Well it's Thursday,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

We ended up making it as far as South Haven on Tuesday nite and stayed at a gas station - Wednesday as far as Baldwin and found out the race was cancelled for sure and then made our way up to Newberry to be able to train the dogs after another week of traveling!!  So tomorrow we will drive up to Deer Park and try and get the kids in shape for racing in a week in Wisconsis at the Northern Pines race - Ken adn Lori Chezik are also up her and it will be great to see all the people we left up here 3 weeks ago!  It sounds like there is still a decent trail here and they got more snow talk later - update when I have either wifi or cell service again - we will be living in the trailer  whiler we are here so not opening the handlers quarter that we rent at all

Talk soon!!!!

CATCH UP WITH WIFI FINALLY!!!

 

I will be brief--- it’s been so long since I have had good cell service and/or a place to actually type without bumpiness!

Last we talked it was Thursday =

We made it back to Alpine on Thursday nite – went to the race/training site in town at the trail head of the Snake River canyon- we did pick up our snow machine at the close-by fix it shop and for only 100 dollars they cleaned the cabruetor by running it down the road at 45 mph!!!! and did adjust it so it would run best going only 20mph which is as fast as we ever go with it whether grooming trails of running dogs.

The next morning on Friday was the race leg of the stage stop at Alpine and so we were parked just beside where everyone still racing was……….it was very bittersweet to see everyone and not be a part of the group any more   we did thank yous and goodbyes and felt like good sportsmen even though we were pretty downhearted and disappointed!  They did say we could come to the awards banquet but that would have been even more difficult and it was a 1/2 days drive in the wrong direction-

At present we are just outside of South Haven, back in our own state!!  The trip so far has been so much better than the way out - but it still takes us a day per state to cross - so we left on Saturday (Wyoming) Sunday(Sidney Nebraska at the original Cabelas) MOnday (Iowa) and today almost home!!  Actually we are going to Baldwin because we want to be there to help Lydia and Moe put on their race if they still have snow!!

2023 racers, handlers and committe

they have these snow stoppers all over Wyoming and Nebraska - they make a beautiful snow drift!!

many many cabins and fences like this and always horses and cattle

training at the Alpine course on the snake river - 25 yards down to the river from the trail with little stopping you from going over!!

We gave a presentation to most of these kids at Afton - so when Randy walked up to the starting line he was surprised to see thay had posters saying "go Randy" and were shouting it at the top of their lungs to all the mushers!!

the bridge they have for the range animals to cross the road!

my favorite fencing!!

Hard day!!!

the people in Pinedale are soooooo friendly - in fact all of Wyoming is so friendly!!!!

Big day in Pinedale!!!  Went shopping at Family Dollar!!!  Saw the guy we bought the delicious pork ribs from 2 days ago at the meet and greet here in Pinedale and he remembered us!!!!!!

We got the truck back late Wednesday afternoon and sure enough it was all fuel system related including the fuel gelling – even with the block heater on it all nite!!!  So $869 lighter in the wallet and we are ready to head out to Alpine to see if our snow machine is fixed to run optimally at 20 mph – they were going to adjust the carburetor to make that happen.

We don’t feel like the dogs would have a fair chance of succeeding if we went to the Yellowstone race next weekend what with all the down days from training they have had so who knows where for sure we will be heading next!!!  Will keep in touch!!!!  PS-------please tell Murphy to leave us alone now,  we are quite humbled but live by the philosophy that if things don’t work out the way we planned them, God has a reason to prevent something worse from happening!!!!!

Just a funny note= yesterday Randy walked to the post office to mail birthday cards for Bec and Luke and our fine for losing the trailer and when he walked in a guy with a cowboy hat, bandana and boots opened the door for him and said “I’ll let you break trail for me…..”  Cool, huh?

As I told Mitzi, I think that Murphy has taken up residence in our trailer..............

 

I know you will all be shocked to hear that we are in the middle of a valley, with no cell service, at the race site that they cancelled the race for because it’s too cold………..we have been here 36 hours without a soul except 2 people from the wrecker service to come and try for 2 hours to figure out what is wrong so that the truck won’t start =  I have to tell you it’s a pretty weird feeling to go into your trailer and the next time you look out the window ever single vehicle in a huge parking area filled with trucks trailers and cars is empty in this desolate valley!!!!

So let me go back to where the last time I think I wrote in the blog…………..Saturday I think…………..We drove from Teton (where I think you know Randy ended up about 5^th from the bottom of 18 drivers) to Lander – the drive was supposed to be a 2 hour enjoyable trip through the pass…which turned out to be over 4 hours and in a lot of snow on the road!  We let Aeja our granddaughter (who is going to college in Lander at the Wyoming Catholic College) know that we were  in town and she came to see us in downtown where we were parked to be able to show the townspeople what sled dogs and drivers look like………..she brought 2 friends and we had a short but wonderful visit!

Next morning , Sunday, we had already driven to the race start site and Aeja and 4 different friends arrived to help us get Grandpa started!!!  They all helped with everything and from Aeja’s last year’s racing experience she was a huge help and knew what to do before we could even ask!!!  Grandpa went out 5^th (they reversed finishing order from the day before) and the teams started coming in……………and coming in…………and coming in…………..and coming in…………and finally after over 3 hours he finished – with a dog with a sore shoulder in the bag and one that had had a seizure on the race trail……….

There was a lot of vet attention and conversation – they disqualified the 3  year old dog that had never had a problem before and gave advice about the sore shoulder .  we said goodbye to Aeja and headed for the next race site, Pinedale .  This was no small accomplishment……….the road we took was closed beacause it was too dangerous……….they have us special permission to use the road and we drove over in a caravan!!  Most was okay but slippery.

They gave us free tickets for a food concession trailer in Pinedale and we enjoyed a delicious dinner of pork ribs – then set off for the race site following Bruce because I couldn’t get the instructions on my phone for some reason! 

We still don’t know the actual temperature or the wind chill temperature ………….but first they delayed the race until 10……….then 11………….then 11:30 and then decided it was too cold for dogs and mushers------ and then that’s when everybody left us, because we couldn’t get the truck to start !!!  So it wasn’t total abandonment – they have a guy named Bob who took most of the day to find a wrecker/fixit service to help us and they did come last evening and in 2 hours didn’t figure it out .  Now I said it was cold – the day before at Lander Randy frostbit 3 fingers and his ears and the guy parked next to us frostbit his hands………..so this was worse here than it was there!

Today we kept warm in the trailer, fed and watered dogs in the boxes and let them run around the parking lot for fun!!!

It’’s 5:30 and within the hour there will be a semi wrecker here to pull us back into Pinedale and figure out our problem – so will let you know more when I do!!!

Needless to say, we missed the starting chute time today so we are out of the race………

It’s Wednesday morning and we just had breakfast in the restaurant they brought us to and unhooked from the truck and then took the truck to be fixed – don’t know for sure what’s wrong = it was 11 oclock last nite when we got here so they are just now at 9 am starting to look at it.  The thoughts so far are fuel pump, geled diesel fuel or fuel filter – we shall see!!!!