more...

 

more of the race................

 

the board they track the racers on from check point to check point - this is day one

this guy is wearing a wolf coat that his mother made for him

this was to show that it was 11 degrees in the mid-afternoon

2024 trip to Fairbanks!!!

Since we are getting out of dog racing, we thought it would be a fitting end to come here and see all of our racing friends one last time (well who knows what the future will bring.......)  It was a big surprise for everybody here!!! We made the reservations the day after we got back from Quebec and it was too close to be able to go to the Rondy - Randy always says the Rondy is his favorite race to run but he really wanted to come to ONAC.

So we left Grand Rapids airport (had a glass of liquid gold on the concourse- $25 with the tip!!!!) at 3p and stopped in Dallas and then Seattle before landing in Fairbanks at 3am!!!! Spent most of Thursday recovering from being up most of the night but did go out to dinner for halibut at Pikes restaurant.

Got to the race site at 10:30 and surprised Bruce and Laura first!!!  Then Ken and Lori, Buddy and Lina, Michael Tetzner and many others!  It has been 12 years since we were here last and 20 years exactly that we came up to watch Jason Rodenhouse run some of our dogs in his team at ONAC.  It was cold but we were both prepared for it with lots of layers - I even borrowed some hiking boots and overboots from Lydia and brought my fur hat and long skirt and fur mitts!  It was great fun to see everyone and help out whenever we could!  Randy did get clotheslined by Laura's team but other than that we made it through the day without injury - came back to the hotel and got recommendations to eat at Brewster's for halibut again!!!  Delicious!!!!

our table at Pikes overlooking the Chena river

the picture is to show you that it was 11 degrees in the afternoon

peanut butter pie

halibut

Pike's resort - look at the animals on the wall

picture of the broken mirror on our U haul rental pick up!!!

End of times...............

 The hamburgers were good!!!

Did go to dinner at Melanie’s and Patrick’s and had St. Hubert chicken – that’s a very food chain up here and we had only tried it one other time but it was good (not quite as good as Popeye’s though……….)    

We did learn that the race in Pont Rouge was likely to be cancelled but trained on Friday just in case – tried the 3^rdyearling in lead with his grandfather and things would have gone really well except we had a girl right behind him that’s in heat and that made it really difficult for Granite to concentrate!!!- he was all over the place at times but really charged hard the rest of the time – the trail was perfect and we really enjoyed what could be our last run!

Saturday Randy asked Claude to try 4 of our yearlings in a team and so he did – and he is taking them – they will be very good dogs for him and 3 of them already lead – Claude has been so good to us over The hamburgers were good!!!

Did go to dinner at Melanie’s and Patrick’s and had St. Hubert chicken – that’s a very food chain up here and we had only tried it one other time but it was good (not quite as good as Popeye’s though……….)    

We did learn that the race in Pont Rouge was likely to be cancelled but trained on Friday just in case – tried the 3^rdyearling in lead with his grandfather and things would have gone really well except we had a girl right behind him that’s in heat and that made it really difficult for Granite to concentrate!!!- he was all over the place at times but really charged hard the rest of the time – the trail was perfect and we really enjoyed what could be our last run!

Saturday Randy asked Claude to try 4 of our yearlings in a team and so he did – and he is taking them – they will be very good dogs for him and 3 of them already lead – Claude has been so good to us over the last 16 years it’s the least we could do…..   And then Emiy Therrrien came and bought Tyler (she has had litters with hime and they turned out great----so now we are down to only 12 dogs!!!  Sure makes dropping them go faster!!

We had another lovely surprise when Hermel (Claude’s dog trainer) asked us to dinner – we thought we would be going to his apartment to eat but he took us to a great restaurant not far from here that we had not been to before –he had escargot and oysters on the half shell for dinner!  Me, onion soup which was delicious and Randy a burger!  It was very kind of him to spend an evening with us and we talked about a lot of shared memories especially our first meeting – we had just raced one day of Claude’s race (it turned to slush after I ran the 6 dog) and were having lunch in the restaurant and speaking English (which back then it was pretty uncommon up here)           and Hermel came to speak to us in English and Randy asked him if there were someplace to train nearby, and that’s when we got invited to come and stay at the Bellerive’s!!!!

Tonite a goodbye supper with the family and then leave mid-morning tomorrow to avoid the horrible traffic going through Montreal!!!  Should be home by Tuesday nite if all goes well so until then “Au revoir”!!!!!!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              the last 16 years it’s the least we could do…..   And then Emiy Therrrien came and bought Tyler (she has had litters with hime and they turned out great----so now we are down to only 12 dogs!!!  Sure makes dropping them go faster!!

We had another lovely surprise when Hermel (Claude’s dog trainer) asked us to dinner – we thought we would be going to his apartment to eat but he took us to a great restaurant not far from here that we had not been to before –he had escargot and oysters on the half shell for dinner!  Me, onion soup which was delicious and Randy a burger!  It was very kind of him to spend an evening with us and we talked about a lot of shared memories especially our first meeting – we had just raced one day of Claude’s race (it turned to slush after I ran the 6 dog) and were having lunch in the restaurant and speaking English (which back then it was pretty uncommon up here)           and Hermel came to speak to us in English and Randy asked him if there were someplace to train nearby, and that’s when we got invited to come and stay at the Bellerive’s!!!!

Tonite a goodbye supper with the family and then leave mid-morning tomorrow to avoid the horrible traffic going through Montreal!!!  Should be home by Tuesday nite if all goes well so until then “Au revoir”!!!!!!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              The hamburgers were good!!!

Did go to dinner at Melanie’s and Patrick’s and had St. Hubert chicken – that’s a very food chain up here and we had only tried it one other time but it was good (not quite as good as Popeye’s though……….)    

We did learn that the race in Pont Rouge was likely to be cancelled but trained on Friday just in case – tried the 3^rdyearling in lead with his grandfather and things would have gone really well except we had a girl right behind him that’s in heat and that made it really difficult for Granite to concentrate!!!- he was all over the place at times but really charged hard the rest of the time – the trail was perfect and we really enjoyed what could be our last run!

Saturday Randy asked Claude to try 4 of our yearlings in a team and so he did – and he is taking them – they will be very good dogs for him and 3 of them already lead – Claude has been so good to us over the last 16 years it’s the least we could do…..   And then Emiy Therrrien came and bought Tyler (she has had litters with hime and they turned out great----so now we are down to only 12 dogs!!!  Sure makes dropping them go faster!!

We had another lovely surprise when Hermel (Claude’s dog trainer) asked us to dinner – we thought we would be going to his apartment to eat but he took us to a great restaurant not far from here that we had not been to before –he had escargot and oysters on the half shell for dinner!  Me, onion soup which was delicious and Randy a burger!  It was very kind of him to spend an evening with us and we talked about a lot of shared memories especially our first meeting – we had just raced one day of Claude’s race (it turned to slush after I ran the 6 dog) and were having lunch in the restaurant and speaking English (which back then it was pretty uncommon up here)           and Hermel came to speak to us in English and Randy asked him if there were someplace to train nearby, and that’s when we got invited to come and stay at the Bellerive’s!!!!

Tonite a goodbye supper with the family and then leave mid-morning tomorrow to avoid the horrible traffic going through Montreal!!!  Should be home by Tuesday nite if all goes well so until then “Au revoir”!!!!!!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Happy Valentines Late!!!

 Happy Valentines Day!!!!

Quiet week – the trail was too soft to train on so we wouldn’t wreck it and the next day it got cold and froze the ruts into it – so looks like no training this week – the temp will have to get just right for us to smooth the trail and then cold enough to harden it up again……………whew……..who knew so much science went into putting in a training trail!!!!

Lots of movie watching this week in stead of training (thank you Moe and Lydia for all the movies) and Randy is going through about a Louis L’Amour book a day (also thanks to Moe) so the fact that we have been invited to dinner at the Claude and Renell’s on Tuesday and Melanie and Patrick’s on Thursday really brightens up the week!!   Melanie did find out for me where we could go to Ash Wednesday services and so we drove to St. Elie de Caxton (about 4 miles from Bellerive’s house) and had Mass in French!  And imagine the surprise of the priest after Mass when I went to confession in English!  He handled it smoothly though he must have been shocked-

Tonight we will find out whether the race at Pont Rouge is still on for a week from Saturday- as cold as it has been we should have kept whatever trail they had put in unless something or someone damaged it by going on it when it was soft…  That has always been a blessing for us to have Claude being “in the know” and keeping us up to date when we otherwise would be in the dark!  So if we find out tonight that the race is cancelled for one week from now and we know the last race has been cancelled already that was to be March 17 (the snowmobilers didn’t want to share their trail on the weekend……….) we might be on our way back to Michigan rather abruptly!!!

Another big trip to Walmart today…………out of a few essentials like bread and milk and Randy was ever-so-sweet to buy me a bouquet of flowers!!!!

Next we are going to lunch at a small restaurant here in Charette that is owned by a man we have become friends with over the years we have been coming here – he used to work for Claude in the shop here in Charette but his wife wanted to open a restaurant so he quit!  They started out small with just a window service out of  a caboose (as it’s located across the street form the railroad) and last year opened a full blown restaurant with inside seateing. He has always been so good to us helping with problems with the truck or the generator and speaks English which is the really big bonus!!  So will let you know how the hamburgers are!!

Simon's restaurant in Charette

the beginning of his restaurant

kind of a Halloween picture - Yeti decided to kiss my face with his foot!

St. Appolinaire race report!!

 We made our way to St. Appolinaire (about 2 hour drive from here at Bellerive’s, on the south side of  the St. Lawrence River across from Quebec City)  We had a bit of trouble finding it because I had to have another painful conversation with Pure Talk our cell provider because none of the features on the phone (including most importantly, the MAP!!!!) were working – come to find out we had already used up our $10 worth of international data in 4 days and we were down to nothing!!!  Plus I found out when you do something like look at the weather for about a minute, it’s 88 cents!!!!!

I managed to find the address that Emily Therrien send me just by seeing how closed our current location was to the dropped pin we had found when we were at Melanie and Patrick’s for dinner.  Then we stopped and asked a postman if this was the right address and he said yes but that it is an elementary school!!!  We didn’t see any place to park so we drove a bit farther down the street and did finally see them setting up for the race………..and what a set-up!!!!!! I have attached some pictures so you can see how impressive!!

We had learned from Claude that the open class was to begin at 8:30 in the morning Saturday, so we went to bed early and got up at 6am!!!  Way early for us!!!  Usually it’s about 8:30 we get up and moving……..  Well for some reason the race did not begin at 8:30 (probably weather related??  Things were starting to melt pretty fast so I don’t know……….) it didn’t start until 10:45!  Randy went out fine (lots of people and loud music and right in front of the really really big screen tv) one leader was acting a little freaky but they left and I could watch Randy and the team on the tv from the drone up above us!!!  They followed each team until the next team started in 2 minute intervals and then followed that team – he came in looking good and didn’t have any trouble on the run and ended up 12^th out of 18, I think.

After we took care of the dogs we went to the “largest food truck in North America” and ordered “Smash hamburgers” and fries.  Delicious!!!!  Especially since we hadn’t eaten since 6 and it was now noon!!!

The remainder of the day we visited with friends in the parking lot  and met some new mushers – and were very ready for bed that nite!!!!!

Sunday we did not have to get up so early as the race was supposed to start at 11:30 and at the driver’s meeting they said they were shortening the course from 15 to 9 miles and putting a limit of 10 dogs in the teams because the race course had gone to you-know-what  …………….

So Randy started out fine from what I could see and I forgot to stay and watch out team on the tv…………if I had I would have seen him be stopped for 4 minutes because the leader that acted squirrelly yesterday would not go ahead!!  He didn’t realize who it was at the time, but Nova Clifford ran about 50 yards to help him knowing that the snow hooks wouldn’t hold in the slush!! She stood on the brake whiled he untangled the mess the team was in and changed the leader with one of the point dogs that has led in training but not in a race……….and she didn’t want to go ahead very much either……so it was slower going than he wanted – especially with the trail being either slush or bare dirt or grass!!!  At  one point he had so much slush build up on his mat it jerked his foot off the runner and he strained his neck and at another point he was going around a corner in the deep snow (part of the 9 miles was just packed overnite and was 2 feet of wet snow ) and fell and dragged for a bit and then got back up when the dogs stopped because they were pulling Randy and the overturned sled in deep snow!!  The ordeal was finally over and we thought he might be waaaaaay down but actually he only dropped one place 

We watched Lee our friend from New Hampshire do the canicross and he came in 3^rd!!  We couldn’t imagine how hard it must have been to run in that crap!

Thankfully we had parked in a location that made it easy for us to get out and we didn’t even get stuck pulling uphill out of the lot in the slush!!

And here we are again back at Bellerive’s!!  no plans for this week except waiting to see if they are going to cancel the race in 2 weeks………..the snow is melting a lot today and it’s above freezing with no snow predicted.  Then next race is at Pont Rouge which is also not far away from here so would have the same weather- don’t know how Claude’s training trail will hold up to today with the warmth but at least it is supposed to be below freezing for the next week!!

Next up – a walk up to the house to see if I can get on the internet and post this!!!

update

Week of February 5^th update:

Monday we did go to Shawinigan to Walmart and would have enjoyed it more if my back hadn’t been hurting so bad……..some days are worse than others and this day it hurt just walking in the store.  I had thought that stopping the statin drug for cholesterol would and did help but not any more.  I did start a new cholesterol med that is twice a month injectable to see if that helped my cholesterol numbers and the back pain- I haven’t taken it but a couple of months and haven’t had my blood tested since starting it but it doesn’t seem to be helping my back (one of the side effects of the statins is muscle pain).  I have run into one small problem……….I can’t find my next 3 doses of the injectable med.  Moving your household 3 times in 4 months causes one not to have a good idea where things end up – not to mention each of the doses was a $47 copay!!!!

Monday nite we had a fabulours roast beef and pork dinner with the Bellerive family – Claude, Renelle, Melanie and Patrick.  We talked politics, health insurance, dog racing and a multitude of catching up stories since we saw them last spring!

Tuesday we trained all the dogs!  On Monday morning a musher from Quebec came and bought a dog that ran wheel for Randy in the race because he wanted one that size for his daughter’s 6 dog team and he liked the looks of him.  And we gave him a very good dog that has a hurt hip and told them they shouldn’t run him until next year training.  So that means we are now down to 17 dogs!  Some days it still seems like too many to take in and out 5 times a day minimum and to train every other day-  but both of us (except for some falls on the slippery, icy driveway) are doing well and feeling strong again from handling the dogs.  (some  of our yearlings are 70 pounds!)

Training went well 2 teams with the snowmachine – just a fun exercise run about 4 miles and we had Flint, one of the yearlings up in lead for the first time!!  He did really good except for pooping and pulling back each time about 6 times – maybe he had the “nervous poops”???

Today we are going to give the dogs nasal vaccine for kennel cough – normally we give them injectable but I oops when I ordered it – so we will see how much they don’t like getting fluid pushed up their noses!!!!  And they hated it!!!!

Tonite at Melanie and Patricks house for dinner – will let you know how the trip to St. Appolinaire goes when we get there and are sure  what we are doing!!!

this is the damage from running over the stump getting our parking place in Baldwin

helping with Christmas dinner in Newberry

My first ever banquette!!!!  the Dutch desert  one of them turned out to be a puddle!!!

biggest freighter we have ever seen going under the bridge!!!

this year's Newberry Christmas!

My view our of my hospital window in Petoskey when I had my appendicitis's

pigs in the road in the UP!!

 My Halloween tree at our house entrance!!

Hello Again!!!!

 HELLO OUT THERE!!!!!

Yes we are still alive and kicking!!!  We are in Quebec right now with the first race here tomorrow at St Luc – but I will catch you up on what’s happened over the last year……….

For the most part we have been well – even well enough to cut down 5 huge maple trees and cut and split them and stack them so the dish could get a signal for our wifi!!  I was the skidder and used the 4 wheeler to get the brush out into the woods and we felt really healthy and in shape!

That was after Randy had a bout with something called “Transient Global Amnesia” – a catchall phrase when they can’t find any other reason why you can’t remember the last 24 hours………..in this case in the beginning of it he thought he had retired from Continental, which would have been about 35 years ago!

Per usual the year has not been without vehicular problems.  Trouble with the truck starting, found stainless steel shavings in the intake of the sensor.  Didn’t run well and took it back to Great Lakes Truck Repair in Newberry and found a leaf stuck in the intake of the sending unit.  Rand to Escanaba and back to get dog meat  and back and no problems. Was worried about the fuel problem so had the mechanics add a lift pump. Cost twice as much as they guessed because of our truck’s design.  Had them check out “abs” light on the dash, and found sensor bad and wheel bearing.  Cleaned up wiring on regulator for air bags.  Found on the ride to Quebec the cruise control isn’t working – but something we can live with!!!  On the ride to St.Luc the fuel transfer pump wasn’t working –(puts fuel from the big tank to the main tank…) and thank goodness it was a loose wire that he found when he looked.

As we went to the UP for our final stay (Jim Oehlschlaeger is wanting to get rid of the dog yard and make the home more “resort-like”) we were there only a week and I got appendicitis!!  It was ruptured, then I had an abcess then I had fluid on my lung!!!  And no training for Randy for 3 weeks without his trusty dog handler!!!  I have recovered completely and am almost good as new!

We trained at Deer Park for the 4 months and the highlights of our nature living were seeing the wolf on the trail again and 3 eagles all at one time. Over that period of time we had snow, then no snow, then lots of snow, then melting- they cancelled the Tahquemenon race because of the melt so our next spot was the Baldwin race – it was a bit slushy but ran both days and Randy got first in the 8 dog!!!!

So next stop, Charette, Quebec – no problems with the drive, good roads and saw Claude down at the kennel/barn the first night on Wednesday (dinner with family next week after his race this weekend)– trained all 19 dogs Thursday and they went about 5 miles and made all the turns around the course good.  arrived at St. Luc this afternoon.  I have wifi in the community building so I will be able to update you on how the race goes tomorrow.   14 dogs and the toughest man I know (as Jess like to say about his dad!!!!) 

Results are in!!!!  13^th out of 21 teams!!  Randy averaged 17.74 mph and the top speed was 20.5 !!!!

Today was a beautiful day for a race – cold enough to have the trail stay hard and sunny!!!

Went to Mass this morning as the church is within a block – the priest spoke English so we visited for a minute – the rest was pretty hard to understand in French!

Randy had a terrible time with another team that stopped on a corner, then one of the 2 dogs he had in the bag jumped out into our leaders and he had a bad tangle!!!  Still all the dogs performed well and they were happy coming in!!!  And in 11^th  place out of 21!!!

So tonite back to Bellerive’s an hour and a half away and good clear roads – tomorrow maybe to Shawinigan to Walmart (my big day out!!)  

We just sold a dog so that’s good- time to decrease the feed bill!!!

I will try to keep up with the blog – the only wifi I have is at the Bellerive’s house and that doesn’t always work for me………….

Ii talked to Brittany Colbath today and supposedly the race next weekend is a big party!!!! So we have a lot to look forward to!!!