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................