Final thoughts.....

We made one more trip a week ago to Quebec to see our friends, the Bellerives and deliver some dogs from Terry Streeper. We enjoyed a Sunday of visiting and looking at their "crop" of puppies - 26 I think - the winter of 2010 can be summed up with Randy's response to Claude when he asked him if Randy thought it was important for him to go to Alaska to race - Randy said "every serious dog driver should race in Alaska at least once" .........and in our case, probably at least twice because he is talking about next year's trip already!!

Hooray!!

Home again!!! We awoke this morning to a snow storm just outside of Marquette - spent the nite in the parking lot of the casino and got up to find 3 inches of snow on the ground!!! quite a change from having shirt sleave weather in North Dakota!! Got home to see daffodils in the garden and snow falling - unloaded all the dogs and they were so happy to be in their own circles again!!! Good to see the house didn't burn down and
Randy got the pump running again after a fashion - have some of those evil Chinese oR oriental ladybugs coming to life around the house but everything is good!! I will have some "thoughts to share" yet in the next couple of days.........

Now to Wisconsin!!

Pardon me if my typing is not so good- bumpy roads! Out of Duluth and starting through Wisconsin!! Good nite last nite at a beautiful road side park in MN - right by a lake...though I didn't know that last nite in the dark when I walked the pups!

This is the bird that almost landed on my head he was so tame - camping on the ALCAN

 

The DeKuiper Curse/Blessing!

Bet you can't guess where I am sitting!! In the trucker's lounge at a truck stop in Minot, ND!! Amazingly they were able to take the truck in and start working on it this morning already 8am. So even though we have a problem, once again we were in the ideal location to have the problem fixed!! Still no word on the air bag- Randy said they were having trouble getting it out to see what order number for getting another one - so I am working in the lounge where they have WiFi - a little hard dropping the dogs this morning because we had to take the trailer off from the truck so that means almost half as many places to tie out around! - so only half the dogs at a time. We are hoping to be back on the road yet today but don't know..........

Caribou at Watson Lake.....hitting the brakes!!!

 

Lynzie's puppies

 

We slept here on the ALCAN - beautiful!!

 

Herd of buffalo on the roadside on the ALCAN

 

Back in the USA!

Finally back in the US!!! Crossed the border into North Dakota late on Easter afternoon! Not too much trouble at the border – only about 15 minutes but they did look in the truck and in the trailer with the dogs! Got to Minot North Dakota by dinner time and while Randy was in paying for fuel ($500 worth) I felt like somebody hit the truck……ran out and looked around and then Randy figured out that the air bag blew (for those of you like me that have no idea what that means they are like the springs for the truck – without them would be damaging the truck every time we hit a bump). Once again, as luck and blessings would have it, we are at a truck stop with a garage behind the service station so maybe we will be able to have someone look at it/fix it bright and early in the morning. Saw 2 pheasants today in the fields…….not so much wildlife for a long drive the last couple of days.

On the road again ..................

Missed the turn off for Mark Hartum’s house (we thought) so stopped at the first rest area; got up in the morning to start feeding breakfast and who should show up but, Mark Hartum!! (he was returning from Regina and saw us parked at the rest stop- the realy positive thing about having a distinctive truck!!) He and his youngest son, Noah, had been down to the border of North Dakota to pick up yearlings he has had Eddy Streeper training and was on his way back to meet up with his wife at his in-laws in Canmore for Easter– he treated us to a wonderful breakfast at his house – which is newly built and beautiful! Off to go down the road at 1:30 and won’t quite make it to North Dakota tonite but tomorrow back in the USA!! Happy and Blessed Easter to all of you!!

Off the ALCAN!!!!!

Whew!!! made it in one piece!!!! no breakdowns, no injuries!!! We will almost be to Edmonton tonite and will stop to see Mark Hartum at his house a half hour out of the city - time for me to feed the dogs supper - more later

Lots to write but no time and sometimes no coverage!

Randy had a not-so-great Sunday at Tok - the dogs were flat and didn't seem to want to run very bad - we left Tok after the awards ceremony and crossed the border that nite - made it to Whitehorse and stopped to work - saw Kenny Chezik drive by and Jan Fairbanks stopped to say hello on her way to Minnesota when she saw our distinctive truck - stopped to feed later and saw Dawn Brown, Jerry Mulvey and Steve Long stopped to feed/drop - stopped at a beautiful spot on the roadside for the nite -pictures will be forthcoming - drove to Watson Lake - had to stop in a restaurant to use the computer - took off into the mountains and the road was dry and it was snowing and raining- all of a sudden it turned into a blizzard and the road to ice and snow - we were on a steep mountain incline about 2/3rd the way up and - you guessed it- the truck would not go ahead any more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! spinning and sliding backwards - we cannot tell you how scary - so I had to hold my foot on the brake cause the emergency brake was not enough to hold us, we needed the trailer brakes also - and Randy put the chains on and then I let it go back a little, and then adjust the chains and let it go back a little - finally with the chains we could go forward and stopped at the next pull off - we got 6 inches of snow during the night - we waited till we thought the snow plows might have cleared the mountain pass and asked some guys coming from the East how the roads were - they told us not to take the chains off! So with much trepidation we set out for Ft. Nelson - bad, bad, bad - drove with the chains on for 2 and 1/2 hours until one of them broke, replaced it and then finally the roads began to warm up and clear much of the way to Ft. Nelson - saw buffalo, caribou and eagles in the last 2 days - pictures soon - made it to Ft. Nelson and was working and Terry Streeper knocked on the door (there is really something to be said for having a distinctive truck - by the way a picture of it is on Sled Dog Central under the truck section) and he invited us to dinner - met his lovely and funny wife, Debbie and the 2 handlers (one from Quebec and one from Germany) that have been here all winter (they have the Streeper International Dog Handler Exchange Program going here!!!!) We are staying the nite in their drive. More tomorrow!!

My racing year is over.........but stayed in 19th place!!

We did end up going to the bonfire last nite - figured since Dale Raitto had said that he had a place plowed out big enough for us to fit that we should go!!! We were early in the evening so more and more mushers showed up while we were there - I got to have mooseburger!!! delicious!! Hug bonfire! Music playing outside - very fun!

Today my instructions from Randy were to "not use the drag" and "drive them hard all the way"! Well the first I was able to do totally but the second was hard to do since I had the same thing going on as yesterday.....Wendy drove hard on the way out and then it was almost like she said to Wava (who had not been driving hard on the way out) "OK it's your turn" because as soon as Wendy started not pulling, Wava started (It reminded me of the Wiley Coyote cartoon where they punch in and out of the time clock!) I did have a faster run than the 18th place person but not quite enough to get me into 18th; she beat me by 11 seconds - there were 9 teams in the 35 minute slot - very close racing all around!!!
Well the puppies are being noisy in the back, I suppose I should take them out and tire them out a bit!!!
I will let you know how Randy's run goes!

Potluck.......I have never seen anything like this!

3 or 4 (who’s counting !!) 8 ft. tables of food……….turkey and ham already donated by the people from Tok – a lot of it was typical potluck (green bean casserole, mac and cheese, etc.) but much of it was very Alaskan……salmon casserole (delicious!!) and things I tried that I loved but didn’t really know what they were!! And then 2 tables of dessert!! Great musher clubhouse – huge and all great big logs – I will take a picture for you –
Up at the “real” crack of 6:30 (first time up this early the whole trip……what dedication!!) so that we could feed breakfast to the crew and be able to drop at 9 before I went out on the 6 dog race (PS in case you weren’t keeping track – this is Cris’ first race in Alaska!!) – 20 degrees but feels warm to us! The race track was beautiful……out through flat land that had burned off so has many small 4-6 inch diameter trees very close to the track (if you fell you would likely have a close encounter with an Aspen………) and lo and behold (that’s how inspiring it was) as I am returning on the homecoming trail……….you look up and can see above these little trees…….the beautiful mountain range, all snow covered and so immense…so majestic…… and made me feel so lucky to be able to be here and be healthy enough to enjoy it! Thank you, God!! And to make it even better…….I am in 19th position out of 28 with a hugely competitive field- only 1.5 minutes difference from 1st place to me!!! Only 23 seconds in to 18th and only 10 seconds out of 20th!! Very close……
Randy went out with 14 dogs and one of the yearlings (Spec) hurt him a bit because she never pulled and then started neck lining –but not bad enough to load her- he finished 10th and is only 23 seconds out of 9th but the 11th place woman told him to wear his “Milkbone underwear” because she would be after him tomorrow with only 11 seconds behind Randy!!!
We are invited to a bonfire tonite but Randy is sleeping right now still trying to get over the cold – and don’t know if we will make it- but still nice for the invite!!
I can hear back in the dog trailer the 2 little puppies we are bringing back to Michigan for Lynzie Bachus (sorry if I murdered your name) they have their own box and food and last nite , first nite I only heard them once. When it gets warmer I can take them outside a bit (they are only 6 weeks old) and hopefully keep track of both of them!! Will update you on the race results tomorrow!!!!!!!!!

I forgot to mention- one last trip to the "transfer station" - only a couple of people looking for "treasures" - I got out and found a $40 hearth rug!

 

Another view!

 

A house we saw driving up to Tim and Shirley's -

 

North Pole AK - leaving McDonalds - great ice sculpture!

 

0ne of the views on the way from Delta Junction to Tok

 

Finally........an update!

Back to Tuesday – worked all day on the computer and I got to run the 7.7 mile 6-dog race course – Rand sent me out again saying “trust your leaders” (of course they had run it 3 days in a row) and it was very fast and wonderful – didn’t see any moose –kind of wanted to but didn’t want to get attacked either!! During the day Beth Gambrell stopped by – her husband is a Lt. Colonel and is in Georgia for deployment training to Iraq – she broght us coffees and visited and then came back later in the day with a whole bag of goodies (souveniers, food from Alaska, key chain, beer, something called a “wine beer”) she felt bad we had not been able to come to dinner but was so sweet to go to the trouble of shopping for us!! and then to Tim MacDonald’s for dinner – oh man!!! Grilled salmon he had caught in 3 different grilling flavors!!! Plus noodles with scallop sauce ( I asked but he didn’t catch those!) Tim and Shirley have spoiled us rotten…….so I thought of a way to partially pay them back…….here they are in Alaska and never have been on a dog sled!! So tomorrow will be their big day!!!
Wednesday: more work on the computer and Shirley and Tim showed up on time at 4:30 ready for their “experience”! Tim went out first with my 2 lead dogs with Randy out on the trail ½ mile to turn him on to a short cut – Shirley taking movies (Tim is actually the movie taker and Shirley got lots of movies of the snow and her feet…….sorry Shirley, knew you would love it if I teased you!!!) and Tim says coming back the dogs looked back at him like “aren’t you going to help?????............so he even pumped! Then Shirley went out and also had a great time ……they may be addicted!!! We offered them a couple of dogs to get started but no takers…………..
Also today Mark Hartum from near Edmonton, Canada was here to train with his family – a delightful young man and very fun to talk with – he took out 8 dogs with his little boy on the runners and his daughter on a sled behind him and his wife with 8 dogs and a daughter on a sled behing her!!!!! And away they went!!! 5 Hartums, 16 dogs and 4 sleds!
Thursday up at the crack of 9, worked, went to the store to buy some things that will be ever more so expensive once we leave Fairbanks (like milk and we bought another space heater half off which makes you wonder how much Walmart is jabbing you the rest of the year – and then the space heater doesn’t do what the old one did!!)- stopped at ColdSpot feed cause we won’t make it all the way home with meat so bought some dry dog food/kibble. Finally got underway to Tok – stopped at McDonald’ to use wifi and saw a Tillman Trucking from Fremont, MI !!!! it is such a small world!! --- neared Delta Junction where our friend Jan Fairbanks lives and we tried to call to get directions on the cell phone (last time we were here was 1998) and no service – by the time I had service we were already 25 miles past her house!!! Next year Jan!! Got to Tok after driving through some beautiful mountainscapes and tried to get pictures with the sun setting by don’t know how successful I was – stopped at the same gas station we stayed at a month ago and just this afternoon moved over to the musher’s club house for the pot luck and draw tonite!!

Randy and the bears

 

Entrance to the ice sculptures

 

Alaskan bears.......

 

Randy speaking at the ONAC awards

 

Rookie of the year!!!!

It was not a sure thing but the dogs came in good and he held on to the best time of the rookies!!! The day was sunny but cooler for everybody because there was a brisk wind - Tim MacDonald took movies of the start and finish so you will be able to see those later! I was just happy to see him coming up the hill and knowing that he hadn't fallen back!! The dogs are a little stiff today but all in good spirits! Last nite Tim MacDonald came and picked us up and took us up to their house for showers before the awards banquet - the banquet was at the Westmark (the Rodenhouse's have been there, eh guys?!!) and we had prime rib and halibut - Randy got the Rookie of the Year award and trophy and is having a Carhart jacket embroidered with his name - Randy was wonderful as always in his speech and said he was humbled by the experience- doing something he had always dreamed of doing and then being able to be rookie of the year - he also was in extremely good form to mention that his wife is supportive and worked to help him even on their anniversary!

Last nite we spent the nite in the parking lot of the Westmark (pretty noisy with lots of traffic) and then went to the Ice sculpture exhibition - after I looked at the pictures we decided not to do the entire tour and just got the pictures you see - then shopping for some needed Alaskan souveniers and then to the "meet and greet the mushers" meeting at the GCI office(one of the primary sponsors of the race); while we were there Rock Wright told Randy that for next year he needed to "slam some 20's and 30's on them in December" and that the "dogs really look good"; Helen and Egil brought in a couple of the dogs that he ran for people to pet - then more fuel to run the generator and then to the "junk yard" to drop off our garbage with 3 people scoping out the "spoils"!! Not much tonite except talking to you and feeding dogs and then to bed (Randy is still really tired from the 3 days of racing and being sick). Tommorow nite another dinner with Tim and Shirley (today for breakfast and dinner was leftovers they sent with us of the chowder and halibut/crab dish!!)

Does this look Alaskan or what?! Randy, Shirley and Tim

 

The view from the deck

 

The view from the cabin overlooking the valley

 

Tim and Shirley's cabin on the mountain

 

Time to play “catch up”……..this dog racing business takes a lot of time away from my blogging!!!!!!!!

Getting lots of sleep for both of us to stay as well as we can takes time away from it too- have to do what you have to do!
Friday ended up with Randy in 12th – the surprise ( bad surprise) of the day was that out of the 5 yearlings that he took with him the one that he thought for sure would make it all 3 days was “Red” – he had balked at the culverts/tunnels on the Rondy trail and had been dropped for the 2nd and 3rd days, but had trained at the Anchorage dog track and here and was doing fine – he went out OK then started pulling back more and more until Randy had to load him at the 7 mile mark – so he had to drive the sled and the dogs had extra weight to pull for 13 miles – and the worst part is the last couple miles are uphill!! So even thought we were disappointed he didn’t do better – actually both Randy and Red------we thought that the few minutes he was down wouldn’t happen again (because for the 2nd day he dropped all the yearlings that he was just giving experience to and probably would not have to load anybody) but the dogs were just a little slower the 2nd day and though he managed to retain his “rookie of the year” status he stayed in 12th place. The days have been sunny and very warm for dogs – which we thought might be an advantage to us because our dogs have been “inside” for the last month, warm and toasty! We have had people stop and help get to the line like Tom Nixon and Jan Fairbanks (both originally from Michigan that Randy has known for a long time) and then so many people that have stopped just to talk to someone from Michigan – or even remotely close to where they used to live before they moved to Alaska – it’s like they are hungry for a face from the Midwest!! And then there are the people that come to take pictures of our rig……tons of them!!! Yesterday on the loud speaker they were announcing Randy finishing and being rookie of the year and that all the other dog drivers had “truck envy” because of the rig we had!!! One guy that stopped was from Muskegon and is up here in the military and he said he thought he remembered being in the “Muskegon County Bookmobile”!!!! Some lay standing next to us said and “you know you have a book overdue and we have been looking for you”!!! Another couple was here from Saginaw and they come up here intermittently for the retired-doctor husband to work in the urgent care clinic because they have a terrible time staffing medical postions. The first assignment they had was in Dillingham and the first patient he had was a dog with a jaw infection!!!!!!! They had no clue he was supposed to be the vet too!!
After the race Tim MacDonald from Fremont and his lovely significant other Shirley, picked us up at 6 p to come to their house for an Alaskan dinner!! Halibut chowder, crab stuffed halibut and pie made with wild buleberries, raspberries and rhubarb!!!! I have a picture to post of their log cabin – Shirley bought it and they have refurbished it – they live about 10 minutes from the dog track but to get there your have to drive up, over and 1/3 way down the mountain……very steeeeeep!! Tim was a wrestler for Fremont several years after Randy was and he even had some video of Randy wrestling when he was in high school!!!! Apparently Randy was a “legend” to those younger guys! Tim is a retired school superintendent and Shirley is one of 3 Alaskan special needs home-bound teachers/counselors and travels all over Alaska to see her students!
In between all of this activity I had talked to my Mom in Florida who had developed acute bronchitis and didn’t sound very well – so I was happy to hear from my brother Mark later that he had driven over to see her from Orlando area and took her to the hospital last nite to be diagnosed also with a urinary tract infection – can’t take your eye off from those parents for a minute!!
Today the race is at 1p and is 27 miles instead of 20 – just keep your fingers crossed that they all (all 12 of them going) hang in there and Randy keeps the rookie title!! Then tonite is the awards banquet back at the hotel where we had the draw – should be a very nice time!!!
PS don't know how good it will turn out because it's a little hazy but a lady in the neghborhood stopped by this morning to visit and pointed out that you can see Mt. McKinley from here - I'll do my best to get it!

Tried to get a view of the mountains in the backround - hard to see!

 

Egil Ellis and Ken Chezik's teams on Saturday

 

This is the scene from Chezik's truck just after he finished...close to being in 2ndon 2nd day!! note all the spectatory on the fence!!

 

Randy and Jan Fairbanks and Tom Nixon before the race

 

65th Annual GCI Open North American Championship

Despite Randy being sick, loading Red (one of the puppies from the past year), and a few of the dogs not wanting to work as hard, he's doing really well! So far, he's the top Rookie for the race and is only a bit behind the next few teams. For anyone that wants to directly follow the race, you can see results and get a link to the live coverage here.

~ This has been daughter, Amy, reporting from Bethesda, MD.

Wednesday nite draw!!

Just stayed around the clubhouse in the morning and made our way to the Westmark Hotel for the driver's meeting - beautiful hotel - 8 stories - the tallest building in Fairbanks (I got the camera out to take a picture of the sunrise and found my camera battery dead!!!) - thought we would "clean up" for the meeting by getting a room and taking a shower!! The meeting was very nice and had food!!! Randy drew 5th place out which is good out of 15 drivers - then they had a "calcutta" which is someone (we don't know who) giving each of the drivers a "handicap" based on this year's results - and then they place bets/auction off the drivers with the handicap they have - if you bid on someone with a good handicap and they come in in "the front" you win a part of the "pot" - Randy bid a couple of times and he went for "$100" with a handicap of 23 minutes - it was lovely staying in the hotel with the hot shower; got up early and fed dogs and then went to a free breakfast for the mushers at the GCI store (a communications company in Alaska that sponsors alot of the dog races)- very nice breakfast with breakfast burritos - and then back to the clubhouse at the dog track for Randy to do more "rest and not get so sick time". At 10 am Randy had a dog drivers meeting and then had to go out on the trail on our sled behind a snowmobile for the whole course to see what the conditions were - dinner was chicken nuggets and fruit salad - more rest for tomorrow!!!

Not much excitement today............

Randy is starting to cough more and I am coughing a little less........decided to go in to the store and get more medicine, were getting out of the truck and who pulls up right in front of us.......???? Jan Fairbanks (a lady Randy knows from a long time ago and than we have visited up here before and she was to our house last year)- she was on her way to the track to find us and saw us on the road!!! big surprise!! she lives in a beautiful huge log home about an hour and 15 minutes from here - she and her husband are planning to come up for at least one day of the race this weekend. So then after we bought out the cold and flu aisle, we tried to find the "public garbage dump" - I make it sound pretty rough bit it's acutally pretty clean and tidy.....about 30 dumpsters that people bring all their trash to, with recyling and a guard who had things all lined up around him under his tent like he was the "Salvation Army" and then I was just looking at a dumpster and....... a guy popped out of it!!!! he had his own back and was going from one to another making "withdrawals"!!!!! While we were there a guy dropped off a little table and I was tempted to hop out and get it but didn't want to have to fight the "garbage guy" for it!!! Back home to feed the family, all 26 of them ate their supper for the first time in 2 weeks!!! and even better......no diarrhea!!!!! maybe we are out of the "creeping crud".....at least for the dogs!!

A sleepy Monday morning.......

Slept in a bit until the kids started telling us it was time to get up! We didn't have a late nite but all the activity outside gets you tired faster and with me getting over the cold and Randy trying not to get it.....

As the race wound up yesterday and we were feeding dogs, a guy stopped by and said a bunch of dog sled racers were going out to dinner in a "real Alaskan restaurant"... we both felt pretty good so got the instructions and headed out - not too far away but farther north and he was right.....very Alaskan and rustic - made out of huge old school (the original one burned down) with way high wood ceilings and all things Alaska decorating the place - they are a sponsor for the Yukon Quest so lots of pictures of dogs and teams and drivers! Had my favorite.....Halibut and this time the breading was much thinner......if I keep ordering it will get better and better til I finally have it with drawn butter!! It ended up that we were the only people to show up and so we had a good time talking and getting to know Gary Markley - he actually finished just ahead of Randy in the Rondy and lives down near Salcha where many other dog drivers do (Arleigh Reynolds, Eric Lanser, and many more) he really peaked my interest when he said he had some halibut in the freezer that he would be happy to give us if we stop on our way through to Tok to race the weekend after the Open North American (which is the other big "Dream Race" for Randy and they are having here at the track (same as last weekend)because there is not enough snow to start the race downtown and the usual trails on the river are not safe -
Today Randy hooked up all the dogs that didn't run in the race and my 2 leaders (cause they knew their way around the 7.7 mile trail from racing it) and took off from the truck with 18 dogs........oh my gosh, I thought he was going to lose it when he took the first corner going into the starting shoot - I have never seen so much torque applied to a sled!!! wish I had had a video!!!! He lost his GPS on the trail but then went out on a borrowed snowmobile and found it - while he was out training a very nice woman whose husband is a Lietenant Colonel in the Army here (but deployed to GA right now) stopped and invited us to dinner - amazing how warm and cordial people are!!! Time to feed the kids dinner!!! Over and out!!! PS: it was fun talking to our DeKuiper grandkids (Aeja, Ocean and Oak) last nite and hearing Caitlin tonite!!!

Bev Stevens and her team - 7th overall - another "Independent Alaskan Woman"!!!

 

This shows all the dog trucks lined up in a 1/2 circle around the start/finish

 

Kim Wells - from Anchorage - very hardy dog driving woman!!! Does it alone!!