The Last One...

This is it folks, the last blog entry that will be made into this collection. I would just like to give a brief summary of what happened to me during this terrific summer:
1) I had my first experience as a working engineer. I learned a lot, had tons of fun, and just really realized that I love what I do, and I can't wait to see where my career will take me.
2) I had my first real long time away from home. I spent the entire summer 800 miles from where I call home, and the big adjustment worked out just fine. I did not really seem to get lonely, because everytime I turned around someone was here to visit me!
3) I also have the greatest family and friends. It was great having people come out to visit me, first it was my friends Nick and Jeff, where we rode some bikes and went to New York City. Next I had my Dad, Mom, and sister out here, where we traveled to Maine and spent an awesome weekend on the shore. Next was my girlfriend Caroline, who came out and we went and saw New Port, RI and Salem, MA. After that was my Aunt Mary, Uncle Rene, Julian and Cameron, who came out and we spent a weekend on "The Cod," and made the trip all the way to the tip of the Cape. Then there was my friend Pete who I saw a few times, but we went and climbed Mt. Washington, that was tiring!
4)Besides for all of the visiting, it seems that people got a great deal out of this blog. I would say that my grandparents enjoyed it the most, any time I talked to any of them they were always talking about my latest adventures from my blog (and Grandpa even figured out how to post comments!). I also spent hours and hours on the phone, keeping up with the family and friends, always something happening that I like to hear about it.
5) I got to race and ride bikes in a whole new place. I enjoyed the terrain very much on both my mountain and road bike, I also really enjoyed riding the trails with people from back home, Jeff and Nick had fun and my Dad and I had a great ride around the trail by my house. Competing at Nationals was a great experience, and really is pushing me to my limits, and will hopefully inspire me to compete at the professional level someday.
6) I got to eat lobstah like I never have before. I tried to remember exactly how many I ate, but I can't seem to get them all, lets just say it was more than enough for two people! I also got used to Sam Adams Beer, there always seemed to lots of that around the east coast, so now I enjoy a "Sams" here and there.

Those where just some of my closing thoughts about my summer. Although I hope that I will never forget this summer, I will unfortunately slowly lose some of the details, but I really will remember just how great it was, and how everyone supported me and helped me to be my best, just like you always have, I can never thank you enough. I can't write down everything down, but I have to say, getting the camera was a great idea, my Mom always knows best. They always say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and I took many many pictures this summer, but I have to saw this one was one of my favorites, and it was taken on the last day of my trip:

Yes, that is the welcome sign that I took a picture of on my drive home. I had a great adventure, and I am very glad that I took the opportunity, but there is no place like home, and there is no place I would rather be.

The finale is soon to come!

Just want to let everyone know that the grand finale is coming soon, I have been really busy and have not yet been able to create the final post. I would look for it sometime around next weekend.

To the top of Mt Washington

I am going to make a brief post about my adventure to the top of Mt. Washington. Some background info first, Mt. Washington is located in New Hampshire, and is the tallest peak in New England, at 5288 ft. It is noted for its terrible weather, and has the record for the highest wind speed ever recorded, something above 300 mph I believe.
My friend Pete and I decided that we would climb this beast last weekend. Our plan was to get to the top, and then come down and then camp in the woods. The trip typically takes about 8 hours (its an 8.1 mile hike), and we didn't get started till 1:30 because of traffic, so we knew we had to hustle. The trail was much harder that I had anticapted, who lots of rocks and it was fairly steep all the way up. Here is a picture of how the trail typically looked for the first little bit, before we passed above tree line.

Once we got above tree line, it started to become much steeper, and this meant crawling up rocks ardously as opposed to just walking up them. Getting above tree line also means that the start to get some great views, so here is what we started to see.


We are now about .5 miles from the top it turned into a boulder field. This meant that all you were walking on was big ol' boulders. You almost had to hop from boulder to boulder. This was the hardest part so far, jumping , crawling, doing whatever you could to get to the top was the method of choice now. And then we saw it, I saw the front of a truck, and I knew that we were at teh top!!!! Here is a picute of us at the top.


Once we got to the top it got sooooo windy, check out this video of the wind gusting at us, I believe it was about 50 or 60 mph, pretty awesome.



Now for the way back down, this was very difficult. The whole way down we were struggling, and we were starting to get tired. It was very tough to descend, plus we almost alwyas had to take big steps to get from boulder to boulder. By the time we got to the bottom we are both exhausted, and were ready to go and set up camp. It took us about 5 hours and 15 minutes to do the whole climb, so we were moving pretty fast. After that we went back country camping, which means that you just go and find a spot in the woods, its not like a "camp site" or anything.

It was a great experience, and I am very glad that I did it, but its almost been a week and I am just being able to walk normally again. After doing this hike I became more sore than I ever have before. I literally could not walk up or down stairs, if I touched my legs I winced in pain, and I could not ride my bike at all. All of this made for a pretty miserable week, physically at least, as I limped around and could not even think about riding my bike. But I am glad taht i did it, and I would not give it up for the world!

Mountain Bike Nationals at Mt. Snow, VT

Sorry for the delay on the race report for nationals, but with summer wrapping up out here , and the GRE exam less than one month away, I am pretty busy to say the least.

I headed up to Mt. Snow to meet one of the friends I have made to camp at his site with his family and to get into race mode. I arrived up there around 6:00 PM Friday night, and headed up to the mountain to pick up my packet and meet my friend Nathan. I did all that, and then we headed back to set up at the camp site and grab out bikes to pre ride the coarse. By the time we got back to the mountain it had started raining, which apparently was nothing new to these people. Wednesday and Thursday it poured out there, so the New England mud was at its best (or for a midwest buy it was at its worst!). We rode about half the course (he rode the UP part) and darkness stared to fall along side the rain, so we bailed on the downhill part and got back to the campsite as soon as possible. So my first impressions of the course were that the climbing would be good, and that it was going to be a mud feast.

We ate some dinner as the rain settled down, we had big plates of pasta with salad and other goodies, a great dinner that I would have not enjoyed if I would have gone to a motel by myself. So we went to bed, and as Nate, his cousing, and I got into a tent his cousin remarked "I hope that you don't mind snooring." Great I think, I am just about the lighest sleeper in the world, and I generally have trouble falling asleep before big races. So about an hour later I was quitely dozzing off, when what I thought was a freight train running me down woke me up. I quickley that my life was not in danger, and that freight train was his cousing snooring. So I tried to fall back asleep, but it didn't take long before I realized this was not going to happen. I then packed up my blankets and headed to my car, one of the smallest vehicles that there is. So long story short, I woke up the next morning and felt like I had been hit by a freight train, well at least it was 5:30 and that made everything better (sarcasm, if you didn't catch it.)

So we ate some breakfast and suited up and headed up to the race. Warm up went ok, but I didn't feel that great. I got to the starting line and got really excited, the sun was now shinning and it looked to be a great day, but as many of us know mud does not dry up that quick, so when the gun went off to get going I knew that the race was gonig to be a mud feast. I had a good start and got up to the front of the pack, and started climbing. I was holding my own for a bit, but my legs started to feel terrible and people started gonig by me. Oh, great thought my legs feel bad and my legs are what gets me by at a lot of races, I am a good climber. Another bad thing, was that with all the mud a lot of the climbs were impossible to climb, so that meads running. Running means that more people go by Mike, I must be one of the worst bike runners around. So I am st strike two right now, two things not going my way. So at the top of the climb I am not sure excatly where I was, but maybe like 10th or something. So we then headed downhill, and this is when things started getting better. I decided that if I was not going to climb, then I really had to descend. At some crucial points in racing you have to throw regard for your body to the wind, and just let yourself go. Well it was one of those times, I was not going to go down without a fight! I start flying down slippery rocks and roots, and mud that looks and feel like peanut butter (it does not taste that way though), and I start catching and passing people, all right I am starting to do a bit better now. I am not sure how people I passed going down, but it was quite a few. Well thats lap one, two more to go. The other two go more or less like the first one with the climbs killing me and me killing the decents. I kicked it up on the last lap, and finished the race with a slight feeling of disapointment with a time of around 2.5 hours. I really had hopes of walking away with a red, white and blue jersey and a gold medal, but not everything always goes your way. I sorta just ride around waiting for my friend to finish. He finishes, and I got a spin out the legs. To my surprise my friends tell me that we can't go back to the camp yet, I got 3rd place! Much much better than what I thought, and a good finish that I am happy about. Here is me on the podium:

The rest of Saturday we watched some other races that were going on at the mountain. This was pretty cool, because there is tons of biking folk and tons of different races to check out. Enough about that, you want to hear about the race on Sunday, the short track cross country race that is a short ~2o minute race that is a very tactile race that requires big legs, but a even bigger heart (I mean this figuratively and literally, you really dig deep in these races, because you are going as hard as you possibly can for the entire time.)

So once again we get to the line, and at the starting lines of races I am always talking to people and joking around, I just like to have fun, and this crew was pretty uptight and nervous I think. So the guns goes off, and we are off. I get a good start and I am immediately going as hard as I can. So the race continues and I am just hammering, and it starts to be apparent that five racers, including me, are way in front of everyone else. So what happens is that because each lap last about 1 minute, the officals take the slower riders off the course to keep it clear for the people up front. So after 10 mintues the entire field is pulled except for me and the other 4 up front. Two guys sort of got away from three of us, so it was then a battle for third place between me and two other guys. So for 10 minutes us three and trying to kill each other, with no success. We just keep on going like this until there is 3 laps to go. At this point I have to start using my head. I get in the second position in our group of three, and ride the lap just holding on. When the two laps to go sign goes up, I know that its time to go. I don't like to wait for the last minute to pass people, because I am better and just picking up the pace until other peoples legs fall off. So on the climb on the second lap, I put the pedal to the metal. I put a bit of a gap of these two guys and just keep it up. With one lap to get there are about 10 to 15 feet off my wheel. So the climb comes again, and I just go for it, do or die. I get to the top and peer back and see that the two guys have falled off even more. So I continue to just lay it all down, my legs are burning so bad, and my lugs feel like ther are breathing fire. We come to the finishing line and I just keep on going hard. I look back and I don't see them anymore, I give a fist pump and I am done. This was one hard race, I really had to just dig deep and tell my body that it had to go and there was no other choice. A big moral booster was that I had tons of people cheering for me. My friends family was cheering, and there was a number of people from my team from back in Michigan there cheering me on as well. Here is my on the podium again, it never seems to get old!


Well two third place finishes at a national event. I am really happy with the finishes and just thank everyone for all the support, there is no way that I could have done without it.

Weekend on the Cod

First I would like to get one thing straight here, Cape Cod will no longer be refered to as the Cape, but will forever be known as "The Cod." To some this may seem strange, but to one great man, namly, Uncle Rene, it is as normal lobstah in the sea. Here is a picture of this revolutionist slamming an oyster at the local oyster bah.


Of coarse the beloved Cod will not lose its beloved name so easily, this is where the opposition comes in, namly, one Aunt Mary, true warrior for the traditionalists. She is adament that the revolution will never occur, and the Cod will forever be known as the Cape. Here is a picture of Aunt Mary fighting back to Uncle Rene's oyster slamming with some of here own oyster skills.

The war does not end here, there is the other three players in this game, namly Julian, Cameron, and myself. Cameron is playing the neutral card, keeping his pistol hosltered. Julian is fighting hard for the Cod team, pleding his allegiencies to the revolution. Then there is myself, playing the double agent, I am in full support of the Cod, but I am secretly hoping it will be forever named "that hook thing that hangs of Massascheuts," I have of coarse not revealed until now, after my double agent duties have been fulfilled. Here is a picture of the three other players, Julian looking great in his lobstah bib (sorry man, I had to), Cameron with a big smile, and me playing the double agent slamming oysters so as not to appear suspicious:



Besides for the name of the place we went, we had a great time (well the name was fun as well though, but you get the point.) As you already saw he got some oysters on Sunday, fresh and slimy. I would saw that eating was one of the highlights. The Cafmeyers always seem to bring out the bottomless pit in me, and it was nice to have lots and lots of food to eat. We also got another glimse of the infamous beast, this time instead of steak it was lobstah, Aunt Mary really seemed to enjoy the lobstah, did she like it as much as the steak, only she knows the answer to that question (the beast is what happends to Aunt Mary when delicious food gets presented to her, sort of like how a warewolf has its full moon, to find out more feel free to ask her about the transformation.)

Another great part was all the beaching we got to do. On Saturday we travelled all the way up the Cod, yes all the way up for those of you who know whats at the end, we did see the Madness. For those of you who don't know what I am saying, look up Providence Town, a.k.a. P-Town Mass. and you will understand quickley what I mean (not appropriate for my blog.) But on our journey up the Cod he stopped at a great beach for a couple of hours. The waves were crashing and we had our buggy boards, and he were tearing the waves up.

There were many other highlights such as the bike rides with Uncle Rene, all the great picture spots along the sea shore, and most notably the great company that the Cafmeyers always provide when they are around. I thank them very much for the great weekend, and planning their vacation out on the east coast knowing I was going to be out here, it really means a lot.

As for the rest of the story, we never did see a tshirt that just said "The Cod," but neverless I wish we would have, not only would have then been hillarious, but I would have loved to have gotten one!

Delay

Sorry its been a while since my last post, but since then I have been to Cape Cod with the Cafmeyer family, and I raced at Mountain BIke Nationals at Mt. Snow Vermont. I will be updating soon, I have just been really busy with everything. Only a few more weeks at work then I am back in Michigan, woo hoo!

I drummed again...

Today Derek and I played drums, it was awesome. I don't know what it was, but as I was teaching Derek it felt like three years ago when I was instructing regularly. I was able to just pick it back up, and it really felt natural.

I taught him for about an hour, then I played by myself for about 10 minutes or so. It was weird, I remembered a lot of my old exercises and songs. It was like a time machine, I just traveled three years back, when drumming was my life, when that is pretty much all I did. Its weird how I sort of lost that identity, I mean, I used to define myself as a drummer. Over the past three years that has image has sorta faded. I guess that is how things go, as you grow up you change, but at least for me, I was sorta able to morph back into my formal self and play drums like the old days.

It was a great feeling, I was able to just let loose and notes were just coming from my hands, I mean, it was not as controlled or as fast as it used to be, but my mind just rewinded a little bit and I totally at home on the drum. Its just really weired to think about how I just used to play so so much, and now I never play.

Something happened when I picked up those sticks and started playing, something great, I just felt so free, and it was just like I was 17 years old, listening to a metronome that had been beating for hours, the sun beating down on my back, and me running all over a football field with my best friends, it was the place where we could have lived forever, and we were totally lost in music, and I guess that will never go away for me, and I could not be happier about that.

The Sunny Side of the Street

So, after a few days of being down in the dumps, I am feeling pretty good once again. I was just hit with a slump, sorta weird, but like I said, I feel good again today. Work was good today, I made a prototype of a way to demonstrate my product, I am not sure if it is going to work, but this is why they call it research, it does not always work the first time! Also, I got to do some down and dirty physics and figure some stuff out, that was a good time (yes, I am in fact enjoy that part, so yes, I am a dork.)

Also, I went on a bike ride today that was awesome. I rode this loop as fast as I have yet, and I felt smooth and fluid while doing it. Also, I made it down this super rocky tricky icky part for the first time, something I am very proud of.

I also got some bike parts in the mail, so any day you get some bike parts, is a good day.

Also, Auny Mary, Uncle Rene, Julian, and Cam man are coming to visit tomorrow, and we are going to Cape Cod, which should be a blast.

Ok, bye bye for now.....talk to you soon.

Hot Hot Heat

It is hot out here, and I also seem to be running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I feel really really busy with work, and everything else. It seems like my time out here is coming to an end, I only have about a month left. I have a final presentation for work on August 2nd, and for some reason I am feeling lots of pressure on that already. I would not feel so busy if I did not have so much to do (but I guess that is what being busy means.)

This final report is really getting to me. At work a lot of the machines I need to get stuff done are being used by other folks, and some of the machines that I am working on are not working (so this is a big problem.) One of the saddest parts of this sad story is that I came up with a really good idea of how to compare some data, but it appears that one of the machines that I was relying on to make this comparison is not doing what I want it to!!! Even though right on the screen it says that it should work (now I know how Grandpa feels when he is trying to leave comments!!!!!)

Well anyways I hope you enjoyed my rant, this heat really gets me going!!!!!! Lots of exclamation points really enforce my ideas I feel, or maybe not, but of well, I put a lot in there, mostly because I feel frustrated, and I enjoy commas and run on sentences.

Mountain Bike Racing

Ok, so I am going to go ahead and Tarantino this post, for those of you who don't know what that means, it means that I am going to start from the end of a story, and work my way up to the beginning (Tarantino is a movie writer/director who has done a few of my favorite movies.)



This is me standing on top of the podium at a cross country mountain bike race this weekend in Winston, CT, west of Hartford, in the 90 degree heat and direct sunlight. I won the 19-29 expert class race, which had 22 racers in it, the biggest class at the race. It was a four lap race, that lasted 1:42:35 according to official time, in which I had an average heart rate of 179, and went through about 1700 calories, almost a full days worth of energy for the average person.

So this is how it all started.... On Saturday there was another race there, a short race that lasts about 30 minutes, called a short track. In this race a placed 4th, in the 12-34 age group, this is a good finish considering the large span of the age group, and the people who show up to these racers are the serious ones, the best in New England.

After this race I was pretty tired, and I know that I had the longer race, the cross country race, which last about 2 hours the next day. The cross country race is much better suited to my current fitness, becasue to be good at the short track races you have to go on short fast rides, and I have not been doing that (I will not go into my training philosophy here). So I know that the cross country race would be the event for me to really shoot for.

On Sunday I woke up with a mild headache and my legs were sore from the day before, oh great, what a way to start huh? I then at some breakfast and headed over to the race. I warmed up, got everything together, and headed to the starting line. I was able to get the first row of racers, a good place to start so people don't get in your way. As soon as the gun went off, I took off and I immediately clipped into my pedal, and I was going hard right away. I was the leading the race right away, and I was able to get into the trail first! (this is a really good thing to do for those who do not know much about Mountain bike racing). I then continued to pedal pretty hard for a while, and when I looked back there was really only one guy near by. Near the end of the first lap the guy was on my wheel, and we were riding together. For the next lap we kept on trading spots, from the lead, to second place, and back again. Just testing each other out, to see how we stacked up.

Halfway around the third lap we were coming up to the big climp, a really tough climb that was long, steep, and was covered in rocks and roots. This is where I wanted to get this guy off my wheel, and try to get away from him. At the bottom of the hill I took off, and by the time I got to the top, I could not see or hear the guy, so I kept pumping my legs to try to get away. I continued to work really hard for the next bit, just to make sure he was gone. Before I know it I was on the last lap, not really knowing how close anyone was, so I just kept going hard. I started to get excited as the last downhill came up, because I knew that I had put all the work in that I needed to, and I could enjoy the last downhill, and just keep the wheels rolling. This is exactly what I did, and I come through the finish line first!

New Port with a Salem Chaser and a cute blonde girl

So this past weekend my girlfriend Caroline came out to visit me (the cute blonde part of the title)! On Friday I gave her the Storrs Mansfield grand tour, complete with the old grave yard walk, the old country store, and the grand tour of the forest section. But, before this great tour started we stopped at the University of Connecticut dairy bar and got some fresh ice cream, they even had the cows next store to prove it! Here is a picture of Caroline at the general store, with our special old fashion root beer.
On Saturday we went New Port, RI with the intent to see the Vanderbelt Mansion, a.k.a. "The Breakers." We found the mansion without to much trouble, and was blown away with the size and elegance of the outside. We bought tickets to see the inside, and then we got along with the tour. The tour lasts about 30 minutes and it takes you through the major rooms such as the grand room, Mr and Mrs. bedrooms, the dining room, breakfast room, and some other stuff. Everything in that place was down without price in mind, imported that and handbuilt this. It was pretty cool, here is a picuture of the outside.



We then toured around the town of New Port and we saw the oldest taven in America, the White Hoarse Inn. We stopped in there and I got a beer, I mean, I had to have one in the oldest tavern. We then saw some of downtown New Port and it was really cool with a old like feeling to it.

We then departed from New Port and headed up to our next destination, Salem, MA. This is the Salem where the famous Witch trials were held back in 1692, but more on that in a minute. We stayed at a nice hotel called the Hawthorne Inn, it was a certified historic hotel so that was pretty neat. At this point we are really hungry and it around 8:30PM and we really need to go get some food, and we are out east so Caroline really wants some good ol fashion Lobstah. So we went to the ocean side and stopped in at a restauratn, we sat down, got our rolls served to us, and we both ordered lobstah. The waitress then came back in a few minutes and told us they were out, oh nooooo!!!! So I then ran along the seaside looking for some lobstah, the first place I saw was called Capts, and I walked in (or ran in sorta) and asked two important questoins. 1) did they have lobstah? 2) Did they have a table for us to sit and eat the lobstah is the answer to question one was yes? The answer to both questions was yes, so I ran back, grabbed my hungry damsel, and we were off to Capts.

At Capts we had a really nice table, looking over into the ocean, and we ordered our lobstahs. To make a long story a bit shorter, the lobstah was great and Caroline and I had a really nice dinner, here is a picture of our feast, 1.5 pound lobstahs cooked in aluminum foil with water inside over a fire.


The next day we were off expolring the strange town of Salem. I say strange because that town is really controlled by the Witch hunt idea. There are lots of things to see involving the Witch trials, and the whole feel of the town relates to this. We first did a little tour that explained some of the background, this place was a little weird, the tour had cheesy displays and a pretty cheesy tour guide, but of well. The next thing we went and saw was the official Salem Witch Museum. This was a little better, and had a play sort of thing that give you a really good idea on how the witchtrials happened, and a lot of very interesting history. Here is a picture of the wicked witch of the west, and me. Oh wait, that is Caroline ;)


One of the other neat things was the memorial that was recently made for the 19 people who were wrongfully killed during the witch trials. The 300th anniversary was back in 1992, and a little park with stone seats was made to honor those who were wrongfully hung. One of the more interesting people who was killed was a man named Giles Corey. His wife was accused and he was questioned by the judge, and 80 something year old Giles did not answer one question. The judge then tortued on by stoning him. With means that huge bolders were put on Giles to try to make him talk, but the only words that we would say were "more weight." They gave him exactly what he ordered and he was pressed to death, because he would not speak, the originator of the 5th amendment I guess. Here is a picture of his "grave" in this memorial, which I thought was done very well.

Overall it was a great weekend, with lots of great sights to see such as The Breakers and the very cool town of Salem. It was sad seeing Caroline off at the airport, but like all the other weekends where my friends and family have come out to visit me, all good things must come to an end.

The Tri State Tour

On the 4th of July instead of going to a BBQ, fireworks, or a gathering of any sorts, I went for a 5 hour ish bike ride. I got a late start on the ride because I was trying to catch up on receipts, so I didn't get going until about 1:30, the rain was a 10% chance until 4:00, then it was a 30% chance the rest of the day. So, I finally decided on a route that was going to be 70 miles, which meant that I should have not had to much of a problem with the wet stuff. So, I got riding and about 30 miles in it started to rain, just my luck. Just a little after that I really started to feel like I was losing energy, and fast. I then started to eat more, and drink more to try to get my energy back, and with the rain coming down, and how wet and cold I was getting nothing seemed to work. So around mile 50 I was all out of food and drink, and worse yet, I must have made a wrong turn becasue I was not in the town I was supposed to be in!!! So here I am cold, wet, hungry and sorta lost. Oh geez, wow great this is, so I continued on, being the tough guy I am. I then came up a hill, and shining in the distance was a gas station, which means food and drink!!!!! I got in there, and I only had $3.00, so I got a $2.00 gatorade, and a $0.93 pay day. I then ate the pay day like no ones business, and drank some of the gatorade, and put the rest in my bottles.

At this point the rain was slowing down, and I was finally feeling a little energized, and I was almost do a spot I was supposed to be at 10 miles before. So things were looking up. I then continued my way home, not feeling all that great, still a little cold, but the pedals were turning and I was ticking down the miles to home. I was then about 3 miles from home and then, hiSSSSSSSs, every bikers worse dream, and flat. So I changed the flat, and got all dirty because my break pads had been wearing fast so all the rubber grime and road grit ended up all over my legs and fingers. I then finally made it home, 80 miles and around 5 hours later, I was finally home.

Although it was a tough ride, it did have some highlights. On this route that I did, I rode through Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. So I rode through three states in one ride, not something that you can say everyday. So now I have ridden my bike in the following states this summer:

Connecticut
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
New York
Maine
Vermont
New Hampshire

So now I have ridden in all of the New England States, including New York, which is not really New England, but its out here, and I rode it, SWEEET!!!!!

Wow, its been a while

Sorry about the long delay between posts recently, I have been really busy, with my girlfriend Caroline visiting and all. But, tomorrow I will be writing a few posts to catch everyone up with what I have been up to.
Mike

Main Part II: Wicked cold behr with a lobstah chaseh

Maine, a great place. The first thing I have to do is thank my family for coming to visit me, it was a great time while I was with you, and I know you had fun on your day trips without me! Besides for the beautiful sights and the good company I think that the part I like the most was, you gussed it, the lobstah. The first night we got there we all got lobstah at a lobster pound, this was also the first occurance of the Sam Adams Summer Ale, it was great. The second night, we at right next to the lighthouse pictured in teh previous post, and my mom and I got more lobstah. Then for my moms birthday she got a stuffed lobstah, and I got twin lobstahs, yep, that means two bright red beauties for me to enjoy. So the night few pictues here you can consider our little lobstah montage (sorry Kel, you only had pics of you giving the thumbs down):





The little towns that we went shopping in were also nice, lots of cool tshirts and other gift items like that. The other part that was interesting was the tides, they really go up and down a lot and one minute a boat is floating and the next it is beached, what a weird place.

Another interesting part was trying to talk like the locals. By this I mean instead of the word car , the proper pronucation is cah. Beer, is behr. Bar, is bah, Yard, is Yaard, etc, etc. It was mostly me and Dad who was trying to get the accent down.




Well, I am sure you will enjoy that video, it was taked at Moms birthday dinner.

Well, I have a three bike races this weekend, and I need to pack, shower, etc. etc. Tah tah for now.

New York Part II: Final thoughts

I just want to finish up my New York trip before it gets to late. My two friends Nick, Pete, and myself took the train into Grand Central Station. The station itself is beautiful, there is a huge main room where I think all the trains empty out and fill up. The ceiling is very high and sorta looks like a night sky with stars. Here is a pic of this place:

We then went for a stroll around Central Park, or at least some of it, that place is huge. The one part that I did not like was all the horse poop all over the place. There are carriages going through the park, and the hoarses just poop and then someone comes through with a broom and just brooms the dry poop off the stress, pretty gross if you ask me.

The three of us then meet up with my third friend, Jeff, and we say Time Square. Time Square was neat, tons and tons of billboards and what not, but I must say, we saw it again at night, and the day time just does not compare. Night time was awesome becaues there must be like 12 million lights down there, and everything is flashing, and billboards galore, it is a sight to see. Here is a the coolest guy down there enjoying the sights.

The other neat parts of town that we saw was the Empire State Building, Ground Zero, Wall Street, and the Statue of Liberty. One word of advice, NEVER walk from time square down to Ground Zero, it takes about 2 hours, and by the end of it you will never want to walk again! Or at least that is what happened to me, we walked all the way down and I thought my legs were going to fall off. It was pretty Neat seeing Wall street, it is very narrow and it must get nuts on business days.

And of coarse, time square had a bike lane!!!!!! Way to go New York.


Overall, I very neat place, I am glad I was visiting and not staying any longer than a day. Its just not my cup of tea if you will, but it is something that I will not be forgetting any time soon.