Boy, where to start? On friday we took off right after work, headed for the Howardville Pits. It was extremely windy until about 3 in the morning. I was the only one from my family tenting at the pits that night...the rest of them opted for cushy accommodations at the Friesens and the Friesens. It was quite the adventure setting up my tent in the dark, with 50 - 60 km/hr winds. People offered to help, but I figured it would be more adventureous doing it on my own. There is no soil in a gravel pit. Therefore, you cannot peg a tent down. Good thing the pit is full of rocks. Big rocks. Which also make for awesome, albeit somewhat dangerous and technical bike trails. Speaking of the trails, kudos to the guys for doing an awesome job building, marking, and altering the trails (the lowest part of the pit was full of water, so they constructed a sweet rock bridge across it). The weather on race day was almost ideal, except for the icy cold air. Most people were hacking up a storm after the morning laps, because it hurt the lungs to consume so much cold air. The forecast of snow and cold weather was a little too much for some teams which dropped out prior to the race. There were 11 teams racing, up from 6 teams last year. The competition was pretty fierce. We actually had the lead after the first lap, but ended up finishing 8th, with 28 laps. The race was fairly close, with 6 or 7 other teams also completing 28 laps. Apart from the brutal pain of the actual racing, a great time was had by all.
The rest of the weekend was great too. We went to church with Keith and Stace, and then ate a feast at Keith's parents place. Keith made up a ping pong tournament, and Mr. Friesen was crowned ping pong champ...he's amazing. The weather on Sunday was crazy. It was super windy again, and it rained, sleeted, snowed, and drizzled, in between periods of beautiful blue skies. Weird.
I wanted to keep this post fairly short...guess it's too late for that. I had the day off today, and I went on a sweet drive out in the country. I drove down all these little dirt roads, and I had no clue where I was. It was beautiful. Anyone who says southern Manitoba is just a boring prarie landscape has never left their yard. I'm starting to think I may never have to leave Manitoba to go some place cool. I think I'm gonna get my self a real good map, a GPS, and see how many different roads I can travel, and how many little hick towns I can visit.
Anywhoos, I've gotta hit the sack...the is going to be another crazy-busy week. Ta ta for now,
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