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!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
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!!!!!!!!!
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!!!!!!!!!
Friday, March 26, 2010
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!!
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!!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
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!!)
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!!)
Sunday, March 21, 2010
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!
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!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
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.
~ 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!!!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
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!!
Monday, March 15, 2010
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!!!
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!!!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Saturday and Sunday at Studdert Track
Saturday morning we lost the furnace at some point (I could tell cause my face was getting cold!!!) so Randy plugged in the little space heater - which we luckily have) and then when we got up and around we found out that it was -24 degrees!!! Randy had another good run but only good enough to be in 14th place...... just to darn much good competition!!! In the afternoon we went to North Pole to buy some dog meat - the people ship in and then deliver all kinds of animal food and amazingly enough they sell the same dog meat that we buy from Medford, WI!!!! So it's good to know that we can not change their diet if we run out of what we brought with us! The remainder of the day was resting and recuperating and watching a little TV on the computer!!! It's incredible how many naps you can take when you are trying not to get or get over a cold!!!
Sunday supposedly was not as cold but damper so it felt just as cold!! Not as sunny either - cloudy all day with a little bit of snow in the morning - the dogs ran good today again and Randy almost moved up to 13th - only 3 seconds behind! he said that if Runzl had snow-dipped a few less times he would have done it!!! Everybody is pretty much packing up and leaving - I got a last minute hair wash in at the clubhouse before they locked it up!!! I will spend the rest of the time downloading some pictures from yesterday and today!
Sunday supposedly was not as cold but damper so it felt just as cold!! Not as sunny either - cloudy all day with a little bit of snow in the morning - the dogs ran good today again and Randy almost moved up to 13th - only 3 seconds behind! he said that if Runzl had snow-dipped a few less times he would have done it!!! Everybody is pretty much packing up and leaving - I got a last minute hair wash in at the clubhouse before they locked it up!!! I will spend the rest of the time downloading some pictures from yesterday and today!
Friday, March 12, 2010
6:30 pm and the sun is setting on a beautiful sunny, but very cold day!
It got up to 7 degrees today but the dogs are nice and toasty in the new rig - it almost got too warm for them last nite and some of the ice on the sleds melted off!!
The race went well today for Randy - he did hope not to get passed but did and ended up 12th of 15 - it is extremely competitive and we knew he would have a hard time being in the top 10 - just getting my team ready for him to run and get back in the rig was tiring so another nap afternoon......and now Randy is sawing logs!!!!! Will try to take some pictures of the activity tomorrow!!!
The race went well today for Randy - he did hope not to get passed but did and ended up 12th of 15 - it is extremely competitive and we knew he would have a hard time being in the top 10 - just getting my team ready for him to run and get back in the rig was tiring so another nap afternoon......and now Randy is sawing logs!!!!! Will try to take some pictures of the activity tomorrow!!!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Wednesday and Thursday.........Sorry you guys are getting the short end of "the stick" with me being sick!
Hey that rhymes and I didn't even plan it!!
Back to dinner on Tuesday nite with the Stitt family - up here in Willow for 8 years now with an interesting story as to how they ended up in the house they did!!! the details are probably not right but it was a trade for Mike doing some carpentry work and "Divine Intervention" (my words, not his!)- The family was wonderful to us.....met us on the road and showed us the way to the Community Center parking lot (the same place where all of the Iditarod teams take off from the 2nd day!) and then Mike took us on a whirlwind tour of Willow, their training trails (same trails as Vern Halter, Egil Ellis and Bill Kornmuller use) and a cabin they are building for a 76 year old guy up on the mountain (Mike and his 2 sons and the guy) and then to their house on the mountain......perfect Alaskan house!!!! 25 or so dogs in the yard, milk cows, they raise 20 pigs and I think over 100 chickens per year on 5 acres overlooking Mt. McKinley (it was snowing so we couldn't see it!) They have an unusual stove - a "toil stove" I think Chris the wife called it - runs on fuel oil and is only hot where the heat comes out the front - you can put knick knacks on the top of it! - lots of fur pelts they have hunted, red salmon with homemade cranberry preserves (they use it instead of catsup because it's hard for them to get/grow tomatoes - so it's not sweet like cranberry sauce) for dinner and lots of stories from them - about the Jr. 100 mile race they put on every year now - almost as big as the Jr. Iditarod! - about how Mike and his Dad -now passed- knew Randy and how Randy is like a household legend having done the dog sled racing and the Iditarod and being a rodeo clown!!! - the kids even asked for his autograph on a sweatshirt and on the book called "Training Lead Dogs" by Len Fishback where a picture of Randy is on the cover(we have one too without his autograph!) - and Randy told them about the run at the Rondy and they listened intently!!! all of them Mike Chris and the 4 teenagers!! and so polite and kind! Just after dinner the boys got a call and they were out the door running - they are junior firemen and often get to a fire before the actual fire department - it was the neighbors house and the family was quite upset but also knew that the kids there are often left alone and have set fires before - it ended up to be a tree fire and I never did hear how exactly it started but the boys had it out before the actual fire department got there! Mike brought us back down to our mobile home and stayed for thenite - early knock on the door - Mike had brought us a dozen brown eggs and a bucket of sand (cause we got stuck coming into the unplowed parking lot)! Fed dogs and got on the road to Fairbanks - again, people up here don't remember what "flat" is cause we asked and were told it was pretty flat up to Fairbanks! Half the time I was lying down in the bunk I could tell for sure we were not driving on flat roads and the other half I was peeking out the front and seeing an awful lot of "very not flat" road!!! Past McKinley (snowing still and couldn't see it) and got into Fairbanks at the Studdert dog race track just in time for the draw meeting - I was having a worse day sick than the last 4 so Randy went in to the meeting and potluck without me - I am supposed to go out 8 of 15 but I think Randy is probably going to be "Cris" cause I am going to be the "wise" decision maker and think that being out racing for 3 days will make me sicker - Today Randy thought about training and went out on the trail with the race marshal and got so cold on the snowmobile and thought better of it - Oh I forgot- we were very surprised to see Steve Long and Jerry Mulvey friends from out east up here!!! We also saw Greg Sellentin (next door neighbor to the Stitt family and owner/publisher of "Mushing Magazine" training at the track along with Buddy and Terry Streeper on their way to Yellowknife to race. Went into town to get diesel for the generator (don't want to run out with it being 5 degrees during the daytime) and to Coldspot Feeds to buy dog meat - they had just sold the last of their meat but found some for sale in North Pole for us - we did buy some probiotics because I am not the only one sick.....several dogs have the "Hersey Squirts" as Randy calls them - and this is supposed to fix it right away! Tonite just going to lay low and rest up for the race tomorrow!!
Back to dinner on Tuesday nite with the Stitt family - up here in Willow for 8 years now with an interesting story as to how they ended up in the house they did!!! the details are probably not right but it was a trade for Mike doing some carpentry work and "Divine Intervention" (my words, not his!)- The family was wonderful to us.....met us on the road and showed us the way to the Community Center parking lot (the same place where all of the Iditarod teams take off from the 2nd day!) and then Mike took us on a whirlwind tour of Willow, their training trails (same trails as Vern Halter, Egil Ellis and Bill Kornmuller use) and a cabin they are building for a 76 year old guy up on the mountain (Mike and his 2 sons and the guy) and then to their house on the mountain......perfect Alaskan house!!!! 25 or so dogs in the yard, milk cows, they raise 20 pigs and I think over 100 chickens per year on 5 acres overlooking Mt. McKinley (it was snowing so we couldn't see it!) They have an unusual stove - a "toil stove" I think Chris the wife called it - runs on fuel oil and is only hot where the heat comes out the front - you can put knick knacks on the top of it! - lots of fur pelts they have hunted, red salmon with homemade cranberry preserves (they use it instead of catsup because it's hard for them to get/grow tomatoes - so it's not sweet like cranberry sauce) for dinner and lots of stories from them - about the Jr. 100 mile race they put on every year now - almost as big as the Jr. Iditarod! - about how Mike and his Dad -now passed- knew Randy and how Randy is like a household legend having done the dog sled racing and the Iditarod and being a rodeo clown!!! - the kids even asked for his autograph on a sweatshirt and on the book called "Training Lead Dogs" by Len Fishback where a picture of Randy is on the cover(we have one too without his autograph!) - and Randy told them about the run at the Rondy and they listened intently!!! all of them Mike Chris and the 4 teenagers!! and so polite and kind! Just after dinner the boys got a call and they were out the door running - they are junior firemen and often get to a fire before the actual fire department - it was the neighbors house and the family was quite upset but also knew that the kids there are often left alone and have set fires before - it ended up to be a tree fire and I never did hear how exactly it started but the boys had it out before the actual fire department got there! Mike brought us back down to our mobile home and stayed for thenite - early knock on the door - Mike had brought us a dozen brown eggs and a bucket of sand (cause we got stuck coming into the unplowed parking lot)! Fed dogs and got on the road to Fairbanks - again, people up here don't remember what "flat" is cause we asked and were told it was pretty flat up to Fairbanks! Half the time I was lying down in the bunk I could tell for sure we were not driving on flat roads and the other half I was peeking out the front and seeing an awful lot of "very not flat" road!!! Past McKinley (snowing still and couldn't see it) and got into Fairbanks at the Studdert dog race track just in time for the draw meeting - I was having a worse day sick than the last 4 so Randy went in to the meeting and potluck without me - I am supposed to go out 8 of 15 but I think Randy is probably going to be "Cris" cause I am going to be the "wise" decision maker and think that being out racing for 3 days will make me sicker - Today Randy thought about training and went out on the trail with the race marshal and got so cold on the snowmobile and thought better of it - Oh I forgot- we were very surprised to see Steve Long and Jerry Mulvey friends from out east up here!!! We also saw Greg Sellentin (next door neighbor to the Stitt family and owner/publisher of "Mushing Magazine" training at the track along with Buddy and Terry Streeper on their way to Yellowknife to race. Went into town to get diesel for the generator (don't want to run out with it being 5 degrees during the daytime) and to Coldspot Feeds to buy dog meat - they had just sold the last of their meat but found some for sale in North Pole for us - we did buy some probiotics because I am not the only one sick.....several dogs have the "Hersey Squirts" as Randy calls them - and this is supposed to fix it right away! Tonite just going to lay low and rest up for the race tomorrow!!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Monday and Tuesday
Most of yesterday was training 3 teams (I worked and stayed inside as much as possible - the cold makes the cold worse......) and went to the grocery store and spent over $160 on food and stuff (Randy was just like a little kid.....he sneaked so many things into that grocery cart.....including a huuuuuge container of black licorice!!) Went to bed on time and then slept in cause the dogs didn't even want to get out in the blowing cold and snow!!! probably about 6-8 inches over nite - put the chains on mid-day and now we are on our way to see the Stitt's from Hesperia for dinner up in Willow - it is still blustery so don't know if we will make it all the way there or not - more later!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Addition to Sunday
After reading my entry today Randy wanted me to add that while he was training today a young man (first name Carl) drove into the parking lot and asked if he could help him hook up - he is from Huslia (fly in only village) and is living in Anchorage now but last year helped train George Attla's team while he was in the hospital. He helped harness, hook them in and ran up to get the dogs on the right trail while the "sickey" was sleeping in the trailer!
Saturday and Sunday
As you can see from the pictures we did indeed walk down and saw more than 40 Iditarod teams going down the trail for the ceremonial start – they were even on parts of the trail that I was on the day before with my team!!! We were actually looking for a gift shop in the Native hospital when we found the hot dog roast – and when we asked to buy one they said the picnic was a fee community event!! By the time we were back to the trailer it was time to head downtown for our “exhibition” race – still had not gotten a“light bulb” idea for a costume so Randy went as a Michigan dog driver…………original huh?? You can see from the picture that the snow in the street was really chewed up from all of the Iditarod teams going through and it made it very hard to run in up to the line – thankfully with only 10 dogs and a lot less fart than the 3 blocks we had to go to the line for the Rondy! (right , Jess???!!) It was about 4 miles with a dual start and the guy that went out with Randy came back quite a bit sooner so I was starting to get worried……Sarah had to poop and then he got a tangle but still came in 7th!!!! Actually I was really worried that Sarah wouldn’t want to take off at the start with her remembering “Oh this is just like the start when Dad made me run 25 miles for 3 days……..!” – Randy said that when they went through the turn-around at 2 miles he could tell she knew they were going “short” and she really hauled ……..!!!!! When he got back (and at the start) the young guy from Colorodo, Ian was there to help me with the dogs and that was very appreciated! After the race (and yes, the “Runaway Bride” won the costume contest!!! Her mom spent 3 days sewing dresses and tuxes for the dogs – it was Heather Hardy and they are getting married in April) we went to the most authentic Mexican restaurant “La Cabana” with all of the dog drivers and that was a good chance to get to know them better. Lots of dog racing stories floating around the place!!!
Today was a low profile one - I have a bit of a cold and slept most of the day – the cold outside makes it tighter in my chest – but I did get the picture of the mountain scenery behind our truck with the sun out (blizzard last nite and beautiful today – just like Michigan weather). That’s’ about it – don’t know when we are leaving for Fairbanks- someone told us today they will for sure have a race it will probably just be on a lake (my last lake race I had to load a dog, bad memory….). Talk to you late – time to put the dogs back in!!
Today was a low profile one - I have a bit of a cold and slept most of the day – the cold outside makes it tighter in my chest – but I did get the picture of the mountain scenery behind our truck with the sun out (blizzard last nite and beautiful today – just like Michigan weather). That’s’ about it – don’t know when we are leaving for Fairbanks- someone told us today they will for sure have a race it will probably just be on a lake (my last lake race I had to load a dog, bad memory….). Talk to you late – time to put the dogs back in!!
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