Snowmass Mountain States Cup 2009, Part 3

The weekend was fantastic, as I've said before, and here are some peripheral stories that need their own space so as not to clutter up the race stories.

Rather than stay at a condo, we opted for the cheap version: camping. It's always hard to afford the late-summer races, having already spent $ on bike gear and parts, and travel to the early races.

Camping - Day 1
My friend Addie and I hopped in the car on Thursday after work to make the 7.5 hour drive (we made it in 6:20, heheheheheheheheh). Since we couldn't check into the official campground until Friday morning, we ended up doing a sort of car-camping at the park'n'ride at the turnoff for Snowmass Village, just outside of Aspen.

By a "sort of" car-camp, I mean we shoved the gear back in the car, laid the seats back, and got as comfy as could be.

Addie:


Me:


Our campsite (we got woken at 6am by a horrid pounding sound - turned out to be the industrial sprinklers, oops):




Home sweet home, days 2-3
By 8am, on Friday, we had registered for the race, got our number plates, purchased our campsite, and had our new home set up on the soccer field by the rodeo grounds.


With no TV, we had to find ways to entertain ourselves at the campsite when not up at the race venue.

"More bars, in more places." Heh:


It was fun watching the local wildlife (both people and animal). Here's one of our little buddies:






Lift riding
My bike got the luxury treatment all weekend, no hanging off the end for it:


I got a little dirty, but did get to enjoy the sun for the, wait for it, twennnnnnntttyyyyy-fivvvvvvee-minnnnnnutttttttte-lift-rides.


PS - lovely sunset on the drive home: