Meanwhile Back At North Wapiti - Bet

While the Musher is busy judging at Shageluk, we are all holding down the fort here at North Wapiti, but frankly its been a bit rough.

First off, Briffany has come down with a flu, cold, thingy and has been swigging more Nyquil than the Nyquil swigging Cartoonist... if you can believe that!

On top of that, the wonderfully fluffy fluffy fleecy soft snow melted a bit... and then froze.

It's like an ice skating rink around here.  You can't go anywhere without sliding all over the place.

Briffany has more work to do because all of the Pretty Curly Tails are taking advantage of the slippery surfaces to hold the 1st annual North Wapiti Curling challenge with their bowls

Charge's bowl is always over near Irving, then she gets in the way of the sweepers, there was a technicality call when one bowl went into Tramp's house and nobody wanted to go get it.

It also doesn't help that Briffany thought it would be a good idea to navigate through the feedings in ice skates.

Food and Nyquil went everywhere, we had to replace Charge's dog house.

So generally, it's been a real mess around here...

... and this is NOT funny at all!!

- Bet

What The Heck is Going On! - Bet

Howdy ho everybodies!

I apologize for just dropping out and not performing my dutiful Roving Border Collie Reporting this past week, but honestly it was such a whirlwind, confusing, what the heck is going on kinda thing that I'm just now getting my equilibrium back!

When we last left off, we were all doing the major happy dance of joy when the Musher and the Pretty Curly Tails finished second in the Canadian Challenge racey thing!

The next morning was the awards breakfasty breakfast thingie... I was not invited (harumpf) but the Musher and Richard snuck me out some waffles... they were cold... but there's never a bad waffle so nom.

This is where it gets really confusing and hectic and head swimmy, so try to hang on and try to keep up... you may want to take some Dramamine or have a bucket handy.

So, as some of you knew (and for those of you that didn't... I could have swore I told you, but it's all very confusing), the Musher isn't running the Pretty Curly Tails in the Iditarod this year, but she was chosen to be a judge!!  Yep, she gets to herdy the Iditarod peoples and dogs on the trail this year, which is very exciting, don't you think? 

Anyhoo, since the end of the Canadian Challenge was 23 February, and the Iditarod starts on 2 March, and since there's only 28 days in February because it's one of those non-leaping years where there's 29 days in February, which is a shame because most months get extra-extra days while February gets messed with all because those Gregorian peoples didn't plan well enough to give all months the same number of days... or something.

ANYHOO, that only left everybodies with five days to drive back home, get Richard and Simone to the airport, the SUV packed and the Musher drive to Alaska... gulp.

Meanwhile back at North Wapiti, Simone and Musher Mark were holding down the fort and Simone had to get Daddy and Sky use to riding in crates, which isn't like riding in the dog box in that they are inside and all cushy without straw.  Daddy liked the new travel mode.

Hey, this is pretty cushy if you ask me!

 The reason Daddy and Sky were going to the Iditarods is because they are going to live with a friend of the Musher's (I'll let the Musher tell you if she wants).

Simone was also making sure the rest of the Pretty Curly Tails where fed and exercised, but one morning while we were driving home like a bat out of ... fast, she woke up to find that the cabin (that eats handlers) had frozen in the middle of the night and she was trapped... oddly enough.

Her only recourse was to Facebooks Musher Mark and wait for help because she didn't know from Briffany and Richard that when that happened, you just climb out the window.

Since Simone was stuck in the cabin, Bait was forced to take over training duties.

pffft, don't know why people think this is so difficult

Musher Mark finally checked his Facebooks and beat the door free with a hammer... as usual.

Meanwhile back in the truck careening down the roads at break neck speeds (urp) we made it back to our neighborhood and dropped Richard off at the airport.

Zoomed back to North Wapiti, unloaded all of the Pretty Curly Tails and Briffany got them settled, the Musher packed her Iditarod judging stuffs and things, crammed Simone, Sky, and Daddy in the SUV and dropped Simone off at the airport

Then the Musher drove like a bat out of... quickly to Alaska... of course stopping at her favorite place to relax and unwind...

She apparently had the Lard Hot Springs all to herself this time... well, honestly that isn't surprising since who, in their right mind, wants to relax while immersed in hot lard?  Seriously?  Wouldn't that be all greasy and smelly?  Who wants to soak in hot lard like some potato chip thing?

Oh... wait, it's called the Liard Hot Springs... well, ok then, that would be relaxing!

After her marathon speed driving, the Musher did arrive in plenty of time to visit some friends, hit the Starbucks (a few zillion times) and get to the first part of the Iditarod experience in the nick of time.

The Musher admits that it is a bit strange being on THAT side of the table, and not on the other side with all of the participants.  She has to keep reminding herself that she's not there to run the race.

As for me...

I'm actually a bit relieved to be home after all of that hullabalooo!

- Bet

Canadian Challenge Day 2 - Bet

Howdy ho everybodies!

We're at the La Ronge hotel right now, all toasty warm.

It's been a busy, busy, busy day following the team along the trail.

When we last left off, the Musher was taking a break at the Elk Ridge checkpoint with all 12 Pretty Curly Tails.  She said she had a good run and was happy with all of the Pretty Curly Tails and the effort they were putting in on the trail.

After a five hour rest, off they went to the next checkpoint, MacLennan River.

On the way there, Todd developed a sore wrist, so when the team arrived at MacLennan River, she decided to drop him.

Molly also had a sore wrist, and she is also in heat.  The Musher didn't want to stress her out on her first race and risk a more serious injury, and since Molly's heart wasn't really into that race... and because her condition meant that the boys on the team were more interested in Molly... and to avoid an "Iditarod Moment"...

... Molly also got dropped.

Which leads us to Rocky.... poor silly Rocky.  Rocky was half asleep and miscalculated the trail.  He totally thought that they were approaching the LTs checkpoint where he would be packed up and get a cool snowmachine ride back to the drop dog area at La Ronge.

He was so disappointed to see that he had misjudged the checkpoints and the dog truck, Briffany, Richard, and I were there to take him back to the hotel with us.

All three of them are resting and recovering quite well... except for Rocky, who is moping about not getting to ride the snowmachine, but he'll get over it soon enough.

We want to send a big shout out to Gerry Walker, last year's Canadian Challenge winner.  Gerry scratched in the best interest of his team, and we applaud his effort and for being just an all around good musher and stuffs and things!!!

So, here we are in the hotel at La Ronge.  Molly, Todd, and Rocky sleeping it off in the dog truck, and we sit and wait, and check the GPS dot, and hit refresh and wait and hit refresh, and wait... and where's that pizza??

I decided to do the googles for all that girl stuffs Molly was telling me about why she was feeling all funny.  Sounds icky. Who knew !?!?

Urp... maybe I'll wait on that pizza for a bit.

I am making sure that Richard doesn't go anywhere without my knowing it

Until later everybodies!

- Bet