Dave and Christine's Weblog: Camping + Racing

We finally got around to camping Father's Day weekend (and I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures two weeks later). We drove across Maryland to Deep Creek Lake and set up camp at Swallow Falls State Park. Swallow Falls is a small park with a few water falls nearby. We've been there once before in the dead of winter. It looks quite different without a foot of snow covering everything.

We got there Friday evening and set up camp. Then we headed to the Wisp Ski resort to practice for the mountain bike race I was going to race in the next day. The Racer's Edge had set up a real nice dual slalom course. I got in a few practice runs while Christine pushed Jamie up the mountain in his stroller then we headed back to camp, made dinner, and attempted to go to bed.

It seemed traffic on interstate 70 and Jamie had other plans. We heard rumors that traffic had jammed up on I-70. This meant that people who had planned on coming to the mountains were delayed greatly. (We left really early and missed all the traffic). People were coming in to the camp site all night long and unfortunately tents do not provide much shelter from noise or car headlights. It was also significantly colder than we had anticipated (upper 40's). Jamie did not approve and had fits of screaming at various intervals all through out the night. It was pretty miserable, for him, for us, and for the entire campground!

As is usually the case he was in perfectly good spirits again by morning. Here he is cuddling up to Dad the day before Father's Day:

Saturday it was back to the race course. I didn't do so well in my race but I still had a blast. It's funny. I felt like I had a great qualifying run as was really pumped but then when they posted the times, I was 12th out of 14, just behind the fat kid and the guy who wrecked. I was pretty bummed. I guess I should just be happy at least I felt like I had a good run. During my race run, I beat the guy out of the gate and through the first 2 turns and then he passed me. I was doing pretty good keeping up but then I came into the 4 pack too hot and with my wrong foot forward and that was the end of that. I think he came across the line 4 or 5 lengths ahead of me. Then it was time for beers.

I didn't get to ride to much else. I concentrated on practicing for the dual. I did ride the Saturday DH course once. It seemed really easy to ride, but maybe not really easy to ride fast. The high speed grassy section at the bottom was just plain fun. I thought the jump line at the top was really slow. I heard that the Sunday course was much more technical. I probably should have gotten over to check it out but I just ran out of time and energy. It took a lot of work to push the bike up the dual course over and over.

Here's a random shot of me coming over the finish line hip during my race run:

Sunday was Father's day. Jamie's present to me was to only wake up once in the night with little or no screaming! Yea! Rest, what more could a Dad ask for? We had a nice leisurely morning in camp, got everything packed up and then went out for pizza. After lunch, we went back to the park and took a hike. We tried out the backpack again after having put it away for a month or two. In an earlier post, I reported that Jamie was too small for the pack and didn't like it. Now he loves it. He laughs and giggles when I put him in and pick him up! He likes being up high and playing with the back of my head and pulling at my ears.