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!!

What a great week!!

Thursday we trained all the dogs and Ocean was able to use the sled to train his 4 dog team for 12 miles - first time on a sled with 4 dogs and first time that far!!!!  I was leading with one snow machine and Randy followed with the other.  All went perfect!!!

Friday we went to the bib draw for the race at Waltman's house so we know what order Randy and Ocean are going out - earlier in the day Grandpa and Ocean had a little unexpected exercise.........the stupid same snow machine quit on them while they were grooming trails - 5 miles from the house!!!  So imagine what it is like to walk 5 miles with mickey mouse boots on!!!

Saturday we were all up at 6am to get dogs loaded and watered to be at the race site by 7:30 - (it's only 5 miles from our house).  I arrived at the race site later at 9 and Randy was scheduled to go out in the 6 dog at 10:30 and Ocean in the 4 dog at 11 - we got Randy out and then I got Ocean out without issues -
I pretty much waited at the finish line for over an hour and much to my amazement and jubilation, Ocean came over the finish line first in his class!!!!!  And then Grandpa came in a minute later and was 3rd in his class!!!!!! Happy day for the DeKuipers!!!!!!  There was one glitch when Ocean was going around a particularly difficult turn in the course and his dogs got tangled, but who should appear from behind him to help by standing on the brakes of both sleds..............Grandpa!!!!!!  So Ocean followed him around a loop and then actually passed Grandpa in the last 4 miles of the race!!!!! Yeah!!!!!!!!!

Nap time in the afternoon and then to Mass and then to a thank-you-volunteers pizza party at 7:30

Today was the awards breakfast banquet and both DeKuiper racers got beautiful hand made agate trophies!!!!!

Now on the road south to meet Cindy and get Ocean back to his family!!!

what a way to welcome 2020!!!

It’s a heck of a time to have no power!!!!!!

We picked Ocean, our grandson, up from his father, Jesse , in Gaylord on Sunday afternoon.  That went well but the following morning the power went out and we have been without for 2 days!!!!!  To top it all off Ocean got sick with the flu on Tuesday so we didn’t even have running water………..and you know what that means………….

Today Granddpa took him around the trail pulling him on the sled with the snowmachine – later today after church we will train the dogs.  The weather has finally improved from all the rain we had on Sunday and Saturday – it has snowed pretty continuously since Monday morning so we are back to having snow in the driveway and are not breaking through into ruts -    it still has some rutted places in it though from when it was softer.  So this morning is a beautiful sunny day with lots of heavy snow on all the trees!!  We don’t know when we will have power again but it would be nice if I could cook all the gluten free stuff I bought for Ocean to eat!!  The only thing we have running on the generator is the heater, the computer and a light so we can see where we are going in the house!!!

So to celebrate New Year’s eve and have some supper we went down to the Wolf Inn – they also don’t have power and were feeding their customers with generator power!!!!

So no way for me to be able to wish our daughter Amy, Happy Birthday yesterday and hopefully there will be wifi in town for me to wish you all HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

 aftermath of the storm that took out power out!!

 my free Christmas tree

 Christmas lights in downtown Newberry