Sled Dog Tour January 25, 2020

One of 75 Alaskan huskies hoping to get picked for the sled tour

   Dear Noah and Dylan,
     We finally did it! We went away for the weekend and got to go on a sled dog tour, and there was even snow, which is not always a given anyway even in NH with stinking global warming. Just two weekends earlier, most of the snow was gone with an extremely warm weekend we had.
     Your dad dropped your stuff on his way to work so we were able to drive straight to your school and pick you up. He said you were more excited about being picked up in the Tesla than you were about the weekend. Well we found out how not so exciting a Tesla can be when we had our first experience being at a Tesla supercharge station and none of the dam things worked. Three other Teslas were in and out, frustrated, with one guy upset because he only had enough juice to go a few more miles. He did find some other slower station he could go to I guess which was near enough.
    We stopped at Dunkin Donuts in Atkinson on the way so that Uncle Joe could get his caffeine for the drive and you two had full meals, the hungry growing boys you are. Unfortunately, I embarrassed Dylan and Uncle Joe by asking about the senior discount. I had heard that you got a free donut with a medium sized coffee and the employee made me feel like a jerk because she said it wasn't so. To make matters worse, I looked on my phone to show her where it said that, and I could only find that there was a 10% discount for seniors. She had said she would give us the 5% discount and wouldn't even look at my phone to see where it said otherwise. I gave it up, finally, not wanting to be more of an embarrassment for you guys. Noah said he wasn't embarassed. I pledged to not ask about senior discounts for the rest of the weekend!
   

Some of the huskies tethered to their doghouses. Some enjoy sunbathing on their decks while others nap inside or even crawl under the deck. The rooftop offers another place to roost while waiting for their three hearty meals a day and their turn to go out on a tour.

    We stopped in Lincoln to charge up on our way. The supercharge station was right near a Price Chopper. We made our grocery list on the way up, agreeing on a meal plan between dining out and eating in. I asked each of you to pick two snacks, one healthy, one less healthy. Noah picked apples and Oreos. Dylan picked Dill Pickle Potato Chips and Halo tangerines. (Halo, halo! You say goodbye, and I say Halo!) We got Bisquick, eggs, maple syrup, oil, butter, yogurt and milk for our one breakfast in. You were also each allowed to pick one thing to drink, anything non sugar. You both picked orange juice and then Dylan asked if we could change to Arizona Iced Tea and I agreed. Noah didn't want the OJ anymore.

Lead dog (usually females) taking a rest after our tour.

    We arrived about 6pm after dark. Our cabin was the Cabin in the Woods at Josselyn's Log Cabins in Jefferson, NH, just a few miles from Muddy Dog Kennel. I had picked the most remote one thinking we'd have the dogs with us until i realized we wouldn't all fit in the Tesla. We all loved it. You boys had the whole loft to yourselves which included a trap door. The staircase was more like a ladder. Uncle Joe and I slept in the bedroom that was added to the back of the original cabin. The heat didn't quite make it in their from the main cabin so the bed was equipped with electric mattress pads. That was really nice. You both goofed around with computer games most of that evening and then watched a movie with Uncle Joe but I hit the sack around 9.
   

Some of the dogs are super friendly and love hugging and kissing. We were warned that a couple others  were known to try to steal hats and mittens. 

They also warned us to stay outside of the radius of their chains. If you went inside that, you were at risk for getting tangled up in the chain with the dog. 

    By 8AM we were up and at 'em on Saturday morning. Normally you are up at 5 am so that was sleeping late for you, comparatively speaking! We sat around a bit talking and joking and then got dressed to go out to Water Wheel, a breakfast place voted Number 2 in NH. That was just a few miles away, too. Nothing is close up there. We saw so many abandoned camps, cabins, ramshakeled houses and collapsing barns. It was certainly a good place to eat and boy did you both eat! We dared Dylan to ask for Canadian bacon, eh, but he chickened out. He did add the 'eh' to his order of toast. They had one of those triangular solitaire peg puzzles at the table so we fiddled with that trying to outdo each other on the number of pegs we were able to remove. Dylan, Uncle Joe and I were able to remove all but three, qualifying us as "so-so." Poor Noah was just a "so" but wasn't too fazed by that.

It was fun reading all the names of the dogs at the kennel. Grandpa Kudym would have loved this one!

     We went back to the cabins, hoping the office was open to get some games and videos but no such luck until later that afternoon after our tour was over. You both played outside a bit with a football and looked at tracks in the snow. Dylan and I played Double Solitaire and Casino. I took a nap for a half hour before we started gearing up with the appropriate clothing for the tour. You were both a little anxious as well as excited, not knowing what to expect. When we got to the kennel we saw a sign instructing us to wait by our car until 2pm and they would come get us. Sure enough, at 2pm, one of the mushers, the owner's son who co-owns the business ambled over to us with his coffee and gave us the lowdown about behavior at the kennel. (no running) Dylan was getting distracted while he talked and the guy kept trying to get his attention. He wasn't accepting any twelve year old funny business, for sure. They definitely had experience with kids, not just dogs.

Noah with one of the huskies that seems to be smiling! It was cool being surrounded by the White Mountains  in Jefferson, NH. We had some nice views on the tour, too.

Noah getting lots of kisses from one of the many super friendly ones while the grey and white one in background waits for his turn. It looks like his name is Arizona. Some of the dogs were named after candy bars and others were named after Scooby Doo characters. There were three Scooby Doo names on our team. The pictures of each of them are on the website, nhsleddog.com. 

     We had maybe a half hour to walk around to meet and greet the dogs while Uncle Joe helped the two mushers attach twenty dogs to our two sleds. I posted a couple of video clips onto Youtube so you can have access to them. Noah's sled dog team and Preparing Sleds and  Uncle Joe helping with the dogsI loved what Noah wrote in his journal about the once in a lifetime opportunity. It truly was, although I hope you will both get to do it again! Uncle Joe and I had done it once but there was no snow. They now do tours year round and use carts otherwise. Experiencing the true sled dog tour in the snow was something I was determined to do again and I thought it would be the perfect Christmas gift for you guys, plus an opportunity to steal you away from your parents and spend some quality time together. We all had a wonderful time.

     Grandma's kitchen was our dinner choice which was less than thrilling but certainly worth going if you ask for the right foods. Uncle Joe and Dylan liked their chowder and baked haddock but Noah and I made the mistake of ordering the special "American Chop Suey" which might as well have been a can of spaghetti-o's since there was not much flavor and a tad dry without much sauce. Very disappointing but it was eaten. We went home to our cabin in the woods and played "Apples to Apples" and then watched a movie. Dylan wrote about the dilemma we encounter with the old VCR machine in his journal entry.

Zombieland was an unexpected pleasure for me. It was hysterical! I look forward to Zombieland  2. Loved Woody Harrelson in it and his young counterpart who narrated all the crazy stuff that went on. We were all cackling. You guys have a more developed sense of humor than we would expect at your age but not surprising being a Kudym of course, ha ha!

Nobody except Uncle Joe seemed to like my pancakes in the morning because we only had pure maple syrup. I also prefer the thick corn syrup with maple syrup added for flavoring but was able to eat mine with no problem. Too bad for that, wish I knew, but what can you do. I made fried eggs too but used too much salt. Us Kudym's do like our crappy corn syrup on pancakes.
     Getting out of there was a little trickier than getting in. It had rained overnight which made the downhill driveway to our place quite slick and dangerous. We had the foresight at least to park up near the office Saturday night but that was even a problem. Uncle Joe went up there in his ice cleats and the car was stuck even there and almost got hit by two incoming cars that slid on the ice. We had 3 sets of ice cleats to help us get to the top with our packed bags at least. In the meantime, while Uncle Joe was dealing with all of that, we played Charades which I lost badly and then had to clean up and finish packing. It was a quiet ride home until after lunch at a rest area and then we put on Car-aoke, a new feature on the Teslas and sang our hearts out for the rest of the trip.
   Your dad picked us up at our house and we talked for the next two hours about our experience, with Uncle Joe's videos loaded onto to the TV. He got a lot more coverage than I did but it is locked on his computer now somewhere amidst 8 million other video clips, etc. I sent your mom links to my 3 clips and she really enjoyed that.
   
It was a trip to remember!
Love always,
Auntie Kim