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!