Jan 1, 2011
Happy new year everybody! Start it off right and go out for a ski and drink hot chocolate afterwards. Well We made it here to Rumford, ME and the journey, well, let say things could have gone better. To begin, lets go to the Continental Airlines check in counter in Anchorage. The customer service there was downright appalling. We are skiers and we have ski bags. We ended up holding up many customers due to novice attendants at the counter and them just plain out being rude. Many of us have been through the ringer at least once before with our ski bags and are pretty good at keeping our cool. As skiers we are pretty good about knowing the baggage rules and skis do not count as extra baggage, but not according to these attendants. In the end the baggage fees ranged from $60-210, with myself being at the $100 category. The lady looks at me and says, "you better be checking the over-length baggage button, those are definitely longer than 157cm." Rather than fight it, because we have already pissed these people off apparently, I just paid the extra baggage fee and went through security.
Now to the flight. I am 6' tall and am generally pretty uncomfortable when it comes to coach seating, but with this Continental airlplane, even with my butt all the was to the back, my knees were still touching the seat in front of me. This seating arrangement was noticeably more cramped than the traditional Alaska flight out of Anchorage. There was no moving because not only was i in the middle seat, but the plane was packed to the gills. Ok, so with that aside, I was happy with seeing each seat had its own video set mounted on the back of the seat in front. Maybe we will get a movie! Nope, and my screen controllers were broken, so i watched a preview for "The Gardians of Gahoole" for a good three hours. Best part was that i got the same seat from Seattle to Newark. I tried to take a deep breath and relax. Ive been through worse things.
The puddle jumper from Newark to Portland, ME felt like a luxury flight and things were looking better. We made a slightly comical hour and a half trip from the airport to our spread out destinations around Rumford. We had some toll booth lady that asked if our coach intended to slide his credit card through her cleavage and I about lost it. The boys final destination was a large cabin a little over an hour from the venue. The distance from the venue was the first thing in question. The few boys that arrived earlier were quick to fill us in on other important notes such as no TV and no Internet. Hmmm ok, but still tolerable, we have all been camping before. As we checked the place out, we find that for nine guys, we have one shower. Most of our drawers had blessings of mouse turds and there was a note on the fridge warning of the unsafe drinking water. To top the whole matter off, the house is not insulated. We are here for a national championship and the last thing we need are worries. We were quick to pack up and get the hell out the next morning ready to take anything else at that point.
After a few calls, we arrived at a fairly nice place only 20 minutes from the venue, with a "pure artesian well" and internet. We are happy to have solved most of the issues in less than 24 hours. Keep in mind, through all of this, most of us had been up for quite some time with the redeye flight and driving so we were all a little on the stressed side. But nonetheless a not-quite-so-usual travel day for Brent.
The course conditions are deteriorating pretty fast with the warm New England weather we are dealing with and if the weather does not improve, our races may be a little on the questionable side. As johnnyklister.com stated,"skiing conditions are variable, we have most good groomed dirt with a few snowy sections in there, but ya know, just try and avoid em'". It seems a little bleak, but as I have seen in the past, the races always seem to go off and the snow will always seem to make itself available. The volunteers are incredible in these parts and I have no doubt of their abilities. Should be a good nationals. Hope all is well at home.
Brent
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