Final 2021 Season installment!!

 Little did we know when we left for Copper Harbor that we would not be able to communicate with anyone!!!!  No cell service in the town!!!!!

So we got there Friday about 3p and tried..........and I mean TRIED to find a parking spot in the town of Copper Harbor - we drove around blocks and finally parked on a side street next to a restaurant and went in to ask if anyone knew where we could park!  I did speak to the volunteer coordinator and she didn't have any idea!!!  So we drove around some more blocks (and almost took out a light pole..........) on the very narrow streets.............and decided to park on a dead end street - we happened to see both of the ladies that live on the street and neither had a problem with us parking there.  We dropped and fed and then Randy decided we should move closer to the race start so we parked on a side street that butted up to the main street where we though people would park for the race - to be.........banging on the door at 6am and telling us we had to move because we were in JR Anderson's spot - so around the block and waited in line for an hour and a half.........finally parked = 11 am vet check and that was all good!  3 p gear check (we had to have all the mid-distance stuff in the bag i.e. sleeping back, waterproof matches, dog boots, dog food, etc even though the race was 14.4 miles) and finally at 4 pm the Copper Dog 25!!!  the trail conditions were not the best, grainy snow, but it went very well!!!  Randy came in 4th!!!

Slept in our parking spot that nite and headed for Newberry in the morning.  Got to Houghton and I thought we had made a wrong turn so we ended up having to turn onto a very very very steep brick street in downtown Houghton, going down the hill, hoping our brakes wouldn't fail!!!!!  Come to find out it wasn't a wrong turn after all and that we were leaving Houghton on a different route that we came in so that was why it didn't look right to me!

Half hour out of Houghton it started really snowing and soon we were driving on a 2 lane hi way with 5 inches on the road and almost no visibility and no place to pull off!!!!!  Made it to Marquett 2 hour later and decided to wait out the blizzard at the Menard's parking lot - it did lighten and we got to Newberry/Deer Park mid evening where we parked in a lot across the street from where we stay at Jimmy O's - next morning spend 4 hours shoveling and plowing trying to get our Ranger truck out of the garage (so we had something to drive when we got back home that wasn't a gas guzzler!!) then stopped to Jan's and got invited to dinner - Had a lovely dinner and visit and when we got back to the trailer heard bad dog noises in the back and sure enough, there were 4 dogs that "poured" out of the back when we opened the door!!!  They all stayed right around but still stressful in the dark!

Next morning left for home with good roads and sun and made it here about 3 - Dee our wonderful neighbor had come down and started a fire so the house was warm and open!!!  Did have one major problem...........no water.  Randy tried to prime the pump to no avail............it had frozen during the cold snap (first time in 24 years living here)  So we called the guy that is going to put in a new well for us this spring and he came out this morning and brought a new pump that we will just exchange when he puts in the new one!!!!

So finally a shower and fill the hot tub!!!!!!

It's been great year - met many new people going to 3 new races and made new friends!!!!  The dogs did well for the conditions and Randy and I didn't get hurt!!!! So SUCCESS!!!!!

God Bless you all in the coming year and talk to you again next October!!!