Sydney
Well-known member
Ruby here,
We are a little out of sequence here, but we were excited to tell you about our big construction project first, then our historic photo's, and now the Alaska trip. This will catch you up on our winter adventures as we prepare to relate for you all our travels during the summer. As we told you in one of our postings, we were in Alaska running the Iditarod Dog Sled Race this last winter. You may be saying that's impossible and, unlike our other whacky adventures which are all true, surely we must be making this one up. You're probably saying the Iditarod is a grueling cross county 1150 mile race, run in the dead of winter in Alaska, only by experienced teams of professional sled dogs, to commemorate a heroic delivery of emergency medicine during the winter of 1925. Well, you would be right but only if you did not take into consideration the unknown super powers of the Cavalier. So let's get you caught up, shall we.
One night this last winter, during one of our late night runs to the treat store, we were sitting at a traffic light when all of a sudden Duncan popped up in the back seat (again just like the addition) and said, "Why don't we try running in the Iditarod Dog Sled Race in Alaska?"� Sydney looked at me, I looked at Sydney, and as nutty as it sounded, we knew we had found our next adventure. After all, it was winter and we hadn't been traveling and we were getting a little bored. So, we agreed we should give it the old Cavalier try. Next thing we know we are sitting on the kitchen floor, looking at a map of the US and mapping our quickest route to Alaska. One thing we discovered quite by accident; your human maps are a little deceiving. What appeared to be a distance of only about 18 inches turned into a trip of almost a week! Needless to say, we had plenty of quality time in the car together and sometimes things got a little crazy on such a long trip because we all had to take turns driving. Duncan is still fairly new at the driving thing and was all over the road for the first few miles, and it was apparent by the pictures he snapped. First I got a little woozy and queasy from all the driving and Sydney thought it was real funny.
A few miles down the road, I was fine but now it was Sydney's turn being a little queasy. I know what if felt like having just been through it so I didn' laugh. Instead, I got really close to comfort my big sister:
Eventually we had enough and we yelled at Duncan to stop taking pictures, keep his eyes on the road, and quit weaving all over the highway. He just laughed. Sheeesh, boys, but he straightened up and drove carefully and safely the rest of the way using the cruise control! That's all we need is to have to call Mom and Dad, tell them we wrecked their car outside Davenport Iowa and can they please come and get us. But oh what a cross country adventure we had, and the stories we could tell. What a hoot! We'll save you all the embarrassing details but the story about Duncan and the dance hall girl at that saloon in Laramie, Wyoming was very exciting. You know how the girls can't resist the charms of such a handsome Cavalier boy. We barely got out of town on that one, but as they say, "What happens in Laramie, stays in Laramie." :drivecar:
Anyway, to make a long story short, we arrived in Anchorage, bought a sled (with Dad's credit card), bought enough dog treats for a few days on the trail, and when the gun sounded at the starting line, we were off. Needless to say, even with the weight of enough doggie treats to equal the weight of a human and the supplies the other sleds were pulling, we were quickly ahead of the pack thanks to the strength of three Cavaliers. In fact we got so far ahead, I quickly took the initiative to try and even up the odds for the other sled dogs and jumped on the top of the sled, kicked back and enjoyed the view all the way to the finish line. I have to admit I looked reeeaaaaal good up there on that sled. My ears were flying back in the wind and the snow, my snow goggles were on tight, my knit cap was low on my head, and I kept growling at the packs of wolves that constantly nipped at our heels, and in between yelling at Sydney and Duncan, "Mush, Mush, (sledding terms) quicker, quicker." However, we didn't want to win in only one day and make it look too easy, so just to make it look fair, we did stop and enjoy the Alaska wilderness. This allowed us to cross the finish line about 30 minutes ahead of the closest team of sled dogs, thus bringing honor and glory to Cavaliers everywhere. However, when we went to collect our trophy, the organizers disqualified us and wouldn't give us the trophy, take our pictures as the winning team, and even confiscated all our pictures and memory cards from our camera. Their rational was that it just wouldn't look good for three Cavaliers to beat all those professional sled dogs. How could they ever explain how a team made up of only three Cavaliers beat other professional dog sled teams with 12 or more great big sled dogs per team. So we were forced to pack the car with our sled, our goggles, mittens, and hats, what was left of our treats, and slowly made our way home arriving just in time for Duncan and Sydney to slip into our comfortable bed and drift off to sleep. After all, they had run virtually the entire race all by themselves:
I on the other hand, stayed up long enough to write this story for your benefit before I too felt my eyelids get heavy and was forced to curl up and join my sister and brother, safe in the knowledge that we were, and are, the Iditarod champions.
P.S. You should have seen Dad's face when he went out to get the paper the morning after we got back and found a giant dog sled strapped to the top of the car. We posted a picture of him and his expression on the Cavalier web site "Human Talk". Too bad you can't see it. Every Cavalier who sees it can't stop laughing. Stay tuned because in our next post we'll tell you all about our summer travel adventure. I won't spoil it now, but the three of us climbed the 3rd highest peak on the East Coast of the US, so watch for our story.
Ruby and Sydney and Duncan in Virginia
In case you would like to know more about the Iditarod race and the dogs involved, you can find out more at the official web site (of course without our pictures):
http://www.iditarod.com/
We are a little out of sequence here, but we were excited to tell you about our big construction project first, then our historic photo's, and now the Alaska trip. This will catch you up on our winter adventures as we prepare to relate for you all our travels during the summer. As we told you in one of our postings, we were in Alaska running the Iditarod Dog Sled Race this last winter. You may be saying that's impossible and, unlike our other whacky adventures which are all true, surely we must be making this one up. You're probably saying the Iditarod is a grueling cross county 1150 mile race, run in the dead of winter in Alaska, only by experienced teams of professional sled dogs, to commemorate a heroic delivery of emergency medicine during the winter of 1925. Well, you would be right but only if you did not take into consideration the unknown super powers of the Cavalier. So let's get you caught up, shall we.
One night this last winter, during one of our late night runs to the treat store, we were sitting at a traffic light when all of a sudden Duncan popped up in the back seat (again just like the addition) and said, "Why don't we try running in the Iditarod Dog Sled Race in Alaska?"� Sydney looked at me, I looked at Sydney, and as nutty as it sounded, we knew we had found our next adventure. After all, it was winter and we hadn't been traveling and we were getting a little bored. So, we agreed we should give it the old Cavalier try. Next thing we know we are sitting on the kitchen floor, looking at a map of the US and mapping our quickest route to Alaska. One thing we discovered quite by accident; your human maps are a little deceiving. What appeared to be a distance of only about 18 inches turned into a trip of almost a week! Needless to say, we had plenty of quality time in the car together and sometimes things got a little crazy on such a long trip because we all had to take turns driving. Duncan is still fairly new at the driving thing and was all over the road for the first few miles, and it was apparent by the pictures he snapped. First I got a little woozy and queasy from all the driving and Sydney thought it was real funny.
A few miles down the road, I was fine but now it was Sydney's turn being a little queasy. I know what if felt like having just been through it so I didn' laugh. Instead, I got really close to comfort my big sister:
Eventually we had enough and we yelled at Duncan to stop taking pictures, keep his eyes on the road, and quit weaving all over the highway. He just laughed. Sheeesh, boys, but he straightened up and drove carefully and safely the rest of the way using the cruise control! That's all we need is to have to call Mom and Dad, tell them we wrecked their car outside Davenport Iowa and can they please come and get us. But oh what a cross country adventure we had, and the stories we could tell. What a hoot! We'll save you all the embarrassing details but the story about Duncan and the dance hall girl at that saloon in Laramie, Wyoming was very exciting. You know how the girls can't resist the charms of such a handsome Cavalier boy. We barely got out of town on that one, but as they say, "What happens in Laramie, stays in Laramie." :drivecar:
Anyway, to make a long story short, we arrived in Anchorage, bought a sled (with Dad's credit card), bought enough dog treats for a few days on the trail, and when the gun sounded at the starting line, we were off. Needless to say, even with the weight of enough doggie treats to equal the weight of a human and the supplies the other sleds were pulling, we were quickly ahead of the pack thanks to the strength of three Cavaliers. In fact we got so far ahead, I quickly took the initiative to try and even up the odds for the other sled dogs and jumped on the top of the sled, kicked back and enjoyed the view all the way to the finish line. I have to admit I looked reeeaaaaal good up there on that sled. My ears were flying back in the wind and the snow, my snow goggles were on tight, my knit cap was low on my head, and I kept growling at the packs of wolves that constantly nipped at our heels, and in between yelling at Sydney and Duncan, "Mush, Mush, (sledding terms) quicker, quicker." However, we didn't want to win in only one day and make it look too easy, so just to make it look fair, we did stop and enjoy the Alaska wilderness. This allowed us to cross the finish line about 30 minutes ahead of the closest team of sled dogs, thus bringing honor and glory to Cavaliers everywhere. However, when we went to collect our trophy, the organizers disqualified us and wouldn't give us the trophy, take our pictures as the winning team, and even confiscated all our pictures and memory cards from our camera. Their rational was that it just wouldn't look good for three Cavaliers to beat all those professional sled dogs. How could they ever explain how a team made up of only three Cavaliers beat other professional dog sled teams with 12 or more great big sled dogs per team. So we were forced to pack the car with our sled, our goggles, mittens, and hats, what was left of our treats, and slowly made our way home arriving just in time for Duncan and Sydney to slip into our comfortable bed and drift off to sleep. After all, they had run virtually the entire race all by themselves:
I on the other hand, stayed up long enough to write this story for your benefit before I too felt my eyelids get heavy and was forced to curl up and join my sister and brother, safe in the knowledge that we were, and are, the Iditarod champions.
P.S. You should have seen Dad's face when he went out to get the paper the morning after we got back and found a giant dog sled strapped to the top of the car. We posted a picture of him and his expression on the Cavalier web site "Human Talk". Too bad you can't see it. Every Cavalier who sees it can't stop laughing. Stay tuned because in our next post we'll tell you all about our summer travel adventure. I won't spoil it now, but the three of us climbed the 3rd highest peak on the East Coast of the US, so watch for our story.
Ruby and Sydney and Duncan in Virginia
In case you would like to know more about the Iditarod race and the dogs involved, you can find out more at the official web site (of course without our pictures):
http://www.iditarod.com/
Last edited: