March 9th, 2010

I’m back home in Hayward for the first time in over 4 months.  How long is that?  Well, when I walked into my room, my roller ski vest was still hanging on the door to dry after my last roller ski in the rain on October 28, 2009.  The house looks great though.  My roommate and teammate, Brian Gregg, took off after the Birkie last week for Europe and left the house clean and the refrigerator semi-stocked.  Between November 1 and March 1, I actually spent more time in Canada than the United States.  Needless to say, it feels good to be home again.

I almost didn’t make it though. . .

The starter is the latest thing in my truck to go and it took over an hour to finally get it started before I could leave the driveway in Minneapolis.  My first stop back in Hayward was to visit my mechanic.  He agreed that the starter had burned out and was able to install a new starter so that I could make it back home to Cresthill.

That said, I’m in the market for a new vehicle.  I’m looking for a reliable, used wagon (ideally VW Passat or Jetta (tdi would be sweet!), but Volvo, Subaru, Mazda, etc would work) in descent shape with around 100,000 miles.  If you know of a ride for sale that matches this description, feel free to let me know.

The drive back to Hayward was refreshing.  I got to see a couple of bald eagles in the St Croix River Valley. . .

. . .and had the country music cranked with the windows rolled down.

Of course, it felt good to be back where you can buy fireworks year-round.

I’m finally relaxing a little bit at home, listening to pow-wow music on WOJB, the local public radio station from the LCO Ojibwe reservation, while I digest an excellent venison dinner.

I had the opportunity to talk with the Hopkins High School “Captains Council” this morning.  Every month, the Athletic Department hosts a meeting for all Captains and they bring in a speaker.  It was really cool to catch up with former coaches like Rob Fuhr and Mike Harris, as well as to talk with the Hopkins student-athletes, over 50 in all, getting ready embark on their post-high school endeavors.  There was an especially good showing from the skiers, who are just coming off of a solid ski season.

They all had some good questions.  Some questions you can prepare for, others a are a little more unexpected:

Q: “How many years did you have to live out of your truck?”  (from Jack Hinkens, who I’m pretty sure wants to be a pro mountain biker and live out of his truck).

A: “You can’t be a ski racer and live out of a truck–you’d get too cold. . .though I did spend a couple months living in a van down by the river.”

Q: “Did you get Lindsey Vonn’s number at the Olympics?”

A: “What happens in the Village, stays in the Village. . .”