As I now sit in Geneva, NY, t minus 14 hours until the start of the Musselman Triathlon, with my nerves going through the roof (if that were really possible)...I think that means this is the perfect time to bring a little humor into the day, and share the story of our trip to this wonderful town.
We started the day off with packing my parents Explorer completely full. But Cedric was able to be packed in, while minimizing the risk of damage. I'll not give you any suspense to this bit, and let you know now that he made it to NY in once piece. Well...technically 2 because I did take off his front wheel. Needless to say, all is well on the bike front.
So...since my dad has already been to a triathlon before, we started off by trying to prepare my mom a bit for what she would experience over the next few days. Her immediate question was "where did you get this desire to do crazy things from?"
I think now would be a good time to share a couple of anecdotes about my Grandma Stein.
Perhaps one of the most famous stories about my Grandma as a young girl involves a large hill, and a pair of roller skates. Oh yes, and train tracks. So...do we really think this story is going anywhere good? Anyway, the story goes that my Grandma was out roller skating one day, like kids did back in the day, and my Grandma thought it would be a good idea to skate down this hill. And of course, at the bottom of this hill was a set of train tracks. So as my Grandma is skating at speeds no human should skate down a hill (without a helmet, or any other type of protective gear) she notices that there are, in fact, train tracks at the bottom of the hill. So of course, by the time she gets there, she has no viable means to stop. So she just jumps over the tracks, and continues skating. No harm, no foul. Just another day in the life.
Of course, this is also the girl, that when provoked by her older brother, chased him around the entire house with a broom threatening death upon his head.
So...does anyone else have any questions about where I got this from?
I didn't think so.
So after I reminded my mom about this...she kind of kept quiet about the whole situation. The mere fact that the crazy gene skipped a generation is not my fault.
So now onto the remainder of the story of our roadtrip...I'll also mention that the past week, I've been drinking approximately 2 gallons of water a day...at least. Which really is probably only about a half gallon more than normal for me. I know, I know, I'm not human. But this also meant that I had to pee about every 15 minutes. Maybe 30 if I could stretch it. And I swear, I informed my parents about this. I told my dad that a well hydrated athlete was worse than a toddler in the middle of potty training. Did he believe me, or perhaps realize the reality of this situation? Of course not!
So it's an hour into the drive, and not only am I need in dire need, so is my mother. HA! It's not all my fault! Then it's another hour into the drive. Uh...dad? :) And by this time, it's to the point in the day where I've already had my second breakfast, so I'm thinking about where we're going to eat lunch. We finally decide on a Lonestar in some town that I couldn't remember the name of if you paid me. Lunch time also typically means more caffeine time for Johanna (and this, of course, is not something wise to deprive me of) so I order coffee with lunch. And it's possible I might have drank 2 cups in addition to the 3 glasses of water I drank. My dad was hoping we would be able to at least make it outside the city limits before needing another stop. Well...we did. Barely. An hour later...Dadddddeeeeeeeeeee...I have to peeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! So we start looking for places, and the only thing available is a small convenience store in an even smaller town. I rush in the door, and must have had a crazy look on my face. Two guys in the store immediately told me where the bathroom was without me even needing to ask. Whew. At some point over the next couple of hours, I'm pretty sure I drank more water. And I'm pretty sure I took a little nap, because the next thing I knew, we were in NY, and we had to make another stop. At this point, I realize we're about an hour from Geneva, and we're probably going to make it there without another necessary pit stop. That is, until we got to Watkins Glen. And what do we see as we're driving through town? A cute little shop advertising Vegan Soft Serve. Sorry folks, but this is an emergency. We're going to need to stop. Right now.
It was amazing, and completely, utterly, ridiculously the right thing to do. I smile at the mere thought. And of course, it's good to have your priorities straight.
Back on the road...we finally get to Geneva, and check into the Athlete's Village (which was much more of a disaster than it should have been, but we survived. We were able to bring in at least one load of luggage. And then it was off to the MicroMussel. Let's just say, it has been a LONG time since I have laughed that hard. Or seen so many adults trying to ride a tricycle.
But I guess you might be wondering what we did during this lovely road trip, other than worry about where were going to be able to stop to pee. I was a little worried about the drive because I'm not a huge fan of road trips. I really am not a fan of spending that much time in a vehicle. But this was really lovely. And there's no other way to describe it. The drive up is utterly gorgeous. I was a little disappointed that the drive through Gettysburg really doesn't show anything cool, like a battlefield or something. But hey, you DO get to see the outlet malls. It's nearly all through the mountains, and the last hour as you're along Lake Seneca was breathe taking at times. So instead of my normal "hurry up and let's just get there already" it was really nice to be able to relax, and enjoy what we saw along the way (and ate) and get there when you get there.
Final tally:
160-ish oz of water
2 cups of coffee
7 stops
340 miles
8.5 hours
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