and now it's Happy New Year!!!

 It's been a pretty quiet week..........dinner at Jan's was great with a 15 pound turkey and all the fixings !!!!  Frank and Regina Caldwell were also there and enjoyed Jan's wonderful hospitality - Randy Meyer (the 96 year old neighbor that decided not to go to Texas for the winter because he called the funeral home there and was told too many people were dying from covid...........) was supposed to be there but he didn't feel well so we took a dinner-to-go to his home.  The next nite we went back to Jan's for leftovers!!!  Talk about spoiled!!!

We have trained every day but yesterday since we got the big blizzard around Christmas - we now have probably a foot of snow on the ground and Randy used the sled with me following on the snow machine for the first time this year!!!  The dogs seemed to like pulling the sled again and did a nice 17 mile run!!!

Of course no plans for New Years - other than to wish our wonderful daughter, Amy, Happy Birthday tomorrow!!!!!  That was a New Year's Eve I will never forget!!!

I have been thinking I should be doing more exercise than just hooking up the dogs once a day so I finally pulled out the cross county skies and boots this afternoon---------boy am I ever out of shape!!!!! my arms , my legs and not very good balance!!!! so I only went out to the first curve in the driveway - maybe 1/4 of a mile and thought I should quit while I was ahead and upright!!!!!

I am supposing another sled run tomorrow - we sure have good conditions finally!  The latest we have heard, the Chezik may be coming up this coming week and then next weekend Jim Moyer and Lydia are planning to come up and train - both will be so much fun to see again!!!

That's it for now!!!!  May God Bless you every day of 2021!!!!

Well we still have the snow on the ground................

 But just barely enough to make it good for the dogs' feet and not nearly enough to be using a snow machine to train!  So we are doing a lot of "slide around the corners" while training!!  We are lucky that what snow we did get has not melted away, but we didn't get the big blast of snow that was predicted for us.  We still have gone only 25 miles and some days less depending on the conditions and "doggy attitude".  We wanted to be going 35 miles this coming week or so to be ready for the race here (the Tahquamenon Country race) on January 9th (41 miles) but at this moment it is looking like that might get cancelled ....we are waiting to see what the State Park staff for the Muskellonge Lake state park where the race start happens says about how many people can be present at the park at one time - if they say 25 that pretty much cancels it with 40 teams already entered!!  We should know by tonight for sure.   So even if it is cancelled we still have to keep training with the idea that the end of January we will be going to the race in Wyoming and that is 35  miles every day for 7 out of 8 days so we are still lacking some mileage!  As of right now, there is no sign of that race being cancelled............

Our social life has been a bit busy...........last Tuesday a Mexican dinner at the Browns with the Waltman's, Jan Shaw and a another neighbor, Randy, who is 96 years old and generally spends winters down south, but didn't go this year because of civid.  Last nite we went to Waltman's for wine and hors dourves!  Randy the neighbor was there also and has some wonderful stories from his 96 years here on earth!!!!

Tomorrow we drive 2.5 hours to the west side of Escanaba to pick up some more frozen blocks of beef dog food for us, Bruce and Jim Moyer - all tolled we will be carrying almost 3 ton of meat on Bruce's trailer!!!!

The plan for our Christmas day is Mass and having dinner at Jan's house!!!  In case I don't remember before Friday I will say that Randy and I wish God's Blessings on you and yours on this Christmas and all through the coming year!!!!!!!🎄🎄

Sometimes you get exactly what you ask for!!!!

 Finally!!!!!!!  About 6 inches of snow!!!!!  Too bad it was a week late for Luke and Erica and the grandkids but we are thankful for our dogs' feet that it is finally here!!!  We were coming up with a new foot injury to take care of every other training run!!!!!  Not quite enough to train with the snow machine today but it won't take very long before we have enough with quite of bit of snow forecasted!!  We trained today and the dogs seemed really happy to have snow to run in !!!!!

I don't know where the time has gone!!!!

 

This year's Christmas tree - we got it from the top of a tree someone had already cut down to clear the trail!!!

Kitch-iti-kipi Spring near Manistique - those fish are in the natural spring that stays 45 degrees year round - probably 20 pounds or more

you go out into the spring on a raft using (in this case) child power turning a wheel that pulls the raft out

cooking steak dinner in our very tiny house

formed by the mist coming off from the Tahquamenon Falls  

Annabelle, Elaina and Stephen

Stephen's first hunt with his father

the wheel the kids used to guide the raft along the cable

the falls - first time for the the kids!!!

It should be obvious from the photos that we had our son Lucas, his wife Erica and the 3 grandkids up for an early Christmas celebration!!!!  They arrived on Thursday nite and stayed until Monday!!!!!  We had such fun!!!  Saw all the local attractions and even got a first-time hunting expedition for Stephen hunting the bothersome red squirrels!!!!!  Even had a hot dog roast in the fire pit here!!!  2 of the 3 kids stayed overbite with us while the others got to play in their hot tub in the room in Newberry!!!!  Also saw 2 bald eagles on our way to the Kitch-iti-kipi Spring - so that contributed to Erica's wish for "nature sightings"!!!!

Since then we have still been training every day and at  one point were up to 24 mile runs but the ground was still frozen and still no snow so we cut back to slower and shorter runs!!!  The race meeting happened Thursday so it looks like the race is still on but who knows when we will get snow (very unusual for this area and this time of year - last year we had a couple of feet on snow on the ground at this time) and what the covid 19 restrictions might be on January 9th!!!!  I will keep you informed!!!!

We are victorious!!!!!!

 This is the bane of my existence finally brought to justice!!!!!!   My "bucket of water trap" was not getting it so we bought some brand spankin' new mouse traps and voila!!!!!!!  What I didn't know is that not only did we have a shrew problem.............but we also had mice visitors in the house!!!!  So we got 2 of them!!!!!  Now at least I don't have to be looking out of the corner of my eye at all times waiting to be surprised by that furry little critter!!!!!

The Christmas lights are up in Newberry again!!!

Zoom in on the picture to see some of God's beautiful artwork..................

Angry November day on Superior!

A very old cemetery out in the woods by Whitefish Point

The falls near Grand Marais

Beautiful October colors

We made a whirlwind trip back to Hesperia yesterday to take the 3 puppies to our friend Dee to take care of for the winter!!!!  Left at 5:15 am and got back home at Deer Park 5:30pm !!!  That included 2 McDonalds stops and several gas stations and picking up numerous things at out downstate house that we had forgotten!!!  It was pretty good weather and light traffic so we made good time!

Today we are going to train one group and not sure how far we will go - Randy found some dogs that will need to be booted to protect their feet from the icy mud puddles.  We did also bring back with us another sump pump (after the one we had up here took a dump) so we can get rid of some of these "lakes" the dogs have to go through on the trail and then freeze up over night so they break through the ice every time the run through them.

This morning they are opening up for entries for the Copper Dog 25 (a 13 mile race in February in the UP) and think we will enter.  So far our race season looks like 1). Tahquamenon 41 miles 2). Wyoming Stage Stop 35 miles a day for a week 3). Northern Pines in Wisconsin = I think 14 miles? 4).  Copper Dog and then maybe Laconia or who else knows where.............   A HUGE change in venues for us compared to our usual Quebec season!!!!!

Blessed Thanksgiving to you all!!!

Had a wonderful dinner at the Browns today - the rest of the day was spent getting ready to go down to our home in lower Michigan to take the puppies down to Dee for the rest of the season - after we had them dig out of their pen and then had to tie them up we figured now was a good time to do it - the big dogs need a bit of a break - we had gotten up to 20+ miles but were beginning to see some sore feet from the ground being frozen so it seemed like a good time to have a break - 2 days off will give everyone a time to rest up!!!!

The weather has been cool enough to train but we have still had to train only one team a day because we are limited as to how long we can be in the woods (11 to 2) and it takes us about two hours to train one team.  A little bit of snow until today when it was 41 degrees and it all melted - this week it should snow for us on Wednesday and Thursday so maybe we will have enough for our grandkids to run on the sled with a dog when they come up to see us next weekend - Luke and Erica and the kids are coming Thursday and it will be the first time half of that family has seen us train dogs - going to take in some of the local attractions like Tahquamenon Falls and just spend some time together!!!

Not much else going on around here except that I still have the "monster mouse" sneaking around the house trying to scare me!!!  The other nite I heard it in the bedroom and stood up on the bed and woke Randy up when I turned the light on and , yup, I saw it twice till it ran out into the living room!!!!  We keep finding the mouse poison blocks in our shoes so we know it is still around!!!!  I even set up the supposedly best trap.............a bucket of water with a round rod across the top, with a tin can open on both ends so that you put peanut butter on the can and when the critter steps onto the can to eat the peanut butter, the can rolls, and the critter drops into the bucket!!!!!  It's been 24 hours and it still is moving poison blocks around into shoes and boots!!!!!

 

It's like back to summer!!!!

Today as we traveled 2.5 hours to Marquette for a doctor appointment we saw lots of postings for 48 degrees!!!!  Not exactly the temperature we would like but since we weren't training today it felt kind of good!  It also worked out that we weren't out in the woods today either since it is deer season and all our trails go through state land - have only seen one deer hunter so far and that was just his truck, not him in person.....

a3 days ago we got a couple of inches of snow and it would have been nice to have it stay around but it's all gone today- instead we have all the big puddles back again!!!!  Some are chest deep on the dogs!!  Thankfully all of our 18 dogs go through the water fine!  tomorrow it will be a high of 39 and pretty much colder than that going forward.  We actually changed our training schedule because of hunting season and a bit because of the weather - so we are training only one team every day - mostly it's because we are not supposed to run the 4 wheeler in the state land from 11am to 2pm - yesterday we went 19 miles so we are on good schedule to be ready for the first race, which is up the road from us about 3 miles.  Randy will enter in the 10 dog this year and will go 41 miles-  so by January 9th we want to be going about 35 miles or so - this is longer than we have ever trained but it is to be prepared for going to the Wyoming Stage Race at the end of January which is 7 races of 35 miles in 8 days!  

When we got home today the 3 pups were in a coop attached to the pole barn where we live - they had dug out of the big pen they were in = and it was for the last time!!!!  Our neighbor, Jan, who is in her 80's found them in her yard twice and coaxed them back here using a dog biscuit!!!!!  She put them in the big pen the first time but when they dug out again she put them in a small dog run by the pole barn.  

In talking to Jan after we got home today I found out that we are having Thanksgiving at the same neighbors that we have the last 3 years - at Patty and Ray Brown's - only 6 this year though - trying to keep the numbers down.  The only thing good about Whitmer's most recent lockdown is that we aren't spending any money on eating out!!!  We did go out for a "get one in before you can't" pizza dinner on Tuesday but appears like that will be it for awhile- so it's nice to have Thanksgiving with the neighbors to look forward to!  We also got in a "take your priest out to dinner" last Saturday nite - so that was good - we may not be able to do that with him another time this year....

That's about it for now - time to start pretty up Christmas decorations soon!!! (or as Randy says maybe you could start taking the Halloween decorations down!!!!!)

Training again after 5 days off!!!

 We are just now taking a break before we run the second team - it started raining again and we were a bit wet so thought it was a good idea to have lunch and dry off and warmup!  It's 37 degrees right now and not supposed to get any warmer today - so we will be back in our current training schedule of every other day - we went 12 miles today and perhaps in 2 days we will up it another couple of miles!

We got a few things done while the weather was warm - it took me all day to clean both of the trucks (vacuum, wash floor mats, clean out debris...........) and I still didn't get to tidying up the back of the dog trailer - we have a ton of stuff on top of the dog coops that just sits there and occasionally jumps off the coop when we go over a bump and it really needs organizing!!!!  a good us of my old wine boxes!!!!!!!!!!

We took the 2 4-month old pups for a run yesterday for the first time behind the 4 wheeler!!!  We have never done that before cause we didn't ever really have a good place at home but here there are tons of trails that are "relatively smooth"  (Randy was pretty worried he was going to bounce me off the back of the 4 wheeler!!).  We had no idea how fast they could run but they kept right up with us at 18mph!!!!!!

Uh oh...........the lights just flickered!  Usually means we are going to lose power!!  Got to finish dishes and get enough water stored to flush the toilet!!! Talk to you soon!!!☂

new start for 2020/2021 Season!!!

Here we are 2020 fall training season!!  Up in the UP at the same place as the last 3 years!  North of Newberry 25 miles and only 1 mile + to Lake superior

Training was doing very good up until the last 4 days when it got too warm (over 50 degrees) to run the dogs!!!  Beautiful weather for humans but not so much for dogs!!!!  Tommorrow will finally be cool enough but it will like be raining.

The big excitement today was seeing an animal walk in front of out sliding glass door and was something neither of us had ever seen -a pine martin!!!  didn't get a picture of it but will try to post!!!

Alas; the end of the 2020 season!!!

The last race was at Riviera Ouell and since the dogs had looked good both times we had done 2 short "fun runs" during the week we thought it might be the best race of the season (though it would be hard to beat getting 4th the first day at St. Luc!!!).  Left at 10am on Friday to get to the race 4.5 hours away and got there without a hitch!

Saturday morning was pleasant (though it had been quite windy the nite before as we are just a short distance from the St. Lawrence Seaway and the land is very very flat............) and got up quite early to water dogs as the race for the open was at 10!  Got everybody ready to go and the trail looked pretty good from the starting chute - Randy ran 14 dogs and that included Rusty (whom we thought was back in shape mentally and physically............) and he went out 15th - he didn't really have any trouble on the trail but again, Rusty was not pulling her weight and slowed the team down - so he actually came in 15th -

Sunday was even warmer out and we hoped for better results and left Rusty back - well, for some reason everybody else in the team seemed "flat" - as Randy put it- and not only did he not move up, he actually went down to 18th - which wasn't even in the money - soooooo, not a very good way to close out the season, but that's the breaks of the game!

Had farewell dinner with Bellerive's on Monday nite and left Tuesday morning (after we bought some more dogs..........do you suppose that means we intend to race one more season???  This was #48 for Randy and he would like to make it "50"!!!!).  Got as far as London, Ontario (it was murder going through Montreal) and open the night in the parking lot of an all nite semi garage!  Made it through the border in Port Huron (the easiest crossing ever!!!) and home by 4pm!!!  Dee had already started a fire in the wood stove for us so it was nice and warm in the house!

In looking back on the 2020 season, it was good, not great, but good - thankfully not injuries to speak of (except maybe my broken nose) and met new people and of course, renewed many old relationships both in Quebec and at Laconia - and of course, as any dog driver will tell you....."next year will be even better"!!!!!!

Getting read for the last race.......

One of the many ski runs that we saw on our travels over the last 2 weeks 

 This by far was the largest of all the ski areas we saw - it looked to be bigger even than those in Colorado

 This mountainous region is the Laurentians - not quite as big as the Canadian Rockies but really big!!!

 This was the first time I looked at the "Dog Handler of the Year" trophy and was happy to see my name there from 2004 ...............even though they spelled DeKuiper wrong...............

Boy was it a good thing that we trained yesterday and Tuesday- it is a howling (20mph) blizzard out there today!!!!!  The kind that you think is going to blow you away when the wind catches the door!!

The trip home to Charrette went perfect (didn't make any wrong turns, the mountain scenery was beautiful and it was perfect driving conditions!) UNTIL.............we got to my favorite little city, Yamachiche (it's a narrow street town with red brick houses decorated with quaint Quebec decorations in white lining both sides of the main street - I hazard to guess circa 1900?) and we heard a "bam", stopped, and sure enough, another flat on the trailer!!!!!  This time we stopped soon enough that nothing got wrapped around the axle, thank goodness - the sidewall blew a hole in a 2 year old tire!!!!!  So while I was trying to call our insurance company to make sure about out coverage, an very nice young man stopped to ask Randy if he could help, ended up going home to his house and getting a "professional" jack to pick up the trailer and helped Randy put the spare on - there are for sure really good people in this world!!!!!!  Restores your faith in human nature.....

Tuesday nite we had dinner at Bellerive's and as always, had a great time!!!!  For an appetizer we had something new for us..........a 5 inch diameter seashell filled with a seafood variety in cream sauce topped and baked with cheese!!!  At first I thought it was baked in a crust so I was unsuccessfully trying to cut it with a knife.............ha ha ha!!!

So trained on Tuesday and Wednesday we also went out for a short run to try 2 new dogs from Claude - we already are using a leader for the last race and this coming weekend so Island (5 year old female) is "purchased" and we will see what happens with the other 2 - Claude has fewer dogs this year than he ever has (only put in 31 dog coops when he re- built the dog barn) so he doesn't have as many to sell.  We also went yesterday to the same place we got the truck aligned 2 weeks ago and bought another tire for the trailer - only $280!!!!!! 

The storm is only supposed to last today so tomorrow should be good for driving to the last race at Riviera Ouelle - about 4 hours from here.  That is,,,,,,,,,,,,,unless it all turns to rain and wrecks the trail because it is raining a half hour south of us!!!!  

Saying goodbye to Maniwaki!!!

It was a beautiful day for dog sled racing on Sunday!  Beautiful for the people but not so much for the dogs - it stayed cloudy and about 29 degrees until just after the unlimited class was done at about 11 - Randy had a clean run with Ultra in lead but was not able to hang on to 7th and dropped to 8th by only 10 seconds!!!!!

When we were done racing we drove back to the hotel Logue where we have been sleeping in the parking lot and where they had the 4 and 6 dog classes - we walked down to the river from the hotel to see "my new best friend in Maniwaki" race in the 6 dog = her name is Kat for short, and unbelievably, she is best friends with a gal (Marie) we met 2 of the years we raced in Alaska - Marie also raced in the Rondy with Randy (that's almost poetic...........) we ended up giving her 3 dogs - she lived in Inuvik (which is almost to the North Pole...........) and now she lives in Calgary-  Kat and Marie were childhood friends and rode/trained horses together where they lived in Quebec City - it is really such a small world sometimes!!!!

Now it's Monday morning and we stayed here again last nite - have fed us and dogs breakfast and are just waiting to drop the dogs once more before we leave for Charente - Bellerive's just left a few minutes ago -

Randy was talking to Hermel and supposedly there is a big storm coming Thursday which could mean that they would close the road going to the race this weekend - which would mean that yesterday was out last race!  So we will just see how it goes this week!!!

Made it to Maniwaki!!!

Pretty good trip - made it in 5.5 hours instead of the 4.5 predicted by the phone.............good driving weather -lots of hills and curves as we were driving through the Laurentian Mountains - must have seen at least 10 ski resorts on the way!!!!!  some looked to be bigger than when Amy and I skied in Colorado!!!!!  I took some pictures but am having trouble downloading them to the computer again............



got here about 4 and parked and fed and went in to the draw - Randy got 7 - out of 10 so not so bad - at first we thought there would be head-on passing so he planned to use Rusty and Island in lead - turned out that there was a birm between the outgoing and incoming so there wasn't any head-on - the trail started out to be pretty hard but by the time they raced today at 11 am it was getting pretty soft with sun and a temp of 37 - Randy didn't have any real problems just that Rusty, who we thought had lost her drive because she was in season, appears to have really lost her drive because she didn't pull hard today either - so tomorrow back to our "elderly" 7 year old speed demon, Ultra in lead!!!  Randy ended up 7- just the same as he left - and with only 28 seconds behind 6th perhaps he will gain a place tomorrow!!!  Oh yeah - his average speed today was 19.45 mph - not too shabby!!!  the winning team of JR Saucier was 21.02 mph!!!!

Tonite is a mushers dinner in the beautiful hotel on the river with us having chosen taco salad - all you can eat!!!

Nothing new here!!

Recovered from the trip back from New Hamphire on Monday then trained on a beautiful
 trail on Tuesday at Bellerives' - today just trimmed dog tonsils and then tomorrow we may train again or not depending on the temperature and weather - then Friday we travel at least 4.5 hours to north of Ottawa in Ontario for a race at Maniwaki- first time there so don't
know about the trail or the conditions
  will let you know on Friday!!

3rd day

We had a great dinner of “heart shaped” meatloaf at Danae’s and Glenn’s and the shower was wonderful!!!

Of the three days Sunday was by far the warmest – didn’t even wear a hat for most of the day – when you get used to being out in the cold all the time 32 degrees feels like summer!!!

Randy pared the team down to 11 so it was easy getting them ready to go – didn’t get bopped in the nose and the team was off!!!  While he was on the trail they announced on the loud speaker that he had lost a dog………….oh no!!!!  Losing a dog and not coming in with it means disqualification!!!  But then I heard that they had gotten the dog to trail help and it was already back with Randy – so he came it and explained what had happened……………Chick left the starting chute without her neck line hooked………don’t know if I did it when I put her in the line or one of the persons helping us to the line might have accidentally tripped the the snap--- so he got only a mile down the trail and saw he had a problem – waited until he got to a road crossing where there should have been good help to hook her up – but because she was spooked by all the people there she backed off and slipped out of her harness!!!  Meaning that she was free!!!  She ran down the trail for a bit and then somehow Rachel Colbath caught her while she was racing ahead of Randy and left her with trail help – he got her back in the team and took off again – didn’t even bother to put the harness back on to save time and just had her run off her collar!

He got back safe and sound but wasn’t really happy about having trouble =later we went to the awards ceremony and found out the race committee was having a discussion about whether their rules for their race covered this situation – and decided not to disqualify so good for us!  And in the published results Randy stayed in 9^thposition – not what we wanted or what the dogs are capable of doing but that’s the dog racing “game”!

That nite we unhooked from the trailer so we could just drive the truck around town and pick up some groceries and cheap diesel fuel – 

Got up today and fed breakfast and dropped and left at 10am with good roads and a good border crossing and back to Bellerives at 4 – Hermel was out on the training trail with the groomer so it’s likely we will train  tomorrow!!!

Day 2 of Laconia!!

Good day racing!!! No problems and didn’t lose the team!!!! Unfortunately he only moved up one place but it’s all good!!!  

I on the other hand had a traumatic event…………..not for my head but for my nose!!!  I was holding out leaders out for the countdown to leave and Ultra jumped up and smacked me in the nose and I immediately started bleeding on the trail!!!  The young girl who has been helping us get to the line said her father was an EMT and she took me to him and he took me into the country club and put ice on my nose and cleaned up my bloody hand – lots of people wanted to know what had happened and I could only speak thru the ice pack to say my lead dog just leaped up and bumped me!!!

Tonight we go to Danae Bryar’s house to shower and have dinner – so sweet of her to do that for us!!!

More tomorrow!!!

90th Laconia Sled Dog Derby!!!

9 am on Friday:  Left Bellerive’s at 10am for what was supposed to be 4.5 hour drive to Laconia, NH – well…………that is never the case with the DeKupers…………..we got here a 4 mainly because we stopped several times because one of the trailer tires brake kept locking up so we had to come to a full stop, back up and then go ahead!

The gps drove us directly to the country club where they are having the start of the race – it is a different site than previous years but they are trying to make the best of what little snow they have and that’s what they came up with – for us it’s great – a bathroom and restaurant within 25 yards!!!! We did have to park across the street for the first nite because someone had accidentally plowed the parking lot of the club and so they had to bring in snow on Friday morning and cover the parking lot with it.  We got up on Friday to a crisp morning and watched the very few (there used to be 40 plus teams when I ran this race!!) 6 dog teams (only 9 of them) take off – the trail looked pretty good but Randy was soon to find out the real story……………….

As usual, it took longer to get things organized for the open teams to race – they have a very nice ceremony of giving the bibs and placards advertising local businesses to put on the sleds, and the singing of both the Canadian and United States anthems- so we got our dogs out waaaaay early – it was pretty chilly with wind in the open and we should have waited until after the ceremony to get them out – but Randy likes to be sure they all have a chance to poop………………and I put oil on their feet (Zeus Juice – which is aloe and tea tree oil and some other secret ingredients) as I take them out of the trailer before they get snow on their feet- so all of that take a little bit of extra time- but not the time we gave yesterday  = I said today we aren’t going to take them out until after the ceremony cause it’s even colder today!

So Randy left and when he got back (faster than I thought – I was still getting warm in the trailer when he came across the finish line!) he said he had had to stop on the trails 4 times – that the trail was a “young man’s trail” !!! When I got the details, it was a very hairy trail with lots and lots of corners and he went off the trail once, dragged once and lost his team and had the matt down the whole trail!!!!!  It was lucky that he even came in 10^ththe way things went!!!

He is going to use the same runners today that he used yesterday and not wax them cause he doesn’t want to go any faster and with it colder today the trail will be faster -

I didn't write last nite because I took a "nap" at 7 and just got up long enough to do a final drop of the dogs and then back to bed for the night!!!  Will try better today!!!   Randy will hopefully go up a couple of places or more!!

Quick update..........

We did have the alignment done and for $127 they told us it was already aligned.............oh well , better to be sure- but they couldn't straighten the steering wheel out - something about not finding an adjustment for it??

Dealing with the "aftermath".............

Right now we are sitting in the parking lot of “Alignment Maurice” waiting to get the truck in for our 8am appointment – that’s right 8am………..meaning we got up at 6am in order to drop the dogs and get ourselves ready and drive the ½ hour to get here!!!  I guess Randy says we probably could get along for a little while with the steering wheel a quarter but that any time we were on dry pavement it would wear the tires badly.  We didn’t know it when we were driving here because we just had the address to plug into the phone, but this is the same place we came to buy a tire 2 years ago when we got a flat in the rain on our way back from Woburn………………..come to think of it, that’s two really bad situations we have run into traveling to or from Woburn………..hmmmmmmmm

So since our exciting last Friday we have trained twice – Hermel took the groomer around on Sunday nite and Randy rode with him for the first go-round – there was almost 2 feet and in some places more snow to move around and plow through to get to a packed trail- and still it wasn’t very smooth when he got done after 4 hours!  Monday Claude trained and Katie and Martin Degenais also drove 2 hours to come and train their 8 dog team.  After they were all done we trained 15 dogs with the snow machine and we tried out a new leader from Claude (Island is her name) and she did very well!  Tuesday we added in the dog that has seemed to be hurt for the last couple of weeks (Candy) and ran her on the neck line without a harness just to see if she looked “rehabilitated” (and she did) with the other 15 dogs for an even 16!  Seems like a long time since we have run that many dogs at a time – and to think Randy used to run 20 frequently and 22 once at Kalkaska!!!!

So today is the alignment, and tomorrow we leave for Laconia, New Hampshire for a 3 day race – so lots of preparations to be made!!!!................and I get to look forward to another border crossing!!!

I am running out of superlatives....................when it comes to bad days.............

We thought that surely 3 bad days on the road would have fulfilled our "quota" (most folks told us it only happens in 3's.....) but apparently not - and if God was watching over us and had this happen to prevent something worse from happening, it must have been a "humdinger"!!!!!

We packed and were on the road right about when we wanted to leave to travel to Woburn, Quebec for the race this weekend - we had already gotten quite a bit of snow (Randy said usually Claude doesn't get the amount of snow we are going to get quite right so we weren't really planning on getting over a foot overnite - but this time he was right on!!)   It was still snowing and blowing but we had pretty good distance vision and the roads were mostly snow covered or clear with snow blowing over them - we got about an hour down the road and had just gotten on the 2 lane highway and we had a truck in front of us that was intermittently turning on its flashers and then slowing down - like about 6 times - at one point, a big truck came from the opposite direction and made a white out, which we think made the nervous truck driver in front of us brake, which of course caused him to do several 360's in the road in front of us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We were only going about 25mph but still slammed into him and T-boned him on his passenger side and then rolled into the ditch!!  Once we checked all our body parts were intact I called 911 and was told police and a wrecker would be there soon - the police part was right but the wrecker took 3 hours - all the while we were in the ditch our trailer with the dogs in it was stretched out across the road behind us blocking one whole lane!!!!  They didn't close the highway off but did a good job of preventing anyone from hitting our trailer which would have really been disastrous!!!!!! At one point the police asked us if we were trying to pass the truck in front of us and we replied adamantly "NO" we were just trying to avoid hitting him (the guy coming behind the truck that caused the white out thought he saw us trying to pass) and then the police asked us why we didn't have snow tires on the truck (apparently if you are in Quebec more than one week you have to put snow tires on.............) and they decided that we were big enough that rule didn't apply............

So finally the wrecker comes - and it's a semi-truck wrecker!!!  says 32 tons on the side of it!  And he hooks on to the back of the trailer and straightens it out, then moves back farther and pulls both the truck and the trailer out of the ditch - --we were in there pretty good with 2 foot of snow all around us -Randy paid with a credit card so I have no idea how much it cost but we had to do it!!!!!!
When we get out on the side of the road we survey the damage and it looked like the "moose catcher" we had installed on the front of the truck prevented much worse damage!! One headlight was out, the hood scrunched up and the guard right up against the grill/radiator but not as bad as we had imagined - they did an inspection of the truck to see if it was "road worthy" and only saw that the spare tire under the back of the truck was hanging just a few inches from the ground so we had to follow a policeman to a small town to try and fix it ourselves.  He led us to a school parking lot with 2 foot of snow in it and we proceeded to spend the next hour lying in the snow trying to strap the spare back up off the ground - finally succeeded and then got back on the road to go back to Charente and the Bellerive's barn - got back there about 5 so we had left at 11 gone an hour down the road and finally back at 5 - what a day - incredibly scary but so thankful to be able to still drive the truck and that we and the dogs weren't hurt!!!!

Today more surveying of damage and Simon - the guy who works for Claude's business in the garage and has helped us with many vehicle issues- already said he will try to get us in somewhere on Monday so that we can get the headlight fixed and the truck re-aligned (the steering wheel is about a 1/4 turn off from normal.............)

All in all - we are Blessed and happy to be alive and unhurt!!!

 the view from our position in the ditch!!!

 After we were pulled out - you can barely see the trenches in the snow where we were "parked"!

Enjoying our time here in Charente!

Came to Bellerive's Monday morning and saw the new dog barn- WOW!!!! what a difference - whereas the one that burned down last summer held 100 cages this one is smaller for only 31 - whereas the other one was all wood and paneled in cedar and decorated with memorabilia from the family's sled dogging history over 20 years, this is paneled in white shiny plastic-looking siding!!!!!  The new bathroom is very nice and they have put in a washer and dryer so that the dog harnesses won't be washed in Renee's washer any more!

Tuesday we went to Melanie's for dinner and such a wonderful time reminiscing and catching up on the last year's events!  Probably the funniest comment was Patrick's when he was complaining about taxes in Quebec and he said he wanted to marry me so he could come to the US!!!!!!!!
Delicious dinner that Melanie and Patrick made- ham with their maple syrup as a baking glaze and smoked trout for an appetizer!

Wednesday went to Walmart in Shawinigan and spent $284!!!!!  hadn't been shopping for 2 weeks so we were out of a lot plus I bought laundry supplies so we could use the washer and dryer in the barn.

We should have trained dogs yesterday or Tuesday but the training trail here is pretty icy and Randy is afraid we would cut feet or bruise them - so they will just have to be a little bit out of shape for the race this  weekend in Woburn!!!!  We will be leaving for there on Friday morning - will update you on the way there!

Not as good, but still great!

Good day to race in Quebec!!!  little bit of snow and cool temps and the trail was maybe a bit more packed than yesterday - Randy only ran 10 dogs today because he didn't want to bring any "run along" dogs and he kept in the leader, Rusty, from yesterday that had just "run along" thinking maybe it was some small fissures on her hind feet (so he put boots on her today) but that didn't work and she was worse today - she ran at point and at times the lead dogs were keeping her moving forward - so quite a bit slower and moved down into 7th place - which in this competitive venue of Quebec - is still very good!!!  We are staying at the race site tonite because Randy's knee is hurting worse than usual because the team that finished just after him ran into the back of his legs and clotheslined him - many people helped me get the team back to the truck while he limped back..............so tonite we are nursing wounds and will go to Bellerive's tomorrow morning!!!

Yay!!!!!!!!!

Randy came in 4th even with one dog coming to a full stop to poop and causing a tangle!!!!!

OMG!!!!!

Ready for another “DeKuiper Travel Horror Story”????!!!!!!!!

Left our place in Deer Park about noon on Wednesday- it worked out good again to hook the dogs up to the lines with only their neck lines so we didn’t have to harness and un-harness – and then they ran over the mile to the trailer in front of the snowmachine.  Very nice Canadian customs agent and she laughed when we told her that we had been asked before if we were bringing any “throwing stars” into Canada- she even knew which agent would have been the one to ask that!

Everything was going along swimmingly until we heard a weird sound like we have gone over a bump except that I hadn’t seen any bump in the road – we kept driving and pretty soon a truck races around us and then slows way down with his flashers on …………….so we stop and smell burning rubber………..and one of the trailer tires had exploded and not only gone flat but wrapped itself around the axle, rubber tread, steel bands and all!!!!!  Another truck stopped behind us on the side of the road and told us that there was a semi pull off just down the road where we could safely look at our situation. So we did in the town of Spanish – way small- smaller than Montague…………  Well we started to pull some of the tire off and jack the trailer up and found it was going to be a bigger job than we could handle so we called AAA and were told there would be a wrecker there in an hour – we got the spare out of the bottom of the trailer (which entailed moving 10 buckets of dog meat to the truck) and kept on trying to get the tire tread off with a die grinder and saws all= AAA called back (we did reflect on what a pickle we would have been in without a cell phone…..) and said we weren’t covered for a flat on the trailer- we said yes we were because we had RV coverage, and they finally agreed – then the wrecker guy said we would only be covered for changing the tire and we said if we only needed the tire changed, we would do it ourselves!!!! So he said he would come and mileage and time for putting the spare on would be covered but it would be an extra $100 !! We said come anyway – we have no choice!

So he came and between his younger strength and our tools and his pry bar they got the axle cleaned off and the spare put on!

The next morning we get up and are dropping dogs and this Animal warden/policeman stops at our trailer and asks if we know that there is a dog noise ordinance in their “metropolis” – no………….  then he sees Randy let one of the dogs off the trailer and he runs into his box in the trailer as he always does……….and did we know there is a leash law? No………………………… He ends the conversation by intimating that we are “not nice” to our dogs, I say they are actually very well cared for and he says “I am not here to debate the merits of your pastime” and thankfully leaves.

So we are on our way and we get about an hour down the road and the power steering goes out!!!!!!!! Oh no…………..oh yes!!!!!  We end up seeing a Canadian Tire store that does vehicle maintenance and sure enough they could get us in!  It was caused by one of the idler pullies going bad which then took out the serpentine belt (for which we carry a spare always now because they are difficult to find)  So that took about 3 hours sitting and waiting and then on the road again! Stopped at a Home and Hardware parking lot  where a pretty young 30 something told us she would love to have us feed our dogs there – and she came out to say hello and pet all of them!  She told us about a great truck stop where we could spend the night and not half to go through Ottawa (1,000,000 population) during the rush hour and at dark.  It was a really great place indeed and we also had a wonderful breakfast there with a very nice waitress!!!

So on the road again and we go about another hour  and are going through a quaint little town on a route that looks good on the gps – and the brakes go out!!!!!!!  We limp along a little farther into the downtown area and get parked in a store parking lot and ask a taxi driver and another guy where we could get the brake lines replaced – so we unhook from the trailer (so the the trailer wouldn’t push us ahead through intersections when we tried to slow and stop), and head for the Canadian Tire store in Hawkesbury – we get there very very carefully thru many stop signs and lights (the only way to stop was to shift into neutral and apply what little brake pressure was left)  We get there and they say that they can’t put a truck with duals on the hoist – and Randy says “you can get under it easy enough it’s way tall” and she says, nope, against the rules………………….and tells us to go to King’s Garage another 10 minutes down the road.  We get there and the mechanics are out to lunch and won’t be back for 45 minutes and then have to unload 312 semi tires!!!!!!  So now it 12 and they won’t get to us until about 2!  Well it ends up being more like 3 and we were there until 6!!!! They ended up replacing 2 sections of the lines and advised we might want to replace the rest pretty soon!!! Very nice people- we enjoyed our time as much as one can waiting 6 hours in a not-so-comfortable waiting area…………….

Back on the road again to finish what was supposed to be a 13 hour trip which evolved into 2 and ½ days!!!!!!!!!!!  Went straight to the race site and arrived at 10p.

Up this morning and began to meet and greet all of our “Quebec Family” as they filtered into the race site – Randy had a very good draw and goes out 3^rdso we will see how it goes – conditions are good with a temp of 23 degrees!

Pretty tame up here............

weather has been a steady 30 degrees or so and little extra snow (which we really don't need - they are approaching 200 inches for the winter!!!)  We trained on Friday and Sunday and took all of the dogs at one time (with the exception of Candy who appears to have a sore shoulder) so 14 dogs all at once in front of the snow machine!!!!  what a ride!!

Today we are in Newberry getting the oil changed on the big blue truck and making "connections" - tomorrow is training again and then Wednesday after we get the dogs loaded we will take off for Quebec (assuming that Melanie returns our call and lets us know that her father's race at St. Luc de Vincennes in on next weekend!)

We have been home in the UP and have showered!!!

tOne wouldn't think that was such a big deal until you haven't showered..............in a week!!

got back on Tuesday, trained Wednesday, ate dinner  (pike - which we have never had and was delicious!!!) at Patti and Ray Browns.

Today we moved some dog food things around on the blue truck compartments and got the generator back into the trailer after Randy figured out it was an oil level problem

Tomorrow train again!!!

Left Vita Monday morning after having breakfast at the “hotel” = I put hotel in quotes because it’s not what you and I would normally consider to be a “hotel” = maybe 10 rooms and most of the rooms are already rented out permanently!  But the food and the company were good!  With the Canadian exhchange it worked out to costing $20 for 2 for breakfast!!!

From there only one minor detour when I thought the road going east should have been straight and it wasn’t exactly what I remembered from going there on Friday…..

Traveled Monday and got as far into the Wisconsin border to stay the nite at a rest area - We– didn’t feel like we were making very good time but a lot of the roads were slick and we didn’t average much over 50mph.

Traveled Tuesday on better roads (except for the highway for the first 100 miles in the UP and up to Marquette which was like a washboard!!!) and got to Newberry and stopped at our favorite grocery store and got some necessaries like milk and bread- went the next ½ hour to get out to the place we planned to park for the nite = Randy ended up walking back the mile to the handlers quarters we have been staying at and got the snow plow truck and plowed the parking lot we had been parking the trailer at before we left for the race – not too much new snow in the past week but it did need plowing – because he didn’t want to try and back in when it was dark, we went farther down the road and parked to drop dogs at Muskellonge Lake State park (where the Tahquamenon race start was) – it was plowed but very windy being right on Lake Superior so we decided to drive back to the snowmobile trail head about 5 miles back and there we spent a calm nite – must have been pretty tired because I fell asleep on the couch for 2 hours and then went to bed and slept for 11 hours!!!!

Got up Wednesday morning and fed the dogs breakfast and drove over to our plowed “parking spot” – at this point I still thought we were going live in the trailer for the next week until we left for Quebec because Randy had already drained all the pipes in the cottage – but the more we thought about having to use gas in the generator at about $30 a day and wanting to put the dogs back in their circles so they could exercise whenever they wanted to, we decided to turn the water back on and therefore I had to move things back into the handlers quarters – when I had just moved everthing into the trailer………….such is life………….the really big deciding factor for me was being able to take a shower!!!!!  It was wonderful after a week!!!! 

We trained the dogs by leaving from the trailer across the street and when we returned from the run of 10 miles we just ran the dogs back across the to the kennel and then hooked them up there – 8 in the first team and then 7 – they seemed really happy to be back at their “homes”!

Got all that done and moving stuff back into the quarters in time to get ready to go to Ray and Patti’s for dinner with Jan Shaw and the Waltman’s = when Ray had stopped by while we were hooking up the dogs to train he said we were having dinner at their house and we were going to have pike Randy was a little hesitant but it turned out to be some of the best fish we have ever eaten!!!!!!!  Great supper with good friends!!!!

Don’t know what tomorrow will bring – we were thinking that we would have to be traveling to Sault Ste. Marie to have the generator that runs out trailer repaired but Randy seems to have fixed it as it worked fine after we took it out of its place in the trailer, brought it here to the garage and he replaced the oil – will see if it is still working tomorrow – can’t travel in the trailer without heat and electricity!!!!!!!

Vita race update!

 the curling rink

 observation seats at the curling rink

 curling brooms

 curling shoes

 so cold this morning everything was beautifully decorated with ice!!

 These are everywhere in Minnesota!!!! they are camper that lower down over the wheel so you can  ice fish from them = a nice young couple let me come and see the inside of it!!!  very nice and you can see the ice fishing holes on the floor!

 A deluxe version called the "Ice Castle"!

Semi tractor off the road today = going to take a long time to pull that one out!!!

Sunday morning of the race (they did decide to run it we found out when we went to a community pancake breakfast……which by the way served two things we have never had on pancakes………blueberry compote and maple glaze!!! AMAZING!!!)  so we drove over to the starting field – we had considered not running at all because they said at the driver’s meeting that it was punchy on the trail – but we went – hooked up the 10 dogs and off he went!!!!  17 teams all trying to get through 1 of 3 holes in the cat tails to narrow down to one trail with no passing for 4 miles until after they passed under the bridge (see the video from yesterday)  So I looked over when I heard another dog driver swear and say that his leader had backed out of her harness at “go” (he had inexperienced people helping him – most of the time that is wonderful but sometimes it can “bite” you!!!)  By the time I ran over there and tried to help and then looked up again at the teams leaving I saw an unpleasant site……………..the only person in a full red racing suit was standing on his sled, (there wasn’t enough packed snow to have the snow hook hold so he had to stand on the break and the hook to keep from having an even worse catratophe!!) stopped in a tangle……………yup, the binoculars confirmed, it was Randy !!  Things had been going well until the cat tails and then another team cut under his at the point dogs and caused a tangle that took at least 7 minutes to untangle!!!! So there went placing well……….. The rest of the race went pretty good – had to stop once because the point dog’s neck line hadn’t been re-hooked after the tangle and finished 13 out of 17 – out of the money by 3 places……….

The good thing about the weekend is how nice people were to us!!!! The curling club let us plug in for the weekend and gave us a shirt and a hat and everybody was sooooo friendly!!!

Left this morning and got as far as Wisconsin and are now stopped for the nite!!!

some visuals

 this is the view from your table at the restaurant we had dinner at

last Monday for Jan and Patti's birthday - they feed them corn twice a day after deer season - they are only 10 feet from us!!!

 Hope this comes out OK = this was our "trip" to check out the bridge Randy has to drive the team under in the race tomorrow!!

this is just a view of the bridge he has to go under and him in the background

race canceled for today!!!!

Winds were really bad overbite and when we got up this morning there was a 2 foot drift all around our trailer= so we went in to the curling club that we were parked at and our new best friend, Gerry, who is also co-chair for the events this weekend, said we could come in and use the bathroom and hot water all day!!!! And even better, plug into their electric!!!!

We were able to take the truck/trailer over to where the mushers have to go from one side of the highway to the other under a bridge and several had warned Randy about having to duck to get under it and have a bad turn just before it and then another just after - thankfully it didn't look quite as bad as we had imagined when we got out from the truck and looked at it!!!

We did have a chance to talk to lots of mushers and also some of the locals - one stopped to see us this morning and I asked if he was Ukranian, because of his name and because I had read that this town was founded in 1898 by Ukrainians - he said that when he was young there were 75% Ukrainian's in the town and now it was only about 25% = his grandfather was one of the founding fathers of the town.

So went into the curling club tonite for supper - pierogis and some special sausage and soup and bread and dessert for $10!!!!

Will check in with you tomorrow!!!

Off to Manitoba!!

We did indeed leave about 3 p.m.   on Wednesday and got to Escanaba as planned and parked in the mall parking near a McDonald’s – it was kind of blizzard on the way there with poor visibility so we were glad to stop there and then knew that it would only be another ½ hour to Greg Janders house to load up the ton of dog meat we had bought.

Up at 8:30 (4 of the pups had never been on the dog truck overnight so it was good to know that they were quiet until we wanted to get up!!!!) and over to Mickey D’s for breakfast – we knew that Greg wouldn’t be there when we picked up the meat so he had left it out on the dock for us to load.  So many buckets of meat later we were on the road again!!!

We got as far as Deer River MN to stop for the nite but not without fiding out that the tortuous roads of Wisconsin (frost heaves) had played havoc with the contents of our trailer!!!  The tower of fruit packing boxes that we got from the younger DeKuiper family that I was using as 4 shelves and that Randy had secured to the walls with screws were on the floor along with all of their contents!!!!!!!!!!!!! I looked at it and said “that’s an hour of work……………”  Finally got that all picked up and was sooooooo thankful that our pill containers (each holding about 300 pills!!!!!!!) DID NOT open and scatter all over the place!!!!!!!!! That would have been an event of disastrous proportions and worthy of some “slang” words!!

Went to dinner to a little bar in Deeer River where there were some very friendly and funny Minnesotans!!  Not much on the menu – Randy ordered a burger and said it was the plainest burger he’s ever gotten – and I got 3 egg rolls that were quite good!!! The patrons were happy to meet out=of=towners and even one teased me by saying he had just gotten out of jail…………..which of course he had not……….

Up early to find that there was a major snowstorm predicted for the area we were about to travel through!  We did hit a patch of ice coming to a stop sign which changed our route because I didn’t want Randy to try and turn while we were sliding………..believe me………….a 52 foot rig sliding is not peaceful……………..so we went a different way where it may have been a bit bumpier but lots less traffic! And maybe a big longer drive – it’s also not easy to find a place to turn the rig around once you have missed a corner!!!!

No problems going through the border – except the US had us stop before we left the US and then we had to stop again at the Canadian customs – both places had very friendly women agents and gave us no problem!!! 

As we entered Canada we experienced more blizzarding and more icy roads but made it to Vita, Manitoba at 3p – we looked and looked for the race start but couldn’t really see anything that looked remotely like it so then parked at the curling rink (my first time at a curling rink and will take pictures – the building is 50 years old and they are having trouble finding young people to carry on the “curling  tradition”) The driver’s meeting is there tonite and we are parked 40 feet from the building with bathrooms and warm water for dogs to boot!!!!!

They are already talking about making this a one day race because of the big storm so I guess we will see tonite!!

Off to Manitoba!!

We did indeed leave about 3 p.m.   on Wednesday and got to Escanaba as planned and parked in the mall parking near a McDonald’s – it was kind of blizzard on the way there with poor visibility so we were glad to stop there and then knew that it would only be another ½ hour to Greg Janders house to load up the ton of dog meat we had bought.

Up at 8:30 (4 of the pups had never been on the dog truck overnight so it was good to know that they were quiet until we wanted to get up!!!!) and over to Mickey D’s for breakfast – we knew that Greg wouldn’t be there when we picked up the meat so he had left it out on the dock for us to load.  So many buckets of meat later we were on the road again!!!

We got as far as Deer River MN to stop for the nite but not without fiding out that the tortuous roads of Wisconsin (frost heaves) had played havoc with the contents of our trailer!!!  The tower of fruit packing boxes that we got from the younger DeKuiper family that I was using as 4 shelves and that Randy had secured to the walls with screws were on the floor along with all of their contents!!!!!!!!!!!!! I looked at it and said “that’s an hour of work……………”  Finally got that all picked up and was sooooooo thankful that our pill containers (each holding about 300 pills!!!!!!!) DID NOT open and scatter all over the place!!!!!!!!! That would have been an event of disastrous proportions and worthy of some “slang” words!!

Went to dinner to a little bar in Deeer River where there were some very friendly and funny Minnesotans!!  Not much on the menu – Randy ordered a burger and said it was the plainest burger he’s ever gotten – and I got 3 egg rolls that were quite good!!! The patrons were happy to meet out=of=towners and even one teased me by saying he had just gotten out of jail…………..which of course he had not……….

Up early to find that there was a major snowstorm predicted for the area we were about to travel through!  We did hit a patch of ice coming to a stop sign which changed our route because I didn’t want Randy to try and turn while we were sliding………..believe me………….a 52 foot rig sliding is not peaceful……………..so we went a different way where it may have been a bit bumpier but lots less traffic! And maybe a big longer drive – it’s also not easy to find a place to turn the rig around once you have missed a corner!!!!

No problems going through the border – except the US had us stop before we left the US and then we had to stop again at the Canadian customs – both places had very friendly women agents and gave us no problem!!! 

As we entered Canada we experienced more blizzarding and more icy roads but made it to Vita, Manitoba at 3p – we looked and looked for the race start but couldn’t really see anything that looked remotely like it so then parked at the curling rink (my first time at a curling rink and will take pictures – the building is 50 years old and they are having trouble finding young people to carry on the “curling  tradition”) The driver’s meeting is there tonite and we are parked 40 feet from the building with bathrooms and warm water for dogs to boot!!!!!

They are already talking about making this a one day race because of the big storm so I guess we will see tonite!!