Here’s a girl who likes spaghetti AND snowmobiling check out her pics from Yellowstone:

http://jeannetteeatsspaghetti.blogspot.com/2008/01/snowmobiling-yellowstone.html

Aside from the first couple of hours of freezing rain, the guys had a good day.

This trail started off flat and wide and ended with the woopdie doos (my favourite). Once the freezing rain stopped they had enough time to clear their visors and get 15cm of snow dumped on em (snow is good).

Everyone is enjoying the ride – no smash ups or oopsies. Oh ya but there is this hole in the wall where they are staying Hotel Le Manoir:

ok I’m like: “Is that a friggin castle!?????”

Upon closer examination I would have to say YES IT IS A BLOODY CASTLE!!!!!!!

…Deep… Breath

This place is amazing apparently and the food is sooo good everyone was in bed by 8:30!

Yes the boys are at it (again). Labrador – home proved to be iffy so the schedule has been changed to Sept-Iles to home. Ya gotta love that, ours (and Quebec’s) snowmobile trail systems are the best bar none.

What’s even more amazing is that we are actually having the kind of winter that would allow a trail to door trip. Sort of. Last weekend here in Port Perry there were sleds everywhere! The lake was a veritable snowmobile highway, happy people everywhere. Fast forward to Wed January 29th and see overnight temperatures of 7+ degrees?? WTF?

Now the lake is bare – snow: all gone BUT it’s getting cold again so … oh hell I give up the weathermen must be having a helluva time keeping up with all this wacky weather I’m sure.

I would put a picture of the PP Snow Guage up but:
1) Road Crew has the camera
2) Last night it blew away and I can’t find it!!!! Crazy wind!

Anyways here’s a snapshot of the trip:
Sept Iles – Baie Comeau 314 km
Baie Comeau – Sacre Coeur 353 km
Sacre Coeur – Saint Felicien 363 km
Saint Felicien – Parent ??
Parent – Senneterre ??
Senneterre – Pembrooke ??
Pembrooke – Bancroft ??

…and maybe Bancroft to Port Perry depending on conditions here. It will be nice to see RC home again but contrary to popular belief I won’t be summoning the Swedish Bikini Team to greet him upon arrival. I’m still cranky.

People better be reading these trip rundowns cause otherwise I’m performing some kind of self torture reporting on the trips I should be on ;<

And then there was 5.., The going’s been tough what with another 10 cm falling overnight. The mountains – impassable, no groomers (so they say) not for our guys!! Whats a cliff drop off or two eh? No – nobody dropped off a cliff but this is the end to an extremely challenging snow filled week of fun?? I guess that depends on your idea of fun though doesn’t it?

Out of these 170 miles the last 40 were groomed and great. Even so, the winds were so strong (up tp 80 mph) that they created massive snowdrifts out of nowhere returning to the “not fun” rating.

Everyone’s been buried (I bet they’re glad I wasn’t there to capture the moment with my trusty Cannon Digital eh?), everyone’s struggled and now it’s over.

The weather on the way home won’t be great but hopefully the roads will be clear. I’m sure the urge to lean into the corners will plague them for the first couple of non-sled vehicle hours and then it will be back to reality. What a relief/downer!?

Total miles = 852 miles (I missed out on) oops sorry couldn’t keep the “feel sorry” factor down – my bad.

Something not often heard coming from the mouths of snowmobilers – too much snow. 39cm dumped on the boys yesterday, that just may be the “too much” number.

Groomers aren’t pulling sleighs and having troubles, going thru belts and fuel like nothing, heavy pushing summed up “not fun”. At one point RC’s one ski ventured just ever so slightly from the trail and sucked in so far all you could see on that side was the hand grip!

Interior is a mess, couldn’t manage it had to forget about Murdochville and my personal favorite Hotel Copper and turn back heading to Mont St Pierre. The 200 miles isn’t indicitive of the actual mileage this trek would take.

They stayed at Motel Restaurant ua Delice:

http://www.audelice.com/e_index.html

and it sounds like they were extremely happy to land there.

Even though it’s been tough going with all the snow and the cold – I outta have my head examined cause I am sooooooo wishing I too was there!

There has been some rerouting due to lack of snow from Perce to Gaspe so now it’s kind of a surprise where they end up. Which IS where they ended up after 160 miles of fab trails: Hotel-Cote Surprise, Perce:

http://www.hotelcotesurprise.com/

” a country inn perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean” . I’m told its a great hotel.

Today’s plan is to double back through the interior, that’s going to be amazing for sure. Tomorrow should be challenging though weather outlook is saying -25 for the morning feeling like -37!!! Plant your ass on a sled and start zippin around and that puts the “feels like temp” at…-50 or something !! Brrrr not fun.

Better wear everything in your saddlebag tomorrow boys!!!

ok I’ve had it. I’m jumping on the bandwagon, I can’t take it anymore. I just read an article that compared Britney to Diana – yes Lady Di. STOPPPPP!!

Lady Di was a saint, she had a great reputation and devoted most of her time to charity work and the likes. Playing Devils advocate for a minute here – what else did she have on her agenda. I’m not about to bash Lady Di and have the wrath of a katrillion people come down on me but honestly – what else did she have to do. Commendable as it is that she chose that route it’s not like her life was burdened with soccer practise, dinner plans, grocery shopping and bill payments like everyone else.

I too, given the opportunity would devote 100% of my available time (after family) to charity – I swear!

As for Britney (insert large drawn out breath) doesn’t matter whether you are for or against this girl cause everyone has an opinion. What does matter is the facts. An honest judgemental assesment of Miss Britneys antics would state these points:

1. A musical entity before 17yrs old
2. Under a media telescope 24/7 since…whenever the Britney craze hit (I’m not a practising fan so I couldn’t tell ya)

Thats it everything else is a moot point really. Does anyone remember what it was like to go through teenage angst?
Did anyone else make mistakes along the way?
Was anyone else confused about the actual value of the relationships unsure about the sincerity of those around us and what our place was in the circle of friends?

I can honestly say yes to all those questions as I imagine you can as well. Now imagine for a minute having
1) All the power and $ in the world to initiate those mistakes – most of us had to be creative with the parents liquor cabinet or save up our allowance to actually do any damage – not Britney this girls got carte blanche. I would have been a friggin train wreck for sure.

2) We all made bad judgments and mistakes along the way non? Drank too much and was very ill. Dabbled in the illegal on a dare, wore things innapropriate and acted in line with that. Now imagine having those moments of unfavorable behaviour splashed across the tabloids and newspapers. That’s gonna leave a mark on the soul.

3) As for comfort in familiarity I don’t imagine that applies when you’re a super star. Most people are there to … be a part of the celebrity, take advantage of the perks and in general utilize all the resources that go along with fame – without actually having to be famous. I’m lucky enough to be sure about the friends I have, there have been some who dissapointed but they didn’t sell a story to a tabloid or hawk an undesirable pic of me to Entertainment Tonight either!

No boundaries, no goals, no TRUE allies that my friend is one lonely existence. Comparable to that saying of “alone in a crowd”. It’s no wonder Britney Spears has issues.

I’m also not surprised that she went the trailer trash route – what better way to give the world one big FU and say I’m not little Miss Pop Princess bite me. Cause you know that everything EVERYTHING she does will be analyzed and scrutinized by – well everyone. There is no such thing as doing something for yourself or because you believe in it. This girls perspective is skewed – why the hell wouldn’t it be.

There are the casualties here as well, the kids. Innocents. Everyone else though isn’t. She can’t get better unless she has someone on her side – really on her side and even then she has no reason to trust anyone so that may never happen.

And the icing on the cake is that she is pulling in something like $700,000/month and is at the top of the charts? What does that say about society? Why the hell would she stop anything she’s doing she’s at an all time career high – I probably wouldn’t either lacking the perspective needed to make clear concise judgments.

Whatever, I clearly have too much time on my hands and truly don’t care that much either way about this train wreck but what I do know is given my past and my mistakes (a lot) I may have turned out differently as well if they had been published worldwide.

Oh ya and I have a slight problem with the Diana / Britney comparison but you probably figured that one out already!

Well the boys are being tested out there. What with 18 ” of snow falling on them today the trails have been …challenging. Squishy sloshy unpredictable fresh snow can wreak havoc on what a rider is used to.

No chance for grooming and gawd forbid you get off the trail a smidgen cause it’ll suck you in and directionally dependent you could very well be headed to a solid structure – not good! What should have taken 2 hours took 4.

Visibility was minimal and everyone ended up in the rhubarb today one way or the other. What I would have given to be there to see that!! They usually don’t end up like that and if they do they manage to finnagle their way out of it before I get there!

All this is fine and good because they are at the Hotel Le Francis, and funnily (is that a word?) enough there was no mention made of the state of this accomodation YOU KNOW WHY????? I’ll tell ya. Cause the last time Road Crew stayed there they couldn’t say enough about the rooms and restaurants and what a great place it was. I never stayed there on my visit but I REMEMBER the previous rating.

http://www.hotelfrancis.qc.ca/

OK so I’m starting to wonder if this is some kind of self inflicted torture. Kinda like baking the cake and not getting a bite. I’m working through it I will survive.

I miss Road Crew

Road Crew landed in Amqui today and then went for another 100 mile boot around the area.

Only one incident so far – heavy snow dust, missed corner and banged up front end (or something like that)! Everyone is ok though.

Riding is not much better there first 1/2 hr out of Matane was grass and dirt until you hit the mountains where it improves greatly.

Rumours that the area of Gaspe is shut down and dry. Looking at a possible interior re-route which would be good cause the interior is (was ) like friggin Disneyland for sledding (last year).

The accomodation is Select Hotel:

http://www.quebecweb.com/selectotelamqui/index.asp

And although it has the benefits of your sled out the window and its warm and clean the decor is well…something to be desired even for a bunch of guys. Weird colors like tangerine orange against gray and bizarre patterns are apparently a little disconcerting. All said and done food is good, its not a bad spot.

Visor’s leaking and that sucks cause it was -19 this morning when they left – for a top drawer helmet it’s very needy (all the time) next to my 3 yr old HJC.

The Riotel was amazing last year.

http://www.riotel.com/en/index.php?page=accueil

Last year we started our journey at the Riotel which I gotta tell ya was Fabulous! Even being on the “Package” we were blown away by the gourmet dinner we were served that evening. I’m talking 4 star, cloth table linens with herb spriggy things sticking out of your beautifully plated meal.

Check out the vew from the restaurant: