Reindeer Mary had also signed up for the clinic but then
wasn’t able to go. My BT buddy Laura signed up, so I knew there would be at
least one person there to hang out with. Going
to the clinic alone would have been a little like dining out alone (at
least for me) --- it would accomplish the mission but would be kind of lonely and make me self conscious.
At the last minute, my friend Brenda took Mary’s unused registration. This was
perfect since we had done quite a bit of trail riding back in the fall.
The clinic is in Brown County State Park in Nashville,
Indiana, about a five hour drive from home. There are about 3 different ways to
get there. The quickest way was probably via Indianapolis and was mostly
interstate, but this would have involved rush hour traffic around Indy. We
opted to go through Decatur via 36.
Brenda’s TomTom GPS did not approve of this decision and kept trying to send us
to Indianapolis. Then it had a change of heart and began to angrily insist that
we turn around.
Abe Martin lodge |
The lodge was down the NEXT road. A kindly forest ranger
working the gate gave us directions and we found the lodge easily. It’s a
pretty cool place. You can either stay
in the lodge, which is basically a hotel, or rent a small cabin. There are also
larger cabins that could contain a big group.
The Rustic cabin - deceptively roomy |
Interior of Rustic Cabin |
First glimpse of the cabin would lead one to believe that it
was quite spacious. Then we realized that the cabins are split into four
sections and our room was off the back. I think the room measured something
like 12’ x 12’. You had to climb up some steps to get there. The room smelled kind of musty, not really in
a bad way. It had that summer camp feel. The bathroom was small but very clean,
and we had a small microwave, a coffee maker and a dorm size fridge. We had to
do some rearranging of furniture to get the two bikes and luggage in, but it
worked out just fine.
Laura's situation |
Laura had arrived a bit earlier and had the fortune to share
a cabin with a very large, very loud group of people. It was a big family
reunion. There seemed to be a lot of that type of thing going on.
We decided to go to packet pickup. Laura climbed into the
back of Brenda’s car and we drove over to the Rally Campground. We took a wrong turn but eventually found our
way there. Laura tried to get out and
discovered that she was locked in by the tricky child proof locks. Getting lost
in the park and having Laura locked in the back would prove to be a theme for
the weekend.
After packet pickup there was a Meet N Greet at 7. We hung
out there for about an hour and met some cool ladies, then learned our coach
assignments. Brenda and I were in the Beginner Group with Suzanne as a coach.
Laura was in the Intro group, which as it turned out was pretty much the same
as the Beginner level.
Tired after the long day of driving, we drove back to the
lodge, getting lost again. Laura was still locked in the back and had to be set
free. We hauled our coolers up to a patio at the main lodge and drank some wine
and Summer Shandy. I had brought a bottle of Chardonnay and managed to destroy
the lid with a corkscrew before realizing that it had a screw top.
The cabin had a small air conditioning unit and we had set
it on Stun before leaving, mostly to get the musty smell out. It worked quite
well. You could have hung sides of beef
in that cabin. The white noise from the a/c was soothing and I slept like a
rock, except when I heard something scrambling up the exterior of the structure
and running around on the roof. For some
reason I blamed the children at the family reunion next door. Irrational, yes, but I was pretty tired and
had been drinking a bit. Figured I was dreaming and slept like a log.
2 comments:
I was thinking of you this weekend. I wanted Soooo badly to be there. My knee's still being unpleasant, though, so it's a good thing I didn't go.
Can't wait to hear more!!
The cabin looks perfect for a mtb weekend. The colder the better when trying to get a good night sleep.
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