more to add...

I went back and looked at the pictures that I had posted and wanted to explain the picture with the dog truck - that is Egil Ellis' truck and those are the people waiting for his dogs to pee to do the drug testing!

Rondy 2nd day!

I am having a bit of trouble with downloading the new camera pictures and then being able to write a caption or description with them - so I will do it now from memory!
Good nite's sleep at Motel 6- got down to the race site and found out that even though it was reverse order today (1st teams go out last) and we were supposed to park up closer they said our truck/rig was too big so we had to stay in the same place as yesterday (meaning Jess and I had to do the "gauntlet" again today!! 3 city blocks to the start and then back again for the finish). When we got there the vet people were supposed to do the urine drug test again for our team but because we were parked "out of order" because of our assigned parking spot our dogs had to hold their bladders waaaaaaaaaay longer- start went good - race not as good - 7 miles before the finish Randy had to load Patent (the pace setter for the team) he could tell 10 miles before that that he was "thinking he didn't want to do anymore" by the way he was acting - don't know whether it is physical or mental - Randy finished 19th for the 2 day cumulative time!!! still in the money cause they pay down to 20!!

So the pictures are from around downtown - one of the outhouse race entrants; one of the carnival rides you can ride when it is so cold you are freezing on the ground let alone up in the air on a ferris wheel!!!!!!!! While Randy was on the trail Jess and I went down to the fur auction (which was really the original reason for the Fur Rondevous- trappers brought their furs to Anchorage to sell and to celebrate) and we saw awesome pelts - we also saw moose horns for sale at good prices!!! (something Randy has wanted for years!!) Plus Jess was looking for fur mittens to keep his wife, Cindy,hands warm -- found beautiful beaver mittens for $250 - Cindy decided she wouldn't use them that often so it might be a no-go -
One of the pictures is Randy finishing - I wanted you to see how amazing our dogs are doing finishing with all those people in downtown -
So we were ready for Randy to finish and ran the 3 blocks again (thank goodness Jess is here to run them back to the truck - I just tried to hold the back on the line in the middle of the team - even though they are tired they still want to get back to the truck!!!
Randy's GPS still was not working today and I had emailed the manufacturer (which does n't anwer email on weekends) and went to every dog driver today to ask them if they knew how to get it "unfrozen" (Ellis, Streeper, Chezik and anyone else that would listen to me!)
After we drinked and put dogs away we talked Randy in to walking down to the fur auction to see the moose horns and ended up buying 2 for $120!!! super prices for huge horns!!

Loaded everything up and we are back at our Motel 6 home -
Mushing Magazine came by today and did an interview/movie in our trailer; the cornerstreet minister was back and wished us more blessings; more people amazed at our rig and trailer and wanting a tour (I will try to take pictures tomorrow now that I know how to use the camera)wathced the downtown fireworks from out hotel window about 4 miles away and ordered Dominos pizza for dinner again tonite!! More tomorrow - We love you all family!!!!

 

 

Randy finishing 2nd day

 

 

 

 

 

Jesse at the tracking board

 

this is the board at the start/finish line at downtown Anchorage - Jess is standing there pretty darn close to Dad fininshing - they listen to all the people at the check points and then update the velcro numbers - we have been watching the board and been nervous only to find out they had not moved Dad in the last 10 minutes - so on the one hand we have some idea where he is but on the other, when it looks bad for the moment, it is worse!!

First Day of the Rondy!!!!

What a great dog driver breakfast!!! Country fried steak, little omelets shaped like tacos, hash browns, sausage, on and on and on (no halibut!!) It turned out to be a free breakfast for the dog drivers but $12 for everyone else – there is no way I can eat that many dollars worth of breakfast (but as I saw the price of a cheeseburger in this place was $7.50 – at the Bingo Club is where the breakfast was held – maybe that’s not too bad!) The breakfast was mostly a social gathering and not much media to it – it gave me a chance to ask the photographer there to look at my camera – tried everything he knew including taking the batteries out of his very big camera and nothing - We visited with a lot of people – Cheziks, Gary Frank and his daughter, Streepers, Bill Kornmuller, Arleigh Reynolds and lots of new people. Randy went to the driver’s meeting and I went back to work in the trailer. After the meeting he was required to go around the 25 mile trail – on a sled!!! Behind a snowmobile!!! When he got back he was a little in awe of the trail and had seen 2 moose on the trail………mind you not out in the wilderness……but in the city!!! By the time he got back it was time to go back to our new Anchorage address…..Motel 6. But first………to the Fred Meyer store where I purchased a Nikon normally $150 for $98!!! Just got the batteries charged and maybe on Saturday I will have learned to use it and can download some pictures for you!! Then on the way to the Motel 6..disaster…well semi-disaster….we had had a 6 inch snow fall during the day or more and all the vehicles had packed the snow and made the roads slick, slick!! Soo going up a pretty small hill on a very busy street (Tudor avenue) we were pulling into the left turn lane (after I had already missed the right turn off to the motel….) and going up the little hill and the light didn’t turn green fast enough, and we had to stop and we couldn’t get going again when it did turn green…..so we held up traffic…..and had to back up and try again…..and Randy ended up getting out and putting the chains on the tires…..not a happy camper…..but the chains worked and off we went!!! I vaguely remember as a little girl my dad putting chains on but had forgotten how bumpy it makes the ride!!! Back to Motel 6 for a quick nite and up in the morning at 6:30 – fed and waited for Jess to arrive from the airport by way of the hotel bus – just after 8:30 he arrived and it was fun to see a “family face”!! Off right away to the race site and parked without too much difficulty. Nerves were tight…but under control!!! Lots of activity and people – kind of like a big city parade and for sure the biggest I have ever been involved in!!! Still lots of interest in the rig and wanting to see inside – and finally the big moment – Jess and snowmobile helped up get up the 3 block trek to the starting line – and he was off!!! Naturally we had one glitch…..his gps wouldn’t work at the last minute and so he was worried he wouldn’t be able to know how slow or fast he was going to keep the dogs from using all their energy in the beginning and not have enough to finish – I went back to work on the computer knowing that Randy would be out about 1 ½ hours – back with Jess to the start line to wait with Jess – they have a huge board that they track the progress of each of the teams on the trail and when I came up to meet Jess he said
“ don’t worry they haven’t moved Dad’s number for 10 minutes” (cause it looked like he was stopped and might be having trouble) and then we could see him 2 blocks down the road and they finished!!!! All of them – no dog in the bag =nobody limping =all looked happy!!! And………..Dad was in a pretty good mood!!! The end result was 19th place and I think we are pretty happy with that (they pay down to 20th place…….so that would be a good place to stay in!) Lots more people stopped by to say hello, lots from Michigan – one guy graduated with my brother Mark – Tom Dunn I think is his name and he married Nancy Butzer…remember, Mark? Packed up and drove to the Motel 6 (saw a real ride carnival down by the waterfront with people up on the ferris wheel – are they hardy up here or what?????? Pony rides, and all kinds of activities) back to work on the computer and Randy and Jess fed dogs – ordered in pizza and got free breadsticks for Randy being in the Fur Rondy!
Be looking for some pictures as soon as I learn how to use it – think I will go read the manual!!! Another big day tomorrow!!

Sled Dogs 101

Aeja, Ocean and Caitlin!! you should have been here today! You could have been the teachers!!!!!! We went to a charter school and had over 50 kids (1st and kindergarten) that came to visit our dog truck at their school - we had 5 dogs out for them to per to start (Runzl and Tarzan didn't really enjoy the extra attention) and Sarah (Aeja's one-dog dog) and Spiff (Ocean's one-dog dog) very much appreciated all the petting and loves! We told them about the parts of the sled, showed them the dog board to tell them where the dogs run in the team, and they were very excited to see in the back of the trailer and how many dogs were in there! The 25 dog drivers were all over the city at schools today doing the same thing.

After the pressure was off to get there on time and find the school, we headed to where we "thought" (key word there is thought) the Tozier dog race track was - we followed the map in the packet which looked pretty self-explanatory.......wrong.....several details missing!! So we got to where we thought the map said it was (after stopping at a KFC and asking the staff and customers there where I could find some new batteries for the camera)and it wasn't.......so we went to a Fred Meyer (like a Meijer's only different part if Holland) store and sure enough, the sales guy said "did the batteries get cold" -yup....really cold. (now you get pictures!!! after I charge the batteries (Randy is telling me get off the batteries topic already!) So we do some shopping at the store and proceed to look for the dog track again (we have to be there for a breakfast in the morning) and asked a bus driver how to get there - he tells us to go back the way we came and turn on Elmore - we do that and nothing remotely looks like a place for a dog track - we stop at the post office - 12 people in line and the lady I ask never heard of it and suggested the animal shelter - go to a pet grooming store and finally somebody knows where it is!!!!!!!!!! we had passed it twice!!!!!! so here we are sitting at the dog track, great place to park, quiet (until we let Tarzan out and then it gets a little noisy for him wanting attention from me - actually I made a business call the other day and the customer mentioned that she heard a dog barking in the backround......won't have that happen again!). Tomorrow morning is breakfast at the bingo hall across the street (wasn't there a song about a dog named Bingo????) and then Randy has his "Rookie Dog Driver Meeting" at 11 sharp (per the race marshall if you were late it would be mandatorily re-scheduled at "your inconvenience") Time to drop the kids for the last time today and Randy is yawning!

First nite in Anchorage - the "Draw" meeting

Fed the dogs early enough so we could do the 2-hour drop before 6 and not have to leave the meeting to drop them - on the walk over we saw Lori Chezik and it was good to see a familiar face - then into the very nice Crowne Plaza (if the lobby was any indicator it was a wise move on our part to stay at Motel 6!) - most efficient sign up of any race I have ever been to - handed out the packet of info and had a person to go thru it with you to make sure everything was filled out correctly, paid our entry fee (a mere $698!)and into the banquet area to sit - a veritable "who's who" of sled dogging! Randy picked out the seat and guess who was at the table.....Helen Lundberg and Egil Ellis!! very nice and good senses of humor! Next to us were the Streepers and Cheziks and at the next table Jeff King (for those of you that don't know he is a several time Iditarod winner and is renting a team from Streepers to run in the Rondy for the first time so he is competing against Randy as a rookie - yesterday was his second time running the team!!!) We had very nice hors dourves and were given an actual plactic bucket with all kids of stuff....hat, shirt, tooth brush, pins, calendar.....as they drew numbers. They drew numbers of all the racers that are not rookies (first timers) and then the rookies drew...Randy goes out 21st, the first of the rookies!! As they drew that asked each of the drivers a question on the microphone up front and asked Randy what he was most concerned about and he said it was going out as a rookie after racing for 38 years!!!! Then after the draw a guy from the radio station was interviewing drivers and my husband never ceased to impress me with how well he speaks in public.....smooth, funny, charming! Today we are scheduled to go to a school and have dogs and sled out for the kids, tomorrow breakfast with the media, driver's meeting and Randy is required to go around the trail and Jesse flies in in the morning!!!! Can't wait to see him - wish you all could be here too!!!

Anchorage at last!

I haven’t wanted to be typing on the trip down to Anchorage because there is so much to see – the Majestic Valley and Matanuska Valley with the Matanuska Glacier, all snow covered in a beautiful sunny day with the sun making ice-crystal covered trees sparkle!!! So big and so massive you have to turn you head 180 degrees to take it all in! Lots of up and down (like 8% grades) that I didn’t remember from when we traveled it in 1998. You can look way far up and down the mountain passes and see the strip of road and say “that’s where we’re going!”
Yesterday we were in Tok and called Dale Raitto to ask if we could train on his trails (since the dogs haven’t run in a week) so we drove into their yard – beautiful little log cabin in evergreen woods. They have room for over a hundred dogs in their dog yard and I asked him how many of them were his and he told me 7! He trains them for a lot of other people and has a nice trail system right out of the yard. Randy trained 2 teams of 10 and there were 2 other people training for the same race this weekend, the Rondy. When Randy came back from the first run I asked him how it was and he said “that’s the nicest trail I have ever been on!” – for somebody that’s been running dogs for 37 years that says a lot!! After we trained we stopped in the cabin for a minute and were introduced to Elise – beautiful full bear rugs on the walls and all kinds of fur pelts – beautiful!! I needed to get some more work done on the computer and had good coverage in Tok so Randy took me out to dinner at “Fast Eddy’s” where we had our first taste of our favorite Alaskan food, halibut! Randy met some people at another table that train yearling dogs for Terry Streeper and they had heard of but did not know Claude Bellerive – our friend from Quebec that we stay with when we are there. Spent the night 2 hours down the road after we stopped at the Tok grocery store where I paid $6.99 for a 5 pound bag of apples!!
Slept at a turn-out on the highway and awoke to a pink sunrise over the snowy mountains! We are almost to Palmer (going slower that we would like with all these hills –up and down, up and down) and the plan is to get a room tonite at the hotel where the draw for placement going out the first day of the race will be held and wash the truck and wash us! We will see how the plan goes………

In to Anchorage without a problem and had looked up the hotel directions on the computer so we drove right to where the Crowne Plaza Hotel and the driver's meeting tonite is - I asked Randy how much he was wanting to spend on a room thinking that the Crowne Plaza might be a little pricy - lo and behold there was a Motel 6 2 doors down and a perfect place to park the 40 foot rig!!!! So here I am now using DSL and get a shower!!!!

Yea!!!!!!!!!

Well yesterday was exciting in the up and down kind of way……….today is more like “when are we going to hit the next frost heave/bump?” Beautiful scenery (as my Mother said though “when you’ve seen one mountain, you’ve seen them all” as we drove her my dad and Randy’s mom Shirley out of Skagway on a cruise trip in Alaska in a very small, cramped car) but after 8 hours you can lose part of the ecstasy. We are nearing Beaver Creek and then will cross the border in to Alaska!!!
It is 5:35 p and we are looking for a good place to stop and feed the dogs- one rest area looked like if we pulled in we would have to put the chains on the tires to be able to get out again. The truck driver Randy talked to when we pulled into a weigh station in Whitehorse told us that it was “5 hours and 15 minutes to Beaver Creek” but it is taking us longer than that – we are being conservative driving over all the orange flagged areas of the road ( realllllllllllllllly rough spots) and a lot of the road still has ice on it.
Buzzed through the border and we are now in Tok –we made it to Alaska!!!!! The roads are much better and even though it is dark it was much easier going down the road without major ba-bumps!!
We are stopped for the nite in a gas station and will decide tomorrow whether we want to try and train tomorrow and for how far – it is about 5 hours from here to Anchorage so (assuming we don’t have any more problems!!!!)

Breathtaking.....Spectacular..........Majestic Mountains!!

On the road at the crack of 9 (it takes us an hour to get up, fold the bedding up, fold the bed up, get dressed -get dressed after the bed is folded because there is only a foot of open area between the bed and the counter top when the bed is down – makes getting dressed a little tricky!- get the 26 kids out of bed, feed the kids breakfast – milk replacer, warm water and a couple scoopfuls of meat- feed us, kids back in their houses and back in the truck). Stopped 2 hours later to let the kids out and a guy from Nova Scotia stopped to talk and look at the dogs and took a picture of our novelty set-up! Drove on good roads, good weather, sunny day all the way to Ft. Nelson where we stopped for the nite and parked in an oil refinery lot next to the train tracks. Had a quiet nite’s sleep even though when we woke up in the morning there were two other trucks parked next to us that we hadn’t even heard pull in (we run the generator all nite so the furnace will kick on and off and it makes perfect “white noise”)
On the road at 9 again (it’s amazing that no matter what time zone we are in we always get up at the same time! ---built in alarm clocks) and left Ft. Nelson (home of Terry and Buddy Streeper – we thought maybe there would be some big sign to that effect – not) and started on the Alaska Highway!!!! (AlCan). Drove a couple of hours and got in to the mountains, and I do mean mountains!!! I have never been on this and Randy was 32 years ago but doesn’t remember much of it – what a thrill ride!!!! We suppose that if you do it several times (like going up and down the hill at L Isle a Coudres with the 18% grade going down to the St Lawrence River where the bus lost control and 50 people were killed) you might even get used to it -------up and up and up and up, slow, slow, second gear, first gear, at the peak, then down, down, trying to go slow, down, down, breathe, breathe………. Beautiful mountain tops all snow covered, evergreens, snow sparkling (I have never seen snow sparkle like this – it’s like there are 50 carat diamonds sprinkled all over – it must be because of the cold and dry air??) and of course I still can’t get my camera to work!!!!! At least 2/3 of the day was in pretty mountainous landscape! Late afternoon it became just very hilly going thru a valley along a river that was breaking up –big chunks of ice floating and jammed together and that beautiful turquoise blue color!!! – still no camera –
Soon we saw signs we have never seen before……sheep crossing…….horse crossing…….buffalo crossing (you read that right…..Buffalo!!!) As we drive farther we begin to see where the snow is all chewed up (for lack of a better term….) on the sides of the road…….like something (actually lots of something’s) has been digging down into the snow looking for grass and then we see them!! 6 huge buffalo with great big horns lying down on the side of the road!!!!! We go another ½ hour and see more chewed-up snow and see 24 buffalo!!!! This group had some calves (if that’s what you call a little buffalo) and we looked on the other side of the road and not 50 feet from us there is a huge wolf!!!!!!!!!!!! It must have been the male cause there was another one smaller about 30 feet behind it – they were just standing there watching the buffalo – Randy surmised that they were stalking to see if there were any weak or sick herd members. Went a little farther and there was on humungus bull all by himself – Randy thought maybe he was really mean or he had bad breath……… Farther down the road and there were 6 more!!!!! Amazing!! As we headed into Watson Lake there were some large animals standing in the road…….one large Caribou with a huge rack and 3 females (Caribesses??) Amazing!! And me still without the camera working!!!!
Stopped for fuel for the generator just in case – we are half way across the deserted stretch and don’t want to run out. Drove another 2 hours and stopped for the nite at a rest area (really just a plowed out area on the side of the road with a trash bin…..) Left at nine again this morning and another beautiful driving day (really the only bad time we had weatherwise was that wind in North Dakota). Some steep hills but still driving through the valley with beautiful snow covered mountains on both sides (I brought the re-charged batteries in the truck with me and forgot the camera in the trailer………) It was only 10 degrees in the trailer this morning so I guess the kids won’t be too warm today driving down the road (some days it’s actually almost too warm for them even with the windows open in the trailer). Time to drop the dogs again…….and I won’t get back in the truck without the camera!

Moose tracks everywhere!!!!!!!!!!!

But we haven’t seen a single moose yet!! We are at 8:18 you’re (or at least of you)time and nearing Ft. Nelson, BC – amazing how far you can go when you are not “broke down” ( you will have to excuse the typos cause the bumpiness of the road makes it really hard to hit the right keys!!)
Grandpa set the alarm clock for 7:30 am this morning at Whitecourt , Alberta where we parked in a car parts parking lot for the nite after going to a McDonalds for our dinner at 10pm – (some wonderful person related to us called us early this morning to wish us well and forgot the time change……..and we love you for doing that, Honey!!!!)
Man………just wanted to take a picture of the sunset on the Rocky’s and don’t know how to use the computer or the cell fast enough and the camera batteries seem to be non-functional. It is in my head!!
So on the road and went through the colorfly described Dawson Creek which was a big gold mining town during the Alaskan rush – then on to lots of verrrrrrrrrry steep mountain highway (we thought it was bad in Quebec but this is close and than God the road is dry!!!) and see lots and lots of moose tracks but it is almost dark and not a single moose to be seen!
I don’t think that I had time last nite to tell you that Randy managed to negotiate the price of the axle job down to $3800 plus we got 2 t-shirts, hat and a mug!!!!!!!! (I used the mug tonite and said “this tastes like $3800!!) All in all, we were very happy with the axle experience.
The road is making it very hard to type so I will do more tomorrow – goodnite family!!

Yes we are probably getting "screwed"........

Our kids think we are getting overcharged on the axles and they are probably right...Dad wants you to know that he made the best decision at the time to replace both of them with newly made ones - and axles are not the only expensive thing here.......I bought a half gallon of milk and almost croaked when she said "$4 please"!!!!!!!!!!

One more day in the parking lot.......

We have a lovely spot in the parking lot overlooking the other diesel trucks her to be fixed and a chain link fence………It’s 5:53 your time (3:53 here) and they are still working on getting the very expensive axles put on – apparently they didn’t line up quite right and they have to drill more holes somewhere (Randy could tell you but I guess it doesn’t really matter). I did get to wash my hair over in the truck stop bathroom – one of those sinks where you have to hold your hand in front of it to make it go and I had to steal a cup from the coffee area cause I forgot mine (to rinse the shampoo out….)! Thank God we have the generator in this trailer cause I don’t know what or where I would be working on the computer. Speaking of that it might get a little iffy for coverage in the next day – not so many big towns – we will just have to wait and see. You never know till you get there – speaking of that we did send emails to the race director to see if the race is still on due to them having some warm weather and she responded that it is and the trail is good –
We want to wish a big happy birthday to Lucas today and Bec tomorrow!!!!

Update from Edmonton

Yup, we are still here, in the parking lot of the diesel truck repair shop across the street from where Randy first noticed we had a broken axle; this is the scoop - the only good option we have (since nobody here has one to replace ours and it would take 3 weeks to have one sent from Indiana) is to have 2 of them built - for around $6000 - that's more than we paid for the trailer, but what are you gonna' do??? It's still a good place to break down and we have heat and food!!!

Interesting thing I found today - I went in the business to use the bathroom and found it is one for both sexes and there is not a lock on the door so you could be in there and have a guy come in to use his "fixtue" at the same time!!!!! Didn't happen but I don't think I will visit there unless I have to!

We looked on the map and we are 975 miles from Anchorage at this point - depending on how fast we get fixed, we will know if we can make it on time for the race and then have to decide if we will continue. Keep us in your thoughts!!!

The Big Red Truck!!!!

We have so many people come by and want to see what it is like! I will take some pictures of the inside and post them

This is what happens when a dogsled meets a snowmobile in Quebec!

Alberta now........

Wow how time flies when you are going across Canada!!!!
So here is a story problem for you: A big red truck is traveling west across a barren wasteland, flat and snow covered with a northerly wind of 20+ mph; the passenger side door has a bit of a leak (which the owner of the vehicle tried to fix but it didn’t work) around the door seal. Which of the 2 people in the truck are cold enough to place a jacket around the door…………the driver or the passenger?
Bags of kettle korn for everyone that gets it right!!!!!!!!!!!!
My suggestion that there might be a lot of snow drifts across the road went relatively unheeded and we traveled for another hour – the snow drifts we did encounter really weren’t that bad (reminded me of when Luke was 16 and he drove the Bronco with me in it out to Meinert Park in a snow storm to see how good it would go through the drifts!) Stayed the night at Dairy Queen (amazingly we figured we had to be out of there fairly early in the morning cause they are doing business in the middle of winter!) On the road in the morning after dropping/feeding the kids and went down the road to find a sign “Welcome to Michigan” !!! There is a town in Saskatchewan called Michigan!!
I should say before that – we went over the border at Portal, ND without too much trouble – we had to go thru the semi lane because our truck it too big to fit thru the car lane and the customs guy was not used to asking the regular “car/RV” questions.
By the time we were near Saskatoon we stopped for the nite and parked behind a community center in a little town. By this time nerves were shredded (mine trying to stay on line to work on the computer and Randy thinking he is not going across Canada fast enough and dogs barking after dark so we were worried about waking the townspeople up or disturbing them) so we had a small “meltdown” but got over it without wounds or scars.
What a difference 8 hours can make – we woke up to much warmer temps (didn’t really look at the thermometer) and with fog!!! That after brutal cold temps and wind – the funny thing about up here is that (maybe because it is drier air and cold temps) the trees and grass and everything has like little ice posts on it (including our truck and the dogs while they were eating breakfast) like little stalactites all bunched up together (or is it stalagmites that start from the ground – I used to know that……..) So we start driving west and fog, heavy, then clear and sunny, then fog heavy, the sunny………you get the picture?!!!! Crazy weather patterns up here. No a lot to take pictures of (sorry Amy) but white fields with some oil wells and pretty much flat land.
Got to Edmonton and were surprised how busy/big it is; time to feed dogs so Randy pulls off to a truck stop and notices that the trailer front tire looked like it was going soft and the back tire didn’t look lined up right- he looked under the trailer and saw that the torsion bar was snapped loose from the axle. You know…….you just have to go with the DeKuiper mantra………..”it could have been worse – we could have broken down out in the middle of nowhere”!!!!! So already he has talked to a guy that had a diesel repair business next door and will fix it tomorrow! The Dutch Luck I would say! The axle must have just snapped of coming into the truck stop (we have been over some hellacious bumpy roads!!) or we would have lost the tire.
Everything else is working well – the engine has no leaks and the trailer setup is working well except it always takes 2………
I just asked Randy if there was anything else he wanted to add and he said “I’m hungry” so that’s all for now

We've made it to North Dakota!!!

Well it’s almost 9 Michigan time and we are nearing Grand Forks, ND – the wind is ripping across the flat lands and blowing snow across the freeway – we fed at 6 Minnesota time so we need to stop soon – preferably , I told Randy on the south side of a very big building so the dogs will be out of the wicked wind – we checked the weather service before leaving Johnson’s and they said the wind should die down by 6 their time…………guess the weather service can’t be right all the time…….or maybe only some of the time……..
Backing up to this morning – spent the nite at a rest area just an hour south of Fergus Falls, MN and drove to Fergus Falls and called Carolyn and Neal Johnson to say we would like to stop by – for many reasons, but one was to check with Neal to see if he had any ideas about a place to get the fuel leak on the primer pump fixed. Sure enough he knew a guy and the guy came to check it out and ended up getting us a new primer pump and put it in for us!!! The “Truck Gods” are with us!! In the meantime waiting for the truck fix, we spent time talking dogs and racing and Alaska with the Johnsons, had lunch with them and Randy and Neal trained the “A” team on their trail 14 miles – the wind had blown much if it in from the time Carolyn had trained in the morning but it was good exercise for the team. Carolyn highlighted the route that they take to Alaska (which is a lot better than just flying by the seats of our collective pants) and gave us good information on people to stop and see to train on the way up – they have done the trip from their house in as little as 3 days but that’s driving pretty much 24 hours a day – so we should be able to make it there by the 23rd for the driver’s meeting…………assuming the “Truck Gods” are still blessing us.
We are in Grand Forks now at a truck stop and filling up with diesel (we can hold 240 gallons and hope to make it into Alaska without having to buy Canadian diesel – though Carolyn says it’s very expensive in Alaska also) for $2.74 per gallon – we did see it for 2.55 by Chicago but didn’t really need any back then - Randy just crawled under the truck to look and make sure there’s still not a leak – looks OK!!
Time to drop the dogs and then for me to convince Randy that a strong northern wind on a east/west road in the dark is inviting trouble………talk to you tomorrow!

Off to Alaska!

Before I forget, we were amazed at how many Quebecers and other English speaking dog drivers wished us well going to Alaska!! They had announced it over the PA that we were planning to go to the Fur Rondy and so many good people came to tell us good luck! Thank you all…..it’s the dream of a lifetime, so to get there is the goal!
I think I left you last arriving home on Tuesday nite – we made good time and no problems with the truck or trailer (in fact the trailer with a furnace and electricity to have the coffe pot brew in the morning is wonderful!!) Got home about 6 and had to unload the dogs in the dark – the funniest thing that happened was the dog we got from Claude Bellerive, Anna was so excited to be outside in the snow in a circle that she did this like “ fairy dance” where she spun around and lept in the air – we have never seen anything like it and I wish I had had the camera!
Wednesday we spent doing some more things to the truck and trailer and I was having difficulty doing my computer work so went in to Fremont –
Thursday Randy trained the dogs 20 miles in preparation for the Rondy race in Anchorage and while he did that I had to go into town again to do my work – dinner with the Jesse DeKuiper grandkids for one last time before the trip!
Friday up at the crack of 8 and one last sit in the hot tub before draining it while we are gone- packing takes a lot longer than you would ever imagine for 2 people and 28 dogs!! Food, equipment, clothes, medicine, first aid supplies……….it’s overwhelming – and as of right now, I can’t remember anything we forgot!! After all that packing, left at 3p (my guess was 2, Randy’s goal was 1) and down thru Chicago!! Even at 7 o’clock the traffic was still bad before we headed north!! Makes me remember why I don’t live even close to a city! Stopped for the nite at a trucker plaza at a nice dead end road – slept well and got up at 8 again (must be our internal clock time to wake up!) and while we were feeding breakfast Randy noticed a fuel leak under the engine – so he walked up to the trucker store and asked around for some place to look at what could be a huge problem! They gave him a card and said it was up north one more exit ………….well we got to the exit, missed it, turned around and it was totally not even in the right state ( we were in Illinois and the actual address of the 24/7 Big Rig fix it shop was in Wisconsin! So we stopped to talk to a couple of police guys and they told up to go north…..way north. We get to the actual address and there is nobody to be seen (so much for the 24/7) and so we call the number on the business card they gave Randy and he calls back and says he will send somebody over = 15 minutes later he arrives, Randy has already diagnosed the problem (a gasket or washer that is leaking on the fuel primer) and the guy tries to tighten it, doesn’t have the right size wrench, tells Randy it’s tight, Randy takes his wrench and tries to tighten it, and says “you can’t tell me it’s tight cause this wrench doesn’t fit it” – the guy goes back to the office (can’t open the door ) and we decide this guy can’t fix it and go down the road calling everybody we could think of to ask if this is a serious, or need to do in the near future-problem; we now have traveled past St. Cloud MN and have already fed the dogs and it is 8:22 so we will probably stop in the next hour to drop again and sleep!

St. Luc de Vincennes in Quebec Race

Oh boy am I behind in writing……………….or what!!!!!! (that was for you, Ocean!)
Got in to Charette at the Bellerive’s about an hour later than we had hoped – good roads clear weather all the way there; dropped the dogs after feeding and went up to the house………nobody home and the door locked…….but we knew where to find them……at the restaurant!!!!! They were very surprised to see us walk in the door and had worried we were not there when we thought.. Lots of catching up to do; they had made a trip to Italy with the Charette priest and Melanie was allowed only one shopping day (in between churches and the Vatican) but did manage to buy some Gucci things! Claude drove us up to the “Sugar Shack” for the nite (they had kept the drive open all winter not knowing when we were coming to stay – this year with the new truck we can’t make it up the drive (too tall) and can’t turn around to come down again (too long!). Slept fast and up to breakfast at the same restaurant (it’s Claude’s relative’s) with Bellerives,, more catching up and I was able to show them the album we got from our kids and grandkids for Christmas – they were very impressed and told me a word in French that means “a very good memory book” but I don’t remember what it is (at first Melanie called it a souvenir – different meaning in Quebec!). Spent quite a bit of time working in Bellerive’s house (really fast wifi in the house) on my MoriningStar Health job on the computer and telephone (that also really makes the time go fast on the road!!!! And the pricing for aircard and telephone use is a lot more reasonable this year than last!) and we left for the race site (about an hour trip) for the draw meeting – well Randy had a poor draw (14 of 26 open teams) but I had the worst!! – 43 out 52 teams in the 6 dog ( as you will find out later it really didn’t make a big difference……..) Got to see lots of people from both US and Quebec that we haven’t seen in a year (Fran Plaisted, Steve Long and Lisa, the Butlers, Keith Bryar and Jimmy Lyman and their wives, Guy Dufour, Guy Girard, Lou Serre, Serge Pomerlou, John Boisennault, and many many more (sorry for butchering the spelling)
Saturday morning was cold and windy (so the hard fast trail was going to stay hard and fast……..not my first choice….). The 6 dog event was first and I had plenty of butterflies. Melanie had forewarned me that there was one bad corner that was hard and fast and banked the wrong way, so you would slide out of the corner even more that normal – but couldn’t remember which one! Ran the first 1/3 of the trail very conservatively, putting my drag down to slow them a bit before the curve coming up and got wobbly a few times where there was “stepping” of the edges of the curves, popped out of the woods, thought, “Oh my gosh, there’s a turn already, next thing I know (I know this is no surprise to many of you out there…….) I found myself lying on the outside of the “badly banked, horror turn” still gripping the driving bow!!!! Wonder of wonders, the dogs were standing still, I jumped up back on the runners and away we went! The rest of the course was pretty uneventful and the one-year old I had at point didn’t even shy at the people taking pictures and the road crossings as much as I thought she would. The leader, Molly that Randy loaned me from his team did a great job of keeping up with my boy, Spiff. Not so good on the standings…….my conservatism and fall only put me at 36th place – didn’t really plan on anything spinortinous (thanks, Mom Shirley for that word) but didn’t expect whale poop either.
Randy hooked up 18 and has been training 18 miles so was hoping they would do well on a 14 mile race; he took off well and came back feeing very good; only a slight hiccup with the point dog Ace with his leg over the neck line for about a mile until he got himself out of it; much to our dismay, he ended up in 13th for the day! Other than that it was a clean run, maybe a little too fast for some of the dogs in the team.
After feeding dogs took a 2 hour nap, dropped dogs and then went to bed on our very comfortable new futon (amazing how tired you can get falling down and wrestling with dogs outdoors in cold weather all day!!!
Up at the crack of 8 on Sunday, still very cold and windy, but many saying the course doesn’t look as icy today. 6 dog teams out at 11, plenty of time for me to be planning how to get around the trail without giving the dogs a rest today…….not quite as nervous and know not much at stake as low as I am in the standings. Good start except the 1 year old point dog, Spec was more shy today than yesterday, and to make things worse, Runzl the other point, thinks she is in season and wants to play kissy face around the trail – especially when I am in the loop coming home……..not good while making a turn! So I hear someone from behind say “stop your team” and I am thinking where did he come from cause we left 2 minutes apart but nobody caught me yesterday even when I fell!!! So I slow down and a young kid from Maine, Alex passes me and we’re now staying right on his tail…..and now I realize where I am…..at the dreaded curve…….wrench the driving bow, stay in the middle of the trail and make it around the corner and what is in the middle of the trail ahead……..Alex with his team stopped and trying to untangle his dogs!!!!!!!! So we pass him, then he comes up behind us and passes us again, then we get to the last ½ mile and who is off his sled trying to turn his dogs back onto the trail with trail help after they followed some other team’s tracks off the trail and so we pass him again! Of course every time we are doing this passing back and forth and back and forth the point dog is shying and is taking 100 yards to quit backing off and running again. So we finally finish and Randy tells me somebody must have goofed and let Alex leave a minute too soon after me which was why he was able to catch me so easily. The end result was I moved up 2 places and had good experiences for both me and the yearling!
Randy’s second day was a good clean run, no passes and ended up 14th! Our friends did better, Melanie 1st in the 6 dog and Claude 4th in the unlimited (after a bad day yesterday with a leader that didn’t work) A note to the Michigan mushers: Randy has 3 good females for somebody to run the rest of the winter that will be available in the next couple of days; give us a call on the cell phone 616.350.8780 – because thanks to Claude Bellerive we have 2 faster dogs he thinks will be able to do the 25 mile trail at the Fur Rondy!!!
Back to the Bellerive’s and dinner with them, early to bed, early to rise to get going, breakfast at the restaurant and very sad goodbyes - especially when we spent almost 3 months with them last year and this year only 3 days (We are leaving with wonderful memories as always of our dear friends, and a little special gift from Melanie to Randy…….his favorite sugar pie!!)
Left Bellerive’s at 11 and it is now 7:15 and we are almost out of Toronto – probably a half hour snail’s pace due to a small car-huge truck accident in the road; going to stop and feed shortly. Over and out for tonight!

Back to Quebec!

2/2/10 - On the road again………….just can’t wait to get on the road again!! This time to Quebec to do the race at St. Luc de Vincennes (our friends the Bellerive’s race) and if this trip with the new truck goes well, then back home for 2 days next week and then off to Anchorage, Alaska for Randy to do the Fur Rondy (the 75^th one so it should be a pretty exciting time!!)

A bit of history to fill in the gaps – The first race we did this year was Kalkaska Michigan because the new red truck needed more work (more than the almost double the cost of the truck that we already put into it-) and we were having trouble getting the furnace and the generator in the “bookmobile trailer” (I call it that because that is actually what it was/is – the Muskeon Township Bookmobile! - Randy took most of the stickers of but you can still see a lot of the printing) The 2 weeks after that we were getting a “cold leak” fixed(have you ever heard of that in a diesel engine – when the engine is cold the gaskets leak antifreez). We did train on our trails (which stayed good in spite of the rain and then “0” temperatures) and the dogs are up to 17 miles without too much trouble. We did have one bad training experience (more for the driver and not the dogs!!) At a part of the trail that Randy extended not too long ago to be able to get the 17 miles in, there were some small, but very sturdy, oak trees at the curve – I was following him around the trail with the snowmobile for the first time on the trail with the sled – just before he got to that curve, in his head he said he was thinking “ I wonder if those little trees are going to give when I go around the corner???” – you guessed it – sturdy little suckers stopped the runner and flipped him up in the air (I got to see the whole thing…….makes me feel not so bad about all of my falls!!) and bam, down on the ground and the team was off on a rollicking jaunt by themselves!!! I sped up to my fallen hero and thought he would jump on the back of the snowmobile we would catch up to the team and he would jump from the snowmobile to the sled like something out of a Roy Rogers movie…………nope, he told me to get in the back and he drove us up to the team, passed them and the leaders got caught in a small tree while they were backing off!!! Than God for snowmobiles! Randy is a little bruised but none of the dogs got tangled or hurt.

So in the morning we busily packed (you would be surprised how much stuff you need for 28 kids and their parents and the parents living/eating quarters!) and left the house at 3p – over the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron about 8:30 and figured that we got at least 10 miles to the gallon – which is super!! We got through Customs with only about a 10 minute grilling (always an anxiety-provoking part of the trip!!!!!!!) and stopped for the nite east of London at a car pool parking lot (that of course had a sign that said “no trucks” but which my husband said would be OK. Had a pretty restful nite on the new futon and the most wonderful thing was that, this morning upon wakening to temps in the 20’s in the trailer, Randy could reach over and turn on the generator and have the furnace start up automatically! Tomorrow morning we’re going to set it up so that the coffee pot will start too!! We are just getting into Toronto – time to start my “copilot” duties!

It's 6:10 pm and we are finally out of Montreal! Lots of slow downs - we thought it might be bad but we used up all of our "good road luck" going through Toronto!! We should be at Bellerives within the hour (just slightly later than we wanted to be) and then feed the dogs and hopefully have some visit time and be able to show them the "DeKuiper Kids and Grandkids" album. I will try and write again tomorrow - Goodnight Zoey, Aeja, Caitlin, Ocean and Oak and don't let the bed bugs bite!!!