Wrap up 2017

Sorry about not writing sooner……………too much busy!!!!!

Saturday morning seemed like a heat wave………as did the rest of the weekend = about 14 but with sun felt warmer – and it got really warm fast!!!   By the end of the day the parking lot was getting slushy and we had mini ponds next to the trailer!

We helped our usual group of mushers out with the 6 dog teams (Danae and her girls, Claude running Melainie’s team, Suzanne Bellanger and many more….)

Warm enough Randy didn’t  have to dress warm but just a light jacket (quite the contrast from last weekend where he is still peeling from frostbite on his cheeks and nose!!)  The trail was still hard and fast at 1 o’clock and he surprised me by speeding in to the finish line!!!!!  He had lost some time with Fred, the 2 year old leader, hesitating at road crossings with a lot of spectators and at a spot where they have a machine that looks like a merry-go-round with inner tubes on it (right near the tubing hill – it’s as big as a ski slope if you could tell from the picture) but they finished good!  He wondered about how many dogs to take because we have about 6 that have only raced once this year but decided to play it safe and take only dogs that have proven to finish solid – so 12 dogs.  We were very happy with 15^th out of 22 teams!!

Invited Danae Bryar and her daughters Brittany and Rachel and the folks they were rooming with (Jay Olmstead and his wife) out to dinner at the Valcartier Hotel.  Brittany was disappointed that they didn’t have poutin (a Quebec specialty that is French fries with brown gravy and cheese) at this restaurant in the hotel (the other 2 apparently do….) but my salmon was very good!  I even wore the red suede jacket that Randy gave me 15 or so years ago to dress up for our “anniversary” weekend! (19 years – so it was fun to watch live the coverage of Mitch Seavey winning the Iditarod and to see the burled arch where we got married at the finish line……..Leo Rasmussen was even commentating on the coverage and he was the one that “gave me away” with Martin Buser as Randy’s best man!)

Up on Sunday to an even warmer morning but the slush had frozen into treacherous terrain around the trailer.  Helped with 6 dog again and Claude ended up 4^th or 5^th with Melanie’s team – Patrick thought he should have run it because he is lighter but it gave Claude a chance to see how her new leader was working (Melanie and Patrick did come to the race both days to watch – Patrick said it was good for her to get out of the house and back to the sled dog excitement)

Randy had another good run but dropped down to 16^th by only 26 seconds!!!!!  And therefore was out of the money-  but another great run!!!  Even less problems with Fred shying and didn’t go down on one knee on the drag like he had Saturday -…………that even might have been the 26 seconds…….

Pulled out to go to Bellerive’s at 3:30 for the 2 hour drive back – Melanie had texted to see if we could do the practice cholesterol tests (Patrck purchased a machinnon-fasting Sunday nite instead of Monday morning since they had a work related class to go to in the morning (team building for their construction company Cirtech) so when we got back to their home we walked up to the house (about a block) and we had a cholesterol screening seminar!!!! (I had a monitor that I used at Gerber Products for employee health screening so this was somewhat familiar)  AS expected, everyone’s levels were high because they were non-fasting but that didn’t keep them from being nervous about the results and made quite the topic of conversation over dinner (it was funny because Melanie and Patrick assumed that everyone would have already eaten by 7 o’clock but we had not and Renelle and Claude said they had a “piece of meat” they would share with us – which turned out to be a lovely pork roast with potatoes that the housekeeper, Lyse, had made Friday not knowing that they would all decide to go to Quebec City to the race since Melanie was feeling better)

They still wanted to see us before we left on Monday so Claude picked us up at 7:43 (not 7:44, not 7:42, but 7:43am) so we could visit over breakfast at the restaurant before leaving and them going to their class.  Much sadness saying goodbye, especially with Melanie who dropped us back off at the trailer.  It’s funny, because we only see them about 2 months out of the year (and the years we went to Alaska, not much at all) but it is an intense time with lots of meals and dog activity so we get quite close – this was the first year that even Patrick referred to us as “family” – so very sad not to see them again maybe for 10 months – and then only if we don’t go to Alaska in 2018.

Got started at 9:30 and made it thru Montreal without problem – beautiful clear day – almost too warm for the dogs traveling in boxes – all the windows and vents open – stopped to drop about 3, fed at 7 and made it to the border at Sarnia/Port Huron by 10p!!!!!!!!!!!!  Great travel time – we were shocked but the roads were good (but very bumpy because Randy realized that the air bags are not inflating therefore we are traveling with out any shock absorption and that makes typing extreeeeeeeeemly difficult!!) and there was only some slight slow-downs going thru Toronto.

Since Toronto no snow- what a shock coming from all snow banks and snow covered fields in Quebec!!  Got this morning at the Michigan welcome center to grass, birds singing and sun!!!!

Got on the road again by 9:15 and should be home at latest (even with a stop at the grocery store) by 1 – then put all the dogs in the kennel and go to Jess and Cindy’s to get our mail to be ready for our tax accountant appointment tomorrow at 10am!!!!

Great year- wish we could have done better but ended the season with a core of 10 good dogs that are 2 years old and can build an even better team for next year!!!!