I have to get up at WHAT time?????

That was the theme this past weekend in New Hampshire. You see my wife entered a Triathlon with her uncle in and around Lake Winnipesaukee on Saturday August 16th. As a good husband I drove her there and gave her as much support as possible. But no where did I agree to awaken at an ungodly time... Saturday I had to wake up at 4am, so that I could do my business, shower and be alert and ready to drive there at 5am. I've have never had such a tough challenge except maybe when I lost my virginity, of course in retrospect, the obnoxious, skinny girl with a back in 1978 wasn't that much of a challenge... But that's a story for another blog...

(Time for pee break or grab some coffee, this is gonna be a long one)

My wife has been tremendously understanding as I work too many hours too far from home. So when she cast out the line and said, "will you go with me?" I lunged at the hook.... (a little fishing reference since this is a story took place in New Hampshire), Friday she met me at my sisters in Woodbridge,CT at 9 ish, at that point we headed north... My car had been cleaned and defumigated from dirty socks, fastfood leftovers, stale coffee and the occasional cigar... her only complaint was the air freshener was little "overwhelming", mission accomplished I might add....
I had my standard Dunkin Donuts Large coffee for the ride... By the time I hit Hartford, (40 miles or so) I was ready for another coffee, by Springfield, MA I was ready for a pit stop. About ten miles from the MA/NH border I had to pull over... Nice trees on the side of I-91.. Okay, so we are back on course, and as we hit the border it's hard not to marvel at the mountains just north of us. You seem to forget how infinitesimal we are to the world around us... it's beautiful, but this great country has many outstanding views... I would like to digress, a big thank you to my nephew Garett for letting us use his Garmin GPS, we had fun with it, of course we called it Tom... Driving on we made good time, as we departed the interstate and jumped on Rte 5 to cross over the river from Vermont to New Hampshire and start our last 20 miles thru the mountain roads, I had to stop again to ...ummm.... see more trees on the side of the road...
We finally made the trek to Highland Street in Plymouth to her Uncle's house a mere 3 1/2 hours later... We gave my mother-in-law her birthday present, and did a quick tour around the property, it had been a year since we've been there, and Uncle Phil had a beautiful stone wall put up with a gate with granite pillars, (granite pillars are to New Hampshire what chain link fences are to prisons.... apparently common and desired) At this point I snapped a picture of the flowers, etc and this butterfly... Diana, her mom, Uncle Phil and myself headed for the Winnipesaukee to register and drop off the bikes, this trip saves me from getting up even earlier on Saturday, race day. We drive with Garett's Garmin, a/k/a Tom, but Uncle Phil directs us a different way than the GPS says, We head to Gunstock resort to register. It's on top of the mountain overlooking the lake, they had to register and get their packets and then head to Ellacoya State Park on the shore of the lake to drop off the bikes for the race. The New Hampshire Humane society had a tent at Gunstock and we stopped there to give a donation check to them, my wife, (actually me) went online and registered with firstgiving.com so that animal lovers like ourselves would donate to the NHHS. She raised $580 online and another few bucks with checks. So thank you to you all, (thank you from Diana to her friends, Marion, Suzanne, Sandra, Lucia, Jackie, Neil & Leslie and my friends, Billy Cal & Melissa, my childhood best friend Brian, Colleen & Jim, my Budweiser salesman Geoff and my niece Briana, a/k/a Beezer).We then dropped off the bikes and every time I am loading the bikes or opening my rear hatch I get the grease from the chains on me.. As I complain, I hear my wife in the background, "suck it up... it's just grease"...
We then headed back to Plymouth for dinner. Diana and I ate at The "Plymouth House of Pizza", they had redone the place, new paint, new carpet, same old old chairs and tables, but it was nicer than last year. At one point I ventured over to the bar area, surrounded by pool tables I was staring at the TV, as the Little League World Series were being televised, and a NH ruffian asked me, "What are you looking for??" I said, I'm looking for the Shelton CT little league team, his response, "yeah... they beat my little brothers team last week..", I smile and apologizes then headed back to my wife and ate my salad and burger... Back to the room, at the Red Carpet Inn, which was a 1 star motel at 10 star pricing... We watched the Olympics and I forced myself to sleep early as I mentioned I had to awaken at 4am... ARRRGGGHHHHH....

At 4 am my wife nudged me awake with a broom handle, knowing I wouldn't be receptive to that hour, I only bit off 8 inches of the handle before I came out of my grogginess... We picked up Mrs. McEwen and Uncle Phil and headed to the race... My eagle eyes spotted an open Dunkin Donuts on route 3, I cut right sharply (squealing my tires), threw my wife a 10 spot and pushed her out of the car for my coffee, I think her mother wanted to tell me to stop the car first before pushing her daughter out, but in the rear view mirror she could see my red swollen eyes and foam dripping from my mouth, so she said, "can I have a tea", instead...
We continued on our path to the lake shore. We made it in time to park close to the race.. At this time my coffee was almost empty and the foam was starting to brew at my mouth again and then through the fog, like an oasis in the desert, I saw it.... A Dunkin Donuts truck parked by the portapotty's... I ran over, leaving my mother-in-law in the dust and ran to the back of the truck where two young, sleepy DD employees were setting up, and I thanked them, (I'm sure they wondered who is this moron thanking them at 5:30 in the morning was). I'm sure they will know who I am soon...Uncle Phil's swim was at 7:15, Diana's 45 minutes later.. It's a swim first, bike second and finished with a run... Sounds easy right??? Not exactly, first off, you swim in the lake which seemed bigger than the state of Rhode Island, (most things are), with others in your class, arms flailing. legs kicking, it's no wonder someone doesn't drown... but here comes Uncle Phil, lime green swim cap up on shore... I cheered from him, but with all the commotion and the noise he didn't hear me. I waited for the yellow caps, my wife's class. Here she comes, coming out of the water smiling, a far cry from her first tri in Florida 8 years ago, when she came out of the Disney World lagoon with tears in her eyes...

If you have never been to an event like this before, you should go to one, besides the obvious, it starts way too early, it's a great event, all the spectators cheer and encourage one and all... There were 1000 people in this race, all shapes and sizes, in fact "Team Anger" had a few guys that looked like Chris Farley & Artie Lange, wearing Speedo swim trunks, I believe in some southern states this practice is against the law... As this behemoth lurches out of the water with flesh and skin jiggling, a few small children ran for cover. But kudos to them, this is no easy feat...

It was then time for the bike. I jogged over to the transition area to cheer my wife on, once again she was smiling, (go figure), off to the races with her new Specialized carbon fiber bike, (it's extremely light weight helps in any race). I snap a shot of her then head to the bike finish line to snap a shot her coming back in. Needless to say, at my advanced age, I couldn't tell if it was her flying down the hill, so I snapped about 15 pictures of people that I thought was her... By the time I realized it was her, I got a blurred shot... oh well, there's always next year. She made it through her transition to the run quickly. Then off to jog the last leg...
The beauty of an event like this is you end up cheering for everyone, and with everyone's bib numbers, is their first name, so you can bark out encouragement to all. by this time, my voice is hoarse, my hands are numb from clapping and I'm due for more caffeine.. But who can I complain to???

I see Uncle Phil finishing his run, and then I catch my wife almost at the last stretch run...
They finish.... GREAT JOB to them both....
My wife was in the upper third for all women... and Uncle Phil finished in third place for his age group... TREMENDOUS effort for them both.. I was proud of them both and for a fleeting moment I thought I could attempt this next year.... Just a fleeting thought, (honey I'm kidding, it's for comedic value, there's no way I can do this, even if you trained me for a year, so don't even ask..)...They both had snacks after the race provided by the sponsors... We waited around for the award ceremony... That's where Uncle Phil got his medal.. Then headed back the "Foster" Inn... The house that Uncle Phil lives in during the summer has been in their family since the early 1920's. It's a 28 acre plot with a gorgeous colonial built in 1804. The house has great old photos of the previous owners and some of the Simpson/Foster/Adams/Gore lineage If you're nostalgic you'd love it... Mrs. McEwen stays there with her brother in the summers and they both spend winters in Arizona in their respective homes...

My father-in-law, Kenneth Arthur McEwen is buried about a l mile away. Passing away early last summer after arriving from the west. A former US Marine who served this country in WWII. I brought my wife to the cemetery and saw the stone and bronze medal flag holder supplied by a grateful government. I'm sure he was watching with pride his brother-in-law & his oldest daughter during the contest.

Diana & I had lunch at Plain Jane's Diner, a short distance from Plymouth in Rumney, I had a salad & a burger... It's a cool little diner right out of the '50's and it has a cruise night every Wednesday for classic cars... Maybe next time we're here, it will be a Wednesday and we'll go...

Back to the room, and exhausting day to say the least, my hands are throbbing.... voice still a little strained, but I think I can gut it out a bit more...
Diana and I take a nap, it's only 1pm... wow.... you get a lot done when you wake at up early... We have dinner with Mrs M & Uncle Phil at Foster's Inn.. I ask, but they tell me it is no relation to them... I have a burger and a salad...

Head back to the magic carpet ride motel... their slogan is.... "located in the woods, but priced for the big city" .

We left for home on Sunday morning, hooked up Garett's Garmin again then tormented it with wrong turns to upset the womanly voice... By the time we hit Plain Janes for breakfast the Garmin was saying stuff like... "Garett listens to me" and "Garett never takes alternate routes" and finally, "Bring me back to Garett please"...

All in all, it was a great weekend, the only flaw was it wasn't long enough... I hope to come back to New Hampshire soon, and of course it would be nice to have my wife there too...

Just for the record... Diana... I was kidding I am not going to enter in next years Timberman event..... (but I am man enough to admit that my wife can outrun me and beat me up...)

Great Job to Diana and to Uncle Phil... and a Happy Birthday to Pippa too!!

I can't wait until next year, when I have to get up at WHAT time?????