Too bad we don’t have 5 more feet of snow to go with it. The Iron Dog was a rough race this year. Rohn (a small community in Alaska) was literally down to dirt, no snow and it did its worst to lots of sleds. Overheating and rough trail really knocked everyone out this year.
So the week before the Iron Dog is Valentine and it was time for our annual sweetheart run. A nice easy 60 miles trip down the Tanana to Nenana, a good lunch at the Monderosa and then home. Of course last year I didn’t make, the crank broke on the Panther 6 miles down the trail and Larry gave me a tow back to my rig. So this year I’m all set, the Panther is fixed, took it on a couple local rides and all seemed OK. Of course I did buy a new sled last year after the crank busted, an M6, but it’s strictly a mountain sled and needs lots of powder. Since were so low on snow this year I figured, heck, the Panther will make it and it did, well it made it half way. Got to the Monderosa and had a great lunch as expected, we all got set to go and head back to town, and I made it, oh I don’t know, maybe a 100 feet and the dag-nab-it-so and so chain case busted……. Dang it… Thanks again Jake for driving down to get me…
It was a great return trip or so I was told :<) We started out with 22 riders and arrived in Nenana with 23, but that’s better than arriving with 21 and have to go find a lost soul. I did have fun on the ride down and only wish I could have made the return trip.
Anyway, Iron Dog is done, sweetheart run is over, and SnoRondy time had arrived. The club decided to roast a pig again this to celebrate the 10th Annual SnoRondy and me and my big mouth volunteered to cook it. Smooth move bucko, up at 3:00 AM, get ready, call and wake up Jake at 4:00 AM, get him loaded and off we go to Chena lake with pig, pig roaster, new rotesier motor and all is good, to bad the turning arm of the new rotesier is ½ an inch lower than the old one and won’t match up to the turning rod the pig is wrapped around… So handyman Jake gets to works, we most of tried a dozen different ways to that rotesier to rotiser the pig, finally made it work around 7:00 AM. Of course we did have the pig cooking by 4:30 or, just had to turn it by hand and use my large crescent wrench to hold it in place. So it was, to say the least, another interesting morning on the farm…. Everyone did enjoy lunch so it was worth the effort.
And thanks to Larry and Steve for finishing up the pig cooking and carving while I did the drag races.
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