greeting he received from Russell | |||
Miller – a longtime snowmobiler | |||
from Warren, Minnesota | |||
, who became so inspired | |||
following the ride online that | |||
he decided to be in TRF when | |||
the riders arrived. | |||
“ I think the thing I saw said, | |||
‘ two fathers, two sons, the ride | |||
of a lifetime,’ and I thought, | |||
‘ I’ ve got to check this out because | |||
it’ s kind of right up my | |||
alley!” Russell said later. His | |||
own father got him involved in | |||
snowmobiling, and Russell had | |||
recently retired early to help |
Outside the Arctic Cat factory |
out on his parents’ farm after
seeing his father’ s health start
|
to slip. |
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For Lorne, it was important seeing how his
father in particular was greeted.“ It was unreal
how they greeted him and made us all feel so
welcome,” Lorne said, becoming choked up as he
relived the moment.“ Everybody called us their
heroes because they knew our story.”
“ The best part of the trip was when they
opened those doors and all of those people were
standing there with a welcome banner,” Trevor
added.“ It was crossing the finish line, for sure.”
SPECIAL GUESTS The New Brunswick crew was treated like special
guests, but they were equally impressed with the
special people who greeted them – most notably
the legendary Cat designer Roger Skime.
Then Arctic Cat VP“ Craig Kennedy called and
told me they were coming in, and I said,‘ Well I’ d
like to meet them and shake their hands,’” Roger
explained afterward.“ So I jumped in the truck
and went down there. They were already at the
plant, outside taking photos, when I got there.
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I walked over and congratulated them and told them how we were all so proud of them and what they accomplished.”
“ It was pretty amazing to meet Roger Skime,” Trueman added.“ I had never met him face-to-face before, but Bob Steeves had met him in the past. He’ s definitely the Godfather of snowmobiling. I mean, he had all kinds of other things to do, but he spent the whole afternoon with us, and went out for supper with us and back to the hotel and all kinds of laughs. What a great guy.”
Roger Skime’ s son, Troy Skime, led the visitors on a formal tour of the Cat factory, but after dinner Roger Skime took them for another, more personal tour, including going back into testing and engineering.
“ It’ s heartwarming to know the passion that people have for snowmobiling,” Roger said.“ It was two fathers and sons and it was just awesome how they were enjoying life together, and enjoying snowmobiling while doing it.”
Lorne was almost equally impressed with the
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“ That’ s what interested me
– for them to do this ride with
their dads that had been big
in the snowmobile industry in
their area,” Miller said.“ It was
the ride, but it was also that
connection between fathers and
sons …. Someday we all need
rocking chair stories to tell, and
boy do they have one!”
Miller arrived at the Arctic
Cat factory an hour before the
New Brunswick crew rolled
up and was invited to join the
many excited Cat employees
who were eagerly awaiting the
big arrival.
WHAT’ S NEXT The most shocking element of
the adventure was the fact that
|
everything went like clockwork |
. The sleds never had so much as a hiccup for the entire 2,800- mile adventure – Trevor changed his drive belt midway through the ride, but otherwise“ we didn’ t even get our hands dirty the entire way,” Trueman said.
They also lucked out on weather, with enough snow and cold before the ride to provide a snow-covered path, and then only a couple of snowy days during the ride.
After spending a few days in Thief River Falls, Cat officials organized a limo to take crew to Winnipeg, Manitoba, so they could catch a series of flights home. Cat mechanics went through the group’ s snowmobiles to get them ready for a fresh season, and then shipped them back to the guys’ Cat dealership in Moncton over the summer. Luckily, though, each guy had a spare snowmobiles at home.“ We put 150 miles on sleds on that Saturday after we got back,” Trueman said.“ People asked,‘ After that long ride, why are you going snowmobiling after you just got back?’ Well, it’ s what we like to do.”
Trip planner Lorne, meanwhile, is plotting even bigger adventures. He says he has a route planned from New Brunswick to California. The Covid-19 situation nixed plans to do the trip in 2021 season, but don’ t count them out in the future, he said.
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