Christmas Eve Flying

The weather was finally nice enough today to do a little flying! I don't have that much to say, so I'll just illustrate the pictures.

Our 1956 Cessna 180 in the hanger at Airlake Airport. Notice the 1941 Piper Cub we (dad, grandpa, and brother as I don't live close enought to help right now) are restoring in the background.

Yours truly at the controls after shooting a number of fairly decent landings at the Fairbault airport. I actually suprised myself as I haven't flown the plane on wheels for quite a while.
Final approach into Airlake.
It was a fun flight. Hopefully I can make it out again in the next week.
Merry Christmas to everyone! Have a great Christmas!

Winter Wonderland

It was a beautiful morning here, with a couple inches of fresh snow, something I haven't seen the past couple of Christmas's. The temp was right about freezing, so the snow stuck to the trees, making for a picturesque view out my back yard.

I then met Morgan (friend from Caltech, from MN) for a couple hours of XC Skiing. This was my first time on skate skis, and while I was hoping to look like this,
I got used to this view pretty quickly. Actually, I only fell a couple times right off the bat, and then sort of figured out how to do it.

It was a good time, and I can tell that I used muscles I don't normally use, like my arms. Tomorrow, more skiing at Battle Creek Park in St. Paul.

Now, more sitting by the fireplace.

Fireplaces and cookies

I'm now back in MN. The traffic from the airport to home reminded me of being stuck on the 10 freeway between 3pm and 2pm (yes, I do mean that). But there is snow on the ground, and I'm pretty exicted about that, as the past couple Christmas's have been pretty brown. Anyway, after getting home, I slept by the fire and really didn't want to move. The cookie eating has also commenced. This is going to be bad. XC skiing tomorrow morning. Should be fun. Here are some pics from today.

I fell asleep in the chair on the right side.

Here are my parents enjoying popcorn by the fireplace.

Storm the Beach

I did my last cyclocross race of the season two weekend ago, and I must say, it's been a great season. Thanks to Jason and the whole Bearclaw team for introducing me to cross and a great season!

The course was truly different than any of the other courses this season with a few long straight aways that reminded my of why I love road racing. Get in the drops and lay down the power (if I had any, that is). The race oppened with maybe a K of mostly flat fireroad and there was definitely some fighting for position going into the first muddy section. I participated in said fighting and was happy with where I was going into the ridable lane through the mud. Unfortunaly, a couple of the riders in front of me slowed and I couldn't save my line, riding off the trail. At this point everyone passed me and I was left to fight my way as far up as I could get. It was particularly difficult to catch people as drafting was important, but I had a good time chasing and doing all I could to stay in front of Jason Siegel for the entire race (I was ultimately successful in this goal). After the muddy section, there was a section of deep sand leading to the straight away along the beach, and I full on crashed twice going into it. (over the bars, superman style). While it knocked the wind out of me the first time, the sand was soft and neither time really hurt.

I finished 10th overall and 8th in the P/1/2. Fritz finished 2nd, Lyle finished 4th ahead of Tony Criz and Jason finished a couple spots ahead of me.

Now, enjoy some pics and a video of me looking smooth over the barriers. Thanks to Brooke and Lyle for some of the footage!

I should also mention that I grew (or rather attempted to grow) a mustache for the race as all my team mates had also done so. Two weeks and what you see is all I got!