prelude to CT camp

After a one year hiatus, I'm back up in Lakeville, CT for my ninth CT Camp. I came up today, a day early, a bit unmotivated yet with work to do before the camp begins tomorrow. I had a small turnout for this camp, with five cancellations in the last two weeks. On top of the fact that this camp will be a net loss business wise, I have a ton of things going on at home with kids activities, pt clients, ... So, my motivation was a bit lackluster to say the least.

Driving up, it was a perfect weather day and I didn't back up my car with my two expensive bikes on it into anything, so as Bill Murray would say, "at least I got that going for me". I met Jeff Molson up here today who was going to get in some training while I rode and marked some of the courses. Soon into our ride, I began to relax. The weather certainly was perfect today, but more importantly it not only felt great to be back up here, it felt right. This is hard to explain unless you have been here and trained up here. We talked about certain memories over the years on specific roads and it was just a great f'n ride. We then did a nice trail run and followed that up with a great dinner of seared tuna chased with a few local pale ales. I have other camps in more exotic places, but, and again, if you have been here, you'd understand and agree, this camp is the best one out there. Yes, it's better than Tucson, and yes, it's better than LP. Those are both great camps, but this one has everything, and it's as scenic if not more, and definitely more challenging than the other two.

I still remember the first year that Gus E. was considering coming to this camp. His dilemma which he voiced to me was "it's a bit expensive and it's just in CT." When he witnessed first hand what he received, - well, Gus has been back every year since. One year, he would'nt leave - we all left on the last day and he hung around! Hopefully, in the future, some more will take advantage of this experience. And if they don't, it's their loss. Bottom line is that it didn't take long today for me to get charged up for this camp. Also, it didn't take long for this place to de-stress me, and make me realize how cool my life is.

The campers have some serious fun in store, and I'll keep reporting on it here.

Cheers,

EH