Spring Break

I'm back!

Sorry again about last week.  I was very busy coaching three practices a day.  That makes for a lot of time driving a launch.  But I wore sunscreen from head to toe and came back mostly not sunburned.  My face always gets red, and the backs of my hands did, despite my repeated sunscreen applications.

So, here's what.  R and I took our rowers to Louisiana for spring training.  He and I left last Friday morning for the long drive in the truck.  And the truck...was huge.  It was a Ford F-250 Super Duty extended cab (the top of my head came to somewhere in the vicinity of the hood of the truck), and behind it we were towing a fully loaded boat trailer.  That's right folks, 65 feet of boats, with a total value of, um, a lot.  Plus oars, launches, motors, and other equipment.  It was quite a rig.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of me with the whole business in the background, so you can't see how comically small I looked.

Along the way, we passed by such entertaining Missouri towns as Braggadocio, Hayti (is that just a misspelling of Haiti?), and Cooter.  What fun.  We stopped for lunch at Lambert's Cafe in Sikeston, on BK's recommendation.  It was fast, filling, reasonably priced, and we had bread thrown at us.  Actually, ours was more tossed, but some people got a full-on throw.  Good times!

After a few trailer-driving adventures (including a dead end road and a long single-lane bridge), R and I rolled into the parking lot where we deposited the boats around midnight, right on time.  A quick shower and a good, if somewhat short, night's sleep at the hotel were needed.  The kids' bus arrived a bit late, but they got right to work unloading the trailer and rigging boats.

 

 

You can see the trailer off to the left in this picture of the octuple.  When it's fully loaded, it's quite impressive.

We went out for a swing row on Saturday afternoon, to help the kids get their sea legs under them.  I also had to teach my novices to do racing starts, since we had a race the next day and had never learned how to do them!  It was a fun afternoon.

R and I met up with the coaches from NSU and LSU on Saturday night to finalize our race plans for Sunday, and thank goodness we did.  Sunday's races involved lots of people and equipment, and the section of the lake we were racing on was only two boats wide, so the round-robin style of racing meant lots of back and forth in the launch to the starting line.  We had a good day, though - almost a clean sweep.  We lost one race.

The rest of the week was rowing, rowing, and more rowing.  I coached three practices a day (and thank god for R, who coached four), and the kids worked hard.  We did lots of seat racing, lots of drills and technique work, and even had a little fun.  We took a mid-week break on Wednesday afternoon and took out the octuple, taught the kids to surf in a boat, and learned to scull.  I even got to spend 10 minutes in a single!  I spent so much time driving the launch that I had that feeling of being in it when I got in bed at night.  You know how that happens after you've been on roller coasters at an amusement park all day?  Well, it happens if you spend too much time in a boat too.  I guess I just needed to get my land legs under me.

The big excitement for the kids was our first of two trips to Walmart; we fit right in in the small towns, don't we?  There was an insane amount of food purchased.  Carts full, for just a week.  Then again, we were working them pretty hard, and much of it - including the 15 pounds of ground beef for the men - was eaten.  I just needed to buy some basics - fruit, juice, milk, chocolate milk, pasta, chicken, pesto, Twizzlers, and Almond Joy.  The pesto proved especially challenging:
"Excuse me, can you help me find something?"
"What are you looking for?"
"Pesto."
"What?"
"Pesto?"
"What's that?"
Oh boy.

Friday morning R and I decided to cut down the Marathon Row to a half marathon, since we were racing again on Saturday and didn't want everyone to be too tired.  The rowers had also expressed some concern about injury; apparently last year the Marathon Row was pretty rough.  So that was that.  The crews raced out to the 6.5 mile mark in 8s, then rafted up to make a party barge, listened to music, had snacks, and generally enjoyed themselves.  We switched around into mixed 8s on the way back.  Mixed 8s.  I love rowing in them, and always have, but the kids seem to hate them.  Isn't different supposed to be good?

Friday afternoon I took some kids out in doubles and singles, and even rowed in a double myself for a bit.  Probably up to 20 minutes this time!  That's the most I've rowed in a boat in probably 4 or 5 months!  Hooray!

As for evenings, we had team dinners some nights, R and I got together to strategize some nights, and I ate a lot of junk food.  I did a bit of walking (and even jogging!) around the town, which appeared to be preparing for a tulip festival.  Or maybe they just really like tulips.  It wasn't totally clear.

 

Yesterday we raced WSU, and did pretty well overall.  We lost a couple of big races, but won more than we lost.  On the whole, not a bad morning.

Then R and I began the long drive home.  We stopped at a wide spot in the road called Ida, which incidentally had the best radio station I found on the whole trip home, and guess what I found at the single-pump gas station....Pepsi Throwback!  Holy cow!  This stuff is rare.  So I bought some, and it kept me awake all afternoon.

This trip, the towns I noticed were in Arkansas, and were lovely: Hope (and nary a sign about the Clintons to be seen from the highway, at least not that I noticed; I guess they're not much of a tourist attraction) and Friendship.  They sound great, don't they?  Not sure if they actually are, but whatever.

There was an awesome moment when we turned east on I-40 to cover the distance between Little Rock and Memphis, and were faced with a bright orange full moon on the rise, the largest full moon we've seen since 1993.  I would have tried to take a picture, but I was driving and that would have been dangerous.

We eventually pulled into the boathouse around 3:15 this morning, and I got home about 4:00.  It was then that I realized I had left my contacts, which I had taken out around 11:00 in favor of my glasses, in the truck.  Oops.  Hopefully I can get those back tomorrow.

All in all, I'd say it was a successful and productive trip.  It was great to get to spend some quality time with the kids, and to see them improve so much!