Friday was start-up day for group one, the last group of 24 snowmobiles and the final day for the team that followed along with team one from Sault Saint Marie and to Belcourt, North Dakota. Team one is now down to the full contingent of 24 riders who are in it for the long to Tok, Alaska.
For me, as the title suggests it was kind of a lost day, but still not without some points of interest.
The day started with a phone call advising me to leave the Caribou Inn (Hallock, Minnesota) and drive to North Dakota and pick up a pair of snowmobiles and their riders.
From Hallock is only about 20 miles the Red River which forms the border between Minnesota and North Dakota. It also provided a convenient, easy to find, stopping point - just over the bridge into North Dakota.
There were not any real problems with the snowmobiles, but one of the riders was having problems with helmet fogging up due to a failure of the helmets heat shield. Several riders had other minor problems (but, when you're looking at another 3000 miles to travel, minor problems can quickly become major problems).
Therefore, the decision was made for a pair of riders to take the day off, load the "sleds" up and take the 70 miles drive up to Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada and try to address all the riders' equipment issues.
Since the riders were both from team one, I was charged with the duty of making the trek to Winnipeg.
Our visit to the city was unfortunately limited to the southern half of the Perimeter-Loop (or by-pass) and, therefore, did not provide much in the way of a view to the real Winnipeg.
After about five hours of "scavenger hunting" around Winnipeg, we finally called it a day and made our way to Belcourt, North Dakota, by the Canadian route. But, for us, the day held one final surprise. After crossing the border we were within minutes of destination - the "Sky Dancer" casino in Belcourt, when, having discovered that we were, in fact, driving in the wrong direction, we tried to turn around on the highway and end up - stuck deep in a ditch.
An off-duty police officer, who had the "good fortune" to be passing by, came to our rescue and called a wrecker for us. Two hours later we arrived at the Sky Dancer casino.
The highly anticipated evening of casino fun, was all but destroyed.
Nonetheless, having missed the days events at the poker room, I managed win my dinner at the black-jack table before "bowing-out" at a 1:30 A.M.
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