Sorry about not posting!!!! Cris saves the day!!!!!!

the last 3 days have been hurried and busy and I haven't take time to type!!

Friday nit e we got to Valcartier in good time - no problem finding the place .............and what a place!!  You would get the most benefit from going online to their website to see what an amazing place it is!!!!  way way way big hills (you are in the Laurentian Mountains there) for tubing and some that you go thru tube to get onto the hills!!!   Like a Michigan's Adventure roller coaster with snow!  So we got to the place to park and they had placed 4 inches of snow on the parking lot and then the nite before got another couple of inches - we met the race organizer/owner of the Amusement park accidentally at the race parking lot - he told us where to park and guessssss what happened next..........????  It was so warm Friday that we started to pull ahead into the lot and got stuck.....so stuck that 4 wheel drive could not extract us!!!  So being as how he is the head honcho of the whole place, Simon (in Quebec speak the emphasis is on the last syllable so -----Si  Mone)  he calls and a front end loader shows up!!!  we hook up with our chains and he pulls us into a parking spot!  We go from there to the "inscription" which is the draw and for paying your entry fee, to the park restaurant/bar across the street.  The name of the bar is "Safari" so they have lots of decor with a jungle effect including a Willys jeep in the bar!!  If I ever figure out how to download from my Sony camera I will post the picture of Randy sitting in the jeep!!!

Saturday:  BEST run of the whole season for RAndy!!!  Fred, the yearling ran and lead and did a good job!!! no problems and he averaged about 16 mph!!!  good hard trail  -  very good competition - he came in second to last of 22 teams but was very happpy with how the yearlings did and the old leader Delight!   Since it was our anniversary we went to the restaurant at the park and I had a very delicous General Taos Chicken and Randy ribs - we also invited Shane Goosen - an Iditarod finisher to have dinner with us..

Sunday not as good going for Randy - had to put a dog in the bag (not enough recent training and had been sick last 2 weeks) so he finished last; but with having the knowledge that he has 6 yearlings that will be great next year - especially Fred that wanted to pass other teams and really drove hard!!

Randy is telling me to go to bed so we can get up from being in the HOme Depot parking lot just outside of London Ontario (Cause we are on our way home)  more tomorrow!!

Well!  It's  1am and I have restless leg syndrome and my back hurts............might as well write!

On Sunday spent alot of time helping other dog teams get to the line and back....  Patrick was racing Melanie's team (because she is walking with crutches and there is not way she could have raced when she can't walk)and hoped to get first but ended up second..  Claude on the other hand, moved up and won the unlimited by one second!!!  That's like a hiccup!!!!

We got back to our truck after helping other teams and the awards ceremony and amazingly enough,  the truck next to us had tied their 6 dog team to out truck!!!!  For those of you that race dogs you know that is not "politically correct" in the dog racing world!!  An hour later and we needed to drop our dogs and we finally had to tell them we needed our truck for our own dogs!

Time to leave and of course when we got pulled into our parking spot, the tires were hot and they now had melted the underlying snow into ice.........sooooooo, asked Simon if we could get pulled out again by the front end loader!  He did come and we got out and off on our way back to Bellerive's at about 3p -   we noticed but a mile or so down the road that it seemed like the truck engine was really straining - then we saw that it was still in 4 wheel drive low...........and we were in 4 low because I had suggested maybe it would get us out of being stuck....  got to a place to turn around and tried everything we could think of to get it into 2 wheel drive (back up,  stopping, banging on the transmission etc...)  so Randy saw we were near a house that had a wrecker business and he got out to ask for help....his help was "I don't speak English"...........

Turned around and went back the 2 miles to the race site and parked at the restaurant across the street and Randy walked back to the race parking lot to find Simon and ask about a mechanic that could help us.  I stayed in the truck and thought perhaps I could find some troubleshooting in the Duramax manual on the computer that my brother Mark had scanned for us (he has a similar truck and our truck did not come with a manual and they couldn't even get us one in the Chevy dealership in Fremont) and I found nothing about the 4 wheel drive - so I decided to Google "I can't get my truck out of 4 wheel drive low" and got a hint in one of the answers that it maybe had to be in neutral to disengage it.............I tried it and it worked!!!!!!  so I got out and ran/jogged across the street to find Randy and passed by Samuel in a 4 wheeler and he said he had just taken Randy back to the truck - I hitched a ride back to our truck with him and there he was............and very relieved I had discovered the "secret"!!!!!

So off we go again without problem and make it back to Bellerive's.  We had told them before leaving the race that we were going home to Michigan on Monday to the wanted to take us to breakfast at the local restaurant.  At 8:30 am sharp Claude came by to pick us up - we were able to say goodbye to Renelle before she left for an appointment and Hermel also stopped by for coffee.  We had another emotional goodbye-  these people are like "therapy" for us - we enjoy being with them and they make us feel very appreciated!

On the road at 11am and missed the bad traffic thru Montreal (the worst part of the trip).  Stopped at a rest area amongst  many semi trucks and fed and then got as far as Kitchener on the west side of Toronto - it was the best/least aggravating thru Toronto we have had ever- going through at 8 pm is great!

Got GPS directions to the nearest Home Depot at 9:30 and here we are!!!  Should be back at home early afternoon tomorrow............the end of another great adventure!!

The highlights of the 2016 trip were:  the very fun venue and great trail at Valcartier,  spending long quiet hours with Bellerives in the sugar shack, learning about making maple syrup and finding out how really good these 6 yearlings are!!!!

God Bless us every one................

Welcome to Valcartier!!!!

Left Bellerive's about 12n and got here (without any misdirections on my part) about 2:30.  We first stopped at the main office of the business - and what a business!!!!  It's like a ski resort for kids with all tubes!!!!  the main building is beautiful and we plan to have dinner there for our anniversary tomorrow nite.  We found out where the start of the race is and drove to the parking lot - at the same time the owner of the park/Valcartier Vacacences arrived and told us where to park - asked if we had 4 wheel drive cause the parking lot needed some work over nite before much traffic - we said we didn't mind the noise of the plows and such and started to park............only to get stuck in 4 wheel!..............  Luckily he called a front end loader he has working on the property (they are also building a huge hotel onsite with an indoor water park) and put chains on our truck and pulled us into our parking spot for the weekend!  Tonite we go across the road to the main building and watch the "inscription"/draw.  The unlimited/illimite class is at 10:30 am - more later!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day``

Thursday:  If I didn’t know myself that it was St. Patrick’s Day, you would never know it around here – at least in the Charette area – maybe is the city they celebrate it but nothing I saw on tv or any mention from the Bellerives.  Still did not train – it was quite warm and we were supposed to get snow but did not.  Took a morning nap after breakfast for us and dogs.. 

For breakfast we had a first!!  Claude had stopped the day before and got us a Quebec specialty!!!!!  Potato Donuts!!!!  They had maple sugar frosting on them and were very good!!!  It’s crazy (bizarre is what they say here) what you can do with potatoes and never know you are eating them – like the potato candy Mitz makes for Randy – you would never know you start with mashed potatoes!!!

At 6:30 we went up to the sugar shack and it was Melanie, Patrick, Claude and Patrick’s parents, Louise and Yves.  We ordered in dinner and I had the dore (a local fish) and it was the best dinner I have had here!!!  This nite the sap got to a temp of 219 degrees F and we made maple syrup!!!!!!!  Claude sent a bottle home with us from the very first batch!  Randy drank a whole cup of the sap just as it was turning to syrup – plus we had sugar pie for dessert!!!  Randy should have been on a real “sugar high”!!!!  We were there until 10p cause you have to use all the sap that has accumulated in the holding tank and leave the troughs in the boiler still with enough liquid to cool down (without burning it) until the next time  build a fire and pump more sap into the troughs!   I appreciate the syrup way more after watching how much work it is for Claude – just keeping wood enough in the stove to make the boiler boil is work in itself!!!

Friday brings an inch of so of snow and 21degrees F – it’s funny because it still doesn’t feel cold at 21.  We fed dogs and then ate oatmeal with fresh-off-the-boiler maple syrup – yumm!!!!

Time to get stocked with water and pack things away for our trip to Valcartier!  You can look it up on the web – it looks like it should be a fun place to have a race!  It should take us about 3 hours to get there – north of Quebec City.  So I will report when we are there and I have scoped the place out!!!  Over and out!

Wednesday - day before St. Paddy's!

Wednesday:  After feeding dogs last nite we walked up to the Sugar Shack; Claude had been there already for a couple of hours because he had so much sap (they call it water) in the holding tank that he needed it to get boiling so more could flow in!  The set up is lines of plastic (one of them had broken so he figures he lost about 100 gallons of sap before it was noticed and fixed) running from maple to maple on about 5 acres.  There is a compressor pump in a shed in back of the Sugar Shack and that pulles the sap into a holding tank inside the Shack – that holds 500 gallons – then from there it gets pumped inside the boiler area into a 50 gallon tank – then it drains into the stainless steel boiler set-up – that’s 3 different troughs at different grades so as it fill from the second holding tank it moves on to hotter and hotter areas – the final 2 troughs are right over the fire and when the sap reaches 219 F it is ready to become syrup.  Since this was the first day of the season, the sap never got up to temp cause it all came from outside; and that was even after Claude had burned 1 rick of wood in the stove under the boiler!!!  We only burn that much to heat our house a week!  About 6 it was time to go back down and let the dogs out- Claude insisted that we use one of their vehicles to drive down instead of walking……..sooooo….Randy drove the Mercedes SUV down…..you have to put your foot on the brake and then push the button!!!!  I was going to kid him and tell him while we were gone in ½ hour we had taken a trip into Montreal (an hour drive one way) just to see how fast it could go!!!

Melanie and Patrick and Renelle were all there and we ordered in from a local bar (an annual tradition for the first day of the season) and we had poutin (french fries with brown gravy and cheese curds on top) and hamburgs (with onion and relish – but the relish was more like cabbage..) and hot dogs!!  And of course a bottle of red and white and Coors for Randy.  And for dessert….what else…..Randy’s favorite, sugar pie!!!  We felt very special to be included in their family tradition!

Melanie gave us a report on her visit to the hospital yesterday (Monday) – they didn’t do any tests and gave her no meds – she has edema +2 from mid thigh to mid calf with lots of bruising – she may have medial collateral ligament damage, but they told her that if it doesn’t continue to decrease in pain, to come back in 2 weeks.  They just told her to elevate it and ice.  She has a lot of pain with any rotation or if her foot gets bumped!  She has crutches and we can only imagine how difficult it is for her to get upstairs (it’s like 2 flights long..) to her bedroom – there aren’t any bedrooms on the first floor.  She worked both Monday and Tues but she is not sleeping well because of positioning and pain so she was pretty tired when we shut down the boiler at 10p!  We spent all that time pretty much sitting in the boiler room with it so steamy that the droplets were falling from the ceiling on all of us – but what a sweet, wonderful smell when you walk in the room!!!!  Randy and I even had a cup the hot sap, about ½ to being syrup!  We also played around with Patrick’s Samsung telephone using a Google app for translation – you can hold the phone up to a sign or like a menu and it will translate it for you to English!!!

Today we have already unhooked the truck so we can drive up to their business, Cirtech, so that we can meet the gal that answers the phone when Randy calls – she tries very hard to speak English to him and to understand his messages!  Then to lunch at the Villagouis Restaurant – the only one in Charette!!

I guess we are not going to train at all this week – Hermel training some pups this morning and said parts of the trail were getting very soft – it was a beautiful morning – very warm and sunny – lots of snow melting away!

The 3 dogs that have been sick ate dry dog food overnite so that’s a good sign!

Things are going great!  After lunch with Melanie, off to Shawanigan for groceries and fuel for this weekend.

Tuesday in Charette

Well, it was snowing big beautiful flakes last nite and this morning it is drizzling….quite a turnabout in 12 hours!  Hermel came to the dog barn early this morning to train the 9 9-month-olds they have.  It looked like they may have used Randy’s suggestion to run the crazy young dogs single instead of trying to get them to stay on their own side and learn to run ahead.

Claude stopped by to invite us to the Sugar Shack (their cabin up behind the house where they make their maple syrup) for dinner tonite – it must be the right time to begin boiling the sap because he said he would be up there to start the fire to boil at 4 or 5p –   It’s been about 6 years since we stayed up there – our truck and trailer combos have been to big to be able to drive up there and turn around again. 

Not much else going on today – don’t know if we will train tomorrow.  Randy walked out on the trail today and said it was better than what he raced on but does have slush on top of it.

Low key Monday

Back at Bellerive's - cooler day than we thought was predicted - fed dogs and us - Randy spent at least an hour in the dog barn with Hermel and Claude treating feat that had fissures from the race last weekend.  Randy asked about Melanie's knee (she fell, tipped over, got the sled upright, dragged on her knees, one knee at a time cause a curve was coming and then standing up finally- we heard this morning from Claude that she had gone to the hospital today because she couldn't bend her knee....) and didn't really get a good "diagnostic" answer so we have left a message on her phone to call when she feels good enough - Claude said he didn't think she would race this weekend at Valcartier.  It was a rough fast trail on Sun morn - Angie Carter was in 1st on Sat and she fell cause her dogs got over the neck lines and she thought last nite that she had broken her arm or wrist!!!  I hate to say I am glad I didn't think I needed to go race our 6 dog team!!

We had the usual very bumpy ride home last nite - once you get off the expressway in Montmagny it gets really rough going through the Appalachian Mountains - lots of frost heaves!!!!  enough to jar the teeth right out of your head!!! When we open the trailer door we always expect an disaster of displaced things but nothing unexpected!!! so good for us

We went into the lodge at Daaquam to buy me a red coat with fur ruff that I have wanted for forever with all the Daaquam patches on it and they only had XL and XXL - so Randy saved $265 (it was going to be my Mother's Day present....)

Went out to feed tonite and it was snowing great big flakes!!! makes you thing it's Christmas time!!
Another dog sick, one recovering and one totally recovered - we are trying to quarantine but it gets tricky letting them off the truck in order and keeping them separated  - thank goodness we had some medicine to treat them already on board!

no talk today of grooming the training trail here or actually training so we will see tomorrow - almost out of milk so to the store tomorrow again!!

Sunday at Daaquam

It turn ed out to be a bit cooler than yesterday - it snow and ice melted into ponds in the parking lot just a bit slower.............

Sunny and windy - the 4 dogs teams that went out first probably had good trail but by the time the 6 dog and Randy went out it was starting to get soft - he had no problems but the yearling, Ellis got tired of the soft punchy snow so Randy put Doe up in lead to finish = same as Sat. last in place but good to know that Dexter and Ellis are doing so good!

Time for the unlimited/10 dog for us.....  they looked good going out of the chute and Fred the yearling ran good for most of the trail and then got too tired of fighting the soft trail so Randy ended up with Delight coming to the finish line in lead by herself.  still got a payout of money but the biggest payout is to see how good all of the yearlings did!

Left Daaquam at 4 and back to Bellerives at 9 - good trip- I didn't get us lost!!!  We will probably stay here the week because they say there is still a hard packed trail in Quebec City at Valcartier!  More tomorrow - too tired to type more - drop dogs and bed!

Saturday at Daaquam!!!

Warm day for winter - about 37 degree F - sunny part of the day, cloudy also.  Went out in the 6 dog race with a yearling in lead and he was doing quite well most of the trail and then began to slow down, and more slow, and more slow......and then stopped.  Randy figured he just didn't want to finish so he stopped and hooked down and put an old leader in instead.  While he was making the change the yearling pooped and that was all that was wrong with him because he was rarrin' to go back in point!!!!  Randy came in last partly because of having to stop and change leaders but also because he was going down the trail enjoying himself and what does he see............????  A horse pulling a sleigh with 2 men in it!!!!!  in the trail ahead of him!!!!!! so he has to pass the horse and sleigh which the yearling was not all that excited about doing..........so that took quite a while!  he was not disappointed because the intent of running the 6 dogs was to give the yearling experience (which he got in spades with the snow fence road crossings and the horse on the trail) and to see if the other 2 were well- which they were.

On the open team, they had a meeting and decided what with the new trail through the woods and it being very curvy (at one point Randy couldn't see the front of his 6 dog team???!!!) that they would limit the number of dogs anyone could run to 12 - well that was alright with Randy cause he only had 10 runnable anyhow!  He went out #5 behing Claude and in front of Hermel with Claude's second team - Hermel had already warned him that he would be yelling when he passed him - and sure enough.....  He started out with Spot and Delight in lead and Spot started to shy badly at the crossings, so he put another yearling up with Delight and they finished fine, but also in last place.  Not really a suprise but still a bit disappointing.

Bellerive's had asked us into the lodge for supper so at 7 we went in - lovely dinner with great conversation with Melanie, Renelle, Claude, Hermel and Renelle's brother Jean-Pierre.  The best part of the meal for me was the appetizer - I didn't know for sure what I was getting except that it had the work "saumon" in it (which I knew was "salmon") - it turned out to be salmon sushi and it was very good - served with a bit of greens and a vinaigarette and peppercorns.  Randy and I both ordered the steak........they don't have steak the same way up here...........more like a grilled swiss steak - even medium rare it was hard to cut with a steak knife - most everybody had the spaghetti and Melanie a type of fish - dore_  3 choices on the menu for only $29.99!  We had a very nice time -

This morning is sunny and cool and lots of activity!!  will try to get some pictures and then figure out how to download them!!

Made it to Daaquam!!

Good roads, sunny day and only stopped once - no problems...........well unless you count the time that I directed Randy on the wrong exit in downtown Quebec.............and the crazy thing is that is the second time it has happened at that same place!!!!  It's like I look at the GPS and it tells me to do one thing and then updates and shows me the right thing!!  Randy knows I don't regularly like to be "wrong" but there is no doubt about this time - and we just came this way last weekend and I used written notes from the GpS to get us through the city!!

We are here at the race site and it is "slushzilla"!!!!!!!  they changed the starting chute (normally the start and the finish are on the river in front of the lodge) because the river opened up this morning...and we didn't bring our bathing suits!!!!!  The parking lot is 2 inches of slush and will be water or mud tomorrow - Randy is going to take out a 6 dog team and open cause he wants to see how some of the dogs in the 6 will race - update tomorrow!!

Good Beautiful Friday Morning!!!

It was 28 degrees F when we got up and feels much warmer already - we have the door opened on the trailer to "air us out" - gets a bit doggy smelling - and I am sitting here in a t-shirt! 

We did go to Melanie's for supper last nite - spent quite a bit of joking time about how Randy and/or Claude got the lunch date mixed up the day before.  We had pizza and Randy's favorite dessert, sugar pie!!!  Then we went to their "movie theater" and watched the Sgt. Preston dog race DVD - they got a hoot out it what with the leather muzzled and the big Siberian/Malamutes and the leather harnesses with the wood seperators on the tugs!  We also watched 1/2 of the history of the Iditarod movie - I don't know if they never clearly understood or what but they all seemed quite amazed that Randy had done the Iditarod in 1977 - they asked lots of questions and were quite impressed!

Went to be at 10:30 and thought I would have no problem going to sleep...........until I got foot cramps in both feet, sinus drainage that made me cough, the train going by that I usually don't hear- it was a very long nite!!

The race is still on for Daaquam - we may drive there 4 hours only to find out the conditions are too bad to race, but that's what we are here for!!!  So we drop the dogs again at 10:30 and take off!!

Thursday - tonite we find out if there is a race in Daaquam

Another restful day (I say that because we got up, fed dogs and then took a nap!!!)  It turned out that yesterday our "date" with the Bellerives was for lunch and not dinner - lost something in the translation.  Melanie stopped by on her way to yoga class to clarify things - we are on to go to her house tonite - I have a DVD of Sgt. Preston and his dog King to show them with a dog sled race from the 50's (where they still carried whips and had leather harnesses) so we are going to use her "movie room" - I will let you know how impressed we are!!!

Just fed dogs and tidied up a bit - made enough rice and dog food mix for the weekend - regardless of whether we are traveling home or going to Daaquam.  Some different dogs seem to be coming down with the same thing Ellis had - no appetite and diarrhea - so far with Andy we have tried some of Claude's beef, canned dog food and eggs-  even if they do have a race this weekend Randy only has 10 dogs that are able to run.....maybe even fewer by Saturday......

Not looking so good for dogsledding ------it's pouring down rain!!!!

Raining just in time for Randy to get all the dogfood ready for supper!  good thing we brought lots of rainwear!

Went to Shawanigan to shop for food and gas and propane today - big trip to the city!!  When we got back there was a note on the door from Melanie inviting us to lunch but it was already 2p by the time we got back.  Supposed to go to dinner at Charette's one and only restaurant tonite!!!

Slow Monday/Training Tuesday

Not much going on Monday  - just feeding dogs and us.  I am having a bit of a harder time cooking for us - about 5 days ago we had an issue with propane leaking somewhere - and when I say somewhere, that means Randy looked from beginning/the tank to the end/the stove and furnace, and never found a leak using soapy water.  After a day of having that rotten egg smell permeating the place, we looked again under the stove burners and he tightened up the connection and the leaking stopped.  It still stunk in her for 3 days but now you can hardly tell we stunk!  The bad thing is that now none of the stove is working.......not the burners, not the oven, nada....  My cooking is limited to what ever can be microwaved- so last nite was mac and cheese and today was leftover chicken salad from Saturday.

Tuesday brings even warmer temperatures (like 37 degrees F) and Randy and Hermel had run the groomer over the training trail last nite so we trained today - it was still punchy in places after Hermel ran one team on the trail but it seemed good for the most part.  In between Bellerive team training Randy and I went on the trail with the snowmachine to remind me of where I had to lead our team when we trained (the trail is still quite different this year because only 1/2 of it exists and you have to run parts of it twice).  That went well and so we took out a 12 dog team.  They looked good and Randy was pleased.  After a few more Bellerive teams (you have to remember they have 2 open teams, 2 6 dog teams and today they trained 3 puppy teams with 6 dogs each.....), we took out a 6 dog team of older and previously hurt dogs and that went perfect as well.  Almost too warm - when I look at the forecast and it is supposed to get to 45 and 47 this weekend it doesn't seem hopeful for the Daaguam race...........

I am sad to report that it seems I have lost my English tv channel for good..... we have been here 3 days and it hasn't returned...........I had just gotten hooked on a show called Heartland, a soap opera in Alberta on a horse ranch.....and now it's gone forever...........

Randy says that we may train tomorrow again if the trail stays good - and we need some groceries!!!  So a trip to Shawanigan!  We really need propane but today it has been so warm the only heat we have going is the little infrared heater = pretty efficient to heat since we insulated the bottom of the trailer and put the plastic over the windows -plus we never open the slide-out so it is less space to heat.  Should have more to report tomorrow!!!!

Back to Charette and the Bellerive "resort"!!!

Another really beautiful day with lots of sun and it got warm very early - got up at 8 and dropped dogs and then breakfast - amazingly we went back for a nap!  We seem to sleep alot anymore!

Helped the 6 dog teams go out and had lunch and then found out just in time that the open class was going out 1/2 hour early - so today, instead of being rushed, we let them out earlyish and then they stood in the sun for about 1/2 hour - you would hope that would have helped them run wonderfully today...........but not so..  All the yearlings still ran good but one leader didn't get running for quite a while and the other quit running into the race..........soooo put up another old leader and finished, but not with a bang.......

Attended the awards (out here you can enter for $50 and earn $130 for last place!!!) and left for Bellerive's house - it sounds like there will be a race at Daaquam next weekend so we will refill propane tanks in Shawanigan and Randy wants to work on why the extra fuel tank is not emptying into the main tank as it should - and if the snow holds out, go to Daaquam next weekend.

Pretty tired.........ready to hit the "fart sack" as Randy always puts it!!

Race Riviere Ouelle

Left Bellerive’s at about 11:30 am – the big generator finally did start so we were relieved!  Sunny clear day for traveling – had to stop at a gas station to get some gas for the generator at Donnacona (sounds like my sister-in-law, Donna Collard!!) and it took us 4 hours to get there – the race site is in the middle of a quite small farming community in the parking lot that joins both the community center and the church = a beautiful steepled stone church like we see all over Quebec.  It looks like it might only be a private residence though because the front steps have not been shoveled.  I took some pictures of it but who knows when or if I can get the camera to download…..

Saturday morning was sunny and cold but for some reason, it seemed very warm very fast – maybe the sun is closer here??? Cause by the time we helped Melanie get to the line with her 6 dog team and some others, we were sweating!  We did find out from a local guy that the St. Lawrence Seaway (which we are right on at Riviere Ouelle, Quebec, if anyone wants to look it up on a map) moderates the temperature and it gets very warm in the daytime and very cold at nite.  So Melanie came in 2^nd and it was time to get out our dogs for the open/illimitee race.  We started a bit late for some reason (even though we didn’t race until 2p and Randy had number 13 – his lucky number) so were hurried at the end of hooking them up – but made it fine to the start line-  one really nice thing about Quebec races is that they have 4 wheelers to take you to the line and bring you back to the truck.  The trail was pretty soft by now and looked like it would be punchy for the dogs- sure enough it was and along with that there was head-on passing so the young dogs not only went to the far side of the trail when passing, but off into the deep snow.  Randy ended up 12^th (because on racer withdrew).  Still a good experience for the 5 one year olds in the team being only their 3^rd race.

There was a chicken dinner at 6p and what seemed like the whole town turner out!  After eating and visiting with Shane Goosen (who has also done the Iditarod) and comparing experiences and common friendships with people in the dogsledding community, we came back “home” and waited for the dj to start – not a lot of the people stayed to dance, be maybe 50 or so – we danced about an hour and then dropped dogs and went to bed.  They line dance a lot up here – that was the most popular kind of dance – we really enjoyed dancing, it’s been a long while.

Woke up at 8 this morning and dropped – the sick dog Ellis is eating almost normal amounts but we are still spoiling him giving him canned dog food.  Had breakfast and helped Melanie’s team get to the line and several other teams.  It looks like she might have taken over 1^st.  More to come this evening after today’s race!

0 degrees this sunny Friday morning!!!

The furnace worked pretty hard last nite!  That is in addition to the infrared heater we have running constantly (cause we are plugged in to Bellerive's barn).  The dogs were ready to get up at 7 - the sun comes up really early this far out East!  In fact one of them decided to get a jump on the other dogs...I could hear his chain rattling around and bang on the door and guessed someone had gotten out and sure enough, Wood was out browsing around!

Last nite we went up to the Bellerive's house for supper - we delivered 50 bags of kettle korn (they like to eat a bag a week and keep the rest in the freezer), 2 boxes of Red Lobster bisquit mix (Red Lobster is their favorite place to eat in the US) and an Iditarod patch for Claude (because he admired Randy's).  We had lasagna for dinner in the "sun room" - before dinner we had time to play with a "toy" that Patrick and Melanie brought - I don't know the real term for it but it's like wearing night vision goggles and you can see where ever Google Earth can!!!!  and it's like you are really there!!!  First he showed us the end of  our driveway in Hesperia, MI!!!  the we were in Rome and then on top of a very big building in NY city looking waaaaaaaaaaaay down - it was enough to make me very nervous and so life-like!!!!

Today we leave for a race this weekend in Riviere de Ouelle - it may be the last race this year - there is no snow for the race in Daaquam and then iffy for the race near Quebec City.  We are going to leave about noon and hope not to get lost getting there.  Melanie sent me the address of the race site and I have already entered it into the GPS.  This should be a "sure thing" - last year I thought I knew where we were going to a race in St. Methode and we ended up getting lost - as a matter of fact, I think that happens at least once a year.........hopefully we have a better chance of getting to this one without problems!

I am posting now cause I have no idea whether I will have access to the internet at the race site.  I should because I am using my Iphone as a hot spot!  we will see!!! and we will see if (that is if we even have any antenna reception or can get the English channel) the tv turns itself off every 6 minutes.

Just now Randy was trying to start the big generator...........guess what.......won't start!  So he will keep trying and opened the door to the compartment so the sun can shine on it ---and brought the little generator into the house to warm up (just in case the big one won't start) - the generator will likely be our only source of power for this weekend!

Will let you know how things go today when I have internet access again!

It's pretty snowy and cold up here!

Thursday- haven’t done too much the last couple of days.  Monday nite after his work Claude stopped by to say that it was supposed to snow 30 cm over nite…………and he was right!!!!  It wasn’t quite as windy as over the weekend, but did it ever snow!!!!!  More than a foot!!  So we didn’t train Monday or Tuesday cause the trail groomer had been used at the race site to keep the trail up for the St. Luc race and they didn’t bring it back until Wednesday – when Randy and Hermel (Bellerive’s dog trainer) went out to groom the trail with it, the Bombadier (it’s like a bulldozer that pulls the great big groomer) quit so they had to walk back to the barn a mile on an ungroomed trail!  We went out to dinner with Claude, Renelle, Melanie and Patrick at the local restaurant and had great conversations catching up from not seeing each other for a year.

This morning Randy thought he would be trail grooming in the morning and then training the dogs – but it ended up that the Bombadier has to have new fuel filters ordered – so no grooming or training.  We are going to Melanie’s house for dinner so that’s something to look forward to.  Right now I am on my 3^rd pot of rice for the dog food supplement for carbohydrates – we are trying rice instead of adding bread to the meat. 

I finally figured out how to make the DVD player work (by wonder of wonders------reading the instructions….) and then I had trouble downloading pictures from my camera to post on the blog and finally figured out where they got downloaded to and could post them.  My biggest source of frustration is a whopper………remember the great English speaking channel I found………well now when it is on that channel, the tv turns itself off ever 6 minutes, like clockwork!!!  It’s crazy!!!!!  So while watching tv I have to keep turning it on!!!!  How could that be???? And with only this one channel!!!!  If anyone out there has some thoughts I would love to hear them!!!

I noticed yesterday and today several areas on my face are peeling ………..I thought it was a bit cold when I was waiting for Randy to come in from the race course!  Must be the older and thinner your skin gets the easier you frostbite – I will be using some of my Mary Kay wonder products to try and disguise the peeling!

I am back to trying to download a picture I took of the deep snow but have been trying 2 hours and without success.  Guess I will just post this and try again later!

Top: Sunday at St. Luc - me holding leaders
Middle:  Randy on the trail at St. Luc
Bottom:  this is how they get a team to the line in Quebec!!!

We made it!!!!

I know I have used “On the road again….” Numerous times but that’s what it feels like!  Got ourselves together Thursday morning after sitting in the hotub one last time and then draining it.  Left about 11am with 18 dogs (some old and some not wanting to run and some young – all with Dee Krise and Mark Kukal).  Good roads all across Michigan and to the border at Port Huron – it was the best border crossing we have ever had!!!!   Crossing is always anxiety provoking for both of us and we had a nice young lady who had never talked to dogsledders before and was so impressed with us she didn’t even ask the usual questions………..  so off we went into Ontario and thought the roads were good until we saw a 4 car accident on the west-bound lanes of the freeway………and then another one with 2 cars in the ditch………..and then another……….and then saw the cops (OPP) had closed off the freeway because the snow was blowing over the west bound lanes and making black ice – our side was good and we traveled without problems……..until we got to the “On Route”/rest area at Port Hope where we planned to spend the nite.  We exited into the area and I saw the sign directing trucks to the left……….well we went to where the semi trucks were supposed to park and it was full…..then I directed my quite unhappy husband to try and go backwards on the one way road to get to some open parking and found out that all of the corners were too tight to get our rig around (like more that 110 degrees)- we had to stop traffic from entering into the car parking lot and tried turning 6 times (almost going over the roadside into a very deep ditch 4 feet off the drive and over the curb…) until he saw he could back up into a drive leading into a closed park that was gated shut.  So that’s where we spent the nite!  Very cold and extremely windy – like the kind of wind that makes you stay awake during the nite thinking you might blow over in the trailer!!

Up at 7:30 am and fed dogs – too many not eating good….have tried everything we can think of to tempt them and with one the only thing he has eaten is some beef jerky.  On the road after a Burger King breakfast and made pretty good time with good roads all the way to St. Luc de Vincennes and the race site.  Just fed and it is still very cold and windy and still have about 8 dogs not eating.  The “inscription” (sign up for the race is tonite).  The parking lot is icy and the trail looks very good from here – they have been grooming with Claude Bellerive’s groomer and he told Randy they are actually going to take some snow off from the trail yet tonite.

We had a bit of a “Noah emergency” – the 3 gallon plastic water jug fell off the counter while we were traveling and the house was flooded with water…………someone, who shall be nameless (like me) forgot to take the jug off the counter and put it on the floor…………so lots of rugs and towels hanging up to dry and we are now in the market for a new water jug.

Saturday

Pretty cold and windy and very icy in the parking lot – good day for wearing those walk-on-ice things!!  Lots of people we know are here (Butler, Fran Plaisted, Guy Girard, the Saucier family, Danae and Brittany Bryar Colbath and Nova Clifford,Bellerives, and more… )and Randy goes out 3^rd today running 14 dogs.  People coming back are saying that the trail is very fast.  It was a bit too fast for poor Nova Clifford…..who wiped out when her sled caught the birm and she dragged…enough for her to pull a “Randy Trick” with her pants down around her ankles!!!  She has terrible road/ice rash on her hip and thigh!!  Randy still has a scar from when he did the same and actually, it happened here!!!  His wounds took several weeks to heal with twice a day dressing changes!

I spent another one of those anxious times waiting at the finish line…….team after team coming in that had left after Randy.  He used a dog in lead that is 1 year old and has only led in Kalkaska one day and one day in training.   Finally Emily Therrien told me she saw him load a dog in the bag when she was out watching the race on the trail.  Sure enough he came in with Quincy in the bag – she just isn’t fast enough to keep up when the team is going fast and it was a fast trail.  Randy kept his foot on the matt almost the whole trail and she still couldn’t do it.  He averaged 16.5  mph for the course and that was even carrying a dog in the bag – but he is in last place at 12^th.

Very windy again tonite – but we were so tired I slept through it.

Sunday

Up at 8 and fed breakfast to the dogs -finally Ellis is drinking and eating a bit!  It feels much colder today.  A damp cold.  Randy is going out last so no hurry with getting the dogs ready to race at 2p and then 22 minutes later – so we helped with 6 dog teams and several of the open teams.  Randy took another yearling in lead today – he had never run lead – but figured he had nothing to lose being in last – so the team was 12 with 6 of them yearlings in their second race and some old dogs and some medium aged dogs – he went out looking good and when it came time for him to finish I waited an extra (seemed like an hour) 10 minutes – the yearlings in the team had worked so hard in the first part of the race they were worn out for the finish!

It is supposed to snow 6-8 inches tonite so we decided to stay here at the race site (about and hour away from Bellerive’s) so that their snow plow service would be able to plow without us in the way by the dog barn.

I have spent the last half hour trying to make the dvd player work and am still unsuccessful……………I am tired of trying to overcome the distraction of having all sound on the tv in French- it is just not very relaxing – even when I turn  the sound off, and try to read English lips, it is just not as enjoyable.  Where are those children with their knowledge of electronics stuff when I need them????!!!

Monday – got up at our norm….8 ish and dropped dogs and then let them run around the empty parking lot – they loved it!!!  Claude said we were going to get snow and we did – there were drifts all around the truck – left to go to Bellerive’s about 10 and the roads were quite snow covered, even on the freeway with lots of snowplows out trying to get ahead – pulled into our regular parking spot about 11 – lots of people out in their driveways with snow blowers trying to clean up.  Dropped the dogs this after noon and got Ellis the sick dog to eat 4 eggs…shells and all – I think that’s the most he has eaten – might have to go buy a couple dozen eggs just for him!!

Got the tv antenna situated and wonder of wonders, I have one channel that is in English!!!  It’s the Canadian Broadcasting Channel with lots of English (as in the country….) shows on it I have never seen.  And oh yeah, we could watch Top Gun in French – just not the same to hear Tom Cruise with a different voice…

On to Quebec!!!!!!!!

Over the last few days we have gotten some info to lead us to the decision to go to Quebec - the Rondy had been formally cancelled, the snow here is a bit iffy and Melanie Bellerive told us that the postponed trail for St. Luc (their race) is on for this weekend and the trail is good - plus there are 3 more scheduled to run in Quebec.

To give an update of the last week or so.............went to the race in Kalkaska and did open and 6 dog - the 3 year old leader in the open seemed overwhelmed with the soft snow (probably comparing it in her head to the beautiful trail she had been training on....) and didn't perform nearly as good as she had been in training - plus some problems on the trail with the driver that went out first in the unlimited and then caused an emergency call to all the trail help to gather at the trouble spot and then prompted the trail judge to call all the drivers in the open and 10 dog to come in to the finish line, causing almost all of the drivers to be short mileage wise from the drivers who went out first...sooooo the whole day for that class go thrown out.  not a great day for us anywho, but we couldn't really tell how we compared to the rest of the teams because they had not done the longer mileage.  On Sunday we tried another leader in her place and she didn't do any better.  Still soft trail and hard for the dogs to go through.  The really bright spot in the weekend is that Randy also had trouble with the leaders in the 6 dog team and so he changed out at the last minute an old leader for a 1 year old that had only lead in training one time (I suggested we try him in training because three times this training season he had left the free drop dogs at the truck after training and run the whole trail again by himself!!!!) and he did fabulous leading in the first race of his life!!!!!

We had sad news this weekend- Keith Bryar passed over on Saturday nite after gallantly battling cancer for several years - he has been a long time dogsledding friend of Randy's and with his absence, we will miss years and years of his experiences and those of his famous dogsledding parents.  We happened to be racing with his sister Danae and her 2 daughters at Kalkaska - everyone at the race was devastated and remembering the times Keith had been Keith....

Tomorrow we make the decision aobut whether we want to miss the big snow storm approaching the southern part of the Michigan mitt by going ahead of it (I am leaning towards following....) or staying and trying to train on our trail if the snow comes early enough tomorrow on Wednesday and leave Thursday (cause it takes us about a day and 1/2 to get to Trois Rivieres)

bought a new infrared heater so we will have 2 in the house while we are gone to heat without the wood stove running - we have in the past just had one in the back laundry room but maybe this year we won't have to drain all the pipes and worry about frozen and bursting pipes (thank you again Mark Kukal!!)

more tomorrow when we decide when to leave!!

We are in a particulary strange predicament.............

We have snow and a beautiful training trail here at home - but no place to go with our trained dogs to race!!!!!  No races in Quebec yet (Bellerives have only 1/2 of their training trail with snow on it and are still using a 4 wheeler to train),  Jan Bootz-Ditmar told Randy that they will decide whether they will have the 3 bears race this weekend and that already it had gone down to 8 miles for the 10/unlimited dog ; Jim Lyman told us this week that he only had a few inches of snow in NH and didn't know if the Laconia race would happen; and we are believing that Anchorage is not going to get enough snow to have the Fur Rondy.............

So we will continue to train on our "Alaska-like" trail and hope for snow!!!!  Will post more when we actually know something!!!  thanks for hanging in there with us!!