02/10/06

            What a crazy winter it has been! Here it is the middle of February and still we have no snow. The weather report says we might get a storm this weekend but, with the way this winter has been so far, I’ll believe it when I see it.

            The warm weather and lack of snow caused us a bit of a problem last weekend as we had our annual Busch North Scene snowmobile poker run for charity. We had riders but we also had rain and rough trails, keeping more than a few of us from even unloading our sleds. Those that did ride didn’t complain too much and those of us that didn’t went all the same places, we just did it in cars and trucks and stayed dry and comfortable.

            As usual, we started out behind and were hurrying to get to Rangeley on Friday night before someone else got there and used up all the fun. Although we didn’t unload the sleds all weekend, I had loaded them in the trailer and we diligently hauled them all the way to the Rangeley Inn just in case there should be a miracle snow storm or a dip of 30 or 40 degrees in the temperature. As we were driving up route #4 through Madrid toward Rangeley a small foreign car pulled out in front of us with a teenage-looking girl driving. She obviously had not been driving for a very long time and was a bit tentative. The car slowed for every little corner and she braked every time she met another car. Robin and I discussed and joked about her driving habits and compared them to the time 3 or 4 years ago that we followed a slow moving drunk for about 20 miles in a snow storm before passing him in the ditch on a short straight section of road. Just about the time that we had decided we better not try to pass with the trailer on, she stopped. Right there in the middle of route #4 with a speed limit of 55 or 45 or whatever it is there, she stopped. I got my wits gathered and managed to get the truck and trailer stopped behind her without hitting the back of her car. Then she took off again.

            The Maine Department of Transportation had, at some point, decided that there were too many dangerous and often fatal car-moose collisions on that particular stretch of road and their thought on fixing that problem was to put up a giant yellow sign with a picture of a moose on it with the words “Moose Crossing” and with 2 big yellow flashing lights on top that are triggered when a car approaches and flash like crazy until the car passes. That is, unless the car doesn’t pass and just stops. So, here we were sitting in the middle of the northbound lane laughing like idiots at the girl and commenting on how silly she must have felt once she realized what was going on. I started going again and soon caught back up to her. In a few minutes, we came to the second of the signs and when she got around the corner and the lights started flashing; her brake lights came on again. This time she only slowed down to a crawl and looked both ways before continuing on. About 2 miles later, she turned abruptly right into the parking lot of a small general store and I’m still trying to decide if she did it because she wanted to go back and look for the moose that was supposed to be crossing the road, or because she was afraid that one more quick stop would have my truck, trailer and two sleds in and on the trunk of her car or if she needed to stop just to regroup and just be thankful that she didn’t have to wait in the highway for a moose to use the crosswalk.

            Once we arrived at the Rangeley Inn things went very smoothly. Friday evening was devoted to helping George finish getting ready for the auction and entertainment, and then a trip across the street to Sarge’s to get our “race faces” on.

             Saturday morning came very early, or maybe Friday night ended way too late. Whatever the case, I was happy to use the warm weather and lack of snow as an excuse to leave the snowmobiles in the trailer and sit around and drink coffee for a couple hours. We hung the giant Busch North Series “Welcome Drivers and Fans” banner (that some race fan managed to steal before the day was over) on the outside of the building and opened for business. Carol Lee and Darlene, our very faithful registrars and in a pinch dealers, got everyone signed up and ready to ride. Surprisingly, there were 50 or 60 people that braved the nasty weather and rough trails to take a ride and gather up the stickers required for a poker hand. I, on the other hand, waited until Robin was up, had breakfast, relaxed a while, took the truck and drove to the Gingerbread to have a wonderful lunch, watch the deer out the back windows and say hello to all the riders that had been pounding their butts over the trails all morning. Most of the riders were happy with the ride, no one expected too much and there were very few real complaints.

            After lunch I took the 3 others that were with me back to the Inn for afternoon naps. Not being the nap type, myself, I walked up the street and did some shopping, I got some cards to deal for the poker hands and a plunger for Eric so he wouldn’t have to bother the Inn management for one in the middle of the night again as he did Friday night. Evidently, at least according to Eric, being pregnant causes a woman to clog the toilet more than usual. His lovely wife vehemently denied it in the morning but we all know Eric to be honest. He wouldn’t have lied to us about that.

             Saturday evening was a great time. The auction and raffles went very well, even though attendance was down, everyone was very generous and we earned a bunch of money for our charities. Andy Santerre, Mike Olsen, Mike Johnson, Rick Bell and ROTY contender Jeremy Clark were all nice enough to come and help with donations, bidding and just being there having fun. We also had a number of other drivers send nice donations including Matt Kobyluck’s driver’s uniform, Brad Leighton’s bent sheet metal, Brendan Gaughn’s Craftsman truck door panel and Katie Hagar even sent along a pair of Daytona 500 tickets for next weekend’s race. The comedians were excellent as usual and kept everyone in stitches all evening. We had the opportunity to learn where Andy Santerre gets his excellent attitude and demeanor from as his parents sat in the front row and were the brunt of many of the comedian’s jokes all evening. They both handled it like pros and appeared to have a great time themselves. Andy confessed to me in the middle of the show that he was nervous because his Mom hadn’t heard the “F” word 10 times in her whole life and she had heard it 100 times in the past hour! After the show we made another trip across the street to Sarge’s just so they wouldn’t have to close up without our help, and continued the party by watching comedian Rob Steen demonstrate his “blowing a penny off the bar and into a shot glass” skills. Very impressive!

            The high point of the weekend for Robin and I was being awarded the annual Busch North Scene scholarship for our son, David, who is going to school at Southern Maine Community College. Dave has worked his way through school and paid for 100% of it without ever asking for help so the scholarship will be a tremendous help for him. We were honored and he was very thankful to have it.

            Finally, there are a whole bunch of folks that deserve to be recognized and mentioned for helping with the ride and festivities this year and I won’t take a chance on naming them and forgetting a few, I’m sure everyone knows how appreciative we all are and, in particular, George Campbell needs to be congratulated for setting up and organizing another excellent event against the adversity of terrible winter weather. He puts his heart and soul into this event every year and does a huge amount of the work himself with a bare minimum of complaints and very few problems. He also is a pretty darn good auctioneer. Thanks for a wonderful time!

            As always, send Questions, Comments, Hate Mail, and Indecent Proposals to, Fish c/o Busch North Scene or e-mail them to fishy@ctel.net