Michigan Tech weekend (last weekend)

So the long awaited post is here. Brace yourself...

We were extremely lucky to have Kyle's dad and Steve's parents willing to drive their RV's to the North for us. They got into Columbia (both drove from home, Liberty, MO)at about 9pm Thursday. We were also very lucky that the insurance policy Kyle's dad has with his RV covers any trailer that is attached, therefore we were able to use Walt's old Long John Silvers Cycling team bike trailer.
We got everything loaded up and headed out of Columbia sometime around 9:30pm. I believe we stopped somewhere in Illinois around midnight or 1am for the night. In between 9:30 and 1am the 21 year old RV (youngins were in the larger RV) commenced to drink (not just alcohol, but...yeah...mostly alcohol), play cards, watch a DVD, and study a bit.
We got up around 7am, having a breakfast (muffins, pastries, etc provided by Steve's parents) in the RV's. Got on the road again shortly after.
Drove a long long time, playing more card games, sleeping, watching movies, playing XBOX, studying, and so on until we got to our RV campground in Michigan around 8 or 9pm. Jim used his goverment cheese (read: Food stamps) to buy lots of snacks for the trip. So lunch during the trip was pb&j, ham sandwhiches, and other various foods.
After we got the RV's parked in their sports a few of us took the Suburban to WalMart and got a couple things. Then we attempted to find the race sites for the next day. This took a while, and when we finally got back to the camp site at 11-something pm Steve's mom had a huge thing of pasta ready for us. (In the end, turns out both race sites were not more than 5 minutes away from our campsite)
We ate, watched some tv in the big rv and people started heading to bed shortly after midnight.

( NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO TAKE A BREAK. )

Got up at 6am Saturday. Loaded up the bikes, Kyle's RV, the suburban, and headed to the ski slopes. Dual slalom qualifying started at something like 9, so we had plenty of time to take practice runs. We all qualified and soon after the ski lift started operating and we took it up to practice the downhill course.
(What is dual slalom: two people race down a course with jumps, berms, and the first one to the finish line wins.
What is qualifying: everyone goes down one time by theirself to get a place in the bracket. Later in the day the bracket is worked out and the races happen)
Ski lift was sweet. Never been on one that big before, it was kind of a bummer to look down part way up the hill and see a huge wreath and cross on a tree. I was also nursing a large gash in my right shin and a swollen left shin courtesy of the dual slalom course. (I am bad at landing jumps. Even small ones. If you look in Parker's pictures the first set in the "crashes" page is mine. My pedals madly abused both my shins.) I immediately saw the gash in my right shin, and had the medics put a wrap on it. About 15 minutes later I was waiting for them to let us jump on the ski lift when I noticed my left shin was a lot wider than my right shin, and my right shin had a wrap on it. I pulled up my leg warmer and realized that my shin had grown huge sometime in the past few minutes. Went and found another medic and we found some ice and wrapped it on there.

My ice and I then went up the ski lift and did one run of the downhill course. It was sweet, would have been even sweeter if I was using a downhill bike on it.
Put my bike back in the trailer and hopped back in the RV to lay down and ice my shin. The other guys finished up in the next hour or so and we headed across town to the XC (cross-country) race site.
Our C riders took off, followed 10 minutes later by our B riders. I kept the ice on my shin for a while until the other A riders started getting ready. We went out and rode a little bit of the course, and got ready to race.
The race was long and bumpy. I didn't cramp up like I had been lately, which was good. But I also didn't place very well. Chad did very well, and John and I finished together a bit later (which was very good for him, his first A race of the year. Had done B races all year). Lou flatted on the last lap and came in not long after John and I. Steve came in not long after Lou.

We headed back to the campsite and we grabbed our bags and the suburban headed over to Michigan Tech's rec center for a shower. They had old-school-everyone-showers-together showers, so we all got clean together. (campground turned out not to have working showers, so Foosh talked to the Michigan Tech peeps and got us the use of their showers. Actually we were in their XC skiing locker room. There was a Michigan Tech ice hockey game going on in the same building.

After the showers we headed back to the RV's and Steve's dad was working on grilling burgers for us. Had burgers, pasta from the night before, and beans, and watched My Name is Earl.
Headed to bed around midnight again I think.

Got up around 6am, and got the trailers ready. We were taking both to the ski resort so we could leave straight from their after the races were over.

Got the bikes out, and we headed up the ski lift for the start of the downhill race. I was the third racer to go, the first Mizzou. It was a huge rush, but you only get one run at it, which kind of sucks. My legs were shaking after my run for about 10 minutes because I still had the adrenaline in me.
All the downhill runs finished and they opened up the Dual Slalom course for a little bit of practice before the race.
Eventually the A's races started. Then the B's went, which consisted of 5 Mizzou riders, and 1 Michigan Tech rider. I was the one that got to race the Michigan Tech rider and I got spanked. I blame it on no jumping ability and a lack of a jumping bike :)

Lou won the B's race, Chad won the A's in high-flying fashion (he also won the Downhill even earlier in the day).

Shortly after the DS races the Short track started. C's went, then B's, then A's. Course sucked. Lots of grass climbing, then not much downhill (yeah, what goes up must come down. But if some of it is going sideways then it doesn't seem like much). A's race was brutal. Chad flatted in the first few laps (he probably reached back and cut his own wheel to relieve the pain), John and I pulled ourselves a few laps later. Steve did the same a few laps after us, and then Lou eventually did.

We got our stuff loaded up, and waited for the conference director to tally the results and hand out trophys. Due to our great showing at this race we moved into the 1st place spot among Division I teams in our conference. So we got a nice trophy and a team invitation to Nationals. Chad and John also got awards for finishing 1st and 3rd in the season in gravity events. (DS and Downhill=gravity)(XC and STXC=endurance)

We got back on the rode from the ski resort at 4pm. Many miles, lots of snacks, a hamburger and chicken sandwhich from a convenience store, and lots of water later we got back into Columbia shortly after 7am. Actually Steve's RV was about an hour and a half later than ours because they like to travel a little slower in their beast of an RV.

That's it.

Pictures are here. Not organized at all. I may organize them and re-upload later sometime. Enjoy!