Valleyfield review -

Long trip and not the results we were hoping for…

Wednesday night:

We were supposed to leave town at 12:00 – actually hit the road at 17:30 and don’t make it into Missoula until 02:00 Thursday morning.

Thursday night:

Short days drive today. We are staying with family in Billings so it’s only five hours on the road. A wonderful dinner with family and a good nights sleep and we’re on the road again.

Friday night:

Another relatively short days drive – Billings, Montana to Wall, South Dakota. Tomorrow we visit the Badlands. “Never been there but they tell me it’s nice”.

Saturday night:

The Badlands were certainly something to see and Brynnie earned a Junior Ranger badge for completing a hike and exploring fossil records with Park Rangers - a very enjoyable day in the National Park. Can’t say the same for Wall, SD – been seeing signs for Wall Drug for at least six hours on the way into town, not worth the time. Aside from Wall Drug the restaurant options and cuisine in Wall left something to be desired, next year we’ll just pass through on the way to Chamberlain.

Sunday night:

Long drive across South Dakota, Minnesota and into Wisconsin, 9 hours. The trip across South Dakota was brutal – we had 25mph+ winds all the way and the boat let us know the entire time. La Crosse, Wisconsin is a nice town to stop in perched on the banks of the Mississippi.

Monday night:

Chicagoland is hell trailering a hydroplane through in the mid afternoon. A six and one-half hour drive took over nine hours. Aside from the shear delight of going through Chicago with a hydroplane in tow we got to stop for toll booths just about every other mile – something we will likely get to experience in Washington soon as the voters continue to vote down transit and road ballots. We’re in Elkhart, Indiana tonight and will tour the hallowed grounds of Notre Dame University in the morning before heading out for Ontario.

Tuesday night:

University of Notre Dame campus is truly a wonderful place. The open spaces, the Golden Dome, the Grotto and of course the football stadium with “Touchdown Jesus” looking down. If I were Catholic it would certainly be at or near the top of the list of schools I would consider. Drove up through Michigan and crossed the border into Canada at Port Huron and then onto Hamilton, Ontario for the night.

Wednesday night:

A day to tour southern Ontario. A trip out to St. Catherines for knitting supplies (both Megan and Brynnie are running low on yarn) and lunch then to Fort Erie for a tour. It is wet, cold and miserable – I can’t imagine what life was like to be posted here thousands of miles from England in the wilderness with hostile Native Americans and defiant Colonials just across the river. The weather is breaking a bit so we head to Niagara for dinner and watch the 4^th of July fireworks display over Niagara Falls – gorgeous, although the clouds came and went obscuring some of the higher displays.

Thursday night:

We’ve made it, 3000 miles with hydroplane in tow. Boat is now in the pits, what a zoo – there are a lot of boats here. We are staying about 15 minutes away at Hotel Parisienne, this is a quaint little spot on a small river with people fishing in the background. Nice location but the accommodations are what one might expect when booking three rooms at the very last moment. Our plan had not been to race Valleyfield in 2007, but early season stumbles have put us in a dire need of points to get into SeaFair.

Friday night:

Made it out onto the water to do some testing. This is a very tight course – great for the fans but not a lot of room and turn two looks like there is a perpetual hole that will likely cause havoc.

Saturday night:

The weather was rough – very high winds forced all of the smaller classes off the water today. The boat is running well although I missed the start in Heat 1 badly when we lost power on the backstretch coming up to the line. Took a big bounce in turn two on the second lap – thrown against the roll bar, lost the pedals -still with 225 points for third place a second or third in Heat 2 and points in the final will get us into SeaFair.

Heat 2 we made a much better start. Got the lane we wanted and are in position to score the points we need to make the final. Going into turn one on lap two we launch off a roller about six feet in the air and the boat stops instantly when I land. The engine died so I reach for the starter and just then notice that my feet are a nearly a foot under water. It may be time to evacuate just about now!

The corner judge shoots a red flare to stop the race and the ambulance boat gets to me while the boat is still afloat, I’m really only wet up to about my knees. While on route to the hospital it becomes evident that neither of the paramedics in the boat speaks English – but they want something from me. It appears they want my helmet off, so I unsnap the neck gaiter and begin to unbuckle the helmet. One of the paramedics shoves my hands out of the way unbuckles the helmet and attempts to yank it off my head – problem, the Hans device has not been unstrapped so he is really straining my neck. I unstrap the Hans device as we are getting to the on-shore hospital, fortunately the doctor speaks English. He asks if I’m o.k. – “yes”. What about my neck – “was fine until the gorilla in the boat started reefing on it”. Do I need a blanket – “no I need to get back to my wife and daughter who have no idea what state I’m in”. So I am released and get in a cart or the long ride back to the pits, when I get back the boat is still in (under) the water.

Sunday night:

We are packed up and ready to begin the journey home in the morning. This is going to be a long ride with little other than hundreds of hours of work to look forward to upon our return. SeaFair is now a long shot – a very long shot.