real world: boone

this past weekend a bunch of raleigh/durham folks headed west to boone, nc. or really i guess we were closer to blowing rock.. anyway both are nestled along the blue ridge parkway. the Gaals put together a great plan including a house and all you can eat 24 hour buffets. (that was lovely). since i'm still pretty wiped from the weekend, here's a quick recap and some photos.

thursday- i picked up alysia and bri and we drove the three hours west, stopping on the way to get some "cold stuff", which as it turned out, we guessed wrong on the chocolate:regular milk ratio. we also picked up some swiss cake rolls. that was a good move. arrived at the house. ran thru it yelling and screaming "ooo look at this". then welcomed the other campers as they arrived. dinner and bed. oh and beer.

friday - early wake up call. blah. rode about 45 miles - lots of ups, more ups and some crazy downs. scenery was amazing. did a little T run. all 12 minutes of it.. our house was at the top of the steepest hill you could imagine (about 20% grade) and well we were tired. ha. lunch and rest time. then we all went to a local park for an easy 5 mile run. we actually found some relatively flat paths to run. nice. then dinner, more drinks and bed. whew!

sat- more early mornings. (** note there was some drama here where bri and i almost ended our friendship...) headed over to bass lake for a 10 mile run. 5 up and 5 down. great bridal trail though.. minus the horse dumps... then into town for some goodies - ice cream, coffee, muffins.... wine... home for lunch and nap time.. errr sort of... then off to the pool. a 25 m saline pool. crazy. then home for dinner and well more drinks. and dancing. lots of dancing... oh and a very intense game of pictionary that i think may have resulted in some four letter words... (**note there was some more drama here that almost ended another one of bri's friendships.. yes i had fun this weekend..)

sunday - up early once again..some of us feeling better than others. but 4 of us struck out on a 45ish mile ride over to grandfather mountain and the viaduct. really great ride! then the ride home and some major crashing.




















we were down one VS member.. but she was not far from our thoughts :) missed you!!

**and dont worry.all drama was in jest, and after a few minutes in the confessional all was good :)