The last time I was able to post was when we were still camped out in the parking lot of the Fleet and Farm Store………well Friday morning we heard banging on the door and neither of us was able to answer it…………more banging and Randy finally got some clothes on and it was the store manager and his security guard there to tell us they don’t allow overnite parking… Randy said he guessed we wore out out welcome!!  We had planned to go to the race site anyhow so we fed the dogs and drove the 5 or so miles to the race site.   Beautiful spot, on top of scenic rolling hills with a great big red round barn with a metal roof right in the middle!!  They had a front end loader making the parking lot for the dog trucks in the middle of the cornfield as we arrived so it was good we didn’t get there any earlier!  We had noticed it  might be easy to get stuck so we put on the chains and drove in!!  There was literally corn stalks sticking up everywhere around us!  The dogs had great fun when we dropped them what with the stalks and ears of corn all around to play with!  Spent the nite there and early Saturday morning trucks began to  arrive – the driver’s meeting was held in an old town hall building that the owners had moved to this spot from about a mile away – they had also moved the round barn.  The wife runs this as a tourist spot/gardens and her husband is a vet who just happened to be up on the Iditarod trail vetting!  Randy and I both got number 2 – which in most cases is a good thing,,,,,,,,,,,,,but on some occasions can be bad….like if the trail isn’t very good.  So I got myself ready to out at 12:01 and took off –within the first mile it seemed like there were about 5 90 degree turns……….none of them easy-----and up and down and up and down hills – I was doing pretty  well negotiating all the turns (I didn’t get to count but I could swear there must have been 60 in six miles…………) but was getting exhausted reefing on the sled getting around the turns and then I hit a soft birm and wiped out………dragged I the hip-deep snow for a ways, got the sled tipped upright and they took off again with me dragging on my knees- I did for a ways and alllllllllllmost got my knees onto the runners but they kept slipping off cause my pants were nylon and I couldn’t hang on any more……..got up took off my snow packed glasses and started walking – not too long a snowmobiler stopped and asked if I wanted a ride to catch my team and his passenger jumped of and me on and he took off to turn around in the snow…………and dumped both of us in the hip-deep snow!!!  Back on and got onto the trail to look for my team- found them at the last road crossing and jumped  back on the sled and finished shaking and exhausted but none the worse for wear!!!  I tried to explain to Randy about all the turns and I am sure he thought I was exaggerating!!  I didn’t feel so bad when I found out that Ken Castaldi had also wiped out twice but didn’t lose his team.  So Randy goes out in the 10 dog  10 miles and when he comes back I can tell he was now “a believer”…..it was hard for my husband with 42 years of dogsledding experience!  It ended  up that I was 12^th out of 15 and Randy 5^th out of 12!!!

That nite they put on an “Alaskan Dinner” and had sourdough bread, berry pie, salmon chowder, reindeer sausaged and stew that might have had moose in it – it was delicious!!!!

Next morning I debating in my head whether I am wise to go out on the trail again – first I was going to use less dogs and then Randy said that probably wouldn’t really make a difference and said that if her weren’t in 5^th place he might not even go out and do it again!  That made my mind up – if I wasn’t going to have fun doing it –which Saturday wasn’t - then why risk getting hurt- so I scratched.

Randy went out  and said he “lost it” going around the first 90 degree turn and had to drag on one knee for a ways and that if anything, the trail was slickeryer – so I was glad I had decided not to run it again.  I give those Wisconsin Trailblazers (especially Duncan McRae who ran in the 10 dog and beat Randy by a second on Sunday at the age of 78 or 79 – he couldn’t remember……) a lot of credit for handling a wild and crazy ride!!!

Took off after the awards – Randy made back our entry fees with a few dollars to spare – and we made it as far as Escanaba – feels good to be back in Michigan – stopped for the nite in a mall parking lot and went to Pizza Hut where I planned to catch up on my posting and they brought the Not-all-that-great pizza out so fast and then told us they were closing so I didn’t get anything done – at dinner we talked about possibly going to Daquaam Quebec for their last race and we pretty much had ourselves talked into it but we considered that yesterday on our grand-daughter Aeja’s  birthday when we talked to her she had a big surprise and that surprise was that she was going to hold off having her birthday party until we got home (because , you see, we always miss her birthday because we are always racing sled dogs about now)…………the best reason to get home faster!  what a sweetheart!  Plus her Mom is going to have baby number five any day now- another good reason!

I was explaining to Aeja how Grandma fell and dragged behind the sled and she said that when she and her brothers Ocean and Oak do that when they are riding their dogsleds behind the snowmobile the call it doing a  “Grandma and Grandpa”!!!   (if you remember about the time Randy dragged until his windpants, long underwear and then underwear all bunched up around his ankles…..) 

Got to the bridge at about 1:30 and figured to be home about 5:30 and we were!   Got to the driveway and it was still light out and figured we would put the chains on and give it a try – looked to be about 10 inches in some places with only Mark Kukal having driven in to the house to get dog meat with his 4 wheel drive truck =  Randy tried backing in and we got the truck frame hung up on snow –shoveled and shoveled and couldn’t free it- called Mark Kukal and he and Austin came to the rescue!  Not only did Mark pull us out (because we were stuck with the nose of the truck still out in the road….) so that we could pull it back into the drive way but they helped us put the dogs back out in their circles…they were so excited to be back home!!!!

By that time it was 7:30 so we ate dinner and slept in the trailer overnite – since the house was stone cold and the water turned off!

This morning awoke to sunshine and slept in until 9:30 with no dogs to drop and feed!!

House is open and fire in the woodstove and TV on so we are home!!

Blessings and safe travels to everyone else out there racing and to our family (actual and extended!!) for their support!  It wasn’t the season that we expected it to be, but Randy always says there must be a reason for us not to be where we thought we should have been……..

God Bless you all and I’ll talk at you next year!!!

So it looks like the way he was plowing that we won't have a problem parking at the race start so we will stay to do the race! 

Stayed yet today in the parking lot of the "Quality Farm and Fleet on Steroids" store - after the second drop we went shopping at said store and then Randy lubed the front bearings on the truck and lubed the axle and tightened the belt on the generator (which is no small feat - you have to take the wall out under the counter top in the trailer to get at the belt.....) and then we went to look at the race site ...... it so happened that there was a guy there with a backhoe making the parking lot for the race - he was not nearly done -So it looks like the way he was plowing that we won't have a problem parking at the race start so we will stay to do the race!  so we drove back into town to park at the same place - read for the rest of the afternoon and Randy had a nap and then after evening feed went to Mickey Dees again and had the fish McBites again  - not much variety in the schedule , ehh???!!!!!    Tomorrow after the second drop we will go back and try to get a good parking spot being the first ones there!! so will try to talk to you once more before then!!

Left the west side of Minneapolis this morning after staying the nite in the rest stop = we figured that as foggy as it was we might be safer to do that than drive another 2 hours after feeding supper - it was sunny and beautiful when we got up this am and had no trouble with the drive until we got close to Wausau and snow started - we did find the race site before dark and it looked like in the dusk that we may have a difficult time driving in to park at the race site - so we will go back tomorrow in the lite and look at it and see if it is "doable" - staying the nite in the parking lot of a "equivalent-Farm and Fleet" store and went to Mickey Dees for dinner to have wifi - the new fish bites are not bad!!!! will talk to you in the am!!!

Got up "not-so-early" again to moderate temps - fueled up and started out for "south" - our GPS wanted us to go even farther west instead of south straight out of Prince Albert........and we soon found out why!  Frost heaves or just plain bad roads......traveling on a clear hiway at only 35mph = worse road this year - reminded us of the Alcan!!!  So when there was another road to cross over to the east farther we took it......45minutes of gravel road - actually that was better than the paved road we left!  Finally got to a decent hiway and stopped to drop dogs - opened up the door from the "house" and there were loose dogs everywhere!!!! in and amongst the 2 sleds and the rest of the paraphenalia!!!  So I opened the side dog door of the trailer and let about 5 out and Randy had to untangle one at the back who was hooked into the sled and we got them all out without any problems - thank goodness they are all congenial dogs!  Usually I put s-hooks on the doors to make sure they can't open when we are traveling - but I forgot and and the "shucking" we were doing on the bad roads must have jumped the trailer so bad it popped the latches up!  Alot of times the dogs will just stay in their box even if the door is open, but not this time!!

So finally on good roads and down to the border by about 9:30 pm - went pretty smooth except he wanted to look in the dog part and people part of the trailer - his comment was "Yup, it looks like a camper...)  Made it all the way to Minot, ND and parked in the McDonalds parking lot for the nite.  Up this morning by 9 and had a gal that had just moved here from Wasilla, AK stop by to visit - she said it's much colder here!!  We now are waiting to hear back from the race organizer for a little race in Wasau, Wisconsin re-scheduled for this weekend - if they are going to still have snow we may hit it on the way back - but that looks like the "only game in town" - will let you know more when we have decided!