Tuesday, the last day of February

Got back to Bellerive's Sunday nite with no problem.

Monday was a far more moderate day weather wise - gave the kids a "play date" after morning drop at noon - the new dog went way too close to the road but amazingly came back when we called him!!!  The major accomplishment of the day was to go shopping to Shawiningan -====again to Walmart; but with a detour to the Harley Davidson store and also to lunch at the bowling alley at the entertainment complex that Bellerive's own!!!  We had some difficulty ordering as the 2 cook/waitresses didn't speak much English but it was all good.  2 Harley shirts and $150 at Walmart later we were back home and putting away groceries - it is amazing that we shop at least once a week and still I have a list every time we go!!!  Part of the problem is still trying to buy low fat, low sugar foods that we both like and then running out of them quickly...

Today Tuesday was a cleaning day!!!  Washed 5 rugs in the barn sink and hung them out to dry as it was a fairly warm (36 degree) day and sunny most of the time - then I swept and washed the linoleum floor in the trailer, used the vacuum cleaner on the carpet, washed dishes, gave the dogs a play date and then trained 6 dogs 6 miles then made a extra lean turkey burger dinner!!!!  Amazingly it seemed like I wasn't very busy!!!

Yesterday we messaged Melanie when I was trying to get on wifi at the bowling alley and didn't know the password - when she wrote back she invited us to dinner for Wednesday nite and also told us that someone had robbed their house that morning!!!!!  I am sure we will hear more about it Wed nite, but talk about feeling violated!!!

Tomorrow is supposed to be rain all day so I think I will do laundry - just have to find a way to get it up to the house - at this point I have at least 4 loads!!!  Talk to you Wed or Thursday!

I confess.......I have been negligent.............

I was surprised to see when I just looked that it had been so long since I posted..........so to update you..

Friday we got up and Randy helped Hermel train some dogs that he needed to see if they were ready for Claude to run at St. Luc - once they were done with that we got ourselves ready and headed out to St. Luc (about 45 mniutes away).  We were the only dog truck there when we arrived at about 5:30 - we found a place to park that was 1/2 pavement and 1/2 ice next to the building out of the wind and "struck our claim" -   went in to the driver's meeting and were 2 of about 10.............lots of people thought the race would be cancelled because of the predictions of rain - and the real life actual rain that we had coming down when we got there - we registered and hunkered down for the nite.

Saturday morning we got up to about 30 degrees and we helped people get out for the 6 dog race at 10.  So many of them (including Melanie and Patrick) came back and said the trail was soft and punchy and the dogs were sinking down to their bellies in sections, that they decided to cancel the unlimited class for the day - so we had much of the day to do not much.........we watched the most recent Indiana Jones movie with French subtitles, and then Die Hard III with the same.........and then Iditarod DVD and I made crab cakes and chicken strips in the oven for supper.  During the last drop it changed from rain to snow and it snowed the biggest flakes I have ever seen in my life!!!
It never did get to the 47degrees that it was supposed to but it did get colder the next day!

Clear in the morning - about 25 degrees - things had frozen over for the most part but there were some ponds in the parking lot (one big one that we had to negotiate getting up to the starting line)
The trail was better after having the groomer go over it during the nite and it getting cooler.  The 6 dog went off good but we did find out there was a big pond in the middle of the trail about 1.5 miles from the finish line.  I thought Randy got off to a good start as the 3rd to the last team to leave in the unlimited class but as I was watching about 50ft. ahead of where I had let the leaders go, I saw a tangle in the middle of the team and then...................a dog with no and no harness leaving the team and bounding in the field next to the starting trail...........  (this is the really funny part; just as we were leaving the truck for the chute, Martin and Katie Dejanais daughter was helping with the team and she asked me if Olaf's collar was too loose - and in my infinite wisdom I told here it was OK and had not caused a problem in the past =======the first clue that you should never ignore a warning sign...)  So  I run up the trail to the free dog and he goes me 3 times back and forth before he recoegnizes me and stops for me to catch him!!!!  I am thinking I caught this dog and now what do I do ...............and then somebody saves me!!!!!  One of Bernard Saucier's sons comes to help me and picks up the dog and carries it 1/4 mile to where Randy had stopped in the trail (he had a really hard time stopping - the snow hook wouldn't hold for the 1/4 mile and finally he stopped)  so the guy takes the dog and Randy and him and the trail help get the dog put back in the team and he takes off!!!  This is the really really really really funny part............I thought all this time that the dog that was loose was the one identified by the helper girl to be the one with the loose collar and I am blaming myself for not doing anything about it........in reality it was the dog next to him that got loose!!!  I had even gone in to the building to find the girl to tell her she was exactly right that the dog's collar was loose and had caused all the problem......not so , as it turns out!
So then I am waiting for Randy to finish.......and waiting.........and waiting........wondering "what happened this time"?????  and when he finally does come in way later than he should have I find out that at the place where there is a pond in the middle of the trail, our leaders go to the left of the pond and find a perfectlty good alternative snowmobile trail to go down out in the middle of the field!!!!  After much wading through thigh high snow and help from snowmobile trail help, he got them back on the trail!!!!  All in all he was pleased with the team and they ran good when he wasn't having problems!!!! Got last place but still got $249!!!!
Back to Bellerive's for the nite and to see if there is a race next weekend!!  will update as soon as we know!

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.............

Even though it is Thursday, it's really depressing thinking you are going to train and it starts pouring rain!!!!!  The greatest accomplishment of the day is trimming Randy's beard!!!  It's 4:15 now so we won't be training this week cause tomorrow we will go to the race site to get a good parking spot - cause we are soooooooooooo big!!!!

Kind of a boring day...........

Got up...........napped again..........free dropped dogs..........ran around the training trail with the snowmobile dragging 3 tires......made hamburgs for dinner............Randy helped Hermel feed the Bellerive dogs because Claude was at an annual snowmobile event............tried to watch TV but most of the day the English-speaking channel out of Montreal was disjointed and breaking up.............finished a book Jesse had given us...........went to bed.......up again at 1am with restless leg!!!

Tuesday after Laconia

Day of rest for both dogs and owners - took 2 naps plus slept in until 9am!!!  The biggest event of the day was free dropping the dogs 4 or 5 at a time so they could get some exercise - quite warm today - still have not talked to Bellerives to know if they have a trail packed for Saturday or if it rains = like they say it might the next 3 days - if the trail might hold up.

Made chili for supper trying to use tomato paste instead of sauce which had too much sugar - doesn't taste quite the same or what we think it should be but it works with the diet we are on for my cholesterol.  Used extra lean turkey -  Thus far Randy has lost 32 pounds!!  and if wasn't even for him that we did the diet!!

 The scene from the roadside where we parked to start the race at Laconia - you can see how much/little room we had on the side of the truck = even less on the other side with a snow bank!!

This is what retired persons do on a dogsledding trip on their downtime...........hockey with toothpick hockey stick, a hearing aid battery for the puck and cheater glasses for the goals!!!!

Sunday the 3rd day of Laconia

Here it is Monday morning and we are already on our way back to Quebec (which means that I am already "nervous Nellie" about going through customs in 2 hours!!)

The day was beautiful!!!!!!..........for people that is,,,,,,,,,,,,  The dogs had to literally swim (well..........maybe not literally.........) to start the race!!!!  The starting chute turned into a pond!!!!!  Surprisingly the trail stayed pretty good - though there were some more ponds and some bare ground on the way!  Randy came in first again because of the reverse order and stayed in 11th place which earned him $300!!!  most winnings of the year!!!  He had a little problem with dogs getting tired but they seemed to snap out of it once they knew they were on their way "home"!  One dog, Fred (who had led the first 2 days but had discovered snow dipping and now is not the best choice for a leader on a warm race day) got his leg over the line and Randy had to stop and untangle him - but the rest went pretty smooth!
After the race we went to a very nice dinner at the country club for the awards and went back and parked at the same place to sleep. 
Up early this morning at 7 and on the road by 10am - found our way to the expressway/93 and just crossed into Vermont - should be back to Bellerive's by about 4 - then have to figure out when and how to train again for the St. Luc (Bellerive's race that they sponsor) race this weekend!!!!

Checked and double checked the necklines today..................

But amazingly one of the same ones that came open yesterday did today as well - bad for the run but good for me...............it appears that the snap was faulty and not do to dog handler (me_ _ ) error.  He also found out that our 2 year old Fred that was leading with Spark had developed a penchant for biting snow while he is racing - not a good thing - so he won't be leading tomorrow...............  All in all, a good run today - he passed 2 teams (found out almost too late that the teams left in reverse order today --------so if Melanie Bellerive had not come to tell us and help us get ready to go (we thougt we had 20 more minutes before letting the dogs out to get ready and if fact we wer already late getting ready to go out 3rd!!!!!) we would conceivably gotten disqualified or just have to run last to start............the idea of the reverse start is to have the faster teams come in even more competitively at the finish.   So a bittersweet day - less stopping but still some because the same neck line on Dexter that came open yesterday caused him to stop and also Andy's tug line got under him and he couldn't get over it - so 2 stops - more time lost - but didn't lose a place!

Yesterday was a longer than normal day........

We did have a good 5 hour + trip, we did have a good dinner - we did have some trouble getting parked at the country club for the race meeting -we did enjoy seeing people we only see in the US = we did enjoy seeing the Quebec people that we see at all the Quebec races - we/I didn't enjoy having 5 dogs free in the back of the trailer (with the sleds and food mixing barrel and dog poop picking up stuff and the poop bucket all mixed together when we opened the door after grocery shopping and getting ready to feed for the nite behind Lowes - we caught all of them immediately but it's a strain mentally and physically to have that experience............

Then after the race meeting we were told we shouldn't park at the race site until the next morning  ..so we looked around (for about an hour.....in a square mile radius.......) for a place to park for the nite - the final resting place was a city owned road back to a pump station for the sewage system for Laconia - it took a long time to finally get in backed up with enough room on both sides to drop the dogs but we were finally done with dogs at 10pm.....tired and a bit stressed.

Slept well in the protected roadway and got up to a beautiful sunny but chilly with wind morning - I say chilly but I think it was almost 30degrees!! far fewer layers to wear!!  Someone came up in a 4 wheeler when we moved closer to the race site, to help us decide where to park for the race.  Randy decided that the best spot for us was not in the parking lot at all (people already getting stuck in the mud trying to park this morning) and instead stay on the road side just outside the entrance to the race site lot - we took up a whole lane and put chairs up at the middle yellow line to keep people from driving too close to the dogs when they were out but it all worked out good without any complaints from the passing motorists!
The six dog class experienced some soft trail and so Randy was expecting it to be worse going out 3 hours later with the sun shining and it getting warmer.  And so it was..........he left 4th and took off well from the starting chute.  I saw the first 3 teams come in and waited........and waited....thinking oh, no, what now???!!!  He did come in but Claude Bellerive had passed him (he started 7th) - we had some difficulty getting the team up the hill and out the drive to the road where we were parked (when I say trouble, I mean a team of 14 still wanting to run, the driver not able to slow them down cause there is no snow to brake or hook down to and them all running me over while I am trying to run the 50 yards up to the truck............only if we had someone doing the video............
Randy was pleased with the dogs' performance and only had trouble twice....both times he had to stop because a neck line from one of the dogs had come open and they were running on a soft trail without being hooked in.......amazingly he was able to fix the problems without more being created but he probably lost at least 2 minutes with put him in 11 place out of 13 - actually folds I think that is the best race this year yet!!!  All the dogs ran well so he is thinking of taking all of them again tomorrow - the trail will likely be worse and softer yet as the temp is supposed to be higher Saturday and higher yet Sunday. 
I just made salmon patties for dinner and Randy is finishing up an hour nap and it will be time to do an 8 o'clock drop.  More news tomorrow!!!

Here we are Laconia!!

Took 5 hours but not too much hassle at the border - got to the restaurant for the race meeting only to find out they had moved it to the country club near the race start - we ordered crab cake for me and delicious chicken strips for Randy anyhow - we think the parking is too small for us at the country club so may just go part at the race site - update on the first day of the race tomorrow!!

So this is what you do when you (literally) have too much time on your hands........

Just shows you how creative you can get with a toothpick!!

Had a wonderful dinner last nite at the Charette restaurant, La Villageouis - Randy had the special and it was the best steak he has ever had in Canada!!!  usually they are pretty thin but this was great!
I had the fish almondine (it is a fish called dore - it is mild like a tilapia) as did Melanie and Renelle.  Claude had 2 different meals - guessing he is tired of his diet and wanted to splurge!  we even had wine!!  Lots of dog talk about training and going to Laconia.  It is Renelle's favorite race because she loves the shopping there!  We are leaving Thursday morning as are they.  They are also taking Patrick's parents (Louise and Yves) and Claude's sister Collete and her husband.  There may be more than that but I know at least Hermel will also be there - quite a table full of people to feed Thursday through Sunday!
This morning the temperature is more moderate (17) but it is blowing and snowing.  We are situated in the middle of farm land with lots of open fields so you can really see the snow and wind whipping around!  Randy just took a snow machine out pulling 3 tires with chains behind it to see if he can open a path with not-too-deep snow to take everybody out for a fun run again today.  I also told Renelle that I was going to come up to the house and do some laundry...........lots to do!!!

February 14

Happy Vanlentine’s Day to all of you!!!

Woke up to a relatively mild day at 14 degrees and decided to train right away since the trail was groomed yesterday and had time enough and cool enough to set up as good as it was going to get.  Hermel sail that he had only done ½ of the width of the trail but it looked good except for some corners/overlaps that were 2 feet deep.  We also had a bit of fresh snow this morning so there was 2 inches of fluff on the trail.  The 2 teams did good and we were following the new approach to training and letting them rest/have fun 3 times in the 5 mile run – for the first time in a long time I didn’t feel like I was getting frostbite on my face!  We also are trying to get them more fluids by freezing up some 2 inch thick squares of dog soup water that a lot of them seem more willing to drink/eat.  Everybody (except Oslo who is complaining of some unknown problem) ran really good!!!  So a good training day!

That training day wasn’t quite as good for the people = I have been fighting with some back pain (this is different than the injury I got last March from loading a dog and different from the injury I discovered on Xray in December which is a compression fracture in the middle of my upper back)  This was an aggravation of  a fall at Nicolet on the slippery ramp loading dogs after the race and loading dogs into the cages and bending wrong – this one was supremely screwed up………….we were loading the dogs back in and I swung the lower dog door closed with my foot, hooked my lace in the closed latch and wiped out in the trailer – hasn’t been really good the last 4 days – have been taking a Canadian available med of Tylenol with methocarbimal (an over the counter muscle relaxer) and that seems to help some – now I am thinking of buying another over the counter med topical Voltaren -  to see if that might help .  I am feeling a bit fragile since I have known I have a compression fracture from osteoporosis (even though they could not tell from xray how old it was) – yesterday I thought I was cured from all problems but training today made it come back.

Just got a message from Melanie asking us for dinner for Valentine’s Day!!  Tell you all about it tomorrow!

Finally some "warmer" weather!!!!!

Like 20 degrees is "warmer"!!!  We got a blizzard last nite and got 8 inches of new snow!!  So that means that the front end loader was here this morning to plow around us - we have to wait to let the dogs out and move the truck and trailer for them to clean all of the pavement.

Saturday we ended up waiting for the Bellerives to train 4 teams and then went out with 15 of our dogs - the ones that Randy thinks he wants to run at Laconia.  They did great - and we stopped twice this time to "play" and get attaboys.  Randy said if only they would run like that in a race, he would be happy!

Sunday we didn't train and went to town for groceries and to fill 5 propane tanks.  Spent $150 at Walmart and bought 3 more of those adorable little wood boxes for shelving in the trailer.  It didn't look like anybody else had purchased any of them..........I am the sole inventory reducer.........

It was a bit tricky trying to get someone to replace the battery in my watch at the jewelry counter - first I had to find an employee to help me - she spoke English and said she would call someone - then someone showed up and she couldn't speak English - then they got another girl that could - then they got the store manager that said by way of translation that they only replace batteries on watches they have sold-  then the regular jewelry counter lady came back and she was going to try but we looked at the back of the watch and it was corroded so bad she didn't want to take a chance of breaking it!  So after 1/2 hour, still no working watch!!

It started snowing pretty heavy and was dark by the time we got back home.  Fed dogs and watched "The Walking Dead" DVD for the 3rd time!!!

Today Hermel is going to go over the trail with the groomer (it most certainly is all blown in) and then we have to let it set up over nite so the dogs don't punch into the snow.  So not much going on today!!

Friday, February 10

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Thursday was a big training day for the Bellerives – I think Hermel and another guy here to help him and Randy helping as well took out all 4 of their teams – so that would be about 50 dogs – and 200 boots!!!!!!  Cause they boot them all for training!!!!  I went in the bathroom of the barn this morning and all the used booties are on the floor (it’s the warmest spot in the barn) drying – it looks like a bootie graveyard! 

We trained the “A” team of 10 and went 9 miles – they did well and seemed to be very happy with themselves.  We are trying a new approach to training that was suggested by Alan Forget – it is mostly to do with having the dogs out on the trail for the length of time you  predict it will take the fastest teams to complete the  upcoming race – so even if you don’t train the same number of miles, you spend that amount of time out on the training trail – even if that means stopping and giving “attaboys” for 10 minutes at a time – which we did yesterday.  There is a race here in Quebec this weekend, but it seems that Laconia, NH is getting enough snow to have the race the weekend of 2/17-18 and 19 so we are skipping the race here (as are the Bellerives) in preparation of doing the 3 day race in New Hampshire.  Right now our training schedule looks like today, Sunday and next Tuesday – subject to change without notice (as Randy frequently likes to say).  It is bitter cold here today at 2degrees with wind but sunny.  I am not looking forward to the training this afternoon but I guess it wasn’t so bad yesterday at 8degrees…………I just bundle up and have every body surface covered with at least 2, more often 4 , layers!  All you can see is the tip of my nose, if that!!!

After training we got the truck back with a new starter.  They determined that the internal ground on the old one was bad and got a new one (re-built) and put an additional ground on it.  It sure is nice to be able to have Claude’s business’ mechanics look at the truck and know where to get the parts to fix it!!!!  We have been in Quebec and other places in the US (including Alaska and Alberta and Saskatchawan and Manitoba…………shall I go on??) where we were broke down with no way to get the problem somewhere to be fixed!!!!  So this is like a “dream” situation!!!

Bellerives invited us out to dinner at the local restaurant “Les Villageous” even though Claude had some dental work done yesterday and could only eat liquids!  Melanie and Patrick are on a “paleo” type diet, we are on our lowfat, low sugar diet and Ranelle was the only one without restrictions!!!

Well now that we have the truck back maybe I can talk Randy into going shopping again!!!!

Tuesday

It's a good thing we have a cell phone and can look to see what day of the week it is!!!!  Hard to keep track in the middle of the week!

Didn't do much Monday afternoon.  Woke up to a very cold Tuesday morning.  Like 3 degrees.......  And we trained that afternoon.  Brutal cold!!!  Took out the dogs that didn't race last weekend.  Not only was it cold but windy- supposed to have a front blow in tonite and snow almost a foot

About 3:30 Melanie called and wanted to know if I wanted to go grocery shopping with her and Renelle in Trois Riviers - said yes!  and Randy  went with Claude to a meeting about the dog race they put on in 2 weeks at St. Luc de Vincennes.  There were 5 guys there and very little English was spoken but Randy enjoyed it anyway.  They did ask for his opinion on the trail set-up so that was good.
After grocery shopping we went to Melanie and Patrick's and had take out chicken for dinner and a fire in the fire place - then joined by Claude and Randy.
Wednesday much warmer but didn't get to train between waiting for a phone call from Patrick to bring the truck in to Claude's business' garage to have the starter looked at to see if that is the problem we are having getting the truck to start consistently.

Today brutal cold again - 2 degrees when we got up to drop and give breakfast.  We are supposed to train this afternoon but are waiting for Hermel to be done training Bellerive's dogs.  Not looking forward to it with a high of 10 degrees and it being windy to boot!!!!

Nicolet pictures

 This dog sled is set up like a horse-drawn carriage with fils - comes complete with a leather collared harness for the dog!!

 The World Championship 6 dog team crossing the finish line at Nicolet

 The Montford Hotel at Nicolet with a Bombadier out front (that Randy would love to own...)  It looks like the hotel used to be a seminary

 These are the very expensive wood boxes I got for storage in the trailer bathroom - they didn't even fall over while we were traveling over bumpy road!!!

Melanie, a racer from France and Angie Carter from New Hampshire - Melanie got first

Day 2 at Nicolet race

We left you at day one of the race at Nicolet – the trail was very curvy and more than one 6 dog driver and many open drivers had trouble (Jim Blair went from winning first place last weekend to being disqualified for falling twice in the first quarter mile and then losing him team this weekend).  There was a lot of the trail in fields and going down onto a river.  Randy ended up being 18^th over all for the first day.

Sunday was not as cold, but as they say “a recipe for disaster” day starting with it beginning to snow heavily at the start of the open class.  By the time Randy went out the trail was chewed up pretty good because it was slightly warmer and had snowed some.  I saw all of the other teams come in and still no Randy.  One of those moments I call being a “dogsledder widow”….. waiting and wondering for the longest time.  Finally he came in and had had problems with the dogs going off the trail and them stumbling through the deep snow (the trail had broken down into punched up slough).  We found out that he had taken just a bit more time than he was able to in order to be in the money for pay out.  Then we packed up and the truck wouldn’t start……..then Hermel went to the gas station to get more gas for the generator to heat the “house”  in case we had to spend the nite (we had already run out once the nite before because it took more gas than Randy anticipated to heat the trailer and the truck with the weather being colder and he had hitched a ride with Jim Blair to the gas station in town to get more gas).  Randy got the truck to start by jumping it with the Bellerive truck Hermel was driving and finally we got started towards back to Bellerive’s.  We got there and opened up the back of the trailer to find out that 5 dogs had gotten out in the 40 minute trip and they flew out the back like they were hit in the a… with a boot jack.  15 minutes later we had re-captured all 5 dogs and were settled in for the nite.

This morning we had a breakfast date with Melanie and Patrick at 10 and when I woke up and saw the clock said 9:30 we killed ourselves dropping the dogs and getting ready to go………..only for me to look at the phone and see that it was only 9 am not 10 (found out tonite that the clock must have been dropped yesterday when we had it outside on the truck to keep track of the time and the “little hand” doesn’t track the right time for the ½ hour times………..

So it’s been a rough trip so far and we have only been gone 2 weeks…….things have got to start going better……….right????????

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

My primary job today was to not make the frost bite that flares up on my face any worse!!!  It was about 8 degrees when we trained the 2 teams.  First we went out together on the snow machine to make sure I remembered how the addition 5 miles of the trail goes - it was good because it was slightly different than 2 years ago (last year there wasn't snow here so we only training once in the short field).  Both teams went good (trained all but Glory who is still favoring her leg - it seems to be a slight sprain because we let her run around the truck and she did fine) except for one part of the trail that you go up a pretty significant hill.........I was already at the top and going along and looked back and didn't see Randy and the team following - I waited and waited and tried (not too successfully to back up - have you tried backing a snowmobile up on a narrow trail??? ) and Randy had stopped the team at the bottom of the hill to rest them (hoping they would be gung ho running up the hill) and the young leaders Ice and Fred decided to come back and see him......so he had to untangle all of them and continued up the hill much later and  with me worried at the top of the hill unable to see them!



Today Thursday training again - we are going to wait till the heat wave hits this afternoon - a whopping 13 degrees!!!  will let you know how it goes!

Saturday at Nicolet, Quebec race

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It’s 7pm and we just let the dogs out 2 hours from when we gave them their evening dinner (no candlelight….) – our dinner was actually tuna salad on lettuce with tomato!  Again, I am cooking/preparing meals wayyyyyyyyyy more than I ever have because I am trying to stick to our low cholesterol diet and plus I actually have a pretty good (albeit small..) kitchen to work in – the fridge is currently so full I have to store the chicken noodle casserole I made Thursday in the very-cold-bathroom because I have no room in the fridge!!

Slept well in our new race spot.  We are in Nicolet, a small city on a river that feeds the St Lawrence – we are only about 2 miles from the St. Lawrence and 15 minutes from Trois Rivieres – so close for Bellerives (only 40 minutes – they went home at 4 today) but far enough and trouble enough moving this big rig around that we are happy to stay here in the parking lot.  We are next to a huge old brick building that is now the Hotel Monfort, and it looks like it used to be a seminary.  I went I last nite to see about wifi and was surprised to see a modern décor, not like the wood and antiquity I expected.

We awoke this morning to another very cold day – this afternoon I may have irritated my already frostbitten cheeks when I was waiting for Randy to come in from the race.  The 6 dog race went out and had problems..one gal didn’t have the trail help close off one of the trail options for her team at the right time and so she finished the race in the starting chute and I believe got disqualified even though it was not her fault.  Melanie came back and said the corners were very hard to negotiate, and she is a woman that generally likes to “rock and roll” a trail!!!  Patrick came in 15 minutes later and he said it was a difficult trail also.  Based on their descriptions and care for Randy, he decided to run 10 dogs instead of the maximum of 12 – it was a 11 mile trail and went from fields, through a kennel (the dogs werent’ there but I am sure their smell was…) over open fields with all kinds of snowmobile tracks crossing and re-crossing the main trail and down onto a river with a 3 foot drop.  He actually had a pretty good run but did have a problem when he came to a crossing where the trail help had to decide whether to have the gate open to the team finishing ahead of him or to let him (the outgoing team) go through – he made the decision for them and stopped his team using the rules he is used to in the US where the incoming team has the right of way- once he stopped the team, they assumed they were supposed to turn somewhere so they turned into a small trail that ended in a yard with a barking dog!  There was a fence surrounding the barking dog so no problem there but his team did get tangled so he had to hook down and go untangle 2 dogs.  That probably cost him 2 minutes so he finished at the bottom of the pack at 18 out of 20.  The 20^th guy, Jim Blair from the US had a great week last week and finished first and this week fell leaving the starting chute, fell again and then ended up getting disqualified……………all in the day of the life of a dog sled driver…….

Tonite we are among about 3 trailers with sleeping quarters staying the nite and watching American movies (Twilight and some movie with Brandon Fraser- Inkheart – never heard of it…) with French language – makes me wish I knew how to lip read!!

While we were sitting here enjoying the evening, the generator quit – complete darkness….out of gas.  So right now I am here by myself – Randy went to see if someone would give him a ride in to the gas station so we wouldn’t run out again tomorrow – it’s hard to predict how much gas you are going to go through  = he thought he had enough for the weekend but the truck was acting like it dind’t want to start this morning so he had been heating the engine all day which used up  way more generator fuel.

They are offering a trio musical performance this nite in the hotel if we feel up to it – right now it just feels like “sit” – maybe we will have a resurgence of energy later ?????!!!!!

Scenes from our race at l' Epiphanie last weekend

People bought a duck, they dumped 500 ducks onto this table with 3 holes in in, a child picked all but the last one out of the whole and then the person that bought that number duck won the money corresponding to the hole ($100, 200 or 300)

This is Sylvie - she helped me buy the head band and neck warmer in the washable faux fur

The main character for the event!

 They pour thickened maple syrup onto packed snow and then you roll a popsicle stick into the hardened syup to make a "syrupcicle'!!!

 Used to be the start and finish line but now just for "looks"