Our First Cyclocross Race

On Saturday we headed down to Elm Ridge Park in Rocky Hill, CT to race in the Crossin' 4 Canines Cyclocross Race.  It was a very exciting event for both of us, as Mike got to race around a cross course 5 times within 45 minutes while Caroline got to cheer on Mike at several points throughout the race.  It's very difficult to describe cyclocross racing in words, so instead, we will just show you pictures!

Racers waiting to begin the race (Mike is in the back right corner).

And the race begins!  Mike pushed his way to the front of the pack before they made the first turn.

Jumping obstacles...  Racers have to jump off their bikes, carry them over barriers placed throughout the course...

...And then hop back on their bikes to continue riding.

Around lap three, it starts to get pretty tiring for Mike...

...And for Caroline who is running back and forth around the course to get all of these shots!

Jumping over more obstacles.

Pushing to the very end.

Hooray!  Mike zooms by the finish line, earning him 4th place for his first ever cyclocross race!

Craft Fairs, Picnics, Bike Rides, and even a Run

Exhibitors at the Old Deerfield Craft Fair.

As the title of this post might hint, the past few weeks have been full of fun.  This past Saturday we went to the Old Deerfield Craft Fair.  Historic Deerfield is a beautiful little village that was settled in 1669 as a frontier outpost in British North America.  While nearly destroyed in the early 18th century, today it is home to museums, working farms, and three private boarding schools.  The Craft Fair housed about 180 exhibitors varying from photographers to painters to salsa-makers.  The picture on the right shows just a small section of the exhibitors.

Wine and cheese samples

An interesting part of the fair was that we were definitely an under-represented age group.  As a result, when we first entered, a man dressed as the Town Crier was very eager to inform us that there would be a free wine tasting at noon.  So as not to be rude, after meandering our way around all of the tents, trying salsas and sauces from some of the exhibitors, we headed to the location of the wine tasting for a few free samples.  There were four types of sweet, fruit-flavored wines as well as cheese and crackers for tasting.  Next we went back through the fair to a few of our favorite shops and made some purchases before leaving in the early afternoon.

We've also been fortunate enough to go on a few picnics together.  Twice now we have gone to Puffers Pond (a great swimming spot in the summertime) and just the other day we went to a pretty little park called Mill River.  Below is a picture of us at Puffers Pond.  You can see that the trees are just barely starting to change...  You can expect a post in the near future full of pictures of the East Coast fall foliage.

Picnicking at Puffers Pond.

 Another event that is ever-present in our daily routine is bike rides.  Mike generally rides every day, and on some days Caroline will join him.  "Some days" meaning Mike's recovery days or on his cool down rides.  But Caroline has been pedaling along, and is really starting to get a hang of the cycling thing.  And while Mike loves to ride his bike, Caroline really enjoys running.  So, one afternoon that was supposed to be a rest day for Mike, Caroline jokingly asked if he wanted to go for a run with her.  And, to her surprise and delight, he said yes.  This was very exciting because on bikes, Mike rides circles around Caroline, but on our feet, Caroline runs circles around Mike.

This ends our second post.  We head into the weekend with plans of racing (Mike) and watching (Caroline) our first Cyclo-Cross Bike Race!

Life in Massachusetts

Well, we made it! After driving the 800 mile trek from Michigan to Massachusetts and choosing the hottest days of the summer for packing and unpacking a moving truck, we are finally settled in our new home. And we decided what better way to keep everyone updated than chronicling our new adventure on the East Coast in a blog!

A little over two weeks ago, the Bartletts and the Doves visited Canton to help Mike and Caroline load the 17' moving truck with all of Caroline's worldly possessions (which consisted of clothes and furniture to fill a studio apartment). Then it was off to the Bartletts to continue adding items to the moving truck, most notably, Mike's bedroom furniture. Relieving the Bartletts of this furniture from their home also transformed "Mike's Shrine" into "The Den." The next morning, Mike and Caroline left Michigan at 6:30 a.m. and headed east. Caroline drove her car while Mike drove the moving truck, speaking with an accent complimentary to its Oklahoma license plate for the majority of the trip. Around noon we stopped in New York for a picnic lunch and parked the moving truck with all of the semis. To emphasize the monstrosity that was the moving truck, please refer to the image at right.

After lunch we continued our journey, until finally reaching Amherst at 9 p.m. (in case you weren't keeping track, that's 14.5 hours...) Caroline, of course, was quite exhausted by this time and assumed that sleep was near, however Mike thought that it was the perfect time to finish packing his old apartment.

The following morning, we finished packing Mike's things into the moving truck (with a brief interlude of getting his couch stuck in the stairwell for a good half an hour), cleaned his old apartment, and around 2 p.m. headed north to the town of Sunderland. Our new lease did not start until noon the next day, but thankfully our good friends Stephanie and Melissa let us stay with them for the night (special thanks to you two!) So, on Wednesday, September 1, we were able to finally unpack our cars and moving truck and begin setting up our new place!

Since Mike and Caroline are both neat-freaks and do not like having boxes everywhere, the unpacking went relatively quickly and smoothly, and by the following Tuesday they were ready to entertain their first guest- Caroline's mom, Carol. On her drive back from vacation in Nova Scotia, Carol stopped to visit for a few days. Unfortunately, Caroline is notorious for forgetting her camera everywhere she goes, so there are no pictures to link with this visit, but a great time was had by all!

This past weekend was very busy, with new tennis shoe shopping on Saturday and water bottle toss-offs on Sunday (oh, right... someone may have raced in a 25-mile mountain bike race...) Once again, Mike and Caroline woke at the crack of dawn and headed east, but this time to Hingham, MA (near Cape Cod) for the Landmine Classic, the second largest mountain bike race in New England. The race was held deep into Wompatuck State Park. Caroline was ready (sans camera) at the start line to watch Mike and his fellow Competitive Edge teammate, Nate, begin their two hour race. Once the race began, Caroline headed, by foot, to the feed zone. A 2-mile hike later she was ready to toss off a water bottle to Mike. Soon after, Mike came around the corner, with two competitors on his tail, and opted to keep going without replenishing his water supply. No worries though because the trail looped around so the racers would have a chance to ride by the feed zone again. After what seemed like eons, Mike came riding through again, and again two competitors were right on his tail, and again, he just rode straight past Caroline. Well, Caroline knew that the 2-mile hike back would take awhile and she wanted to see Mike cross the finish line, so she started back right away.

When she reached the finish line, after hiking a total of 4 miles and without successfully completing a water bottle toss-off, Mike was already there. It didn't matter anyway though, because of course, Caroline didn't have her camera. But for the good news- Mike got 3rd place! Check out the picture of him on the podium below. It was a great way to end the mountain bike season, and get ready for the Cyclocross racing season.



This concludes our first post on the new blog. We hope you enjoyed and please feel free to leave your comments! We plan to post at least once a week, so check back often for updates.