BOONE goes the dynamite

a bunch of us (does 19 constitute a bunch? or a gaggle) headed west to boone nc last weekend for a little riding, a little running and a lot of fun. kern and i left together early evening and managed to fill the entire back of my truck with stuff. there were a few essentials to bring- bikes, little debbie, vodka, clothes, gu, and heathers cooler. the same cooler i brought home from boone last year. the same cooler that made its way to neo, and then found heather only to be left once again with kern..and now finally is making the return journey to boone. funny how that sucker had to go three hours west to refind its owner.

the drive up was good. we always have tons to talk about. we stopped at subway for dinner and kern got into a rather legnthy discussion about the decision by corporate to discontinue the (i think) strawberry cheesecake cookies. i learned more about the inner workings of a subway franchise than maybe the average person should know. thanks for shedding so much light on that topic.

after a bout of heavy rain, we finally made it to the blue ridge parkway. only to find a blanket of fog had descended on the road. visability was about oh 4 inches and it was rather scary knowing that the road just kind of fell off on either side.

we finally found the house and discovered a party going on. i was shocked! (ok not really). lots of hellos and hugs and catch ups. finally to bed with strict orders for rolling out at 8 am.

waking up at camp to a full breakfast spread, including 2 kinds of eggs and pancakes is every girls dream. (errrr maybe just mine). we all fueled up and about 12 of us headed out on a ride toward the viaduct. we were lucky to have a great sag guy Andre, whos a cat 1 rider. serious stuff. we got some really good climbing in and an awesome ride over the viaduct.

there is a pretty sweet downhill coming off grandfather mountain. its just long and straight and goes on for about 4 miles.

back home to eat and get ready for a run. we managed about 5 miles on the greenway.

we loved lou (cari's husband) out riding and running with us. he jokes that he would be 4th over all elite female at the camp. great guy.

that night was more of the same crazy chaos. just a great dinner. lots of wine and some fun people to hang out with. oh and we went thru 2 tubs of ice cream faster than charlie sheen goes thru hookers. we also managed to spend a bit of time teaching some of our more "senior" campers how to actually use facebook.

friday morning brought another ride lead by 2 amazing collegiate cyclists. i spent some time watchign them, their cadence is always super high and they just look like the bikes are extensions of their bodies. so cool.



we hit the pool for a swim, a 25 m saline pool. god that felt good to get that workout over with!

friday night brought out the bartenders. baby guiness shots and purple hooters were on the menu. couple that with birthday cake and its a pretty darn good time.

sat we went out to bass lake to run up a pretty big hill. running a continuous 5 miles UP is not so easy. but the view at the top, where you can actally climb the fire tower is pretty awesome. the cruel part is that the hill gets steeper as you go up.



after a solid 11 mile run, we were down to four and one guy said - lets do strides. UMMM WTF. so in all my stupidity i followed him in 100m increments of trying to bust out to 5th gear. oh what a feeling.



follow that up with a little afternoon in blowing rock. ice cream, pizza, good coffee and soda. the perfect post run picnic.

we had planned a swim that afternoon but a huge storm blew thru and the pool closed. dang it. so not much choice but to start the festivities.

at some point it was decided we would hit this bar (i have no clue what its called) merely due to the fact it had a DJ. upon further investigation (thank you iphone) it was announced that tonight was roller derby night. oh lord. i will give a shout out to our DD, who i think was likely scared she was going to have to make a side trip to the ER when one of us shot our mouth off and ended up with a kicked ass... (didnt happen, phew!).

the night started out.... and then... well.... i cannot even begin to describe the craziness. the things that happened, the words that were said, the state we were in. i'm chalking this one up to a good time. if you DO want to hear the stories i'm more than happy to tell. just making them public might maybe not be in everyone's best interest! ha.

camp was awesome. i'm so lucky to have these amazing friends who also happen to like to run, bike and swim. there is nothing like knowing you have a solid group around you to make life pretty darn good.