Astoria weekend (aka Halloween s***-show)

As with the best plans, this one was devised at the very last minute.  My original plan was to head to Astoria Friday evening after a test which is supposed to cover every engineering topic I learned sophomore year.  Thursday morning I learned that plan wasn’t going to happen.  After a huge flurry of emails and phone calls the perfect plan worked out:  I would skip work, bio class and that huge test and head out to Astoria Friday morning, giving me the chance to hang out, pre-ride in the gorgeous weather and just generally enjoy not being in school.  I never really took a fall break so this was going to be it for me.  And that it was. 

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Dinner Friday night

the flagpole of distraction

When we got to Astoria the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  Barely a cloud in the sky, temps in the mid-50s and barely anyone around.  G, J and I took a sweet little spin around Astoria; up to the Astoria column, cruised through some cool neighborhoods and just opened the legs up for Saturday.  Then we hit the condo.  Once we got everyone in the same place the party really started.  Homemade sushi by R and T: AWESOME!  There was a subsequent disappearance of 2 bottles of sakѐ and a case of beer and then someone came up with the brilliant idea to walk down to the Sandtrap (a McMinnemans located on the same golf course our condo was).  You know how when you walk somewhere at night it seems a lot different than when you see it in the day?  This was a really good example of that (not to mention the very “uninhibibted” mindset of our current company).  We started walking knowing that the Sandtrap was “that way” (ish).  Then we got distracted by this awesome flag pole.  Then one of us decided to take us down to the beach.  Mind you, only one of us has any clue where we are and he’s pretty toasted at this point.  Eventually the 2 sober people are able to convince the 3 smashed ones that there’s no way we should go wandering through backyards, scrambling up goat paths and blindly follow a smashed person all to see the ocean…at night.  45 minutes after leaving the condo we finally arrived.  Like all McMinnemans it’s an awesome bar but our crowd was instantly drawn to the sculpture above fireplace: a mermaid with nipples the size of tatertots.  Needless to say there were multiple pictures taken.  We eventually made it out of the bar and stumbled our way back to the condo; it took about 25 minutes.  I wake up in the morning and look down the driveway, the Sandtrap is 110 meters down the road—not even kidding.

preparing for the journey to the Sandtrap

turns out they're called bladed spoked for a reason.
note to self:  next time, tighten skewer while off the bike

Saturday’s race was awesome with a few stupid portions thrown in:  long up and downhill sections, an incredibly fast barrier section and lots of stupid hairpin turns.  Take out the hairpins and I would have dominated this course.  That said, I did pretty damn well.  It seems like every time we hit the long hill I drop everyone and hit the top with a 5 second lead.  Apart from majorly sucking in the hairpin sections and a few mechanical issues I raced pretty well. Aside from a thrown chain which lost me about 6 spots and having to tighten my front quick release, twice, while riding (see picture) I was able to fight it out until the end and finish 22nd-best place yet!  Once the race was done it was on to Saturday night.  Saturday lap times:  7:05 (lead lap is shorter), 7:24, 7:32, 15:06 (2 laps), 7:33, 7:32, 7:42, 7:31.

The agenda:  Cross Crusade bonfire-10 gallons of Laurelwood beer, P.A.C.E./Hammer party, another 10 gallons of Laurelwood and then wherever the night takes us from there.

What really happened:  we showed up at the fairgrounds for the bonfire and I could have been convinced we were in the middle of a monsoon.  Rain was pouring down and somehow the bonfire was still going.  Someone had turntables set up out of the back of their car and it felt more like a rave than a bonfire in the middle of an ocean storm.  Take a look at this video.  You can’t really see much but it gives you an idea of the atmosphere.  Needless to say, we were pansies and peaced out after we picked up stuff from the team tent.  Next up:  Rouge Brewery and the P.A.C.E./Hammer party. 

     Let’s just say this was less than we anticipated.  Kind of small and it seemed to be dwindling by the time we got there.  We took our beer and peaced. 

view from the condo.  Hell yes!

      From there it was off to the Shipyard; two pirates at Rouge told us there was a KISS cover band playing so we figured it was worth checking out.  This falls into the category of “you have to be there” so I’ll drop a few pictures but be assured that everyone had quite the time; particularly J who danced until 1 am. 

     I’m going to save Sunday’s shenanigans for a separate post.