It was a crazy busy weekend, and this will probably be the world's longest, and dryest blog. I'm trying to hold off the comedy to get to the news. But here it goes...

The trip this weekend was for the Mount Washington Hill Climb in northern New Hampshire. Because of the intensive amount of driving, with limited possibilities of places to keep him and play time,we ended up leaving Fred-dog with his buddy Baker this weekend. Fred's still pouting that he has to be home now instead of across the street from the dog park with his best friend. Anyway, it was a very drive intensive weekend. We left Thurs, drove 4 hours to Wilkes Barre. Then Friday we drove to Northampton, MA(4 hours) where we paused. Chris got in a 2 hour bike ride and some pre-race bike work. I got to shop. Noho is the ultimate hippy town - we're talking the Advocate is a major newspaper, every shop has some sort of Bush slander in the window, and there is a fabulous collection of artsy shops, Thai foods, and Birkenstocks. Chris always jokes that everyone always looks like they just came off a camping trip. I was surprised they didn't smash in my back window, given my "Support & Respect our Catholic Priests" bumper sticker. I was good though, I didn't spend nearly the amount of money I could have at some of those art stores, restraining myself to just a pound of Jelly Bellies(Chris' favorites, esp popcorn & orange flavors) and lunch. Anyway, we left there at 3:30 and got to Mt Washington for registration at 7:00. We ran into a cyber friend of Chris's, Jennifer, and her 3 kids. We ended up spending time with them the next day too. What a really nice family.

From Mt Washington, we went to the B&B where we were staying. The place was the Chippanock Inn. The owners, Jerry & De were very nice, and very accomodating. Even after we inadvertently stole their blanket, were late for check out, and didn't take them up on breakfast, they were super friendly. So if anyone is thinking of doing some New England Leaf Peeping this fall in the white mountains - we recommend them highly! [Ed note: someone else stole the blanket. Long story]

So anyway, after a long day of driving, shopping, riding, and packing for the next AM, we turned in after 10PM. We got up 1..2...3....ok, 6 hours later at 4:20AM for the race. I wasn't in too bad a shape at first, but by the time it was all over, I could have slept for a week.

We got to the race about 5:30, and got Chris set up on his trainer for warm up. Then I headed up Mt Washington Auto Road to wait at the top. I honestly went in with no idea of how long it was going to take him to get to the top. I was guessing an hour and a half given the course record was 49 minutes. Anyway, when I first started driving up the mountain, my first reaction was "Holy mackerel, there's no easing into this one". From the start, the grade is approx 10-11%. But at least the weather wasn't bad...until we hit mile 4 of the climb. As the poor little Cavalier chugged away, temperature started dropping, the fog rolled in and the winds picked up. By the time I got to the parking lot at the top at 6:30AM, I could barely make out the tail lights of the car in front of me, and the car was rocking in the wind. I got out of the car briefly to get Chris' gatorade bottle set up and felt like a pin cushion, the rain and wind were so bad. After about half an hour, I was reading the program, and found out there was a summit house. So I got out of the car, and went to see what the story was. The building at the top, it turns out, has a snack bar, a little museum, and a little weather station. It held about 250 people. There were 538 riders + support people. Temp: 50. Winds: 35 mph, gusts 50 mph. Yoiks! But the summit house was near the finish line, so I went back out to get Chris' backpack of clean, warm clothes, and his bottle. I thought I would get blown off the steps, and was totally believing the rumor that a dog got blown off the mountain last year. I got back to the summit house and they started telling us that we weren't to bring the riders into the summit house. So it was back out to the car to drop off the backpack of clothes and get the blanket we had hijacked from the B&B. I figured if I had to take him to the car, my best bet would be not to mess around in the weather with clothes, just cover him up and hussle him to the car where he could change. The good news was the winds were starting to die down and the fog lessened slightly. Ultimately, by the time Chris arrived, the winds were "only" 25 mph with 35 mph gusts. So 1 hour after the Top Notch wave of riders started, the winner came across. Anyway, there was a lot of waiting around, so I finally decided to go out and cheer for the guys coming. The last 50 yards to the finish are a 22% grade, so at that point, cheering helps! I went down the steps again, and cheered for some of the riders, when the third rider I cheered for was Chris - totally ahead of anything I expected. He finished the day with a fabulous time of 1:16:00, which put him 15 out of 91 in his age group and 48 out of 583 overall. His age group was the one who spawned the top 5 finishers, including Justin England who rides for the pro-team Webcor. A fabulous showing overall, and one that has him able to start in the Top Notch group if he wants next year. So we did end up going into the summit house, Chris got changed, had some hot chocolate, and warmed up a bit. One couple was there who didn't have a ride down, nor did they have warm clothes at the top. For almost 2 hours after they finished riding, they were sitting in wet clothes. We gave the woman the B&B blanket, and the man we gave the Chris' little blanket that they distribute to the riders at the end of the race. After a bit of confusion, we took the man down to the bottom of the mountain, and Jennifer took the woman and their two bikes to the bottom in their van. In the chaos, the B&B blanket disappeared. :( Doh! Anyway, after the race, the riders got a fabulous turkey dinner, which had so much food that Chris & I shared it, and Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Then it was off to the B&B for confession ("We, er, gave away your blanket"), forgiveness ("No problem, it was included in the sale of the B&B to us anyway, and that woman needed it!"), showers and naps.

From the B&B, it was off to Kathy & John's place in MA. It was sooo good to see them again, and eat yummy Mexican food. The good news from my point of view is that both Chris & Kathy independently told me that they liked the other. That's always cool! Neither of them would pull punches if they thought the other was a shmuck. Kind of nice when your friends and fiance get along. I just wish that Chris & I had been more awake, but by 9PM, we were cooked. 4:20AM had just done us in. The next morning, it was breakfast, and we went home.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. We love New England! (except for the CT drivers, but that's a blog for a different day.)




- posted by cam @ 7:32 AM