Oh Deer...
If you think you've had some crazy travel experiences lately, let's meet somewhere and swap stories over a meal because it would probably take that long for me to tell you everything that's happened so far this season. It's been a wild ride (literally). I don't plan on driving sleds to Calgary again anytime soon, if ever. It's another long one with lots of video and pictures. Sorry I kept everyone waiting so long.
Let's start this saga from the beginning. Most of the brakeman we normally slide with on America's Cup were chosen to go with the World Cup pilots for two weeks of international training in Sochi. This meant we had to come up with new brakeman to be able to compete in Calgary America's Cup. As soon as I found out, I started trying to recruit an adventurous girl who would come to Canada and jump into my sled without any previous experience. Huge thanks to my aunt and uncle, Val & Dan Papik, who are friends with the track coach at Doane College in Crete, NE. They asked coach Fye if he had any girls on his team that would be interested in racing with me. Ms. Kylie Gokie responded to the call and agreed to come compete with me. She is a freshman heptathlete at Doane. This all happened while I was in Lake Placid for team trials in the middle of October.
Fast forward through the last post about team trials...zaazjjjjwoo (That's my best guess at how to spell that crazy sound the cassette player makes when you fast forward.)
I teamed up with Ms. Berit Tomten again this season for our Canadian expedition. I picked up the truck from the same rental company we used last year, and we used Berit's trailer again too. Kylie decided to fly into Calgary, but we had a few other passengers along for the journey. Berit recruited Caitlin Carter, who is a developmental skeleton athlete, to be her brakeman. We also had Liz Swaney, who is a skeleton athlete for competing for Venezuela, and Spencer, who is a story all by himself.
Spencer is the boyfriend of one of Berit's roommates. He has this awesome job with Unlimited Skate & Snow that sends him to Chile to #ChaseWinter while it's summer in Canada. He was leaving for Chile when we came home from Push Championships in July, so he got to roadtrip to Utah with Berit before heading way down south. He was in Chile living it up for several months and was heading home right as we were heading back to Calgary. He hopped in the truck with us and told tons of great stories. We were all pretty jealous of his awesome life (like ours is so boring and unadventurous). Check him out on Facebook: Chase Winter. If you're ever in Banff to ski, check out the shop. He filmed a series of episodes while he traveled. Here's one where he got to be a part of a snowboard race down an active volcanoe. So cool!
So anyhow, we loaded up the sleds and hit the road. We made it to Great Falls, Montana, on the first day and stopped for the night. It's pretty impressive how many gun cases full of runners and skeleton sleds along with various toolboxes and bags you can fit in the cab of a truck overnight. It was packed to the gills. We woke up to see Spencer wrapped in blanket on the floor. "Yeah, I'm a Canadian burrito. Didn't think you'd see that this morning, did you?" What a great start to the day.
We missed the last exit on American soil where we wanted to get gas because of some black ice and almost got lost in a snow cloud thanks to some semis that ganged up on us in Montana. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Montana's roads are terrible in winter. I guess there aren't enough people in the state to warrant sand or salt trucks for the highway. We have driven across this very large state several times now, and we always hit snow. Just keep the truck in the tire tracks on the road, which is often the only distinguishing visual telling you you're still on the road at all. We made it across the border, but Spencer got us detained for a little bit. We've never had them stop us before, so we blamed him. It was that Chilean visa that seemed sketchy, then they lost it (it's just a slip of paper that was in his passport). He's got 9 months to work on his haggling skills, which he'll need to get another slip of paper next time he heads down.
 |
| Gassing up somewhere in Idaho. |
 |
| Berit's obligatory Taco John's stop. Montana is the closest she can find her childhood favorite. We've made the stop in Butte every time we pass through. |
 |
| One of our favorite signs...Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. It's a real place. Google it. |
We made into Calgary around 4ish. Kylie was arriving at the airport around 5, but we had to drive downtown to pick up the keys to our condo. I personally hate driving in any downtown district, with all their one way streets, but I especially despise it when towing a trailer. We were about to make a left turn to reach our destination when we came upon a red light. There were train tracks running parallel to traffic, and I saw a train coming our direction. I thought to myself, "Great. How long is this going to take? We can't turn left until this train is completely past us and out of the road." Apparently, I was the only one who saw the train coming. I was also the one driving and had come to a stop about 8' past the first big white line in the road. I was still behind the second white stripe, and I figured it was just a pedestrian crossing. All of the sudden, we hear this really loud thud and the cab of the truck kind of shook. I thought someone had hit us, and I'm not sure what everyone else thought. Evidently, that first white line indicates where you should stop if you don't want your vehicle karate chopped by a railroad crossing arm. I pulled forward enough to let the arm drop down behind the cab and waited for it to rise again. The train passed, the arm went up, and off we went. Who knew they dropped crossing arms when the train is not crossing the road in front of you. Never seen anything like that here in America. Crazy Canadians!
 |
| This is what I'm used to seeing. Running tracks parallel to the road...you're throwing me off Canada. |
Once we gathered up the keys, Berit took over driving. She is a master trailer backer. I'm continually amazed at the crazy angles and tight spaces she can maneuver that trailer into. She took us (with the trailer) into a parking garage at the airport. I don't really like to drive in parking garages with a truck, let alone a trailer. We dropped Spencer off to catch a bus home to Banff and picked up Kylie. We had only emailed back and forth and talked for about 5 minutes on the phone before meeting on foreign soil. She hopped in the truck and had to be amazed at Berit's backing skills. I know I was. With a little guidance from Spencer and several gawking motorists, we made it clear of the concrete jungle and headed for our first team meeting.
Berit, Caitlin, Kylie and myself shared a condo with Codie Bascue and his crew this trip. 8 people in a 3 bedroom house with one shower. It actually worked out better than expected, and it was very convenient to be 2 minutes from the top of the track. Our first day of sliding was all planned out. We'd leave the sleds and the brakeman at the house while we went on our track walk at noon. Sliding wasn't until 2:00, so we would have plenty of time to come back home, put runners on and bring the sleds to the track. Unfortunately, skeleton went long, and we didn't start our walk on time. We didn't finish until 1:30, and still had to make two trips from the house to the track with our sleds in the back of the truck. Craziness!!!
Berit and I rushed in the house yelling at the girls to get dressed and go! We made it, but just barely. Poor Kylie. She didn't have any idea what was going on or why everything was so urgent. We were the 4th nation off, but all the tiny nations were in front of us. We had just enough time to rush inside, throw our bags down and get dressed. I padded Kylie up with lots of layers, elbow pads, knee pads, shoulder pads. You name it, she was probably wearing it. We only had one brakeman each, so the goal is to keep them as fresh as possible during practice. The less banged up they are, the better, hence the padding. Her eyes just kept getting bigger and bigger when I kept pulling things out of my bag. Add on the motorcycle helmet, mouth guard and sliding suit, and she was set. I'm sure she's probably never tried to run with that much gear on before. We didn't even have time for her to sit in my sled and figure out where to hold on because my sled was already moved to the start line. On our way out the door to the ice pad, I stopped at a Canadian sled that had just been pulled off the truck. I pointed to a few things and said, "Here's where you hold on. You put your feet under my seat and push your butt into the back of the sled. Hang on till we get to the bottom. I'll elbow you in the head and yell when we're across the line, then you haul on the brakes to get us stopped. We'll just jog for a few steps on this first one and hop in. It's pretty instinctive. Once you're running on ice and the sled is moving, you'll want to get in. It will all sort of just happen." And off we went. That's about the sum of the explanation I got on my first ride, but I prefer not to do that to people on their first trip.
All 3 of the other US women were before us. Britt and Berit both crashed, and there were holds on the track. I don't think Kylie knew what was happening, so I didn't say anything. Didn't want to freak her out more. We hit the sled and were off to the races. She handled it like a champ, and we made it down upright both runs. She was officially a bobsledder. After we loaded our sleds up and headed back to the house, I was congratulating her on making it through the first day. "Yeah. I made it, but let's teach me a little more before we go again tomorrow." Haha! Thanks for hanging in their Kylie.
Tuesday's sliding was uneventful. Learning with every run and trying to improve. Wednesday we pulled out of the driveway with the first sled and headed to the track. I just happened to glance at the visitor parking spot where we had parked the trailer and said the first thing that came to mind, "Berit, where's your trailer?" Wah. Wah. As soon as I said it, I was trying to call the words back. That's all she was going to think about all practice, all because I couldn't keep my big mouth shut until later. The second we were back from practice we called the rental company. Evidently, a neighbor had complained about our trailer being parked in the visitor parking space for 2 days. The property manager called the city impound to come tow our trailer off private property even though there are absolutely no signs or instructions on how long or what can be parked in those spots, which were completely open the whole week. Thus began our journey to reclaim the trailer.
The impound lot is downtown, so off we went. One of the great things about owning a trailer in Utah is you don't have to have a license plate for it, but one of the awful things about leaving Utah with said trailer is there is no license plate on it. After 2 hours of proving the trailer was hers and that the trailer and truck were insured, Berit came out of the impound office in tears. (I can only think of one other instance when I've seen Berit cry, so I knew things were bad.) We had to book it to another place to buy a transit license before they closed. We had to buy the license to tow our own trailer off the impound lot, and they are only valid for 3 days at a time. It was either that or pay a tow truck to load it on the bed and drop it outside the gate. They really know how to hustle people in Calgary. It was about 3 hours of our lives and $250 we won't get back. What a night! After all that craziness, we ate steaks and got our sleds ready for race day.
Thursday was Race #1. We came in 15th, with quite a few past and future Olympians in the field. We are awarded points based on how we finish and how many competitors are in the field. Everyone is trying to earn as many points as they can to earn an Olympic berth. It was our best pushes of the week and my best down times. Can't complain about getting better every run with a brand new brakeman, being underweight, and our awesome sled. (No offense Lulu, but you're no spring chicken.) Friday was Race #2 on the North America's Cup tour. We moved up two spots and grabbed 13th. It was a personal best downtime for me. Last one, best one.
Check out this article Doane college published about Kylie's grand adventure into the great frozen north:
 |
| Post race photo op with Lulu. |
 |
| Watch for Cory Butner in Sochi. He placed 3rd in this race. |
 |
| Watch for Nick Cunningham in February as well. We won this race. |
 | ||
| Post race poutine. Thank you to the Canadians who invented this tasty dish. |
On our last night, we decided to check out the iconic Calgary watering hole that is Ranchman's. Do you remember that awesome scene from Cool Runnings in the country bar with the big fight? If not, take a moment to watch:
We didn't get into any giant brawls, but I did get to line dance. I looked pretty much like Sanka at the beginning of the clip, but we had a good time. I have officially lived the Cool Running experience. I've arrived in a blizzard, slid down the Calgary track as a brakeman and pilot, crashed as a brakeman and pilot and danced at Ranchman's. Berit Tomten was showing off her awesome dance skills. Always a good night when she's dancing.
The next day was the four man race. I don't know what it is about Calgary, but the weather is always horrendous for 4-man day. It could be sunny and beautiful all week, but you better get ready for a blizzard on 4-man day. This trip was no different. This was the weather forecast for Saturday's race. VEEERRRYYY COLD!!! DRESS WARM!!!
And he was right. We woke to lots of snow and wind and VERY cold temps. I took Kylie to the airport very slowly and couldn't help but think of the Cool Runnings scene when they arrive from Jamaica. They could have been filming that scene on Saturday morning.
Here's a view of the outrun just past the finish line. Notice the flags standing straight out as if frozen in place and the dreary gray sky with clouds smothering any ray of sunshine trying to peak through. Yep, it's 4-man day. I snapped this shot as I was hooking up our trailer, which was safer parked on public property by the track amazingly enough. Right after taking this photo, I decided to film the next sled coming through.
It just so happened to be Great Britain, and they crashed in Curve 12. I felt like such a jerk standing there filming when they stopped right in frame with the brakeman limping up the outrun in the background, the 2 and 3 man pulling themselves out of the sled and the driver yelling, "I hate my life!", but I had no way to help them. Since their coaches and medical staff where rushing to help them, I just hopped in the truck and drove away. I met the brakeman in Park City, and they told me everyone was alright. They loved that I caught this on film.
I took the trailer up to the house, which was no easy task. There were road closures all over the place. We loaded up the sleds and headed home. Our goal was to make it as far as Butte, Montana, for the night. Things were going swimmingly until about 10 miles outside of Helena. We'd made it through snow storms and ice on windy mountain roads, but our time had come. It was one of those moments when everything goes into slow motion. It's like when you see someone falling and can't reach them in time to catch them. One of THOSE moments. Berit was my copilot at the time. I saw her reaching her left hand out and trying to say something the instance I saw the 6 point buck waltzing across the road. There's really nothing you can do at that point with a 1,000 pound trailer behind a Dodge Ram 1500 loaded with more stuff going 70mph. It's that moment right before the falling kid hits the pavement and you're cringing and lunging to save them. We were like an intercontinental ballistic missile, and there was no slowing us down or diverting us from hitting the target. I couldn't swerve, so I tapped the brakes. We hit the deer going about 60mph I'd guess. Needless to say, we obliterated that deer. He exploded in a poof of fur. I saw legs fly by the driver's window. Berit saw legs fly by the passenger's window. He was a goner, and so was our truck. We pulled to the side of the road and started the arduous process of contacting all the proper authorities and businesses necessary to get us off the road. (I just want to be clear at this point in the story that we were all perfectly fine. The air bags didn't even deploy. We all had our seat belts on. Just the deer and truck were dead.)
I've never had to call 911 before, so that was a first. The highway patrol men who came to assist us were very nice. It was the first time I've ever been happy to see a highway patrolman walking towards my vehicle. While we were waiting for them to arrive, I called my insurance company. I filed my claim, and they connected me to a towing service in Helena. This is were the endless chain of calls began. The towing company couldn't even send a truck until they had a location. I then called the rental company, who said the insurance company should give me that info. The insurance company told me to call the rental company, which I calmly explained deferred this judgment to them. Berit and the girls had looked up a body shop on their phones, and we ended up telling the insurance lady where we wanted to take the truck. She okayed the location, so we called the towing company back. By the time I called him back I had the schpeel down to three short sentances, "My name's Nicole Vogt. We hit a deer on I15 south just north of Helena. Please come get us." We then had to explain where we were (In the middle of nowhere!), and luckily it was on the police report. We also had to get our trailer back somehow. Thank goodness this gentlemen was so nice and helpful. The truck wouldn't even turn over when he got there 2 hours after we'd actually hit the deer. Who knows how many things he cracked when we took him out, but we were leaking lots of fluid on the road. Surprisingly enough, there wasn't any part of his anatomy on our truck or trailer, just a little tuft of fur on what was left of our grille. We took the hitch off the truck and put it on the tow truck, hooked up the trailer and headed into town at roughly 10pm on Saturday night. He dropped us, our trailer and all our stuff off at the hotel before dropping our truck at the body shop. That man was a saint!
We then encountered the even larger problem, how do we get home now? Nothing is open in Montana on Sunday. No rental car company lets you tow a trailer with their vehicles. Caitlin had a flight to Lake Placid on Monday, and Liz had the start of official training for the next race in Park City. We wracked our brains, couldn't find a solution and decided to try again in the morning. Liz had contacted one of our bobsled guys and asked if they could pick her up on their way through. Jake called at 4:30am to tell Liz he was leaving Calgary and could grab her. We all heard the phone ring and Liz answer. As soon as she hung up and crawled back into bed, Berit sat straight up with a light bulb moment idea. Jake has a truck! He can pick up our trailer! She called him right away and he agreed to help us. Once it was a reasonable hour, I took a taxi to the airport and rented another car to get all us girls home. We were prepared for Jake to be there at about noon.
When we called at noon he was still 4.5 hours away. They hadn't gotten the early start they anticipated, so we hung out at this quirky restaurant called the Stumbling Ox for several hours while we waited. Mom called me at about 3:30pm and asked if we'd made it to Park City yet. Ha!
Me: We haven't even left Helena yet. We're at this restaurant called the Stumbling Ox.
Mom: Oh my. Should you be there? Don't you think you've had enough problems with drunken animals lately?
Thanks for making me laugh Mom!
 |
| The Stumbling Ox was full of local artwork, including this giant tree sculpture with a cat perched on a limb watching us eat. |
I feel I need to interject this side story: Liz LOVES cats and puppies. She's the one that snapped this picture with this caption, "Watching ceiling cats in Montana with bobsledders". That's Liz. She is also big on checking into places on Facebook. Oh Liz...
Berit: Liz, we haven't even been here 10 minutes and you've already checked in and posted a video of a cat.
Liz: Yeah. Well, hitting the deer was sad, so I posted the video of the cat to make me happy.
Anyhow, Jake got there around 4 and grabbed our trailer, so after hitting a deer, I had to drive 9 hours in the dark starting at dusk. Great! Talk about a white knuckle trip. I was on high alert all night. I determined deer are like toddlers. They wander into all sorts of dangerous places. Where was there mother to yell at them about not playing in the street?!? We saw quite a few deer, both alive and dead on the side of the road. We made it to Idaho Falls before we checked in with Jake. He was tired and had stopped to nap outside of Butte. WHAT!?! Berit offered to drive his truck the rest of the way home, which meant we had to hang out in Idaho Falls on a Sunday night for a few hours. What do you do when you're stranded in Idaho Falls on a road trip waiting on teammates? Bowling. We were some of the only customers of the night at Bowl-ero, and we had a grand time. Berit got a turkey in the 10th frame to end our game. Amazing!
 |
| Bowling Beauties of Bowl-ero |
Jake caught up to us. Berit took over driving for him. We made it back to Park City at 3:30am. Our 14 hour road trip had taken us roughly 40 hours. We unloaded our stuff and all headed for our respective dwelling places. I was up bright and early to unload my sled and head down to Salt Lake to visit the rental company. I walked in the door with the hitch and said, "Sorry I couldn't bring back the rest of the truck."
Overall, we had a great week representing Team USA on the first stop of the tour in Calgary. The sliding was great, but all the extra craziness was stressful. I can now cross the following off my life list:
- Going on a roadtrip to Canada with a Canadian
- Being detained at the Canadian border
- Getting hit by a railroad crossing gate
- Sliding in Calgary without a crash and a new personal best
- Breaking in a new brakeman on a race week
- Having something towed
- Visiting the impound lot
- Line dancing at Ranchman's
- Hitting a deer
- Totaling a truck
- Calling 911
- Bowling in the middle of a road trip
I've learned, you've got have fun when everything is going wrong. Only on America's Cup... You couldn't make these stories up. Best, worst road trip EVER! Thank goodness I was with some awesome girls or this would have been a total nightmare.
Check back in later this week to hear about the next stop on tour, Park City, Utah. It was not nearly as eventful, and hopefully I won't have anything else this season that rivals this trip.