Greetings! Read on if you want to hear the tales and tribulations of some Minnesotans taking a journey to the land of potatoes and lots of snow.
River going to McCall - Bill accosted by Helga
River going to McCall - Bill accosted by Helga
The Group
Eric Hedman, Bill Baldus, Odd Ossland, Bjorn Lasserud from Twin Cities; Will Grosnold from Grand Forks, ND and myself. Bjorn and Odd were able to go out on Friday ahead of time, and then Eric, Bill, Will and I traveled out together on Saturday, March 1st 2008.
MSP
We arrived at the Minneapolis Airport with plenty of time. Sister Terese dropped Bill and I off at the airport. Thanks Terese! For a change, things went pretty smooth for me – in the past I’ve had to deal with extra hassle of getting my boarding pass as “John Lynch” is on the national terrorist list. Eric Hedman arrived a little after us, but he moved through the lines quickly. Bill neglected to pack some of his liquids in the prescribed clear plastic bags, so Helga, the not so friendly TSA agent pulled him aside for a little chat. I was concerned that it might turn into a smackdown, and, as she had about 100lbs on Bill, I didn’t think that would bode well for his ski racing! Bill left with a few less items, but otherwise unscathed.
Eric Hedman, Bill Baldus, Odd Ossland, Bjorn Lasserud from Twin Cities; Will Grosnold from Grand Forks, ND and myself. Bjorn and Odd were able to go out on Friday ahead of time, and then Eric, Bill, Will and I traveled out together on Saturday, March 1st 2008.
MSP
We arrived at the Minneapolis Airport with plenty of time. Sister Terese dropped Bill and I off at the airport. Thanks Terese! For a change, things went pretty smooth for me – in the past I’ve had to deal with extra hassle of getting my boarding pass as “John Lynch” is on the national terrorist list. Eric Hedman arrived a little after us, but he moved through the lines quickly. Bill neglected to pack some of his liquids in the prescribed clear plastic bags, so Helga, the not so friendly TSA agent pulled him aside for a little chat. I was concerned that it might turn into a smackdown, and, as she had about 100lbs on Bill, I didn’t think that would bode well for his ski racing! Bill left with a few less items, but otherwise unscathed.
Boise
The flight to Boise was uneventful; and we arrived at the airport at about noon Mountain time. Eric had arranged for a rental Van – and we all gathered our skis and bags. All skis arrived and were undamaged which was a relief… we all stopped and admired Will’s nice Hardcase that he got at Finn Sisu; it was pretty sweet… and seemed a lot less work that my 8” Aluminum duct work home job. We found the van, and then the first practical joke was played on Eric; as he was loading skis in the back, Bill and I moved his gear bag on the other side of an adjacent bag. Eric nearly soiled his pants when he went looking for it and it was nowhere to be found.
The drive to McCall was beautiful! Flowing rivers and more and more snow as we drove towards McCall; there wasn’t any snow in the town of Boise.
McCall
We arrived at our destination; and hooked up with Odd. Odd was nice enough to meet us in town so we didn’t have to try and find the home we were renting. We met in a grocery store parking lot; and then he led us to our estate on Majestic View Lane. The house is amazing with 4 large bedrooms; a 2 car garage and snow piled higher than the roofline in places. After unloading our bags, we decided to go for a drive to see if we could pickup our bibs and registration. We were able to tour the starting area at Ponderosa State Park –but the registration area was closed down for the day. We ran into Dave Christopherson and a few other people we knew.
We headed home and had the obligatory pre-race pasta feed. Then off to the wax room – the garage. We decided to do just 1 pair of skis; I waxed with HF7, and Sera F, FC7.
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