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!!!