Pride Cometh Before the Fall

Well, I wrote the "Fonthill Airborne Regiment" post a few weeks back before posting it recently, and the old saw about pride and fall came back to bite me in the butt, literally. Feb 3, the boys and I had a fabulous day of boarding, and spent the day really focusing on our carving technique during our lesson with Curtis. So the final run of the day, the final half down Mardi Gras and in sight of the chalet, I decided to do this jump by the lift tower that I pretty much always land...

I landed all right, but then caught an edge and just walloped down hard on my right butt, sliding on my back and headfirst for a good while downhill. When I got up I instantly knew something was wrong, with the feeling like my gluteus had contracted and refused to release. I managed to make my way down but could not bend down and the boys needed to unclip me. I was in so much agony afterwards that, after 2h, I had to catch a lift home. Luckily, my guardian angels Jayne and Dominic were on their way home to Brantford and drove us home. I went to Emergency and luckily nothing was broken, but I was in agony and had so much swelling and bruising that I gained 4.7 kg (not a typo) after a week!

The picture above of my right leg was taken 12 days afterwards, so you can imagine what my entire leg was like! Oh well, I've now regained most of my mobility and lost most of the inflammation weight, but the muscle/bone contusion remains and I'm using the bike to gradually rebuild my fitness.

The Fonthill Airborne Regiment

So I quit the Royal Westminster Regiment back in the 1980s before I got to jump out of an airplane. To make up for that, the boys and I are forming our own airborne glider unit out on the slopes. We've got passes to Holiday Valley in Ellicotville, NY (about 1:40h drive away) this season and we've decided that this is the season we learn to do jumps and tackle (sometimes literally) the terrain park. Rather than just riding the black diamond runs, we're now seeking out every little bit of small terrain and dip in the green and blue runs as an excuse to get airborne.

The shadows underneath the boys' boards prove their jumping abilities, and these were taken pretty much from a near-standstill! The past two times, we learned how to ride on the flat box, and the boys have now taken things further by riding a stack of boxes and also riding/jumping an "A-frame" box!

The great thing with homeschooling is that we go during the weekdays when there's minimal traffic on the roads or the slopes. And the "group" lessons we get with our passes generally end up as private ones. Here the boys are with David (L) and Dom (2nd from R), who have both taught us. Dom is especially awesome and fun to ride with, and we help him out by saving him from teaching beginners...

Snowboarding is just a fabulous day out and a way for us to bond as three boys, plus the bonus is that Debbie gets the day off from having to take care / put up with us!

Syracuse Wildfire Gymnastics Meet

Jacob had a pretty awesome pommel routine

The second gymnastics competition of the year was in Syracuse Jan 25/26 weekend. We'd never been there before so it was a nice road trip with the other boys' parents (Isaac and Ben) despite the sketchy winter weather. I don't think they really believe in plowing the roads around Buffalo. The boys generally improved their performance from 2 weeks prior in Niagara Falls, so there's an upward trend.

The parallel bars are always impressive to watch.

Artsy shot with all the medals to play for on the left, and the boys lining up for the pommel judge.

 Way up high on the high bars.

Zach on the pommels.

Jacob's bronze on the pommel and Zach's bronze all-around. 

Next stop Rochester NY Feb 15/16!

The Coolest Mexican Restaurant in Syracuse

OK, I've been offline with the blog for a long while, so let's renew with a blog about FOOD! We spent this weekend in Syracuse at the Wildfire Invitation gymnastics meet for the boys. Debbie searched out "The Mission" restaurant for us to try, and we went with the Siemens (Isaac competes with the boys).
What a totally cool place. First and most important, the food was fabulous (seafood enchilada for Tim and me, fish taco for Debbie, tacos and others all around). The decor as you can see is really neat too, with the kitchen right there in the shrine/altar area. Yes it was an actual Wesleyan Methodist church (2nd one in the USA) from 1847, and it was also a part of the Underground Railroad during the slavery era. There were lots of archeology from the basement areas, and our waiter Doug was a wealth of info and passion about the history. The church was also a meeting place in the early suffragette movement. The stained glass is all from the 19th century too.
Super fun night out. Thanks to the Siemens for the fun company too!

Blue Ridge Parkway

Tuesday evening, Hunter's dad and I took advantage of the nice evening by taking a drive along the famous Blue Ridge Parkway. It really is an astoundingly beautiful drive. It's along the Blue Ridge mountains, part of the larger Appalachians range running 700+ km from North Carolina through Virginia.

Bedford pretty much sits at the base of the Blue Ridge, with the two prominent "Peaks of Otter" on the horizon from town. On the left I'm at the Peaks of Otter resort atop the parkway, with Sharp Top behind me. Love the colours right now running up the mountain, with the top almost looking purple. On the right we pass by the world famous Appalachian Trail, which extends from Georgia all the way up to Maine. One of my favourite writers, Bill Bryson, chronicled his adventures hiking the entire trail in his book "A Walk in the Woods."

Our target with the tiny village of Buchanan (pronounced Buck-Cannon, here on the right) on the other side of the Parkway. Hunter used to work for a dolomite mine located right next to the village, and we walked along the James River (left) where he often went for hikes during lunch hours. This shot on the left is one of his favourite spots in the country, as he often expects Tom Sawyer to be paddling down. I shot this with a tire swing as a frame. Both diners in town were closed and so was the Peaks resort restaurant by the time we got back there at 8:30pm. Given that Greeks don't even consider going out for dinner until 9:30pm, that came as a complete culture shock! We ended up going to the Liberty Station restaurant (lots of railroads in the region for freight and especially coal), where I had a real North American hamburger for the first time in about a year!

Wednesday, Hunter and I tackled the Blue Ridge by bike, definitely the hardest ride I've done the entire sabbatical. We did the steep climb straight up the "Peaks of Otter" in between Sharp and Flat Top, then continued the steady climb up to the Cold War era radar station (3950 ft, highest point on the right!), before the fun 20 km descent down Thunder Ridge and the final 40 km of rolling hills to Bedford. The BR is really incredible - no advertising or trucks allowed and impeccably paved, so there were barely any cars and they were all tourists. 87 km and nearly 1800 m of climbing, plus somehow the entire loop featured a raging headwind, such that I had to pedal hard the entire long descent just to keep momentum!

Southern Hospitality

Virginia is south of the Mason-Dixon line, which means down-home southern hospitality, lots of greenery and Civil War history. I'm staying with Hunter's dad (also Hunter) in their 1779 stately home - very cool! Hunter senior (he's actually  Hunter Jr and my friend Hunter is Hunter III) is really terrific host and we're having a great time talking about different life experiences. Hunter's dad was director of marketing for rail and mining businesses, and just an interesting man to be with.

Monday night, I got to meet the whole family at Hunter's place over Easter dinner. Note the actually GOOD green beans on the plate, a real treat after 3 months of Greek cafeteria green beans! The middle was this amazing corn pudding that Kate made. At the dinner was Hunter's dad and also Kate's parents. Richard Boyd was in the US Army in the Pacific during WW2, so it was really neat hearing his stories.

In the "I should have known better" department, Hunter's dad aspires to be a bourbon snob, so I tagged along while he educated me on the history and tasting of different bourbons. They ranged from cheap firewater moonshine level up to pretty darned expensive and nice ones, to the point that even I could tell the difference. We also tried them neat and on the rocks to figure out the different flavours. My overall pick was the Jefferson's Reserve neat, with #2 being Bushmills. Of course it all became a bit academic and irrelevant to me by the third sip once the alcohol started kicking in!

Late update: the southern hospitality does NOT seem to extend to the United Air staff at Roanoke Airport! Wow, it's one thing to just be passive and do your job, but they seemed to have perfected the art of actively neglecting you and making every simple request ("Um, here's my ID, can you find my reservation please?") seem like the most unjust and hassling demand. Incroyable!

National D-Day Memorial

The National D-Day Memorial is located here in Bedford, VA. It was awarded to Bedford by Congress because the town suffered the highest per-capita losses on D-Day (19 Bedford soldiers out of 30 died on June 6, 1944). It's a nice bit of symmetry being at Normandy in December and now here. It's located at 3 Overlord Circle (Overlord was the code name for the invasion).

Lots of impressive and symbolic sculptures on site. In the background on the left is the victory arch, with a soldier dragging a comrade in the foreground. On the right is a soldier in the "Scaling the Wall" sculpture, with the "Peaks of Otter" mountains (Sharp Top on the left, Flat Top on the right) behind. The sculpture represents both the individual accomplishments of the US Rangers at Pont-du-Hoc, and also the symbolic scaling of Fortress Europe itself by the invasion.

The English-style garden represents the preparation for invasion in England. The statue of Ike in the cupola has a tile mosaic of the invasion in the ceiling above. Monty's in the foreground on the right, with the arch behind. The flags represent the countries participating in Normandy, with a plaque detailing their roles below each flag.

General Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower is in the cupola at the back on the left, and close-up on the right. The garden is inlaid with the sword symbol of the invasion.

The invasion tableau. Really neat design, with waterspouts randomly firing to represent the gunfire. The iron contraptions are anti-landing craft traps, designed to impale or rip open landing craft. On the right is a symbolic view from inside a landing craft. Note the design replicating Atlantic Wall defensive bunkers that the invasion is attacking and scaling.

The designers have done an admirable job of aiming to register and commemorate every member of the Allied Expeditionary Force that died June 6, 1944 as part of the invasion, regardless of nationality. Overall, the design of the memorial was really quite amazing, telling the story of D-Day in both direct and symbolic representations.

Pond Hopping

After about 36 h of travel (bus to Thessaloniki, city bus, taxi to hotel, early taxi and 18 h of 3 flights), I've made it to Bedford, Virginia, right next to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I'm here because Cutting-Edge Cycling is now officially published, and my co-author Hunter Allen and I are signing about 1000 copies of the book that we're direct selling.

So we spent all of Monday getting carpal tunnel syndrome from autographing 1000 books, along with stuffing envelopes, sticking stamps, etc., all helped by the Allen clan. I never did come up with a clever signature, so stuck with my chicken scratch signature in the name of efficiency!

So this is a new experience. Usually, the family stays in North America while I run off to Europe for research. This time, I've left the family behind in Europe while I run off to North America for business! It was certainly a culture shock being back in North America. It's night and day different, especially compared to a small rural Greek town like Trikala. I've become so used to the Euro way of life that this all seems very foreign to me. Actually understanding the language is also completely jarring in a somewhat strange way, as I've become accustomed to hearing but not completely understanding. Anyway, Bedford is a nice stereotypical American small town of about 8,000. More to come!