Promoting - The New Trailer

One of the challenges of the 2014 Bethel Spring Series p/b Outdoor Sports Center (that's a mouthful right?) is that this year I made the "all in" commitment to using a trailer for registration. I pondered the idea of using a trailer for registration for a while, but with the white 15 passenger van (aka the Death Van) a less than ideal tow vehicle, I had to put my trailer thoughts on hold for a while.

Last year I finally decided that the van had to go. In place I chose to get a tow vehicle instead of another big cargo van. The van would allow me to haul everything for a race inside the van. I briefly considered a Sprinter van but they were too expensive.

On the other hand a tow vehicle would not carry two leaf blowers, nor would it carry everything else I normally bring to Bethel. I'd need another container to carry that stuff.

I'd committed myself to a trailer.

I figured I could use a tiny trailer initially, like the one we used before. It's small, easy to haul, and would hold all the big bulky stuff no problem. It had a 1000 lbs weight limit but that seemed reasonable. Two leaf blowers, two tents, grate covers, tables, chairs, cones (they're heavy!), generators, gas cans, some propane, stuff like that. 1000 pounds, give or take.

But then the race situation changed. I'd need to have registration outside. It snowed a lot so I'd need/want a snow thrower, over 200 pounds all by itself. I needed to move the finish line onto the grass, and in the spring it's really "mud with a few blades of grass in it". Without the small trailer for the finish line I thought I'd need a platform. Stuff like that.

I made a pretty quick decision for me, all motivated by the dramatic change in the set up of the races. Granted, we could have gone back to the original set up, with tents and stuff, but I wanted something a little more rugged, a little less stressful (losing tents is stressful; wind lifting tent legs up is stressful).

I went to a trailer place on the recommendation of someone that knows some of the businesses in the region. The sales person initially listened to what I asked for but then the sales manager asked me what I wanted.

That was key.

I was thinking a big trailer which I'd then modify with windows and such. I figured I could get by for one Bethel without the mods but then I'd spend time and money (probably more of the latter) dealing with getting stuff installed - a 110v circuit, concession windows on the side, storage inside.

I explained all this stuff and the sales manager had the sales person go into a trailer configuration thing. It's sort of like building a bike, where you pick a frame and then go through the components, the extras, stuff like that.

We started with a basic 8.5' x 20' trailer, a "car hauler". By definition the car hauler would carry a car, it had tandem axles (two axles) with brakes, and it would be a legal maximum 8.5' wide on the outside and 20' long on the inside. Base price was pretty low, given all the prices I'd seen.

I added concession windows, a ramp rear door for easy of use, a 110v set up for use with an external generator, some extra lights on the outside, and that was really it. I had an awning on but I decided to remove it from the list before finalizing it, for a number of reasons.

Since it was already late January (the race stuff was happening early-mid January), I had to commit to the order almost immediately. The standard 8-10 week delivery would put the trailer in my hands around the middle of the Series. Not great but I wasn't thinking of buying the trailer this year so it had to do. I'd rent a trailer in the meantime.

Unfortunately I couldn't rent from the same place - their rentals were already reserved. I headed out an hour plus away and rented a 7x16 trailer, a smaller size, one that I'd checked out at the first trailer place and rejected as "too small". The rental place didn't do 8.5x20 so I had to make do with the small trailer.

I didn't know it then but that was the best thing that could have happened to me. I got some practice with the 16' long trailer, and believe me, it was the most nerve-wracking experience when I drove the trailer home.

I loaded it up but it lacked D-rings on the floor so I had to strap things down to the camera platform, basically a really heavy 4'x8' shelf. I used pallets on either end to keep it from sliding forward or backward. My biggest fear was a shifting load - ideally you want 60% of the load in front half of the trailer and 40% in the rear half. I watched just one YouTube clip and that was enough to convince me that I ought to be very careful about weight distribution. Of course I can't find it now but I think it was a U-Haul demo clip where they put steel or iron bars on the back of a trailer, drove it a bit fast, then hit the brakes hard.

The trailer almost pulled the tow vehicle over, it slewed so badly.

Anyway, with a relatively secure load I felt comfortable driving down to the race venue. It went better than the drive home, probably because the trailer had substantially more weight in it. It's like the white van - it bounced around like a horse wagon unloaded but throw 2000-3000 pounds in it and it suddenly "plushed out".

The rental 7x16 at the race course.

The pallets are 40"x48" so that gives you some perspective.

The smaller rental trailer wasn't big but it worked. It kept the wind out, it didn't almost blow away, and it gave some security to the registration folks.

Inside the 7x16.

40"x48" pallet and it's lengthwise so it's 4' long.

No D-rings, but it has E-tracks.

The smaller trailer wasn't that big. The 4'x8' camera platform dominates the inside of the trailer. The 4' wide pallet fills the width. In this space we got two tables set up, one for pre-reg and one for day-of, and we had the drawers for the numbers, the printer, a bin of radios, everything that we normally had at registration.

Today, Thursday, I got a call on my mobile. I normally don't answer my phone, ever, but with Bethel I feel obligated to answer calls because it might be a racer. When a Connecticut number popped up I answered the phone.

It was the trailer place.

The trailer was in.

Suddenly my plans for the afternoon went out the window. I wanted to do this, do that, try this, try that, but that went out. I needed to get the trailer today so I could switch it on Saturday so we could use it on Sunday.

Therefore I went to pick up the trailer.

I moved some wood into it, stuff I wanted to bring last week but forgot. I also got the rest of the cones, ones I forgot, and put them in as well. I strapped things down with the D-rings - I ordered a total of eight D-rings just for this purpose. They're welded to the 6" steel chassis beams and rated at 5,000 lbs each. This should be plenty for tying down a snow thrower or similar things.

The new trailer. 4'x8' sheets of plywood on the floor.

You can see that the same size 4'x8' plywood on the floor seems smaller. The 2x4s look small as well.

You can see the generator feed at the nose of the trailer - the set up is designed to hook into a generator on the outside using the long cable. There's a spare tire inside. The little box up top is a battery for the trailer brakes - if the trailer detaches unexpectedly from the tow vehicle the brakes will apply automatically, using the power from the battery.

View to the rear.

The black things that look like baseboard heaters are actually the wheel wells. The 8.5' width is the widest legal width so the wheels are recessed.

You can see the concession windows to the left. They're 4'x6' so they're quite large.

Here is a better shot of the back.

You can see the ceiling light (there are two 110v 4' and two 12v dome lights).

My goal is to have tables set up at the windows, one for Pre-Reg and one for Day Of. We'll stash the heavier stuff behind the chairs.

The bars to the left, next to the wheel well, are the support bars for the window hatches. The windows open using gas shocks but they're meant to be supported with the bars.

The side open (at the dealership).

The switches are for the 12v and 110v lights.

There are two 110v outlets, one next to the door and one at the back.

I'm considering using a clear bath/shower curtain as a wind block. The big open windows don't do well for keeping heat in the trailer. I thought of those vinyl slats used in freezer type warehouses (and inevitably in some dramatic fight scene in movies) but they're not that cheap. A shower curtain would be inexpensive and keep the majority of the opening sort of closed. In the summer I'd want to use magnetically anchored mosquito netting, if necessary.

The trailer from the outside.

The back, closed up.

I chose this picture because the plate wasn't on it yet.

I'm a nut so I ordered a second set of brake lights. No National Lampoon headlight craziness, it's just that I don't want to worry that I lost a set of brake lights. I actually removed a third set of brake lights off the build sheet. Three sets would be nuts, that's for sure.

Likewise, if you look along the top edge you'll also see extra running lights up top. One of my one in a million fears is to have someone not see the trailer and run into it. I'm going to add reflective tape along the bottom edge as well, although I need to figure out the details first.

Trailer, back open.

I didn't put the hinge flap down, the black piece just inside the trailer.

This view really lets you see the recessed wheels. From what I've seen the recessed wheels indicate an 8.5' wide trailer, since trailers shouldn't be more than 8.5' wide. If the wheels stick out then the box part of the trailer is probably less than 8.5' wide.

Hooked up and ready to go.

With the practice driving 7'x16' I felt much better driving the thing back home. I noticed that the new trailer felt much smoother and quieter than the rental. It doesn't weigh that much more so I don't think it was that. It may be the newer condition, the better suspension, but I don't know.

I also noticed the rear door was smoother and felt lighter. The spring must be stronger, the hinges/springs were better lubricated, or both.

Whatever, the trailer seems nicer. I'll do a longer trip on Saturday, then we'll use it on Sunday.

Event Services - 2013 Aetna Silk City Cross Race

Saturday September 21 was the date of the 2013 Aetna Silk City Cross race. It's the team race for Expo Wheelmen, at least the race on this weekend. Expo Wheelmen already held a TT series as well as an ongoing 'cross training series. This weekend would be the main event for the team.

The venue is close by, about 30 minutes drive for me. Since I only handle registration I didn't need much equipment. This meant loading the Expedition with just "a lot of stuff", not "a crap ton of stuff". I could see out the windows and I didn't need the trailer that I don't have. Good thing, right?

I met up with the guys at a breakfast place before the race, getting there early enough that a police car pulled up next to me. I had just put our new insurance card in the glove compartment, I had my license, so I was okay.

The officer was simply waiting for the breakfast place to open, like me. No interest in the Expedition next to him.

Early enough that the moon was out.

When we rolled over to the race course I decided that I'd park the Expedition on the other side of the tent, out of the way. Best way to do that?

Drive through the tent.

Driving into (and through) the tent at the beginning of the day.

With that little fun thing done the real day started.

We unloaded the stuff - desks, chairs, printer, cords, start lists, stuff like that. After a bit of set up we were ready and started getting numbers to the riders.

With the help of Barbara H the registration desk ran pretty smoothly. The system works well enough that I just need to type well, remember how to set print area, and print using the full option command, not just hit the print icon (else the stuff prints on multiple pages).

Although we had that first initial rush where it was really busy, the registration area calmed down quite a bit afterward.

We posted results too. With the stuff all set up in the spreadsheet it became a game of "Can I get the spreadsheet results printed before the handwritten ones get taped up?" I never quite managed to actually beat the handwritten notes but the spreadsheet results were done within maybe 30 seconds of that time.

Not bad if I do say so myself.

The Missus showed up with Junior for a bit. Junior was flagging a bit, tired. He's really needed his naps recently so we figure he's busy growing teeth (a bunch are about to pop through), growing height, growing brain, all that stuff. He's progressing in leaps and bounds to our delight.

I took a short break during the last race, then did the end of day number crunching stuff - calculating insurance surcharges, adding up One Days and Annuals, stuff like that. At some point in there I uploaded the results to USA Cycling.

Our final Expedition loading got interrupted by a little guy that was trying to camouflage itself on the tan chair. It sort of worked but not really.

Praying mantis, with chair for size reference

Close up

Front view

After a few of us took pictures I got it to get onto a bin lid and took it to a safer spot. The Missus actually let it crawl around on her hand, Junior watching in fascination.

Maybe he'll grow up a bit more tolerant of bugs than his dad.

The Missus decided to take Junior home at this point - he was tired and needed some good, solid recovery time.

I stayed and partook in the hanging out after the race stuff. I didn't partake in any beverages or foods but that was okay, the company was what I wanted. After a bit of time I figured that, yeah, I should get going. I said my good-byes, got into the Expedition, and turned the key.

Whrrr-whrrr-whrrr.

I guess the MiFi broadband modem does take a lot of juice. As does leaving some of the doors open for much of the day.

Before I could digest what had happened a bunch of the guys had gathered around the front of the Expedition. They pushed it back a bit so that someone else could pull up an appropriate jump vehicle.

I, of course, took a picture.

My view as the Expo crew finished pushing the drained Expedition.

"You run down the batteries and then take pictures of us?"

What struck me was that it was Kurt's wife that got up, without a word, got in their white SUV, and turned it around. When the guys pushing the truck told her that we'd end up over here and she should be over there she just replied, "Yeah, that's what I figured you were doing." I thought that was great, that she had the routine down. The guys hooked up the cables, no one got electrocuted, no suspicious smoke or anything, and they told me to go give it a try.

"Thanks for the jump!"

The Expedition roared to life and by the time I got out the jumper cables were gone. I headed out and home, without too much incident (just observing some dumb driving).

When I opened the door to the house Junior stood up from the Missus's lap, raised his arms, and ran over to me.

All was good.

Training - Tokeneke Classic Road Race Registration Recon

With the Tokeneke Classic Road Race (New England and State RR Championships) coming up I felt the need to do some reconnoitering, specifically of the registration area.

No, I won't be racing the TCRR, but I will be working registration.

For the other events I've worked I've always had a cell signal, but the TCRR is in an out-of-the-way area and I remember specifically that we didn't have a great signal up there when we were house hunting a few years ago.

Since we'll need to use the Internet to transfer some data I wanted to make sure that we'd have access to the Internet. I planned on driving up there while running other errands - we live 30 minutes drive away from the registration location  - but the errands kept popping up in the wrong direction. I didn't want to do a drive just to check the cell signal so I did the next best thing - I rode there.

Now, since 2012, I've studiously avoided riding any roads except for the Quarry Road Loop (I call it that after the name of one of the roads on the loop). I did do a Rails To Trails ride with a teammate, I did go dump truck hunting, but I'm pretty sure that literally every solo training ride I've done outside has been on the QRL. It's a flat, 15+ mile loop, all right turns except one where I don't have a stop (and the the other two roads do). Very simple, very straightforward, and very flat.

Berg Field, the TCRR's registration spot, sits at the top of the biggest hills in the area. A hint of that comes from the road leading directly to it - Mountain Road.

Now I have some history with Mountain Road. We looked at a house on Mountain Road, eventually dissuaded from it by the listing agent's ridiculous lies and threats. For example she claimed that in that particular town homeowners needed no permit to do substantial work to a house, like finish a basement (including electrical, heat, and plumbing for a bathroom). She also claimed that they'd already done an inspection and it came clean. We did our own and the inspection turned up bacteria in the water, some minor issues, and, luckily, no problem with radon. The agent claimed that the inspection belonged to the owners since they owned the house, and threatened to withhold our deposit if we didn't give it to them.

Which doesn't make sense if they already had an inspection done.

Anyway it was a miserable experience and I'm glad we walked away from the house.

The important bit, related to this post, is that when we planned on looking at a house I'd ride there on my bike first, to check things out. Riding gives you a feel for the area much more so than driving there. The day I rode to the Mountain Road house it happened to be absolutely pouring. I didn't even think about what "mountain" might imply in the name Mountain Road, but when I took the left and looked up the hill... It took everything I had to get up the hill, rear tire slipping if I stood, and I thought, wow, if we live here I'm going to have to climb this hill all the time.

I decided that on my TCRR recon ride I'd skip Mountain Road and go up a less steep road that intersects with Mountain Road at Berg Field.

I headed north and beared left toward Berg Field. I had a minor decision where I had to bear right or left at another intersection and I beared right, the way the group ride would go a few years ago.

I got a mile or two up the road when I realized that, oh, I'm riding to the base of Mountain Road. I should have beared left at that second intersection.

Oops.

No worries. I took in the sights, like this gun that I always forget about.

Some kind of gun. I'm guessing anti-aircraft? I don't know US guns.

It's a busy road but in the mid-afternoon traffic seemed pretty light. Much quicker than I expected I got to the bottom of Mountain Road.

Approaching the turn to Mountain Road.

I'd be heading left, traversing the entire length of Mountain Road. The house we looked at sat at the top of the first steep bit. The fastest I've gone up to the house is about 7 minutes but I basically sprinted at the bottom of the hill.

This time I shifted down as I turned so I started at a more moderate pace.

The sight that greets you when you turn onto Mountain Road.

The first time I turned left on Mountain Road it had been pouring so I could barely see 50 yards away. My glasses made everything look much more fuzzy, water beading and dripping off of them. The spray from the rain hitting the road made the pavement look a bit white, and the cars zipping by would throw spray into the air. That day I made that left turn and looked forward. The road tilted up so I peered up just a bit.

Then up a bit more.

Then up a lot.

"This house better be good", I thought.

On my TCRR recon ride the hill seemed just as steep as I remembered, but the sunny conditions meant that I could stand if I wanted, that traction wouldn't be a problem.

I churned away in my bottom two gears, seeing 600w at some point early on. The numbers stabilized much lower than that, somewhere in the 300w range. Unsustainable for me. To give some idea of my pace I did the climb in a touch under 12 minutes. The Strava KOM, held by a local racer, is a few seconds over 6 minutes.

I trudged along to the other end of Mountain Road. It wasn't as bad as I remembered - either I'm more fit or, more likely, I was riding slow enough that I wasn't working too hard.

Berg Field, across the street.

I finally made it to Berg Field. I saw some stuff laying around - it looks like they'd broken down an amusement park or something. There's a wood pavilion in there and that's where we're going to have registration.

To get a few things done at once I took pictures of the pavilion area - dirt/gravel floor, very big posts, very high roof - and then uploaded one to Facebook. It uploaded almost immediately so that meant we had some kind of decent signal.

The pavilion. The posts are probably a foot wide - it's huge.

Once done I carefully got back to the road and headed back home. It would be mostly descending. I realized recently that I can't spin well right now - 120 rpm seems fast - so I worked on spinning a bit. I think last year's 55/44 chainring set up really killed my spin. I'm running a 53/39 now so back to normal.

I did one acceleration on a bit of a descent but eased because I wasn't pedaling smoothly. Later I caught up to a truck at a light just as the light turned green.

Following the truck.

I followed it for a bit but the bike wasn't feeling quite right so I backed off. I glanced down at the SRM after I sat up - I was only going about 30 mph, so I had sat up well under 40 mph. I felt disappointed as I normally go a bit faster behind trucks and such, and in fact on my own (on a minor descent) I'd hit almost 50 mph a few minutes prior.

As the truck rolled slowly away the front of the bike started acting a bit oddly. It steered slower and seemed to want to go in a straight line. I thought for a second that maybe the headset had seized somehow. Looking down, wiggling the bike side to side, I realized that my front tire was basically flat.

I looked up at the truck, almost out of sight. Good thing I sat up when I did, when I realized something wasn't quite right.

Up ahead I saw a perfect spot to change the tube. I didn't want to stop on the side of the very busy road, nor did I want to trample into bushes near the road because of the insane amount of poison ivy this summer.

Orange cone a few feet from the curb. Perfect.

Tactical thinking isn't just for races. I saw the construction bucket and realized that changing the flat just after the bucket, near the curb, would be perfect. The orange and white bucket would delineate a border between traffic and me. The space between the bucket and the curb would give me room to change the flat. I rode up to and around the bucket, then took out my "stuff I take with me in case of a mechanical".

Mid flat fix.

I checked the tube and found that it'd been punctured from the inside. Ends up the rim strip migrated a bit, exposing a few millimeters of a spoke hole. That was enough to cut the tube, leading to a relatively slow flat.

(Note: since I mount my tire with the label next to the valve I can line up the tube with the tire to check for damage. In this case the damage was on the inside of the tube.)

A better view of my "flat tire repair space".

Note the frame pump mounted between the front skewer and the handlebar.

Once I got everything back together I stood back to take a shot with the phone. The helmet cam captured it too. You can see how perfect that spot was, with the orange bucket, a curb with just grass next to it, and a wide shoulder.

I got back on the bike, it felt normal again, and I got home. Recon trip done, good signal strength up there, and a nice spot for registration.

(Bonus notes: First thing I should point out is that when I last raced on the TCRR course I almost got lapped on the 22+ mile loop - I stopped at the finish line a lap early and a minute or two later the winning break crossed the line. I'm that bad. Second, a much more interesting thing - I'll reveal that this story took place at the Tokeneke RR. Based on almost getting lapped it makes sense why I worked the wheel van instead of doing the previously-unnamed race.)

Event Services - 2013 White Plains Crit

I'm saying "Event Services" because I wasn't the promoter of the White Plains Crit, and in fact I'm in awe of the guys Joe and Craig that made the race come together last year. They provided a course, a window of time, officials, and all that. My part was to turn their race plan into some kind of reality. All they needed was to have some way of turning those BikeReg registrations into a start list to get the races going. That meant registration services.

They also needed a way to score the races, to be able to pick out numbers of a field sprinting across a finish line. That meant finish line services.

Luckily, through Carpe Diem Racing, I can do both things - we do them for the Bethel Spring Series. Fortunately I get a lot of "practice" sessions or shakedown sessions as it were - the first week of Bethel we had camera issues in the first few races of the day but after that things went super well. For White Plains we'd bring the same set up and do it all over again.

The day started on Saturday for me. Due to some scheduling things I wasn't able to get the Expedition down to our base camp for White Plains until Saturday night. Due to some overwhelming fatigue I stopped at a rest stop to rest a bit. After a bit of shut eye, which failed miserably, I got out the laptop to respond to a flurry of email questions (which made my phone ding like mad).

Mobile office.

The pile of clothing is from the Nutmeg State Games Crit which was earlier in the day.

Note that it's still light outside.

After handling most of the emails and hitting up the bathrooms I got going again. I still felt a bit tired so I focused hard on driving well. Inevitably my mind started playing tricks on me.

Was that really a set of headlights on my side of I-95?

Nah, couldn't be. I'm just tired.

Well it really does look like they're on my side.

Snap out of it man.

Or not.

Oh snap. It really is a car facing the wrong way.

Picture from the dash cam (DroidX running DailyRoads)

I made it to the base camp without incident. We hooked up the trailer at that point, checked the wiring (it all worked - brakes, turn signals, and lights), and rearranged the load a bit so we had two usable passenger seats in the Expedition. The two staff members that I was taking to the race would sit in the Expedition with me.

By the time we were all done I was wired and completely unable to sleep. I'd be up until almost 1 AM. With two alarms on my phone, set for 4:00 and 4:15, I was a bit worried that I'd oversleep. A long time ago I did some experiments with sleeping and I found that I could snap awake after two hours, four hours, and any time after six hours. On the other hand if I woke up an hour or three hours after falling asleep I was completely out of it. I didn't do any more studying of my sleep phenomena but I figured it had to be my REM sleep patterns. A body doesn't do well if woken up from REM sleep and my REM must happen at one and three hours.

Or something like that.

At any rate with shut eye at about 12:45 AM or so it meant that my wake up would come at a very bad three hour time frame.

Then I heard knocking.

"What time did you want to wake up?"
"What?"
"What time did you want to wake up?"
"4..... what time is it?"
"4:45."

I snapped awake. Thinking back on the whole thing it makes sense. Four hours, fine. Three hours, when my phone went off, not fine.

Speaking of which... I checked my phone. It had been alarming for 45 minutes, its battery almost dead. So much for the phone alarm.

We quickly got ready and headed out, a bit late but still in a manageable state. This marked my first time ever driving with a trailer. It seemed pretty natural - the Expedition is a nice solid tow vehicle and the trailer is only about 2000 pounds. It made for a nice introduction to driving with a trailer. I didn't hit any parked cars, lamp posts, or even a curb.

This year registration was just across the street from the where we'd stick the camera trailer, and when I say "just across the street" I mean it was across a closed off street, a cross street, not part of the course. We could meander back and forth at will.

Much, much, much better than last year.

Finish line camera on the trailer.

Another view. They actually put water in the hollow barriers.

Note spare generator.

The other side of the camera.

Jonathan is up on the trailer, David standing on the ground.

The view from the camera barriers, to the left.

Expedition in front of Muscle Maker Grill, where we had registration.

The very busy Amrita guy set up shop right there too. Gluten free, vegan energy bars. He came to Bethel to hand out product as well.

The course view of the camera.

Registration reminded me of Belgium. It's a food place, after all, and all the chairs were pushed to the sides. Technically this reminded me of the changing area, a place, usually a bar, designated as a changing area for racers. Apparently in Belgium it's a big no-no to change in your car. I think the "get naked" part is the bit they frown on.

The only thing missing was 200 half naked racers, 200 support people (including girlfriends, wives, fathers, mothers, and whoever else you might think would ever be involved in bike racing), little tubs of hot water, towels, and a lot of talking and yelling. Interestingly enough although it may be illegal to change in your car there's nothing wrong with walking around naked in a packed-like-sardines "changing area".

A little more civilized in terms of racers getting ready to race.

The registration area.

Both those Cokes are mine.

When I raced in Belgium the registration table had a bunch of stations (if you will), one spot where you paid, one spot where they typed (using a typewriter!) your name on a sheet (apparently used for betting - you shouldn't bet on me unless there's a short type of bet), and then a spot where you pick up your number. I don't remember the exact order but it was something like that.

Oh and the whole time everyone was smoking.

For us it was a bit more straightforward. No smoking first of all. Pre-registered? Go left. Not pre-registered? Go right.

The day went well. We set up a bit slower than I expected, got going, handled the initial rush, and then things calmed down. It wasn't for lack of racers - there were a LOT of racers, more than any Bethel Spring Series. That's awesome for a crit in its second year.

The finish line camera also worked well. There were a few close sprints but on review they weren't that close.

At the end of the racing we were already packing up. The streets had to be cleared and open by 2 PM so we were scrambling after a 1:15 PM finish. We were putting the last of the stuff in the Expedition when the first bit of traffic rolled by.

Totally wired I drove back, my two helpers in the Expedition with me. We got to base camp, unhooked the trailer, parked it, and, after transferring some stuff from the trailer to the Expedition, I headed home.

A long, long day but a great success. Everything ran smoothly, except for my 4:45 AM wake up time, and things went well.

As "just" Event Services I didn't have to deal with anything other than registration and the finish line camera. I had total confidence in those two parts because they'd been working flawlessly at Bethel by the end of the first week of the Series. With nothing else to stress about, like traffic control and such, it really reduced any stress I felt.

It made for a great day.

Promoting - 2013 Ris Van Bethel

Saturday evening one of my nephews came over to me, sitting at their kitchen table, a laptop in front of me.

"Are you on Facebook?"
"Yes."
"What are you doing?"
"Commenting on this picture I took before dinner."
"Is that a shovel?"
"Yes."
"Were you shoveling the road?"
"Yes, I had to shovel the sides of the road."
"Why did you have to shovel the side of the road?"
"Penance."
"What's penance?"

I grinned. I told him that it was something I had to do. With the first 2013 Bethel race and all its problems, fresh in my mind, I knew that I had to step up the game. So let's back up a bit.

Saturday morning went as usual with the Missus off to work (during tax season she works Saturdays and sometimes Sundays), me at home with Junior. The Missus and I had staged the stuff we needed for Bethel in the garage, and when she got home we packed the stuff we needed for Junior and ourselves. Then, with both cars loaded up, we headed down to my dad's place.

To put some detail on the situation at my dad's - it's the house that we moved into in 1978. I spent all my middle school and high school years there. My brother, his wife, and their kids live there too. When we head over I always think of the rooms as "our" rooms. My brother will say "Yeah, you're in your room tonight", meaning my room from when I was in high school.

I still had to do some stuff at the course - the surprisingly heavy snowfall during the week meant that there'd be snow on the course, or at least on the shoulders. I went directly to the course first while the Missus and Junior, in the other car, went straight to my dad's.

The first thing I did was to put in all the stakes to mark off the grass at Turn One. In the morning the ground would be frozen solid so it would be best to put the stakes in while it was 50 degrees out and sunny. With that done I focused on cleaning up the snow on the road, with emphasis on Turn One, the hill, and the backstretch leading to the hill.

The course was worse than I thought - the "few inches" of snow spillage on the shoulder ended up, at times, two or three feet wide. The snow was heavy wet slush and with temperatures expected in the low-mid 20s overnight it would all freeze. We could melt a little bit of ice but not frozen slush a few inches deep.

Therefore the slush had to go.

I cleared the left shoulder towards the top of the hill. That wasn't too bad. I also tried to sculpt the Turn One snow bank. I didn't have the time or energy to move it all so I tried to make it into a more "corner" type of shape instead of the disjointed "bang the plow into the bank" shape.

The not sculpted Turn One.

Since I threw out my back a couple weeks ago I played conservative and tried not to work too hard. That worked until I headed down the hill a bit.

The hill after the storm. Not bad at first glance.

What I didn't realize was just how much snow sat next to the curb. Once it started to melt it turned into this slushy wet mess. In the expected overnight temperatures it would all freeze, creating an unrideable shoulder.

The "Nephew Picture"

There was a lot more snow than I expected.

This is the right side of the hill and the snow had been piled up along the bank from the driveway opposite, a couple feet high and a couple feet out from the curb.

I had to abandon my conservative approach with all the snow on the hill. My back seemed up to it so I plowed ahead and did what work I could do. At some point, when I was next to the glass building, the Missus called.

"When do you think you'll be done?"

I looked around. I knew sunset was just before 6 PM. It was maybe 5 PM.

"Until the sun sets, for sure."

"Okay."

Cleared area just before the glass building, facing the same direction as the race goes.

By the time I got to the end of the glass building section, about 200 meters from the line, it was getting pretty close to that sunset time. I still had to get one more straight - the bit before the glass building. The backstretch was reasonable, and the stuff after Turn One was fine. So just that wooded section at about 350 to 200 meters to go.

Starting to clear the bit before the glass building at the bottom of the hill.

This one I'm looking backwards relative to the race direction.

I have to admit it was worse than I expected. I thought the snow only came out a foot or so from the curb, but you can see from the picture that the snow was more like 3 feet from the curb.

I started it so I had to finish so I kept going.

The cleared area.

I finally got to the end of that section when the Missus called. Everyone was going out to our standard "family is visiting" restaurant in South Norwalk. She told me that she'd stay at the house with Junior and I could head down there straight from the course. As I was starting to bonk this was a good thing. I said I'd leave in about 5 minutes.

Then I realized that there was literally an inch or two of slushy ice all along the shoulder. It really accumulated when I pushed it with a broom, and knowing it would be absolutely unrideable frozen I cleared it away, pushing it all to the grate at the end of the straight.

Some of the slush/water that I had to clear after I cleared the snow.

Before I left I took a picture of Turn One. Better than before.

I was a little late for dinner but they ordered for me but I was so hungry I think I finished my food before everyone else.

When we got home from dinner that's when that one nephew came up to me at the kitchen table.

With last week's fiasco of a race I was determined to have a better race this week. I asked for help, the Missus put in a lot of work to help prepare for the race, and she told me she'd go to the race one more week before leaving it to me (she normally only works the first week).

Sunday went much, much better than the prior one. Bitterly cold in the morning we used all the ice melt I'd brought (calcium chloride, the good stuff - the ice actually sort of creaks when the melt hits it because the ice melts immediately). I pushed a leaf blower to clear the dusty sand, grabbing a second one halfway through the backstretch, pushing two blowers clearing practically the whole lane in one pass.

The camera, working as it was at the end of the day last week, worked fine.

Racers stepped up to marshal in exchange for racing and the race was much better marshaled.

Of course it helped that the temperatures hit about 50 degrees by mid day and that there was practically no wind. We had crowds of people watching, unusual for a Bethel.

People at the finish of the M45 race.

In the Cat 3-4 race I decided to carry a marshal's radio just in case. I left it off except when I need to use it as a "roving marshal" so I wouldn't be able to use it as a "racer". A few laps in, when I saw a utility truck at Turn Two (he'd been checking underground wiring in the area), I called in a request for someone to keep an eye out on him. I didn't realize that someone was already on their way down there but having the radio was good. Going forward I'll keep one in my pocket during the races.

We broke stuff down before the P123s were done so we could get out of there quicker than we did last week, by over an hour. With the melting snow the floors were a bit dirtier but nothing that we couldn't clean with the cleaning kit we have specifically to clean up the registration area.

We headed back to my dad's where Junior had spent the day with his cousins, aunt, uncle, and grandfather. He seemed totally at ease when we got there. We celebrated his birthday - he turned one year old that day. I have no pictures but I'll have to get them from my brother. Junior had some pasta with no problems but promptly threw up when I gave him a bit of chocolate frosting. Oops.

We headed out after dinner and cake, a two car convoy. The Missus headed straight home with Junior while I had to stop for fuel (the light was on for a while), get some food for the kitties, and then head home.

After a long day.

The JSW (Jetta Sportswagen) was loaded down enough that the rear looked lowered. With the bike and a few hundred pounds of weight the car didn't get better than about 38 mpg. Arg. It was weighed down enough that the stuff on the front seat triggered the "no seat belt" chimes, the ones that tell you that your front seat passenger doesn't have a seat belt on. Well of course it didn't, it was left over cake and a pile of race stuff.

Pile?

I unloaded the car into one of the garage bays because the next morning I needed the car back in "Junior configuration" so we could take him to his one year check up. I decided to take a picture of the stuff I took out.

I don't know where the other tent is but the rest of it was in the car.

I think the second tent's still in the car.

My bike is behind the piece of wood. I didn't have the jigsaw, the ladder, or the rear privacy awning (the black thing in the back of the picture) but everything else came out of the JSW, or, in the case of the bike, from off the top. This makes my trailer/tow-vehicle thoughts much more real, dealing with this every week.

It was a long day but a good one. The race went off much better than last week, the primary short term goal for the day.

And, as the primary long term goal, Junior has been alive for a year. As we told each other about 364 days ago, our first task is to keep Junior alive and healthy. Everything else is to support this goal.

Promoting - Trailer Registration

After all that thought about vans and stuff I had an epiphany - what about an enclosed trailer for registration? Instead of using one for the finish line we could use the trailer for registration.

The other day, after dropping off Junior at his half-day of day care, I peeked at their small school bus. The windows were up high because the floor is up high. From a racer-registering-for-a-race point of view it'd be less than comfortable to reach up for a number. There'd be additional reach on the registration staff's point of view if there was a desk up there. Overall I had the impression that it would be awkward to do registration out the side of a van/bus/etc.

Trailers have much lower floors, perhaps a foot or so off the ground. There wouldn't be a big difference between having registration tables on a trailer versus on the floor. It should be better ergonomically speaking from both the registrant and the registerer.

A long time ago I priced large enclosed trailers for the Z. I considered "garaging" the Z over winter in a trailer because we didn't have a third garage bay. With an enclosed trailer I'd have a portable garage. heck I could move the car around if I had to move it. I could park the trailer in a number of different place (like, for example, where I over-winter the van), and, if I had to, I could transport other vehicles in said trailer.

Large trailers like that are large, expensive, and heavy. I think I would have needed an 8'x25' trailer to store the Z, maybe 8'x30'. This would be the limit of a normal hitch type trailer. I'd also need a vehicle with a 6000 lbs tow capacity, give or take.

For registration and race promotion purposes I would need a smaller trailer. I figure 6'x12' would be pretty good - 12' is two of our folding tables in length. 6' is narrow but with dedicated 18" deep tables I think it would be manageable. 7'x16' (or something like that) would be nicer but I want to be able to drive the thing around. I also need to check our storage bay to make sure a trailer would fit - the bay is plenty long but I'm not sure if a 7' wide trailer would fit through the doors.

The kicker is that I saw a slew of trailers for sale at $2500 (6'x12') - $7000 (9'6"x32' 5th wheel with awning, doors, etc). These are pretty big enclosed trailers relatively speaking and a heck of a lot less expensive than a Sprinter van, for example. Trailers also have much less "stuff" in them (drivetrain, fuel tanks, etc) so they lend themselves to customization better. Finally I figure a trailer will last a lot longer than a proper vehicle, and I can drag it around only when I need it. Driving an enormous Sprinter would be like driving an RV to go grocery shopping.

Concession trailer, 7'x12' or 7'x14'. $6k new.

You can stand in something like this. Note how low the floor is to the ground.

Standard cargo trailer, 7'x16', $5k for something like this.

Although big it's not very tall - we'd be hunched over inside.

My dream trailer would be one with a transfer switch so I could plug in the generator from the outside and then have some reasonable amount of electricity inside - plugs, UPSs, etc. With such a set up it would be feasible to have heat and air conditioning, a microwave, and maybe some other amenities.

Of course I'd need to be able to haul that trailer from place to place, and that would take a truck. A 5th wheel trailer would require a pick up, a regular hitch type would require any larger type vehicle. I'd have to look at pickup trucks or SUVs that are based on larger pickups, like the Suburban or an Excursion.

Even if a smaller size truck (like the F150s I've seen for sale, many of which are sister vehicles to Explorers, versus the F350s which are sister vehicles to Excursions) could pull such a trailer I've been told, with graphic evidence (said person's truck, trailer, and car on the trailer after a wreck), that it's best to have way too much towing capacity than to barely squeeze by.

Either way I'd be able to use a vehicle smaller than a Sprinter. It'd be either a normal pick up truck or a full size SUV (for a hitch trailer), both of which wouldn't be absurd to drive regularly. If there were at least two rows of seats it would be a carpool-able vehicle for traveling to races and such, and if there were three rows then it's really a good people hauler.

The snow on the ground has also made me think about a plow. It's one thing to hope that the roads are plowed at Bethel, it's another to be able to go out and do something about it. A tow vehicle for such a trailer would make a perfect plow vehicle too, especially since virtually all the full size SUVs I've seen have been 4 wheel drive. Clearing any late week snow fall would be easier if I had something like a Suburban or a crew cab pickup with a plow up front.

First, though, I have to put on a race. So I'll leave this be for now.