We fixed the tire and headed for home, when we heard this funny noise in the front of the truck. The hubs on my 4 wheel drive were rattling, so we had to take the 4 wheel drive off and unlock them (we were hoping they were just really hot...yeah, right!). The funny thing is that I just had the entire front end rebuilt in that truck a year ago. Well, that was ok, cause we could still drive safely...but we were definitely convinced we needed to get home. Then, just outside of Delta Junction, a moose came charging across the road. There was no stopping (although Manny was only going about 40mph), so it looked like we were about to have a perfect end to a screwed up trip...but at the last second, the moose slipped just inches from us and the truck got by. How it didn't hit the trailer is beyond me. About 10 miles later, another moose crossed the road in front of us, but that one made it across before we got there. We were really wondering if we were going to survive this trip at this point. Finally, the radio came in....and we felt a chill race down our spines as they talked about the freezing rain and near impassable roads from Salcha up to Fairbanks. With the 4 wheel drive off, pulling a trailer with about 1,000 #s...we just didn't know how we'd make it.
Well, there wasn't much choice, so we headed out of Delta. Not too far out of town we got pulled over by a state trooper. The trailer lights weren't staying on (although they worked when we hit the brakes, or had our flashers on). So the trooper told us to keep our flashers on the rest of the way home. He also told us about Bill McKee (who we already heard about) and how either his or his wife's race was over, too. How crazy!!! After that, we drove really slow (between 25-30mph), with our flashers on, all the way to North Pole. Once we got onto Nordale road though, we knew we had to put on the 4 wheel drive and take our chances, because no gravel trucks had gotten to this road yet. Manny & I almost fell trying to lock the hubs due to the ice, and we had to hold onto the truck just to do that. We started out again, studded tires skidding on the ice, but finally got going, with the hubs doing just fine. It was really slow going...took us over an hour to go 25 miles. Crawling at about 5-10mph down the last hill, we made it to our turn, and got to the house, where we discovered yet another flat tire on the trailer. We don't know how we did it, but we had made it home in one piece.
Needless to say, while I'm extremely thankful we made it home safely, I'm sitting here, very depressed as my friends and neighbors are preparing to start their 250 mile race. A year of work, money and training down the tubes. At first we thought we could at least salvage the Two Rivers 200 and race that next month...but the freezing rain and 40 degree temperatures are melting those hopes away as I type. I know people say "There will be other races," but that doesn't make it feel any better. There sits a great, athletic team out in the yard, and I can't even take them on a training run today because of all the ice. One thing that this whole experience has done, is make me decide that I WILL be racing next year, even though I'll have to work twice as hard to get there. Manny's 250 was ruined last year when he fell and hurt his back 3 days before the race, my was ruined this year...so third time's a charm, right? Thank you to all of you who have supported me so much! Most of all, I have to thank my husband...without him, we wouldn't be able to run at all.
Tammi