After a long drive up to Bellingham Washington in a cramped van with the UO collegiate team, I finally arrived at our host house. On the ride up, I had consumed about 4 pounds of pasta, shrimp, and sausage. It was a fine meal. And it did not improve the smell inside the van. Ever since Tuesday, I had been stocking my stomach full of bean burritos and chile. The gas had been building up to dangerous pressure. And it decided to come out during the van ride. My teammates spent the majority of the 8 hour ride with their heads out thew window, gasping for fresh air.
We got to sleep at around 10:30, and woke up the next morning at 6 to a snow covered ground. It began to snow harder and harder as we drove out to the TTT course. Our van (which included Ivar, Karey, Takuya, David H, and Dereck) was getting pumped up with a little Rob Zombie when we got a call from our team coordinator, Adam, that the TTT was cancelled due to snow. I was pissed. When was I ever going to have another opportunity to do a TTT in the snow?
The van headed back to the host house where we slept for another couple hours, waiting to here if the RR was going to be cancelled as well. Mike and I listened to Flight of the Concords–The Humans Are Dead–while wrestling with a German Shepard named Citrus. Our worries were forgotten briefly, then we heard more bad news. The road race was cancelled too. I was pissed.
We headed south to Seattle; and on the ride down I ate an old meatball sandwich that I really hope won’t give me troubles tomorrow during the crit. We got to our next host house and threw our stuff out of the vans and eagerly hopped on our bikes to let out some steam. The most eventful event that occurred during the ride was a train wreck that happened right on the bike path. We were riding among some trolly tracks that went through the street when Andrew rode by Will and I proclaiming that he “was a train.” “Chuga chuga choot chooooooot,” were his last words before he plastered himself across pavement. After we saw that he was alright–except for a torn bib and road rash–Will and I burst into laughter.
I just finished dinner and am sitting in front of an EXTREMELY boring basketball game, sampling some Japanese candy that Takuya just brought back from home. More food has just been brought out. Time to go.
KENNETT PETERSON 