State Champs x2

 

Erin's indoor track season kicked off in December. She runs the distance events, either 1 mile or 2 miles on a 200-meter track. Three of the top 5 women from cross-country returned to the indoor season as well as 2 new middle-distance freshwomen. The girl above ran with Erin in middle school and ended up breaking state records as an 8th grader. As a 9th grader this year with Lexington High, she qualified for US Nationals in 5 different events. 

Erin took a turn at the 4x400 relay in December and her team's time of 4:19 was the team's fastest until late in the season 

On New Year's Eve, while dressed as Hades and exploring the dark Underworld of Claire's basement, Erin walked into a rowing machine with her pinkie toe. We took her in for X-rays, which did not show a break, but did reveal that she has symphalangism of the pinkie toe. This means that her last 2 bones are fused. Apparently ~25% of us are like this and maybe this protected her from a pinky toe break.

Erin took a couple of weeks off from running to recover from the sprain and set a PR for the 2-mile of 12:13.

But a couple of respiratory infections set her back and she wasn't able to improve upon that time later in the season

Meanwhile the Lex girls team was unbeatable during their regular season. In addition to the mid-D and long-distance runners, they had a top-notch sprinter and jumper and thrower and set a record for total points at the League Championship.

At the all-state meet, only the top 8 finishers score in each event. From the 13 events, usually a team score in the 60s is enough to win the championship. From just 4 events, the 1000m, 1 mile, 2 mile, and 4x800m relay, the Lex mid-D and long-D girls amassed 57 points. Adding on the other events took their total to 85 points and a dominant first place finish.

It was their first indoor title in 13 years, and not a single member of the scoring team is a senior, meaning they could bring everyone back next year

For Science Olympiad, Caroline was a captain of the A team. In SciOly, 15 students compete in 24 events across a range of disciplines.

Some events are written tests and others require building a contraption. In the past Caroline has done the written events, but this year she did the build event Bungee. In Bungee, you are given a height and based on the known resistance of your cord, you have to attach a weight that will travel as close to the floor as possible without hitting bottom. Above is surgical tubing that was tried as a candidate material but proved too unreliable. 

 In addition to Bungee, Caroline did Forensics, which she has done previous years, and Entomology, which replaced Forestry as the Biology ID event. Ento allows you to bring a self-assembled 3-inch reference binder and this is their jam-packed version.

Their 1st meet of the year is always at MIT. MIT is considered a National-level meet and attracts teams from across the country. This year 9 of the top 10 teams from last year's Nationals were there. For each event, points are earned based on ordinal position and then tabulated across events, with lowest score winning. Lexington finished 12 out of 71 teams despite bombing a few events, but were 2 spots above their Massachusetts rivals from Acton-Boxborough

The next week they traveled down to Princeton and finished 3rd

And then, after retooling the team partnerships and improving their builds, they won the Brown Invitational, again beating Acton-Boxborough. The stage was set for the State Championships, where A-B had won the past 14 years. Was this going to be Lexington's year?

They did it! By finishing no lower than 8th in any event, their consistency edged out A-B to take home the title.

The National Championship will be held in late May in Lincoln, Nebraska. Is there another trip to the prairie in my future?

Prairie Dice Lost

 For the third year in a row, we ventured into the Great Plains over MLK weekend. Heather was in San Francisco for work and arrived into Denver to meet Tessie and me. Then we were to head into Colorado & Kansas to visit remote NPS sites before flying home from Wichita. We rolled the dice on the weather and were met with snow and bitter cold. A potential car disaster was averted with help from an unexpected source. We arrived home safely and the following week were shocked by the crash of AA5342, the same Wichita-to-DC flight that we were scheduled on just 10 days earlier.

Our Colorado colors were limited to the white and gray spectrum

The snow started just as we left the airport

We couldn't score dinner reservations at Casa Bonita and stayed overnight in Lone Tree. This sign was in the hotel - maybe they ran out of budget, but this looks so sad.

The next morning it was still snowing and the drive on I-25 was a nailbiter 

We stopped at a cat cafe in Colorado Springs

Our first destination was La Junta, "the joint". Thank you Amtrak for offering, but we'll decline the option of arriving here via 22 hours on the Lake Shore Limited from Boston to Chicago and then 18 hours on the Southwest Chief from Chicago to La Junta.

Bent's Old Fort was a waystation on the Santa Fe trail that carried goods and people on the major trade route with Mexico. Surprisingly, on this snowy January day, the fire danger was still moderate.

Due to the snowstorm, the site was closed, and we continued east on the trail

President Biden recently declared Amache a NHS, joining Manzanar, Minidoka, and Tule Lake as former Japanese internment camps

None of the original buildings survive, but that doesn't detract from the remoteness of the site

A little down the road is the Sand Creek Massacre site. In 1864 the US military ambushed the winter encampment of the Arapaho and Cheyenne people who were in the midst of peace negotiations. 

At this point, our trip turned into a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story. Imagine it's 4pm on a Saturday and 10 degrees outside. You're in remote Kansas where towns are 50 miles apart. The sun sets in an hour and your car tire pressure light goes on. You take a look and find a nail in your tire. Do you:

 

A) Keep driving to the nearest gas station

B) Call AAA and request help

C) Change the tire yourself

We opted for A & B. AAA said the wait for assistance would be about 8 hours, at which point we'd be popsicles. At the gas station I refilled the tire, secured a pressure gauge, and learned from the attendant that nobody within an hour's drive could help us. As dusk descended we faced another choice, should we:

A) Drive in the dark 5 hours back to Denver

B) Drive an hour to the interstate and stay at a hotel

C) Continue to our planned destination, a farm that is home to an Airbnb called the Hippie Chic Oasis

 Option A and the thought of being stranded on the side of the road was too frightening.

With option B the fear was that we would wake up in the morning to a flat tire and either freeze to death changing it or wait all day for AAA. After some insider information, we chose option C and headed out to the only roadhouse open for dinner. When we entered the place, the only patrons were sitting at the bar and all eyes landed on the newcomers. We had promised Tessie steak on this trip, and Saturday night was prime rib night, so for $16.95 she got her fill of beef. We all did, even though we ignored the Rocky Mountain oysters. 

The Hippie Chic Oasis is on a cattle farm off County Road J in Colby, Kansas

The farmer's son traveled the world playing guitar and decided to build an oasis in the middle of the prairie

The place was totally amazing with trippy decor and a king-sized waterbed,

lots of plants and warm heated flooring,

a loft

and even a DJ booth. Too bad we weren't in the mood for a party. We slept fitfully worried about the next day's travel

At dawn I checked the tire. Mostly flat. Now who on earth would be on call on a Sunday morning to help us?

The farmer!

The night before, the Airbnb host had told us that they had an air pump and his dad would be up early to feed the livestock. And so sure enough, out came the old man in his head-to-toe coveralls. When he asks where you're from do you say:

A) Kansas City

B) Boston

C) Hippies don't lay down roots, man

We answered truthfully and despite the quizzical look he filled the tire. We could have continued onward to NPS sites deeper into Kansas, but instead we hightailed it back to Denver  

We only stopped once to top off the air. I think that the cold actually helped us because it kept the air pressure down and held that nail frozen in place. From Denver we flew to Chicago but our flight to Boston was canceled due to snow. After an overnight at O'Hare we made it home.