting them free run and moved back to our usual parking spot where we are more protected by the barn.  Melanie and Patrick dropped off goggles for me to try because I had mentioned that I was frostbiting my eyebrows – Claude tried to give us some more donuts like the ones that Melanie brought us Friday  (they are maple flavored and unique to Quebec – they also brought us another sugar pie “tarte au sucre” because Patrick said this was the best kind!! Way better than the other kind Melanie bought Randy!) when he stopped by on his way to a funeral of one of the original employees of his roofing company, Cirtech.  The man worked for him for 25 years and was 86 years old.

The rest of the day was spent with eating, napping, movies, reading and Randy doing a little project for me- he put a piece of sled runner at the door between the “house” and the “dog boxes house” so that the carpet on the floor will flip up on the end at the door so that when I come into the “house” I don’t drag hay from the floor with me= that’s actually the messiest part of the whole setup – there is always hay on the floor!!!

March 1st

Training day!!! Much warmer today than yesterday – feels balmy!!! Did get a bit cooler as the day went on.  Randy considered running one team of 16 but with all the trouble we have had with head-on passing on the wrong side of the trail he decided to just do 2 teams of 8 – yes the numbers are dwindling – what with sore dogs and dogs who don’t seem to want to run as hard as they did before.  1^st team was lead by Doe and Cloud (brother and sister out of Gill from Streepers and our Scar) and wonder of wonders……….no problems turning corners!!!!!!!!  Because Cris finally figured out the trail and had them following me!!  The next team with Sterling and Snapper also went well except for a bit of head-on passing with Claude’s team again and Randy went off the trail onto a snowmobile trail for a little while, but all in all, very successful!!  There are 4 really big hills that you go up and down in this training trail and the dogs are getting stronger every training session!

You probably are wondering why I haven’t posted in almost a week – the Bellerives have been preoccupied with Patrick (he is not doing well again and is going to a neurologist in Trois Riviere tomorrow for another opinion) and so we just wait to see if they invite is in and I haven’t wanted to intrude by going over to the house – and then ½ the time we do go to their house I forget to bring the computer!  Tomorrow I will go over to the house and do laundry and get caught up!

After training today I even had enough energy to clean house –not that it’s very big – and even used the little vacuum cleaner my Dad gave me years ago!

The good news is that we found out that yesterday it was so windy they didn’t run the open teams at the race we had planned to go to in Kamarouska – don’t know about today but it was good we didn’t go to the race.

Monday, 3/2

Almost Aeja’s birthday!!!!  Tomorrow the big 11!!!  We are going to try to get through on the phone to do a personal wish!!

Started out warmish this morning but by the 2^nd drop the wind had kicked up and it feels much cooler.  I am in the house and waiting for Lise (the housekeeper) to finish a load of wash she is doing and then I have  2 loads.

This weeks race is at Daquaam.  We have been there at least 4 times – it is at a provincial nature area on a river with a rustic lodge right on the river.  The start is on the frozen river – one year it melted and they had to re-route the start!  Last time we were there Max and his wife Mary Claude ran the place – that is also where they give the dogsled rides with the huge malamutes – I will have to take some pictures – I have 2 cameras with me and haven’t taken picture #1! 

I spent an hour trying to get on the internet and was not able to – even though I was last week.

So today after we dropped dogs we came into Shewanigan to get propane again and to Tim Horton’s to use their wifi.  Maybe even go to Walmart!!!

Sorry it took so long for me to post – you probably thought we dropped off the face of the earth!!

Saturday – 2/21/15

Up at 8am, fed dogs and then us.  I had gotten 8 sausage links at the grocery store and so I fried them and the eggs – they were OK but not $5 worth!

I really got a lot accomplished yesterday while I was on the internet – got 2 loads of laundry washed and dried, applied to the Muskegon Art Fair and Newaygo Memorial Day for kettle korn and I finally got my nursing license renewed!!!  I had tried for 5 hours at home and it wouldn’t go through so I called the state and she told me to get rid of all my “cookies” so I did and it still didn’t  work – so I called her again and she told me to go to a library to do it!!!!!  There’s are Michigan State tax dollars at work – renewing on line is the only option and she wants me to have to go to the library!  Well it must have been my dial up connection at home that was the problem because it went through the first time yesterday and I am even in a different country!!!!!!

It was training day again so after breakfast we dropped all the dogs and put ½ back in and got them ready to run – oil on their feet, boots on some with sore feet, harnesses, hook them in to the line and then be ready to take off on the 4 wheeler with the tracks again to the road crossing so I can tell Randy if it is safe to cross because he can’t  see from his position.  Cross the road and you guessed it….jump off and turn the leaders the right way!  Several more times of doing that, especially at one corner that they consistently miss and then get so far into the wrong turn that I either have to turn the team back on itself or waller thru the deep snow to get them going in the right direction.  The second ½ of the trail is better with less choices for turns, therefore, less mistakes and less of me jumping off this huge 4 wheeler.  The second team we had Snapper and the new dog, Sterling, in lead – Sterling thought he knew which way to go but Snapper dragged him the wrong way – so jump off again.  Snapper made most of the turns correctly and Sterling made him go really fast the first 5 or 6 miles, until we got to the big hills.  About 3 miles out Randy stopped in the middle of the trail for a tangle and when I started to follow him, I couldn’t go forward – the right rear track was spinning in the snow digging a hole!  So I put it in reverse then tried going forward, then I put it in low, then I put it in 4 wheel drive (they told me at lunch yesterday it is much easier to steer in 2 wheel drive) then I finally went forward.  When I had gone ahead a few yards, I put it back into 2 wheel and high and it wouldn’t go again………….so I don’t know what I did or didn’t do but I finally got up the hill and …………..no Randy.  You have to remember this training trail is 6 big loops in over 120 acres of farm land and at any given time, I am lost!!!!  So I keep going the way I think Randy went and still can’t find him and I see the trail that goes home – thinking I better beat him to the road crossing or he won’t have anyone to look for traffic – so I get to the road and no Randy – so I don’t know if he is behind me or already back at the barn and I can’t see the barn from the road!!!!  I am almost ready to try and race to the barn and see if he is there and here he comes up behind me!  He was in one of those loops and I couldn’t see him – so it ends well all in all…….

After training we are pretty much exhausted, so movie time until time to feed!!!  We had a nice dinner of fried pork chops, baked potato, cranberry sauce and apple sauce!!

Sunday – 2/22

It snowed quite a bit overnite – probably 5 inches so the front end loader was here already just as we were putting the dogs back in from breakfast – they do a good job of keeping the streets clear here!

Up a little earlier that normal so we had them all back in their boxes by 8:15 – just in time to be able to go to the only mass they have here in town at 9am!  I thought we could walk the mile to church but Randy wanted to drive (and it was a good thing because my knee started bothering me more this afternoon), so we drove the whole rig up there and took up all of the post office parking lot.  Mass was all in French and I could recognize only 1 in 20 words, mostly because they either sound like an English or Spanish word!   Like in French church is “eglise” (may not have that spelled right….) and in Spanish “iglesia”.  We enjoyed the service even though we didn’t recognize any of the songs and most of the prayers – and they didn’t do any “sign of peace” to each other which we thought was interesting.  There were maybe 30 people there and it was held in a little chapel at the back of the church – we are imagining that the parish cannot afford to heat the church in the winter, especially with so few coming to Mass.  The church itself is beautiful old French Quebec with tall spires and steeples– Bellerives had the interior restored to its original condition.

In the afternoon Randy wanted to try out some dogs that had been having shoulder problems so we hooked up a leader we got from Claude (Willy) and Kyle, a team dog from Claude, our Spot and Teddy.  I suggested we use the snowmobile instead of the sled in case one of them needed to be carried because they couldn’t keep up……..what a good idea that was!!!!  Randy thought that Willy would single lead……..after 6 attempts and getting balled up numerous times, Randy decided that it wasn’t going to work.  So I held the team out while he walked back the 50 yards to get Dee to help Willy lead – finally we left and things were going OK (still stopping to turn them when they didn’t turn the right way) and then Randy decides to try Teddy in lead – that didn’t work worth a bean!  He stopped and started and wanted to push Willy into the snow bank, so we put Spot up with Willy…………the highlight of the run!!!  He drove really hard and looks like he is feeling good!

The rest of the day was uneventful – I cooked my brussel sprouts for my dinner and Randy had mac and cheese.  Then he went to the barn and helped Claude and Hermel feed their dogs.

It was probably the warmest day we have had since we left Michigan – warm enough for the snow to melt on the pavement.

Monday 2/23

The temperature feels like it dropped 20 degrees and it’s windy again, (Randy says the thermometer inside the dog box on the truck says -10 degrees and that is without the wind chill) though sunny.  Randy said they would not train today (don’t know if that’s because the trail needs to be groomed before they train again what with all the snow we got Saturday nite) – so maybe groom today and train tomorrow?  I know that Wednesday Bellerives are having a get together with 35 of their roofing business clients – they have been doing this same thing for a number of years – they all meet near here and then drive an hour …..on snowmobiles!  They go to a remote lodge where they have ice fishing, skating with hockey and other outdoor activities (Melaniae said she would bring me a trout home!) and then have a big dinner at the end of the day.  Sounds like fun – I will be able to tell you more after Wednesday.

Tonite we are invited to Melanie’s for lasagna –more on that later!!

In our quest today to fill the propane tanks that are in an insulated dog box on the truck with a heater to thaw the buckets of dog food (and thereby making it not necessary to have 2 buckets thawing at the end of our table in front of the furnace smelling up the trailer like spoiled meat….) we first went to the place we always filled up about 5 miles from here.  Well they don’t fill tanks any more….they told us to go to the Esso gas station 5 more miles…………Randy stopped at an Eko gas station and they told us to go to the Canadian Tire store in Shewanigan – another 3 miles and we see the Esso station; the 2 people that fill the tanks are not back for 2 hours – we decide to see whether the Canadian Tire store can do it – they won’t fill it because it’s too cold out!  We go shopping there and do find some new boots for me (good to -58 degrees) and some lined gloves to use on dog work since Randy left his only other pair on a gas pump in NY state-  we decide to go back to the Esso and wait and on the way leaving Shewanigan to a grocery store, we see that Rona, has propane.  So I grocery shop and the Rona guy tells Randy he will fill it and it’s even cheaper than any other price we have gotten.  So with all of our assignments completed, we stop at McDonalds – a bit of lack of communication where I ended up with a hamburg with nothing on it…I mean nothing!!! No catsup, mustard, pickle, nada! And for the mere price of $12.54!!! (Randy had a combo burger, with drink and fries)  Things are a bit pricier up here!!!

I happened to notice on our trip as we passed a cemetery – many of the gravestones were set up back to back – so you would theoretically have people lying “head to head” – space saving measure???!!

Monday –

Yeah!!!!!! Made it to Bellerive’s!!!!!  got up this morning after the nite I described to you and got the dogs fed and hit the road for just south of Laconia to buy us some “fixin’ the house to be warmer stuff” at Lowes.  Got a Eden-Pure-like heater that I negotiated the salesperson down on because it was the only one he had and it had scratches (did I do good Jess???) and a stiff push broom to sweep the snow off the back ramp every time we open it (the half-size kiddy broom with waffly fibers wasn’t getting it),some of the window shrinky dink stuff and of course I didn’t bring a dryer so we needed a heat gun!!!

I forgot how mountainous the north portion of NH and Vermont are – lots of ups and 5% grade downs – we went by the Indian Head which I remember from a previous trip but couldn’t see it for whatever reason – I was thinking we went by the profile of I think president Grant that NH uses in their state insignia but that must have been a different road.  The last time we came by the Indianhead his nose was gone…..maybe all of him fell off the mountain!!!  Stopped for diesel for the truck and gasoline at the last city before the border, Newport VT – that’s where I posted last.  The next big anxiety-provoking hurdle- ta-ta-da-da…………….the dreaded border crossing!!!!!  Young guy asked a few questions and said “have a nice day”  Whew!!!  We have have just enough problems at border crossings to make me very nervous…Randy commented after the fact that you would think that when you are as old as we and and not likely drug runners or smugglers your should get an “automatic pass Go and collect $200” but maybe you have to be 90 years old to get to that point!!

So we are parked outside of the barn where the dogs live and have just plugged in the “Eden Pure-like” heater and it seems to be working good!! Here’s to an uneventful and more sleepful nite!!  Will be able to post at Bellerive’s house’s wifi tomorrow!!

We did indeed have a more restful nite and yes, the heater is working well – it’s 60 degrees in here right now at 4:15pm -   We spent the after noon putting the shrink wrap on the windows –not a small project!! Took about 3 hours – 3 windows and 2 overhead vents.  The newly purchased heat gun worked great and I suppose I could even use it for a hair dryer in a pinch!!  We saw Claude briefly this morning and he talked about seeing us this afternoon but no sign of them yet.  We took loaves of bread in to the dog barn (the area we get to use is more like the same level of niceness of my house) and we broke up about 2  buckets of bread to provide carbs for the dogs in their feedings.  Lots of the bread was really really frozen (because we haul in it the sub-floor of the back of the trailer under the dog coops) and Randy and I ended up with some pretty cold fingers!  We treated some dog feet at the last drop and will probably feed about 15 minutes from now – Randy wants to be free to go in the barn and follow Claude feeding his dogs because he said there might be some Randy would be interested in.

Wednesday (I think….)  Happy birthday Lucas!!!!!!!  

Hard to keep track you know – no tv – I just put the radio on for some outside stimulation.  Cold again today, but as yesterday, no wind – that helps a lot.  Perhaps the temp is warmer out because we just have the heater working most of the time and not the furnace as much.  With just the heater it is 68 degrees in here right now at 1p.  Randy is out with Hermel (Bellerive’s dog man) grooming the trail for training tomorrow.  He has been out there quite a while – long enough for me to finish ½ a movie and wash my hair and have it dried!  After he gets back we are going to the grocery store and hardware (2 of the 3 stores in the town of Charette!!)

Soooo a package of ham for sandwich meat was $5 – the small amounts of snap peas and brussel sprouts went for 11 and 14$ a pound…………..it’s way different price-wise up here!

Blew the wad at the grocery store and had a “reunion” with the owner of the store, Mario – we had not been there for probably 5 years and it was good to see him again – he recognized us immediately and spoke good English – he was one of the Quebecers that told us that it is very important to try to speak some French when we are here so that the residents feel as though we are making a good attempt to communicate.  So I used my entire repertoire of French words……about 5!!!

After unloading groceries we fed dogs and then dropped them 2 hours later so we could go out to dinner with the Bellerives.  We went to the only restaurant in town which is also owned by Claude’s cousin – I had my usual = garlic shrimp!!! Delicious!!! Patrick is still not feeling well with his cerebral pain so he did not join us but Hermel was there to talk dogs and provide additional translation ability!

Thursday – Happy birthday Bec!! 

Another cold day but still not as bad as it was in Laconia!  Some snow – about 2 inches – it was training day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Now I don’t remember ever having to do this before, but not only did I have to do all the getting ready for 2 teams of 10, but I also had to be the one driving the 4 wheeler (which, Lucas, has like bulldozer tracks on it……….making it not so easy to turn corners………..) to be out to the road crossing and make sure there are no vehicles coming in order for Randy to cross with the team, but then also follow him around the whole trail (10 miles…….) and jump off and turn the dogs every time they wouldn’t take the turn he was telling them to!!!  The first team out was lead by Scar and Beika – they acted like they had never heard the words “Gee and Haw” and I had to get off at least 10 times to go up to the front of the team and turn them the way Randy wanted them to go!  The second team lead by Snapper and Doe did a bit better but I still had about 4 times getting off to lead them in the right direction.  The training trail is quite beautiful – once you cross the road (which seems a lot busier than it did the last time we were here!) in the first ¼ mile, then you do loops and loops and loops out in farming, hilly country where there is also a well traveled snow machine trail – which we did see several of today!  Several great big hills – the kind that when you are at the top and about to go down the other side it looks like you are going to drop off the face of the earth!!  Luke, you would have loved the winding downhill trail through the woods!!!  I will have to try and take some pictures next run but today I was just getting a grip on what I was supposed to do – we did try out 2 dogs from Claude named Viper and Sterling and they did very well.

Looks like they will become part of “team DeKuiper”!! 

So now I just sitting in the trailer watching some horror CD’s that our kids have given me and waiting to find out if we are having dinner with just us or with Bellerives.  I am still sore from falling down unloading one of the dogs that we got from Claude named “Willy” (maybe after my Dad????)– he has a sore shoulder but you couldn’t prove it by me!!!  He took me down the back ramp and wham, on the ground with the elbow!!!  Today I felt like a train ran me over!!!   No major injuries, just old people stuff – nothing a little Cabernet can’t help!!!!

Used my stove for the first time tonite – hamburgers in the pan!!!  That’s something I never had in the blue trailer – I used to have a single burner in the old brown dog truck, but no microwave – then I had only the microwave in the blue trailer –now I have both!!!!  I am so spoiled!!

Friday-

Up at 8 and let the dogs out – while they were out a front end loader (3 times the size of out backhoe…..could be its “backhoe Daddy…” came and  plowed all around us and the driveways.  Now that we have figured out what day of the week it is (that took me some time and consultation with Randy about the last week’s events..) we are deciding on whether to train again today or not – guess what my vote is?!!!  It seems a little chillier today and there is some wind.  Randy went out on the snowmobile to check out a turn that he missed and found the training trail quite blown in!  So no training until the groomer goes around again. 

Just as I was loading up to walk over to the house to do some laundry, Claude stopped by to ask us to lunch with Melanie and Hermel (Patrick is still having a lot of pain from his neurological problem – apparently they have consulted with 2 different neurologists and are treating for the trigeminal neuralgia but it doesn’t seem to be helping – they are giving a med they use for epilepsy but Melanie could not remember what it is – so perhaps they will try the other specialist and see if he can help with his different diagnosis – which I don’t know either) at the little restaurant in town where we ate Wednesday.   I had some delicious fish and Randy had one of the specials, pizza with French fries!!!  Some foods that they take for granted as going together are just not what we are used to!!!!

Randy is going out with Hermel later today to groom the trail, everybody else went back to work.  Tomorrow Melanie and Patrick are going to his father’s birthday dinner after training and Claude and Renelle are going to Montreal for the weekend to celebrate Valentine’s Day.  Melanie invited us to lasagna dinner at her house for Monday so we are kind of on our own till then – maybe we will go shopping??!!!  I could really use another pair of winter boots!!

So I am in Bellerive’s home right now and Lise, their housekeeper showed me how to use the new washer and dryer in the completely remodeled laundry room and she showed me the re-do on the downstairs bathroom!!!!  WOW!!!  I thought it was luxurious before!!!!! They took out the bidet………..must be nobody was using it, including me!

As I said, people may be busy all weekend so I may not be able to post again until Monday!  Miss and love you all!!!

Leaving Laconia

Sunday – had a delightful Valentine’s dinner – both of us had prime rib– in case I didn’t mention it last nite –

Today Randy had to make one of the hardest decisions – one that he has never had to make before in 42 years of dogsledding!  He scratched.  After thinking about it all nite he decided that it was unfair to ask the 6 yearlings to go out on such a difficult trail (what with all the people and noise) without solid leaders.  On top of it all it was a terrible weather-wise day – I don’t know the actual temp but the winds must be 40mph at least – I noticed a little bit of frostbite under my eyes that I thought had healed but now is back.  So instead of getting the team ready and Randy having to battle the elements, we helped other teams get out and then went to the part of the trail where many people had trouble with their dogs wanting to jump the trail and take a short cut back to the dog yard (including Randy) because the final loop of the trail goes right by the start line on the opposite side of the road!! so we were trail help and thankfully none of the teams tried to go off the trail today.  It was so windy out there I almost blew over…and I am no lightweight anymore!! We did see some pretty exciting head-on passing and at one point 3 teams were balled up neck and neck on the trail!  Went to the awards ceremony and Melanie Bellerive got 2^nd place and Claude was 7^th because he too had leader problems yesterday and more problems twice that we could see from where we were on the trail today.

Will spend the nite here in the race site – still windy – sounds like a tornado out there!!!  Tomorrow do some shopping before we head north and make our way to Bellerive’s.  No race this next weekend because they postponed the Ile aux Coudres (the island in the middle of the St. Lawrence Seaway that has the 8% grade in ½ mile going down to the car ferry!!) so we will probably just train at Bellerive’s and see if we can’t “cultivate” some stronger leaders!

Well we spent about an hour trying to protect ourselves better from the wind – saran wrap on the vents, rugs and blankets over the windows and door (even though I did make some buffalo plaid flannel curtains for all the windows, the wind is just too strong..)  Finally some time in the middle of the nite the wind died down so we didn’t feel like a tin can waiting to blow down the road and then the generator quit – hadn’t done that since the race weekend at Kalkaska.  So Randy got up and dressed and had to go out and fill the generator with gas again because the add-on siphon tank wasn’t working!!!!  What’s new???!!!

Happy New 2015!!!   We hope this year finds you happy and well!

Haven’t gotten around to blogging yet since the only interesting things that have been happening are training, getting sick with whatever the name flu bugs and colds, training, exposing the young dogs (which comprises over ½ of our racing dogs) to a race scenario at Kalkaska (by the way, it sure wasn’t the same without all the Edges – that means you, Tom, there – hope you are healing fast from your shoulder surgery) where we fared moderate to fair……(including Mark Kukal that ran my 4 dog team when I found out it was supposed to be a treacherous trail and Mark found ½ way down the trail that the experienced leader he had, Al, didn’t want to run lead for him and he had to put a yearling in lead….), training, and oh yeah, Randy dragging down the ice road and me hitting him with the snowmobile runner!  I will tell that story in a minute –

We just got into Laconia, NH and are finding that we may have some trouble fitting into our parking spot for the race tomorrow when they assign us a spot according to starting order – we have a new trailer and still the very big blue GMC 5500 and are 53 feet long!  Even before that we had some trouble finding the race site because it might be about 7 years or so since we have been here!

We left home on Tues promptly at 1:13 pm (Randy wanted to leave at 1:15 – I try to accommodate……) and had to get 10 rabies shots at Doc Gilbert’s in Big Rapids so that was the reason for the late start.  On the “real” road by 3p and got as far as Cabelas in Dundee, MI and thought it looked like a good spot to stop to feed – then we looked in Cabela’s for some new winter boots for me – none……….we ate dinner at a restaurant and thought we were tired enough (having loaded 20 dogs and winterizing the house) to stay the nite – they have a nice big parking lot behind the store plenty big enough for 20 semis.  It worked good.  Up at the crack of 8am and fed breakfast and drove (except for dropping 2 hours later to relieve the breakfast “residuals”) until about 6 and fed a couple hours west of Albany NY at a turnpike rest stop (we decided to take the “southern route” to avoid going thru customs in and out of Ontario – after we got to Buffalo, it was the same route as if we had gone thru Ontario.  So we went from Dundee, around Cleveland, up to Erie PA, then to Buffalo NY and then took the NY thruway (as they call it out here) all the way to Albany (for the mere price of $48.20 – Randy said “what????? We aren’t a semi!” And she said “your have 4 axles don’t you???)  We spent the nite at yet another of the NY thruway rest stops – which are very nice but not worth the $48…).  This morning up a little earlier at 7.  We did have one dismaying incident during the nite at about 12:30 am– we don’t know how cold it actually was outside or it got in here, but Randy woke up because his bald head was cold and the furnace had kicked the circuit breaker out – by the time I got back it bed I had a case of “frozen feet” that took more than a little while to thaw!

On the road this morning about 8:30 and left NY and went thru the smallish, quaintish city of Bennington VT – then the fun started – you know you can never tell by those maps or by our GPS what kind of topography you are “in for” – well let me tell you, Hog Back Mountain is right up there with some of the mountains in AK!  Twice we went down 8% grades and we were glad that Randy had purchased an add-on exhaust brake (like a “jake brake”) – for those of you like me not knowledgeable about such things, it slows your vehicle down by shutting down the turbo, which in turn puts back pressure on the motor , which then slows the vehicle down going down hills= simple, huh??  It makes it a lot less scary going down steep hills/mountains – we wish we had had something like it in AK!!

So once out of the mountains pretty straight on 9 to Concord and then to Laconia where we are about to feed and then drop to be able to go to the 7p drivers meeting and find out which of these small spots we are going to park in!

Soooo this is the story of our last training before we left –as promised.  It was the 2^nd time of training with the sled and me following on the snowmobile – 14 dogs that Randy wanted to run together to prepare for Laconia- it all started in the middle of the nite when I couldn’t sleep and it occurred to me that tomorrow is Saturday and there might be a lot of snowmobiles out on the trails interfering with Randy’s run and causing some problems…..next day we are hooking up and Randy says “be sure and put your extra coat on before we are done hooking the dogs up so you can be close with the snowmobile when I make that first right angle road corner” – that was the second hint……  He starts out good and I am right behind him if he needs me and splat…down he goes flipped over because of a big dirt patch on the corner where the snow plow had just plowed ( I know we should have checked in advance but hadn’t seen any dirt on the roads leading up to that point)– I am now in intense anxiety and pressure mode because he is dragging down the road for about a block trying to get one of the 2 snow hooks into the bare road and it isn’t happening!  I try to ease my way up to the side of the sled so he can set one of the hooks on the snowmobile and I hear a “thud” (kind of like the noise you would expect if you dropped a pumpkin a foot from the ground….) and saw I had hit him with the runner!!!  Oh my God…..now do I have a husband dragging with a concussion????  He managed to get the snow hook or something else to stop the 14 dogs for a second, I jumped off the snowmobile and grabbed a snow hook and hooked it into the seat frame and then say the team pulling the snowmobile and Randy down the road only to then miraculously jump back on the snowmobile and apply the brake!!  Yes there were injuries….. one on the forehead from the bouncing snow hook and one on the top of his head that he has hit 2 more times since then (why is it when we get older we think we are shorter????) and an coat tear and abrasion on his shoulder.  So he gets back underway on the sled and things are going mostly well for about 7 miles except that we notice that a truck had driven down our trail!@!!  and we look ahead and there are 6 Jeep Wranglers stopped in the middle of the trail and there is no way we can pass around them because we are in deep woods and narrow trail– our perfectly groomed almost-like-Alaska-trail – Randy yells until someone looks out the window of the last one and they start moving ahead…very slowly…  At this point we don’t know what’s going to happen and so Randy hooks the snow hook to the runner of the snowmobile (yes, the same one I hit him with..) and we go down the trail slowly following these people until they finally turn right- but they don’t just turn they churn the entire intersection up into ruts!  We get to the left turn we need to make to go home (mind you Randy is still hooked to me) and I can’t get the snowmobile turned sharp enough to make it so the main line is tight against the tree and the wheel dogs are too – Randy tries to pull out so that I can move ahead around the tree but it’s too much pressure from the dogs so he unhooks all the tug lines so they can’t pull so hard and tries to pull out on the main line and me go ahead again – well I went ahead but not without running my left ski up onto a sapling and tipping myself over on the side “narrowly missing my body by inches” (as the news reporters would say…) so we notice gas leaking out of the tank and know we have to right the machine as fast as possible – try once, no go – try twice and up!!  Unbelievably the rest of the run goes pretty good.  One of those days when you ask yourself “why do we do this???”

I will let you know how the race goes tomorrow – we know we are not competitive and are mostly doing it for the fun and to teach the yearlings about racing, so we will see how it goes!!

We went to the driver’s meeting at a pretty nice restaurant named Patrick’s Pub – and who should we see as we walk in the front door ??  the Bellerive contingent from Quebec, our good friends for the last 9 years!!  They were waiting for a table so we had dinner with them.  It was so good to catch up.  Everyone was well with the exception of Patrick, Melanie’s significant other, who has what the doctor diagnosed as trigeminal neuralgia, causing him pain worse than a migraine would.  They had the draw for places, and unbelievably, Randy drew 1^st place!!!!!  It’s too bad we don’t have a crackerjack team to take advantage of the luck!!!

Friday –

Very, very, very,very cold – just as they predicted – sunny but very windy.  They had the usual introductions of the open drivers and singing of both the US and Canadian national anthems- meanwhile I am putting something called “Zeus Juice” on the 14 dog’s feet and on the testicles of the dogs without much hair there…….  Randy gets back from the ceremony and I have a dog out that I shouldn’t have had out and 2 that were not out that should have been (an issue with the magnet board and one of the dog’s name missing) so while we are scrambling around to get the right dogs and get them hooked up the local TV station thinks it’s a good time to video us and try to do an interview – I got so hot even as cold and windy as it was I ended up throwing my hat off – we got up to the line without too much problem (one dog slipped her collar and 2 more backed out of their harnesses) and he was off!!  He had a fair run- Dee in lead stopped to poop twice and pee once and she and Scar stopped dead on one of the hills – so he ended up 13 of 14 teams.  He didn’t have as bad a time as Hermel Bergeron who fell and hit his head on a snow bank, lost a dog and then had trouble getting his snow hook out to finish the race!!

Saturday –

It’s about as cold temperature-wise but no wind – also no sun – we are supposed to get about 8 inches of snow tonite and be below zero for the actual temperature and very strong wind for tomorrow.

Well who would think that we could do worse today than yesterday……………Randy changed leaders because Dee was so bad about stopping on the trail and so he put Doe in lead with her mother Scar – well Doe had only raced once so she wanted to quit before Randy got a mile out….twice – so then he put Dee back in – then he had to stop again and put in a yearling Caleb and she did good until there got to be too many people on the sidelines and she quit and he had to put in a “will lead” dog , Blanche, and she wanted to jump the trail and take a shortcut back to the start because she knew she was close!!!  So all in all we have last place firmly sewn up!

Maybe out to dinner tonite since it is Valentine’s  Day!!!

Did go out for dinner –prime rib!!!!   Sorry we haven’t been able to post sooner!!!!

Happy New 2015!!!   We hope this year finds you happy and well!

Haven’t gotten around to blogging yet since the only interesting things that have been happening are training, getting sick with whatever the name flu bugs and colds, training, exposing the young dogs (which comprises over ½ of our racing dogs) to a race scenario at Kalkaska (by the way, it sure wasn’t the same without all the Edges – that means you, Tom, there – hope you are healing fast from your shoulder surgery) where we fared moderate to fair……(including Mark Kukal that ran my 4 dog team when I found out it was supposed to be a treacherous trail and Mark found ½ way down the trail that the experienced leader he had, Al, didn’t want to run lead for him and he had to put a yearling in lead….), training, and oh yeah, Randy dragging down the ice road and me hitting him with the snowmobile runner!  I will tell that story in a minute –

We just got into Laconia, NH and are finding that we may have some trouble fitting into our parking spot for the race tomorrow when they assign us a spot according to starting order – we have a new trailer and still the very big blue GMC 5500 and are 53 feet long!  Even before that we had some trouble finding the race site because it might be about 7 years or so since we have been here!

We left home on Tues promptly at 1:13 pm (Randy wanted to leave at 1:15 – I try to accommodate……) and had to get 10 rabies shots at Doc Gilbert’s in Big Rapids so that was the reason for the late start.  On the “real” road by 3p and got as far as Cabelas in Dundee, MI and thought it looked like a good spot to stop to feed – then we looked in Cabela’s for some new winter boots for me – none……….we ate dinner at a restaurant and thought we were tired enough (having loaded 20 dogs and winterizing the house) to stay the nite – they have a nice big parking lot behind the store plenty big enough for 20 semis.  It worked good.  Up at the crack of 8am and fed breakfast and drove (except for dropping 2 hours later to relieve the breakfast “residuals”) until about 6 and fed a couple hours west of Albany NY at a turnpike rest stop (we decided to take the “southern route” to avoid going thru customs in and out of Ontario – after we got to Buffalo, it was the same route as if we had gone thru Ontario.  So we went from Dundee, around Cleveland, up to Erie PA, then to Buffalo NY and then took the NY thruway (as they call it out here) all the way to Albany (for the mere price of $48.20 – Randy said “what????? We aren’t a semi!” And she said “your have 4 axles don’t you???)  We spent the nite at yet another of the NY thruway rest stops – which are very nice but not worth the $48…).  This morning up a little earlier at 7.  We did have one dismaying incident during the nite at about 12:30 am– we don’t know how cold it actually was outside or it got in here, but Randy woke up because his bald head was cold and the furnace had kicked the circuit breaker out – by the time I got back it bed I had a case of “frozen feet” that took more than a little while to thaw!

On the road this morning about 8:30 and left NY and went thru the smallish, quaintish city of Bennington VT – then the fun started – you know you can never tell by those maps or by our GPS what kind of topography you are “in for” – well let me tell you, Hog Back Mountain is right up there with some of the mountains in AK!  Twice we went down 8% grades and we were glad that Randy had purchased an add-on exhaust brake (like a “jake brake”) – for those of you like me not knowledgeable about such things, it slows your vehicle down by shutting down the turbo, which in turn puts back pressure on the motor , which then slows the vehicle down going down hills= simple, huh??  It makes it a lot less scary going down steep hills/mountains – we wish we had had something like it in AK!!

So once out of the mountains pretty straight on 9 to Concord and then to Laconia where we are about to feed and then drop to be able to go to the 7p drivers meeting and find out which of these small spots we are going to park in!

Soooo this is the story of our last training before we left –as promised.  It was the 2^nd time of training with the sled and me following on the snowmobile – 14 dogs that Randy wanted to run together to prepare for Laconia- it all started in the middle of the nite when I couldn’t sleep and it occurred to me that tomorrow is Saturday and there might be a lot of snowmobiles out on the trails interfering with Randy’s run and causing some problems…..next day we are hooking up and Randy says “be sure and put your extra coat on before we are done hooking the dogs up so you can be close with the snowmobile when I make that first right angle road corner” – that was the second hint……  He starts out good and I am right behind him if he needs me and splat…down he goes flipped over because of a big dirt patch on the corner where the snow plow had just plowed ( I know we should have checked in advance but hadn’t seen any dirt on the roads leading up to that point)– I am now in intense anxiety and pressure mode because he is dragging down the road for about a block trying to get one of the 2 snow hooks into the bare road and it isn’t happening!  I try to ease my way up to the side of the sled so he can set one of the hooks on the snowmobile and I hear a “thud” (kind of like the noise you would expect if you dropped a pumpkin a foot from the ground….) and saw I had hit him with the runner!!!  Oh my God…..now do I have a husband dragging with a concussion????  He managed to get the snow hook or something else to stop the 14 dogs for a second, I jumped off the snowmobile and grabbed a snow hook and hooked it into the seat frame and then say the team pulling the snowmobile and Randy down the road only to then miraculously jump back on the snowmobile and apply the brake!!  Yes there were injuries….. one on the forehead from the bouncing snow hook and one on the top of his head that he has hit 2 more times since then (why is it when we get older we think we are shorter????) and an coat tear and abrasion on his shoulder.  So he gets back underway on the sled and things are going mostly well for about 7 miles except that we notice that a truck had driven down our trail!@!!  and we look ahead and there are 6 Jeep Wranglers stopped in the middle of the trail and there is no way we can pass around them because we are in deep woods and narrow trail– our perfectly groomed almost-like-Alaska-trail – Randy yells until someone looks out the window of the last one and they start moving ahead…very slowly…  At this point we don’t know what’s going to happen and so Randy hooks the snow hook to the runner of the snowmobile (yes, the same one I hit him with..) and we go down the trail slowly following these people until they finally turn right- but they don’t just turn they churn the entire intersection up into ruts!  We get to the left turn we need to make to go home (mind you Randy is still hooked to me) and I can’t get the snowmobile turned sharp enough to make it so the main line is tight against the tree and the wheel dogs are too – Randy tries to pull out so that I can move ahead around the tree but it’s too much pressure from the dogs so he unhooks all the tug lines so they can’t pull so hard and tries to pull out on the main line and me go ahead again – well I went ahead but not without running my left ski up onto a sapling and tipping myself over on the side “narrowly missing my body by inches” (as the news reporters would say…) so we notice gas leaking out of the tank and know we have to right the machine as fast as possible – try once, no go – try twice and up!!  Unbelievably the rest of the run goes pretty good.  One of those days when you ask yourself “why do we do this???”

I will let you know how the race goes tomorrow – we know we are not competitive and are mostly doing it for the fun and to teach the yearlings about racing, so we will see how it goes!!

We went to the driver’s meeting at a pretty nice restaurant named Patrick’s Pub – and who should we see as we walk in the front door ??  the Bellerive contingent from Quebec, our good friends for the last 9 years!!  They were waiting for a table so we had dinner with them.  It was so good to catch up.  Everyone was well with the exception of Patrick, Melanie’s significant other, who has what the doctor diagnosed as trigeminal neuralgia, causing him pain worse than a migraine would.  They had the draw for places, and unbelievably, Randy drew 1^st place!!!!!  It’s too bad we don’t have a crackerjack team to take advantage of the luck!!!

Friday –

Very, very, very,very cold – just as they predicted – sunny but very windy.  They had the usual introductions of the open drivers and singing of both the US and Canadian national anthems- meanwhile I am putting something called “Zeus Juice” on the 14 dog’s feet and on the testicles of the dogs without much hair there…….  Randy gets back from the ceremony and I have a dog out that I shouldn’t have had out and 2 that were not out that should have been (an issue with the magnet board and one of the dog’s name missing) so while we are scrambling around to get the right dogs and get them hooked up the local TV station thinks it’s a good time to video us and try to do an interview – I got so hot even as cold and windy as it was I ended up throwing my hat off – we got up to the line without too much problem (one dog slipped her collar and 2 more backed out of their harnesses) and he was off!!  He had a fair run- Dee in lead stopped to poop twice and pee once and she and Scar stopped dead on one of the hills – so he ended up 13 of 14 teams.  He didn’t have as bad a time as Hermel Bergeron who fell and hit his head on a snow bank, lost a dog and then had trouble getting his snow hook out to finish the race!!

Saturday –

It’s about as cold temperature-wise but no wind – also no sun – we are supposed to get about 8 inches of snow tonite and be below zero for the actual temperature and very strong wind for tomorrow.

Well who would think that we could do worse today than yesterday……………Randy changed leaders because Dee was so bad about stopping on the trail and so he put Doe in lead with her mother Scar – well Doe had only raced once so she wanted to quit before Randy got a mile out….twice – so then he put Dee back in – then he had to stop again and put in a yearling Caleb and she did good until there got to be too many people on the sidelines and she quit and he had to put in a “will lead” dog , Blanche, and she wanted to jump the trail and take a shortcut back to the start because she knew she was close!!!  So all in all we have last place firmly sewn up!

Maybe out to dinner tonite since it is Valentine’s  Day!!!

Did go out for dinner –prime rib!!!!   Sorry we haven’t been able to post sooner!!!!