We arrived late last night (Wed) around 10:30... It was quite windy driving up. It's nice to get up early...
Got up this morning and checked the temps at 7:00 AM. - 4 Degrees; Clear skies though and the sun is shining. It's 6 degrees now at 9:30 AM. We had approx 1 inch of snow sometime on Wednesday I believe. So a little fresh snow in Seeley. Wind is neglible... and it doesn't feel all that cold.
We're off to the Barnebirkie.. maybe a little skiing later to check out the trail.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Thinking ahead to Falun
[Posted by Bill Baldus]
I am suggesting we host a post-Birke Bake Sale on main street Hayward to raise $ for our 2010 junket to Falun for the Masters World Cup events. Does anyone have an easy Snickerdoodle recipe? I often crave them immediately after finishing this event . . . actually start thinking I see them hanging from tree branches around the 45K mark.
I am suggesting we host a post-Birke Bake Sale on main street Hayward to raise $ for our 2010 junket to Falun for the Masters World Cup events. Does anyone have an easy Snickerdoodle recipe? I often crave them immediately after finishing this event . . . actually start thinking I see them hanging from tree branches around the 45K mark.
Anyone have Birkie Fever yet?
What is Birkie Fever?
It's that yearly craving for the excitement, camaraderie and challenge that can only be satisfied by clicking into a pair of skis and lining up at the start line with 7,000 other ski pals from around the world. It’s a lifestyle that keeps you fit and healthy year-round. It’s an annual test of personal endurance. And it’s something no skier wants to shake. Some of the symptoms?
It's that yearly craving for the excitement, camaraderie and challenge that can only be satisfied by clicking into a pair of skis and lining up at the start line with 7,000 other ski pals from around the world. It’s a lifestyle that keeps you fit and healthy year-round. It’s an annual test of personal endurance. And it’s something no skier wants to shake. Some of the symptoms?
- Your home is filled with Birkie paraphernalia.
- Your television is permanently set to the Weather Channel.
- You think about wave placement in the heat of summer.
- You pray for snow long before winter sets in.
- You register the first day the new entry form is made available.
- You train endlessly, no matter the time of year.
- You notice the “B” word invades conversations within 15 minutes.Birkie Fever?
“Get me to the start line, I’ll be ready to go.”
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Day 4 - Tuesday Rest Day
Tuesday – Rest Day!
No ski races today, as it is the official “rest day” of the World Masters. We had a leisure breakfast of Bill’s famous oatmeal and some sufficiently strong black coffee. I think Bjorn had to dilute it with 2/3 water just to drink it down. Will, Odd, and Bjorn headed back to the Ponderosa State Park for additional skiing and analysis of the race course, as preparation for Odd and Bjorn’s relay races on Wednesday.
John, Bill, and I opted for a change of venue and prepared our classic skis for a day of diagonal skiing at a location called Blackhawk On The River. Blackhawk is the title sponsor of this year’s Master’s World Cup, and they are a real estate company that is developing land and properties along the Payette River, just west of McCall. As the title sponsor, they hosted an open house at their property and gave us the opportunity to ski on their 12 kilometers of private groomed ski trails. The skiing was beautiful, as it offered spectacular scenery of the Payette River, just feet away from the ski trails, and the surrounding mountains.
We were even filmed during our ski!! As part of the promotion, Blackhawk hired a film crew to take shots of the open house and skiers out on their trails. While out skiing, we ran into the cameraman out on the trail. Bill, never shy about conversation or additional attention, recommended that the three of us be filmed skiing down the track. We skied back down the trail 30-40 meters, turned around to face the camera, lined up shortest to tallest (Bill first and Eric in the rear) and then began to double pole towards the rolling film. However no more than one double pole in (or maybe while he was still standing still), John stumbled and fell over his skis. It must have been those magnets in the boots again, like what happened in his 10K race on Monday, that caused his fall. So, we took a 2nd take of video, this time with Eric in the lead and yelling Hej! Hej! Hej! as we passed the cameraman. Instant rock stars, we believed. The cameraman said that he would possibly post the video on their website. (http://www.blackhawkontheriver.com/). We’re anxious to see if we very actually make the promotional video and what royalties that we may receive so that we can retire early and focus our second careers solely on the World Masters circuit!!
By this time, we were convinced the free food was likely being served back at the Blackhawk lodge house, so we quickly headed back to the start of the trail. Exceeding our expectations, we got in line for a nice complimentary lunch buffet of meat perogees, platters of sliced bratwurst, onions and garlic, diced beef, chili, snack mix, Mirror Pond draft beer and bottles of wine. A nice way to get nourished after an hour of skiing.
After our trip to Blackhawk, we returned to the rental house and rested for a short time before heading into McCall to hear a 3pm presentation by a sports physiologist on health and performance, especially related to Nordic skiing. We picked up two Italian skiers walking into town and gave them a lift. We tried to explain to them we were from Minnesota by showing them Eric’s “Minnesota Finlandia” ski hat, but we think the result of this was them believing we were from Finland instead! Lots lost in translation during this international exchange. The talk was interesting, but humbling too, as he showed depreciating performance and muscle strength curves as a function of older age.
Pasta again for us tonight back at the house – spaghetti and Prego sauce.
Tomorrow we look forward to cheering on Odd and Bjorn in the relays as they ski for the US in the M8 and M10 classes, respectively. 4x5K relay races (1st two legs are 5K classic racers followed by 3rd and 4th leg as 5K skate racers) start at 10am tomorrow at Ponderosa State Park.
No ski races today, as it is the official “rest day” of the World Masters. We had a leisure breakfast of Bill’s famous oatmeal and some sufficiently strong black coffee. I think Bjorn had to dilute it with 2/3 water just to drink it down. Will, Odd, and Bjorn headed back to the Ponderosa State Park for additional skiing and analysis of the race course, as preparation for Odd and Bjorn’s relay races on Wednesday.
John, Bill, and I opted for a change of venue and prepared our classic skis for a day of diagonal skiing at a location called Blackhawk On The River. Blackhawk is the title sponsor of this year’s Master’s World Cup, and they are a real estate company that is developing land and properties along the Payette River, just west of McCall. As the title sponsor, they hosted an open house at their property and gave us the opportunity to ski on their 12 kilometers of private groomed ski trails. The skiing was beautiful, as it offered spectacular scenery of the Payette River, just feet away from the ski trails, and the surrounding mountains.
We were even filmed during our ski!! As part of the promotion, Blackhawk hired a film crew to take shots of the open house and skiers out on their trails. While out skiing, we ran into the cameraman out on the trail. Bill, never shy about conversation or additional attention, recommended that the three of us be filmed skiing down the track. We skied back down the trail 30-40 meters, turned around to face the camera, lined up shortest to tallest (Bill first and Eric in the rear) and then began to double pole towards the rolling film. However no more than one double pole in (or maybe while he was still standing still), John stumbled and fell over his skis. It must have been those magnets in the boots again, like what happened in his 10K race on Monday, that caused his fall. So, we took a 2nd take of video, this time with Eric in the lead and yelling Hej! Hej! Hej! as we passed the cameraman. Instant rock stars, we believed. The cameraman said that he would possibly post the video on their website. (http://www.blackhawkontheriver.com/). We’re anxious to see if we very actually make the promotional video and what royalties that we may receive so that we can retire early and focus our second careers solely on the World Masters circuit!!
By this time, we were convinced the free food was likely being served back at the Blackhawk lodge house, so we quickly headed back to the start of the trail. Exceeding our expectations, we got in line for a nice complimentary lunch buffet of meat perogees, platters of sliced bratwurst, onions and garlic, diced beef, chili, snack mix, Mirror Pond draft beer and bottles of wine. A nice way to get nourished after an hour of skiing.
After our trip to Blackhawk, we returned to the rental house and rested for a short time before heading into McCall to hear a 3pm presentation by a sports physiologist on health and performance, especially related to Nordic skiing. We picked up two Italian skiers walking into town and gave them a lift. We tried to explain to them we were from Minnesota by showing them Eric’s “Minnesota Finlandia” ski hat, but we think the result of this was them believing we were from Finland instead! Lots lost in translation during this international exchange. The talk was interesting, but humbling too, as he showed depreciating performance and muscle strength curves as a function of older age.
Pasta again for us tonight back at the house – spaghetti and Prego sauce.
Tomorrow we look forward to cheering on Odd and Bjorn in the relays as they ski for the US in the M8 and M10 classes, respectively. 4x5K relay races (1st two legs are 5K classic racers followed by 3rd and 4th leg as 5K skate racers) start at 10am tomorrow at Ponderosa State Park.
Day 6 - 45K Classic
Hey -- just a quick posting; I uploaded some photos to Picaso. They're at http://picasaweb.google.com/johnnyj.lynch
Today was the long classic for everyone. No one in our group did the race. We're all skiing tomorrow at the long skate (45K for Bill, Eric and I; 30K for Odd and Will; 15 for Bjorn)
Another gorgeous day in McCall; Sun, Sun, Sun...
Someone asked about the altitude, we heard that the Norwegians came 10 days early to acclimitize; Bill, Eric and I only had 1 day. But... we all seemed to adjust fine, and I can't say that I've felt any altitude issues. I've made sure to stay hydrated. Bill says he feels it at the top of hills a bit. The altitude is 5000 ft even. People have told us that it is just below the threshhold of where it matters.
All for now... later!
Today was the long classic for everyone. No one in our group did the race. We're all skiing tomorrow at the long skate (45K for Bill, Eric and I; 30K for Odd and Will; 15 for Bjorn)
Another gorgeous day in McCall; Sun, Sun, Sun...
Someone asked about the altitude, we heard that the Norwegians came 10 days early to acclimitize; Bill, Eric and I only had 1 day. But... we all seemed to adjust fine, and I can't say that I've felt any altitude issues. I've made sure to stay hydrated. Bill says he feels it at the top of hills a bit. The altitude is 5000 ft even. People have told us that it is just below the threshhold of where it matters.
All for now... later!
Day 5 - The Relays
Odd and Bjorn take on the big hill at the Relays
Wednesday was the day for relay competition. In the relays nations compete against eachother rather than individuals competing. Like other International World Cup/Olympic events, the format involves multiple skiers from the same team skiing both classic and freestyle (skating). This event was 4 by 5KM for a total of 20KM. Each skier skis one 5KM leg. The first 2 legs are classic, and the second leg, including the 4th "anchor" leg are skating.
Odd and Bjorn were both invited to be on the relays from our group. Odd is in the M8 65-69 years, and Bjorn is in M10 75-79. They both skied the 3rd leg, which meant they skied freestyle. Both Bjorn and Odd are from Norway, and they ski on Madshus skis, like Bill and I do, which are skis made in Norway. The national rep for Madshus, Peter Hale, has been here all week, and he offered to wax skis for Bjorn and Odd. So they both have had real fast skis most of the week.
We saw Odd coming up the hill as the 2nd person in the M8 class. He was really moving fast -- the photo doesn't quite capture it -- and this was a big uphill. His team finished 2nd out of a lot of teams, which was really an outstanding result; There are fewer teams in the younger divisions, but in the 50+ age groups there are teams from USA, Canada, Italy, Norway, Russia, France and other countries.
Bjorn also had a good race. He was also skiing fast up the hill -- later he told us that he thought the hill was even bigger, and was surprised that he had reached the top up where we were cheering; surprised, but happy. Bjorn's team finished 2nd, just behind the Norwegians. Bjorn knows everyone out here, esp. other Norwegians; and he is such a good sport, congratulating the Norwegians and others that are doing well.
The Russians are doing really well. They brought 100+ skiers to McCall, and they are fast skiers. The M2 division had the fastest time; and they won several divisions. We saw the M3 guys skiing as well; The team was Rune ? originally from Norway, Dale Niggeman from Wisc, Ian Harvey, former Olympian, and Eric Jensen, a Swix rep who is skiing really fast. Ian Harvey skied the 3rd skate leg and made up over a minute of time; and then Eric Jensen passed a Russian to take home the Gold - that was a great win for the USA.
Eric, Bill and I spectated and had a fun time. I brought a bunch of stuff -- including a couple of US flags. A russian woman came over to me and pointed at my US flag and said -- "can I have flag"; she really wanted my $1.99 US Flag -- I was more than happy to oblige.
In the morning as we were suiting up to go watch the races, Eric had zipper f%@$ on one of his Alpina Skate boots that he'd need for the 45K Skate race on Friday. He couldn't get the zipper back in place and ended up finding some tape to tape the boot up. Peter Hale told him he should be able to find a pair of Madshus boots.. luckily we have a few days to figure it out.
Later we went for a 15K ski on what would be the race course for Friday. We decided to take a detour up to the high point that overlooks Lake Payette. Breathtaking! Well.. that's all for now; Thursday we have another day off to rest for the big 45K race on Friday. J.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Day 3 - Monday 10K Skate Races and The Rest of the Day Off the Skis
March 3, 2008
Temperatures on Monday were in the upper 20s, so a bit warmer than Sunday’s races, especially for us in the afternoon skate races. 10K classic races were this morning, followed by a brief re-grooming of the course, and then 10K skate races starting at 12:30pm. The fact that we could not see our breaths during our warm-up laps, like we could before Sunday morning’s races, was a sign to us today that it was going to be a warmer run around the trails today.
Given the shorter races today, Bill and John were insistent on a thorough warm-up, meaning multiple loops and loops around the practice track. A 1K loop, if that. Our pre-race routine wouldn’t be complete without some glides down the glide hill. This was essentially a meaningless exercise for Bill and Eric, as they both had only one pair of skate skis and nothing to do if the skis were dogs and running slow. John, on the other hand, had skis waxed with both HF7 and HF8, and he worked hard on evaluating which ski to use. He went with his newer Madshus Nanosonic skis in the end, I believe. None of us made it as far as some of the long distance markers at the end of the glide hill that some skiers seemed to be indicating was their superior glide distance. However, I wonder if our competitors were simply placing markers 5 meters farther in distance than any ski could realistically glide in today’s conditions, just to play psychological games with us shortly before the start of competition??
Convinced that adding some additional structure to our skis may improve our glide, Bill immediately became good friends with one of the Toko reps working his tent in the practice area. Before we knew it, Bill had convinced him to place a rill in all 3 sets of our skis. These were not “chevron” rills, but instead lineal rills, which some believe may be inferior to the chevrons. Simply content on having additional structure in our skis, we headed back to our practice loop for additional warm-up, proud of our skis that suddenly seemed significantly faster. We certainly attributed it to the rills!
By 12:30pm, M1 class race was starting. We proceeded to ski marking and check-in quickly. Eric’s M2 race started at 12:40pm, John & Bill’s M3 race at 12:50pm, and Odd and Bjorn’s races not until closer to 3pm. Will had already completed his day’s race as he raced the classic 10K in the morning and was now strategically positioned out on the course for some action photography shots. Too bad he wasn’t able to get John’s crash early on in the race!
Due to starting problems from previous days’ races (such as John getting tracked and jumping out of his lane prematurely during his 30K race the day before), the starter reminded us again of proper starting procedures and rules: (1) Do NOT leave your lane until it ends (Herr Lynch) and you enter the “mix zone”; (2) M1-M6 racers are skiing the RED 10K loop today – l lap only; Do NOT ski the Blue course! (3) the air horn will sound 1 minute prior to race start as your first warning; (4) orange flag will be raised with 30 seconds prior to start; (5) lowering of orange flag commences the race.
The orange flag went down, and it was a clean start for M2. No crashes observed. The Russians and Italians seemed to take the early lead mixed in with an American. Eric raced better in M2 today than yesterday’s 30K, maybe due to a full day’s experience with World Masters racing, or better glide wax with the warmer conditions, or was it the Toko rill? John & Bill did well again in their M3 race, with both of them skating down the finish lanes side-by-side with skiers behind them. A close finish, but John got Bill by 0.3seconds. Maybe a redemption for the victory by Bill over John the day prior. Following the M1-M6 races, we watched some of the women’s 10K freestyle races out along the course and cheered them up the hills. We caught the start of M10 and saw Bjorn head out for his 5K freestyle race, and then watched Odd finish as the #2 American in his M8 class. Like Odd, Bjorn also finished #2 USA skier in his class and 4th overall.
One of our new close personal McCall friends now, Brian, picked us up for the shuttle ride back to the Majestic View house. Bjorn entertained us as usual by giving a Swede a hard time for not giving his seat up for a lady who had just climbed onboard. Bjorn was even receiving hugs onboard, simply due to the fact, as he put it, “I’m Norwegian”.
For the second day in a row, Bill was confident enough with his multi-functional briefs/swimsuit/jacuzzi jockey outfit that we headed to the hot tub for a second day in a row. We met some new friends again, and even ones that told Bill – “you’re a famous Midwest skier!” Must have been that decades-old Vasaloppet win that some people just can’t forget. Even more fun, though, was listening to the next group that entered the hot tub who shared stories of celebrity costume parties on the downhill ski slopes and one man’s attempt at being a Britney Spears look-a-like. At that point, our finger tips were wrinkled, Bill’s self-confidence in his attire was waning, and it was time to leave.
Upon arrival back at the house, we realized we had very limited options for dinner, yet Will, Bjorn, and Odd were waiting for a dinner decision. We did have a dozen eggs in the refrigerator along with tortilla shells and some apples, but that was about it, so we went with it. Hard to beat a dinner of scrambled eggs on top of over-crisp tortilla shells and a platter of sliced apples (including the cores) on the side. The camaraderie during the dinner definitely trumped the food, as we shared good stories and laughs.
Following dinner, John, Bill, and Eric headed into McCall to experience what could be had for night life at 9:30pm on a Monday night. Our initial plan was to visit the local brewpub, but unfortunately we discovered that they had already closed at 9pm. A brewpub closing at 9pm??? We couldn’t believe it, so John tried to enter the closed brewpub and convince the workers that they should stay open for tourists like us --World Masters Skiers. Needless to say, he was back in the minivan less than a minute later. He did get a recommendation though to head a few blocks up the street to “The Mill” where the local brew could still be found on tap.
We entered “The Mill”, but soon learned that it would be closing within 15 minutes at 10pm. How could this be?? Fortunately, the bartender and waitress soon warmed up to our humor (or felt sorry for us) and bar closing time eventually seemed to slip until nearly 11:30pm. The only close call of nearly getting kicked out of the establishment by 10pm was when Bill grabbed the “poker” for the open-pit fireplace in the middle of the bar and started taking log rearrangement and placement into his own hands. After a brief warning, Bill found his place again in his chair-lift seat along the perimeter of the fire pit.
We did share some international goodwill with the nearby Germans at the table next to us. Eric noticed familiar faces from meeting some of these same Germans at the shuttle stop at Ponderosa State Park earlier in the day. We soon realized that we had re-connected with Erwin and Pietra!! Via marginal German language comprehension and a bit of eaves-dropping, Eric seemed to hear the word “Jaegermeister” be repeated several times. Unbeknowst to the Germans, Eric’s seizied his chance for a prompt, unannounced benevolent World Masters gesture and ordered up a Jaegermeister for the Germans to enjoy. It was soon delivered to the Germans, and they were astonished (and maybe impressed?) about what had just arrived on their table, but soon howled in laughter regarding the timing of this. That broke the ice and our two separate groups soon became one. As is true with every European he meets, Bill continued to invite the Germans to come over to race in the American Birkebeiner and stay with us. Maybe it was lost in translation, but we weren’t sure if they ever accepted or rejected Bill’s invitation that night. Maybe we’ll find out via a phone call from Germany a week before next year’s Birkie? It was a fun evening without worries about waxing later that night or getting ready the next morning for an early morning race. Ah, a rest day to look forward to on Tuesday!
Temperatures on Monday were in the upper 20s, so a bit warmer than Sunday’s races, especially for us in the afternoon skate races. 10K classic races were this morning, followed by a brief re-grooming of the course, and then 10K skate races starting at 12:30pm. The fact that we could not see our breaths during our warm-up laps, like we could before Sunday morning’s races, was a sign to us today that it was going to be a warmer run around the trails today.
Given the shorter races today, Bill and John were insistent on a thorough warm-up, meaning multiple loops and loops around the practice track. A 1K loop, if that. Our pre-race routine wouldn’t be complete without some glides down the glide hill. This was essentially a meaningless exercise for Bill and Eric, as they both had only one pair of skate skis and nothing to do if the skis were dogs and running slow. John, on the other hand, had skis waxed with both HF7 and HF8, and he worked hard on evaluating which ski to use. He went with his newer Madshus Nanosonic skis in the end, I believe. None of us made it as far as some of the long distance markers at the end of the glide hill that some skiers seemed to be indicating was their superior glide distance. However, I wonder if our competitors were simply placing markers 5 meters farther in distance than any ski could realistically glide in today’s conditions, just to play psychological games with us shortly before the start of competition??
Convinced that adding some additional structure to our skis may improve our glide, Bill immediately became good friends with one of the Toko reps working his tent in the practice area. Before we knew it, Bill had convinced him to place a rill in all 3 sets of our skis. These were not “chevron” rills, but instead lineal rills, which some believe may be inferior to the chevrons. Simply content on having additional structure in our skis, we headed back to our practice loop for additional warm-up, proud of our skis that suddenly seemed significantly faster. We certainly attributed it to the rills!
By 12:30pm, M1 class race was starting. We proceeded to ski marking and check-in quickly. Eric’s M2 race started at 12:40pm, John & Bill’s M3 race at 12:50pm, and Odd and Bjorn’s races not until closer to 3pm. Will had already completed his day’s race as he raced the classic 10K in the morning and was now strategically positioned out on the course for some action photography shots. Too bad he wasn’t able to get John’s crash early on in the race!
Due to starting problems from previous days’ races (such as John getting tracked and jumping out of his lane prematurely during his 30K race the day before), the starter reminded us again of proper starting procedures and rules: (1) Do NOT leave your lane until it ends (Herr Lynch) and you enter the “mix zone”; (2) M1-M6 racers are skiing the RED 10K loop today – l lap only; Do NOT ski the Blue course! (3) the air horn will sound 1 minute prior to race start as your first warning; (4) orange flag will be raised with 30 seconds prior to start; (5) lowering of orange flag commences the race.
The orange flag went down, and it was a clean start for M2. No crashes observed. The Russians and Italians seemed to take the early lead mixed in with an American. Eric raced better in M2 today than yesterday’s 30K, maybe due to a full day’s experience with World Masters racing, or better glide wax with the warmer conditions, or was it the Toko rill? John & Bill did well again in their M3 race, with both of them skating down the finish lanes side-by-side with skiers behind them. A close finish, but John got Bill by 0.3seconds. Maybe a redemption for the victory by Bill over John the day prior. Following the M1-M6 races, we watched some of the women’s 10K freestyle races out along the course and cheered them up the hills. We caught the start of M10 and saw Bjorn head out for his 5K freestyle race, and then watched Odd finish as the #2 American in his M8 class. Like Odd, Bjorn also finished #2 USA skier in his class and 4th overall.
One of our new close personal McCall friends now, Brian, picked us up for the shuttle ride back to the Majestic View house. Bjorn entertained us as usual by giving a Swede a hard time for not giving his seat up for a lady who had just climbed onboard. Bjorn was even receiving hugs onboard, simply due to the fact, as he put it, “I’m Norwegian”.
For the second day in a row, Bill was confident enough with his multi-functional briefs/swimsuit/jacuzzi jockey outfit that we headed to the hot tub for a second day in a row. We met some new friends again, and even ones that told Bill – “you’re a famous Midwest skier!” Must have been that decades-old Vasaloppet win that some people just can’t forget. Even more fun, though, was listening to the next group that entered the hot tub who shared stories of celebrity costume parties on the downhill ski slopes and one man’s attempt at being a Britney Spears look-a-like. At that point, our finger tips were wrinkled, Bill’s self-confidence in his attire was waning, and it was time to leave.
Upon arrival back at the house, we realized we had very limited options for dinner, yet Will, Bjorn, and Odd were waiting for a dinner decision. We did have a dozen eggs in the refrigerator along with tortilla shells and some apples, but that was about it, so we went with it. Hard to beat a dinner of scrambled eggs on top of over-crisp tortilla shells and a platter of sliced apples (including the cores) on the side. The camaraderie during the dinner definitely trumped the food, as we shared good stories and laughs.
Following dinner, John, Bill, and Eric headed into McCall to experience what could be had for night life at 9:30pm on a Monday night. Our initial plan was to visit the local brewpub, but unfortunately we discovered that they had already closed at 9pm. A brewpub closing at 9pm??? We couldn’t believe it, so John tried to enter the closed brewpub and convince the workers that they should stay open for tourists like us --World Masters Skiers. Needless to say, he was back in the minivan less than a minute later. He did get a recommendation though to head a few blocks up the street to “The Mill” where the local brew could still be found on tap.
We entered “The Mill”, but soon learned that it would be closing within 15 minutes at 10pm. How could this be?? Fortunately, the bartender and waitress soon warmed up to our humor (or felt sorry for us) and bar closing time eventually seemed to slip until nearly 11:30pm. The only close call of nearly getting kicked out of the establishment by 10pm was when Bill grabbed the “poker” for the open-pit fireplace in the middle of the bar and started taking log rearrangement and placement into his own hands. After a brief warning, Bill found his place again in his chair-lift seat along the perimeter of the fire pit.
We did share some international goodwill with the nearby Germans at the table next to us. Eric noticed familiar faces from meeting some of these same Germans at the shuttle stop at Ponderosa State Park earlier in the day. We soon realized that we had re-connected with Erwin and Pietra!! Via marginal German language comprehension and a bit of eaves-dropping, Eric seemed to hear the word “Jaegermeister” be repeated several times. Unbeknowst to the Germans, Eric’s seizied his chance for a prompt, unannounced benevolent World Masters gesture and ordered up a Jaegermeister for the Germans to enjoy. It was soon delivered to the Germans, and they were astonished (and maybe impressed?) about what had just arrived on their table, but soon howled in laughter regarding the timing of this. That broke the ice and our two separate groups soon became one. As is true with every European he meets, Bill continued to invite the Germans to come over to race in the American Birkebeiner and stay with us. Maybe it was lost in translation, but we weren’t sure if they ever accepted or rejected Bill’s invitation that night. Maybe we’ll find out via a phone call from Germany a week before next year’s Birkie? It was a fun evening without worries about waxing later that night or getting ready the next morning for an early morning race. Ah, a rest day to look forward to on Tuesday!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
