Getting read for the last race.......

One of the many ski runs that we saw on our travels over the last 2 weeks 

 This by far was the largest of all the ski areas we saw - it looked to be bigger even than those in Colorado

 This mountainous region is the Laurentians - not quite as big as the Canadian Rockies but really big!!!

 This was the first time I looked at the "Dog Handler of the Year" trophy and was happy to see my name there from 2004 ...............even though they spelled DeKuiper wrong...............

Boy was it a good thing that we trained yesterday and Tuesday- it is a howling (20mph) blizzard out there today!!!!!  The kind that you think is going to blow you away when the wind catches the door!!

The trip home to Charrette went perfect (didn't make any wrong turns, the mountain scenery was beautiful and it was perfect driving conditions!) UNTIL.............we got to my favorite little city, Yamachiche (it's a narrow street town with red brick houses decorated with quaint Quebec decorations in white lining both sides of the main street - I hazard to guess circa 1900?) and we heard a "bam", stopped, and sure enough, another flat on the trailer!!!!!  This time we stopped soon enough that nothing got wrapped around the axle, thank goodness - the sidewall blew a hole in a 2 year old tire!!!!!  So while I was trying to call our insurance company to make sure about out coverage, an very nice young man stopped to ask Randy if he could help, ended up going home to his house and getting a "professional" jack to pick up the trailer and helped Randy put the spare on - there are for sure really good people in this world!!!!!!  Restores your faith in human nature.....

Tuesday nite we had dinner at Bellerive's and as always, had a great time!!!!  For an appetizer we had something new for us..........a 5 inch diameter seashell filled with a seafood variety in cream sauce topped and baked with cheese!!!  At first I thought it was baked in a crust so I was unsuccessfully trying to cut it with a knife.............ha ha ha!!!

So trained on Tuesday and Wednesday we also went out for a short run to try 2 new dogs from Claude - we already are using a leader for the last race and this coming weekend so Island (5 year old female) is "purchased" and we will see what happens with the other 2 - Claude has fewer dogs this year than he ever has (only put in 31 dog coops when he re- built the dog barn) so he doesn't have as many to sell.  We also went yesterday to the same place we got the truck aligned 2 weeks ago and bought another tire for the trailer - only $280!!!!!! 

The storm is only supposed to last today so tomorrow should be good for driving to the last race at Riviera Ouelle - about 4 hours from here.  That is,,,,,,,,,,,,,unless it all turns to rain and wrecks the trail because it is raining a half hour south of us!!!!  

Saying goodbye to Maniwaki!!!

It was a beautiful day for dog sled racing on Sunday!  Beautiful for the people but not so much for the dogs - it stayed cloudy and about 29 degrees until just after the unlimited class was done at about 11 - Randy had a clean run with Ultra in lead but was not able to hang on to 7th and dropped to 8th by only 10 seconds!!!!!

When we were done racing we drove back to the hotel Logue where we have been sleeping in the parking lot and where they had the 4 and 6 dog classes - we walked down to the river from the hotel to see "my new best friend in Maniwaki" race in the 6 dog = her name is Kat for short, and unbelievably, she is best friends with a gal (Marie) we met 2 of the years we raced in Alaska - Marie also raced in the Rondy with Randy (that's almost poetic...........) we ended up giving her 3 dogs - she lived in Inuvik (which is almost to the North Pole...........) and now she lives in Calgary-  Kat and Marie were childhood friends and rode/trained horses together where they lived in Quebec City - it is really such a small world sometimes!!!!

Now it's Monday morning and we stayed here again last nite - have fed us and dogs breakfast and are just waiting to drop the dogs once more before we leave for Charente - Bellerive's just left a few minutes ago -

Randy was talking to Hermel and supposedly there is a big storm coming Thursday which could mean that they would close the road going to the race this weekend - which would mean that yesterday was out last race!  So we will just see how it goes this week!!!

Made it to Maniwaki!!!

Pretty good trip - made it in 5.5 hours instead of the 4.5 predicted by the phone.............good driving weather -lots of hills and curves as we were driving through the Laurentian Mountains - must have seen at least 10 ski resorts on the way!!!!!  some looked to be bigger than when Amy and I skied in Colorado!!!!!  I took some pictures but am having trouble downloading them to the computer again............



got here about 4 and parked and fed and went in to the draw - Randy got 7 - out of 10 so not so bad - at first we thought there would be head-on passing so he planned to use Rusty and Island in lead - turned out that there was a birm between the outgoing and incoming so there wasn't any head-on - the trail started out to be pretty hard but by the time they raced today at 11 am it was getting pretty soft with sun and a temp of 37 - Randy didn't have any real problems just that Rusty, who we thought had lost her drive because she was in season, appears to have really lost her drive because she didn't pull hard today either - so tomorrow back to our "elderly" 7 year old speed demon, Ultra in lead!!!  Randy ended up 7- just the same as he left - and with only 28 seconds behind 6th perhaps he will gain a place tomorrow!!!  Oh yeah - his average speed today was 19.45 mph - not too shabby!!!  the winning team of JR Saucier was 21.02 mph!!!!

Tonite is a mushers dinner in the beautiful hotel on the river with us having chosen taco salad - all you can eat!!!

Nothing new here!!

Recovered from the trip back from New Hamphire on Monday then trained on a beautiful
 trail on Tuesday at Bellerives' - today just trimmed dog tonsils and then tomorrow we may train again or not depending on the temperature and weather - then Friday we travel at least 4.5 hours to north of Ottawa in Ontario for a race at Maniwaki- first time there so don't
know about the trail or the conditions
  will let you know on Friday!!

3rd day

We had a great dinner of “heart shaped” meatloaf at Danae’s and Glenn’s and the shower was wonderful!!!

Of the three days Sunday was by far the warmest – didn’t even wear a hat for most of the day – when you get used to being out in the cold all the time 32 degrees feels like summer!!!

Randy pared the team down to 11 so it was easy getting them ready to go – didn’t get bopped in the nose and the team was off!!!  While he was on the trail they announced on the loud speaker that he had lost a dog………….oh no!!!!  Losing a dog and not coming in with it means disqualification!!!  But then I heard that they had gotten the dog to trail help and it was already back with Randy – so he came it and explained what had happened……………Chick left the starting chute without her neck line hooked………don’t know if I did it when I put her in the line or one of the persons helping us to the line might have accidentally tripped the the snap--- so he got only a mile down the trail and saw he had a problem – waited until he got to a road crossing where there should have been good help to hook her up – but because she was spooked by all the people there she backed off and slipped out of her harness!!!  Meaning that she was free!!!  She ran down the trail for a bit and then somehow Rachel Colbath caught her while she was racing ahead of Randy and left her with trail help – he got her back in the team and took off again – didn’t even bother to put the harness back on to save time and just had her run off her collar!

He got back safe and sound but wasn’t really happy about having trouble =later we went to the awards ceremony and found out the race committee was having a discussion about whether their rules for their race covered this situation – and decided not to disqualify so good for us!  And in the published results Randy stayed in 9^thposition – not what we wanted or what the dogs are capable of doing but that’s the dog racing “game”!

That nite we unhooked from the trailer so we could just drive the truck around town and pick up some groceries and cheap diesel fuel – 

Got up today and fed breakfast and dropped and left at 10am with good roads and a good border crossing and back to Bellerives at 4 – Hermel was out on the training trail with the groomer so it’s likely we will train  tomorrow!!!

Day 2 of Laconia!!

Good day racing!!! No problems and didn’t lose the team!!!! Unfortunately he only moved up one place but it’s all good!!!  

I on the other hand had a traumatic event…………..not for my head but for my nose!!!  I was holding out leaders out for the countdown to leave and Ultra jumped up and smacked me in the nose and I immediately started bleeding on the trail!!!  The young girl who has been helping us get to the line said her father was an EMT and she took me to him and he took me into the country club and put ice on my nose and cleaned up my bloody hand – lots of people wanted to know what had happened and I could only speak thru the ice pack to say my lead dog just leaped up and bumped me!!!

Tonight we go to Danae Bryar’s house to shower and have dinner – so sweet of her to do that for us!!!

More tomorrow!!!

90th Laconia Sled Dog Derby!!!

9 am on Friday:  Left Bellerive’s at 10am for what was supposed to be 4.5 hour drive to Laconia, NH – well…………that is never the case with the DeKupers…………..we got here a 4 mainly because we stopped several times because one of the trailer tires brake kept locking up so we had to come to a full stop, back up and then go ahead!

The gps drove us directly to the country club where they are having the start of the race – it is a different site than previous years but they are trying to make the best of what little snow they have and that’s what they came up with – for us it’s great – a bathroom and restaurant within 25 yards!!!! We did have to park across the street for the first nite because someone had accidentally plowed the parking lot of the club and so they had to bring in snow on Friday morning and cover the parking lot with it.  We got up on Friday to a crisp morning and watched the very few (there used to be 40 plus teams when I ran this race!!) 6 dog teams (only 9 of them) take off – the trail looked pretty good but Randy was soon to find out the real story……………….

As usual, it took longer to get things organized for the open teams to race – they have a very nice ceremony of giving the bibs and placards advertising local businesses to put on the sleds, and the singing of both the Canadian and United States anthems- so we got our dogs out waaaaay early – it was pretty chilly with wind in the open and we should have waited until after the ceremony to get them out – but Randy likes to be sure they all have a chance to poop………………and I put oil on their feet (Zeus Juice – which is aloe and tea tree oil and some other secret ingredients) as I take them out of the trailer before they get snow on their feet- so all of that take a little bit of extra time- but not the time we gave yesterday  = I said today we aren’t going to take them out until after the ceremony cause it’s even colder today!

So Randy left and when he got back (faster than I thought – I was still getting warm in the trailer when he came across the finish line!) he said he had had to stop on the trails 4 times – that the trail was a “young man’s trail” !!! When I got the details, it was a very hairy trail with lots and lots of corners and he went off the trail once, dragged once and lost his team and had the matt down the whole trail!!!!!  It was lucky that he even came in 10^ththe way things went!!!

He is going to use the same runners today that he used yesterday and not wax them cause he doesn’t want to go any faster and with it colder today the trail will be faster -

I didn't write last nite because I took a "nap" at 7 and just got up long enough to do a final drop of the dogs and then back to bed for the night!!!  Will try better today!!!   Randy will hopefully go up a couple of places or more!!

Quick update..........

We did have the alignment done and for $127 they told us it was already aligned.............oh well , better to be sure- but they couldn't straighten the steering wheel out - something about not finding an adjustment for it??

Dealing with the "aftermath".............

Right now we are sitting in the parking lot of “Alignment Maurice” waiting to get the truck in for our 8am appointment – that’s right 8am………..meaning we got up at 6am in order to drop the dogs and get ourselves ready and drive the ½ hour to get here!!!  I guess Randy says we probably could get along for a little while with the steering wheel a quarter but that any time we were on dry pavement it would wear the tires badly.  We didn’t know it when we were driving here because we just had the address to plug into the phone, but this is the same place we came to buy a tire 2 years ago when we got a flat in the rain on our way back from Woburn………………..come to think of it, that’s two really bad situations we have run into traveling to or from Woburn………..hmmmmmmmm

So since our exciting last Friday we have trained twice – Hermel took the groomer around on Sunday nite and Randy rode with him for the first go-round – there was almost 2 feet and in some places more snow to move around and plow through to get to a packed trail- and still it wasn’t very smooth when he got done after 4 hours!  Monday Claude trained and Katie and Martin Degenais also drove 2 hours to come and train their 8 dog team.  After they were all done we trained 15 dogs with the snow machine and we tried out a new leader from Claude (Island is her name) and she did very well!  Tuesday we added in the dog that has seemed to be hurt for the last couple of weeks (Candy) and ran her on the neck line without a harness just to see if she looked “rehabilitated” (and she did) with the other 15 dogs for an even 16!  Seems like a long time since we have run that many dogs at a time – and to think Randy used to run 20 frequently and 22 once at Kalkaska!!!!

So today is the alignment, and tomorrow we leave for Laconia, New Hampshire for a 3 day race – so lots of preparations to be made!!!!................and I get to look forward to another border crossing!!!

I am running out of superlatives....................when it comes to bad days.............

We thought that surely 3 bad days on the road would have fulfilled our "quota" (most folks told us it only happens in 3's.....) but apparently not - and if God was watching over us and had this happen to prevent something worse from happening, it must have been a "humdinger"!!!!!

We packed and were on the road right about when we wanted to leave to travel to Woburn, Quebec for the race this weekend - we had already gotten quite a bit of snow (Randy said usually Claude doesn't get the amount of snow we are going to get quite right so we weren't really planning on getting over a foot overnite - but this time he was right on!!)   It was still snowing and blowing but we had pretty good distance vision and the roads were mostly snow covered or clear with snow blowing over them - we got about an hour down the road and had just gotten on the 2 lane highway and we had a truck in front of us that was intermittently turning on its flashers and then slowing down - like about 6 times - at one point, a big truck came from the opposite direction and made a white out, which we think made the nervous truck driver in front of us brake, which of course caused him to do several 360's in the road in front of us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We were only going about 25mph but still slammed into him and T-boned him on his passenger side and then rolled into the ditch!!  Once we checked all our body parts were intact I called 911 and was told police and a wrecker would be there soon - the police part was right but the wrecker took 3 hours - all the while we were in the ditch our trailer with the dogs in it was stretched out across the road behind us blocking one whole lane!!!!  They didn't close the highway off but did a good job of preventing anyone from hitting our trailer which would have really been disastrous!!!!!! At one point the police asked us if we were trying to pass the truck in front of us and we replied adamantly "NO" we were just trying to avoid hitting him (the guy coming behind the truck that caused the white out thought he saw us trying to pass) and then the police asked us why we didn't have snow tires on the truck (apparently if you are in Quebec more than one week you have to put snow tires on.............) and they decided that we were big enough that rule didn't apply............

So finally the wrecker comes - and it's a semi-truck wrecker!!!  says 32 tons on the side of it!  And he hooks on to the back of the trailer and straightens it out, then moves back farther and pulls both the truck and the trailer out of the ditch - --we were in there pretty good with 2 foot of snow all around us -Randy paid with a credit card so I have no idea how much it cost but we had to do it!!!!!!
When we get out on the side of the road we survey the damage and it looked like the "moose catcher" we had installed on the front of the truck prevented much worse damage!! One headlight was out, the hood scrunched up and the guard right up against the grill/radiator but not as bad as we had imagined - they did an inspection of the truck to see if it was "road worthy" and only saw that the spare tire under the back of the truck was hanging just a few inches from the ground so we had to follow a policeman to a small town to try and fix it ourselves.  He led us to a school parking lot with 2 foot of snow in it and we proceeded to spend the next hour lying in the snow trying to strap the spare back up off the ground - finally succeeded and then got back on the road to go back to Charente and the Bellerive's barn - got back there about 5 so we had left at 11 gone an hour down the road and finally back at 5 - what a day - incredibly scary but so thankful to be able to still drive the truck and that we and the dogs weren't hurt!!!!

Today more surveying of damage and Simon - the guy who works for Claude's business in the garage and has helped us with many vehicle issues- already said he will try to get us in somewhere on Monday so that we can get the headlight fixed and the truck re-aligned (the steering wheel is about a 1/4 turn off from normal.............)

All in all - we are Blessed and happy to be alive and unhurt!!!

 the view from our position in the ditch!!!

 After we were pulled out - you can barely see the trenches in the snow where we were "parked"!

Enjoying our time here in Charente!

Came to Bellerive's Monday morning and saw the new dog barn- WOW!!!! what a difference - whereas the one that burned down last summer held 100 cages this one is smaller for only 31 - whereas the other one was all wood and paneled in cedar and decorated with memorabilia from the family's sled dogging history over 20 years, this is paneled in white shiny plastic-looking siding!!!!!  The new bathroom is very nice and they have put in a washer and dryer so that the dog harnesses won't be washed in Renee's washer any more!

Tuesday we went to Melanie's for dinner and such a wonderful time reminiscing and catching up on the last year's events!  Probably the funniest comment was Patrick's when he was complaining about taxes in Quebec and he said he wanted to marry me so he could come to the US!!!!!!!!
Delicious dinner that Melanie and Patrick made- ham with their maple syrup as a baking glaze and smoked trout for an appetizer!

Wednesday went to Walmart in Shawinigan and spent $284!!!!!  hadn't been shopping for 2 weeks so we were out of a lot plus I bought laundry supplies so we could use the washer and dryer in the barn.

We should have trained dogs yesterday or Tuesday but the training trail here is pretty icy and Randy is afraid we would cut feet or bruise them - so they will just have to be a little bit out of shape for the race this  weekend in Woburn!!!!  We will be leaving for there on Friday morning - will update you on the way there!

Not as good, but still great!

Good day to race in Quebec!!!  little bit of snow and cool temps and the trail was maybe a bit more packed than yesterday - Randy only ran 10 dogs today because he didn't want to bring any "run along" dogs and he kept in the leader, Rusty, from yesterday that had just "run along" thinking maybe it was some small fissures on her hind feet (so he put boots on her today) but that didn't work and she was worse today - she ran at point and at times the lead dogs were keeping her moving forward - so quite a bit slower and moved down into 7th place - which in this competitive venue of Quebec - is still very good!!!  We are staying at the race site tonite because Randy's knee is hurting worse than usual because the team that finished just after him ran into the back of his legs and clotheslined him - many people helped me get the team back to the truck while he limped back..............so tonite we are nursing wounds and will go to Bellerive's tomorrow morning!!!

Yay!!!!!!!!!

Randy came in 4th even with one dog coming to a full stop to poop and causing a tangle!!!!!

OMG!!!!!

Ready for another “DeKuiper Travel Horror Story”????!!!!!!!!

Left our place in Deer Park about noon on Wednesday- it worked out good again to hook the dogs up to the lines with only their neck lines so we didn’t have to harness and un-harness – and then they ran over the mile to the trailer in front of the snowmachine.  Very nice Canadian customs agent and she laughed when we told her that we had been asked before if we were bringing any “throwing stars” into Canada- she even knew which agent would have been the one to ask that!

Everything was going along swimmingly until we heard a weird sound like we have gone over a bump except that I hadn’t seen any bump in the road – we kept driving and pretty soon a truck races around us and then slows way down with his flashers on …………….so we stop and smell burning rubber………..and one of the trailer tires had exploded and not only gone flat but wrapped itself around the axle, rubber tread, steel bands and all!!!!!  Another truck stopped behind us on the side of the road and told us that there was a semi pull off just down the road where we could safely look at our situation. So we did in the town of Spanish – way small- smaller than Montague…………  Well we started to pull some of the tire off and jack the trailer up and found it was going to be a bigger job than we could handle so we called AAA and were told there would be a wrecker there in an hour – we got the spare out of the bottom of the trailer (which entailed moving 10 buckets of dog meat to the truck) and kept on trying to get the tire tread off with a die grinder and saws all= AAA called back (we did reflect on what a pickle we would have been in without a cell phone…..) and said we weren’t covered for a flat on the trailer- we said yes we were because we had RV coverage, and they finally agreed – then the wrecker guy said we would only be covered for changing the tire and we said if we only needed the tire changed, we would do it ourselves!!!! So he said he would come and mileage and time for putting the spare on would be covered but it would be an extra $100 !! We said come anyway – we have no choice!

So he came and between his younger strength and our tools and his pry bar they got the axle cleaned off and the spare put on!

The next morning we get up and are dropping dogs and this Animal warden/policeman stops at our trailer and asks if we know that there is a dog noise ordinance in their “metropolis” – no………….  then he sees Randy let one of the dogs off the trailer and he runs into his box in the trailer as he always does……….and did we know there is a leash law? No………………………… He ends the conversation by intimating that we are “not nice” to our dogs, I say they are actually very well cared for and he says “I am not here to debate the merits of your pastime” and thankfully leaves.

So we are on our way and we get about an hour down the road and the power steering goes out!!!!!!!! Oh no…………..oh yes!!!!!  We end up seeing a Canadian Tire store that does vehicle maintenance and sure enough they could get us in!  It was caused by one of the idler pullies going bad which then took out the serpentine belt (for which we carry a spare always now because they are difficult to find)  So that took about 3 hours sitting and waiting and then on the road again! Stopped at a Home and Hardware parking lot  where a pretty young 30 something told us she would love to have us feed our dogs there – and she came out to say hello and pet all of them!  She told us about a great truck stop where we could spend the night and not half to go through Ottawa (1,000,000 population) during the rush hour and at dark.  It was a really great place indeed and we also had a wonderful breakfast there with a very nice waitress!!!

So on the road again and we go about another hour  and are going through a quaint little town on a route that looks good on the gps – and the brakes go out!!!!!!!  We limp along a little farther into the downtown area and get parked in a store parking lot and ask a taxi driver and another guy where we could get the brake lines replaced – so we unhook from the trailer (so the the trailer wouldn’t push us ahead through intersections when we tried to slow and stop), and head for the Canadian Tire store in Hawkesbury – we get there very very carefully thru many stop signs and lights (the only way to stop was to shift into neutral and apply what little brake pressure was left)  We get there and they say that they can’t put a truck with duals on the hoist – and Randy says “you can get under it easy enough it’s way tall” and she says, nope, against the rules………………….and tells us to go to King’s Garage another 10 minutes down the road.  We get there and the mechanics are out to lunch and won’t be back for 45 minutes and then have to unload 312 semi tires!!!!!!  So now it 12 and they won’t get to us until about 2!  Well it ends up being more like 3 and we were there until 6!!!! They ended up replacing 2 sections of the lines and advised we might want to replace the rest pretty soon!!! Very nice people- we enjoyed our time as much as one can waiting 6 hours in a not-so-comfortable waiting area…………….

Back on the road again to finish what was supposed to be a 13 hour trip which evolved into 2 and ½ days!!!!!!!!!!!  Went straight to the race site and arrived at 10p.

Up this morning and began to meet and greet all of our “Quebec Family” as they filtered into the race site – Randy had a very good draw and goes out 3^rdso we will see how it goes – conditions are good with a temp of 23 degrees!