WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

I know you are all dying to know what has been going on………..right??

Well, we ended up last week by training again on Thursday and that went very well.  Short run of 10 miles to get the dogs exercised and happy – we are following somewhat the advice of a Quebecer who said you should train berfore a race and stay out on the trail the time you think it will take the winning team to finish the race – he believes that the dogs have an internal clock and that clock ticks off the time they are on the trail whether they are running or standing and taking a break = so we took some breaks and stayed on the training trail about what we thought it would take to run the race at Woburn.

Left here about noon on Friday for the race – the gps said it would take 3 hours and 1 minute but we never arrive at the time it says……….always longer/later……….

Took expressway as far as we could because we know all the territory south of the St. Lawrence Seaway is mountainous and tough going with rough roads and the Appalachian mountains…  So even though we probably went abit out of our way it was smoother – it took 4 hours and we made it to the town of Woburn which is just a mile from the northern border of Maine.  I had put the address of the location where the drivers meeting (the “inscription” in Quebecian) was to be and low and behold……….no phone service!!!!! So not only could I not find the place with the gps on the phone, I couldn’t even call someone to find out where to go!!!!!!!  So we just went back to the race site (we knew where it was because we had passed the turn for it before the town – there was a big sign showing where to go! That road was a real trip……….pun intended!!  Really hilly on the 4 miles of side road taking us to the race site – I suppose on should expect that since the site is “Mt. Gosford”……up and down and up and down……….some so steep I thought we wouldn’t make it!!!  We were in 4 wheel drive and I still could tell the tires were slipping on one hill!!!  But we made it and got parked -

 We had a pleasant surprise that Yvan and Valerie came to visit us (one of the 2 couples that we now help with their teams every weekend and then they help us and they also live in their dog trailer on the weekends).  Valerie is also the person that I think I am going to go see in Quebec City to have permanent eyeliner put on!!!!  They ended up going to the meeting and signed Randy up for us  because they knew the meeting would be – and we didn’t want to have to unhook from the trailer to go the 5 miles back into town.

Saturday was fairly warm and we could tell from the start chute that the trail was going to be soft – we were hoping that the dogs had enough tough training miles on them they would be able to handle it.  Randy drew 13 (out of 18 teams) so that meant that 12 teams of 12 would go out on the 10 mile trail before him- 576 dog feet!! – not counting the 6 and 8 dog teams that had gone out earlier in the day!!  He took off without a problem and I waited patiently for him to get back………..but not for as long as usual!!!!!!! Yay  Yay  Yay!!!!!!

Sunday was warmer yet and supposed to rain – the trail was even softer and Randy had to drop 4 dogs – the big dogs that work so hard had worn themselves out on Saturday and came in neck lining (pulling back) because they were pooped going up and down the hills on the soft trail.  So this time he went out 5^th so not so many dogs punching up the trail ahead of him and not likely to have to pass anybody and hopefully no team to pass him!  And they didn’t………….and he stayed in 4^th!!!!!  This is monumental for him!!!!!  We have spent the last 10 years or so coming in second or 3^rd to the last and now look at him!!!!!  So many heartfelt congratulations from all the dog drivers – they are genuinely happy to see Randy do well!!!!!  Randy believes that the dog training in the UP starting in October made the difference!!! That plus 2 good leaders, Greg and Dozer!!  So a great weekend!!!  The only dampener was that the newest generator won’t start with the electric start…………..had to have somebody help us pull it out of the space in front of the trailer and pull the cord to start it………crap…………

It had rained some during the afternoon and so we left as soon as we could, having fed the dogs before leaving –which meant we were the last ones out of the parking lot……again………. So if we had any kind of trouble we would be left on a mountain, in the dark, with no phone service………………..

We got over the many steep hills OK and back on the main road.  Stopped to drop the dogs at a Micky Dees and picked up a celebration dinner for the road – got back on the expressway and heard a “pop” – I said “did you hear that noise?”………and he had and it was bad………pulled over on the exit ramp and sure enough, one of the trailer tires was in shreds and I mean that literally……….It totally reminded me of the Christmas Story movie when the dad is changing the tire……….only when I held the cup for Randy to put the nuts in I didn’t drop them and therefore also didn’t say the F bomb…….  And hour later and we were back on our merry way!  Got back to Bellerive’s late – had to drop dogs again and had to use the snow machine to go around the trailer to break up the ice that had crusted the snow from the freezing rain – didn’t want to hurt dogs feet having them break through the ice!!  Finally to bed at 11.

Today, back to the generator store…………….see what they come up with this time.  It’s hard to be upset with him because he has been so nice – and is friends with our dog friends Suzanne and Mario –and took the time to show us movies of him ice racing his horse with a sleigh!!! 

Randy pumped a lot yesterday trying to help the dogs and is pretty exhausted today -  maybe train the dogs we didn’t race this afternoon?  Hope you all enjoyed hearing about the weekend even a little bit as much as we enjoyed it!