From Bad, To Worse, To We Should Have Just Stayed Home

We have had horrible luck when it comes to snowmobiling over our last several trips.  Our last attempt was different.  Our good friends the Wonders invited us to his parents house near Cadillac the last weekend in February.  Everything was in order and came together perfectly.  Nate, the boys, and I headed out Saturday to hit the trails.  We were off to a whopping 2 mile or so start when Nate stop at a stop sign and gets off his machine and proceeds to open the side covers.  Now mind you he had just put $800 into the sled in preparation for this trip.  He concludes that the brake had seized up.  He got the necessary parts cooled off and tried to get it to free up, but didn't have any luck.  He decides we should ride back to the trailer and take it to a shop not far from where we are to have them look at it.  On the very short trip back it got very hot, to the point  of starting a small fire!!  Before Nate could get the fire out it melted the oil jug and before loosing all its oil.  Well so much for a quick look at the shop down the road.  So now the plan is to just pack it up and unfortunately call it quits.  Nate then proceeds to start the sled.  He grabs the handle and gives it a good jerk and well the handle is in his hand no longer connected to the rest of the rope.  This had also gotten hot to the point of melting.  So now we have to push and pull with all our might to get the sled onto the trailer.  We finally succeeded.  After our hard work we were able to enjoy a messy meal of chicken wings at one of our favorite places, Clam Lake Brewery!  Back home the trip just continued to get worse.  We had taken Chester to the kennel where we always took Winston.  He was fine on Monday, but Tuesday he came down with a horrible case of diarrhea.  Of course this was also my birthday, so we decided to go to out anyway.  Of course we came home to a mess!!!  Wednesday ended up being a snow day and Nate did not work, so he stayed home with the kids and I went into work.  I get a call from Nate that now Chester is throwing up.  So again we keep and eye on him and he is getting worse and worse.  After talking to the breeder it was determined that we should take him to get looked at for a possible blockage.  Of course it is now 6:00 p.m. so this means a trip to an emergency clinic.  So $429.00 later it was determined that he did not have a blockage.  They did give him an injection to help with the throwing up.  He had 1 more day of diarrhea and then was on the mend.  So needless to say this ended up being an expensive weekend for us!!