Maine

We bought our house in Maine almost 9 years ago now. We've gone through cycles with it, from going there virtually every weekend of the year to recently, in the past couple of years, barely going there at all. We've contemplated selling it as it's a fairly hefty drive to get there, in fact as I was sitting in standstill RT128 traffic on the way up today the thought was fresh on my mind.

For the past few years we have done exactly zero alpine skiing, though we have done more and more nordic skate skiing. Our DH MTB have long since vacated the basement as have out dirtbikes. We do still have a pair of snowmachines, which have gotten very little use the past couple of years. There are of course the big rides that we do from here, usually once or twice a year, that tend to be a real highlight of the season. This spring in fact we did a great weekend with a number of folks and got a stellar Friday notch century in that unfortunately ended with a near season ending crash for one person. Another key ingredient to the lack of use has been racing. In all honesty, the bicycle racing has become all consuming for the past few years. There simply hasn't been much of any room for anything else. To top all of this off I absolutely hate driving and voila, a recipe for an unused residence.

This fall we have both been feeling a little burnt out on the scene, so we have been retreating to Maine more than in the recent past. This is good. Maine is therapeutic.

On tap for this weekend is some really low key racing, assuming the weather holds for tomorrow and we don't get any rain. The race tomorrow is a two part, with a TT up the first couple miles of the Mt. Washington auto route and then an afternoon crit in StoryLand. The final stage is Sunday and is a full cyclocross race at Great Glen. The race is called the Porky Gulch Classic and we have done in two times in the past. Needless to say it is a lot of fun. This is going to be a great weekend.