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Drove to Shunk.
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Drove Home.
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Farm.
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Inspection with Adaline, then busy time in challenge course until a zip tour at 2:00—eight people i think. Helped close up the challenge course after the tour.
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I was supposed to be team 2 but got switched to team 1. Adaline and i had three tours, two of nine people and one of eight. Four of the 8-person tour in the afternoon were Nina, Isaiah, Naima, and Adina.
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Shaun wasn't feeling well, so i did inspection all by myself (although Shaun took the ropes up via four-wheeler for me). Then i led one tour of eight with Greg as sweep guide. We had an 86-year-old woman on the tour and she, as i anticipated, did not catch the rope on zip 7, so i had to do my 5th retrieval of the season. No afternoon tours (drizzly gray slightly chilly day), so i went home. And thus the summer season is over.
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When i got up in the morning, this pair of glasses looked nice with the sun shining into the room so i snapped this pic—only picture i took today. Very similar to this picture that i took in February.
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Farm.
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It was a crispy frosty morning so i went over to the farm again to get some pictures of frozen veggies. That afternoon i went down to Magic Mountain and joined the regular crowd there (most of whom i didn't know) for a full round of 18 on their disc golf course (which i'd helped to design). I wound up getting one of the three closest-to-the-pin (CTP) holes (#2) and won $5. I tied Matt for lowest score on the round and split the pot with him. And lastly we had a $1-in CTP at the very end, which i won. Not a bad way to play the full 18 on this course for the first time.
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Went in to work to clean up and organize all of the zipline and challenge course equipment. Dom and Eric were there to help me but Dom went home sick pretty soon, and then by lunch, Eric went home as well. I stayed until the middle of the afternoon as the IT guys from Okemo and Vail worked around me in the Resort Services and Rental areas installing all of the new Vail equipment.
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Worked some more by myself cleaning and organizing ropes and harnesses and stuff. That afternoon i decided to drive over to Green Mountain College to play some ultimate with the kids. Pretty fun night and i managed to keep up, but then on the way home, my Mini started making a clicking noise. By Tinmouth it was a clacking and i nursed it in second gear up and over the hill, then idled it all the way down into Wallingford, where i pulled in to the gas station since it needed gas as well. I checked under the hood and nothing seemed broken, so i started it up again and crawled east on VT140 towards home. I made it to the tight, steep part where the Appalachian Trail crosses and it would go no further. It was nearly overheated and had no power, so i parked it in the pull-off at the bottom of the hill, then sat there and ate the chicken sandwich that i'd bought at Poultney Pizza while the engine cooled down. Trying to get up the hill again though proved futile, so i left it and set out up the road on my unicycle with a flashlight. A couple hundred yards up the road i realized that i'd forgot water and gloves but i wasn't about to go back down the hill and get them. I was tired from ultimate and this was wearing me out even more. I fell off three or four times due to fatigue and getting my feet caught up on the cranks. One fall spilled me down onto the pavement where i scraped and bruised my hands and hit myself in the face with the flashlight. Eventually i made it the four or so miles home.
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Got up and drove into Rutland. The Uhaul place didn't have any car trailers, so i went over to ToolCo and rented one. I drove it over to where the Mini was parked and set it up downhill of the car. Then i pushed the Mini around and back up the hill as far as i could before jumping in and coasting down to the trailer. It had just enough speed to get the front wheels up the ramps and onto the bed of the trailer and i was able to push it the rest of the way on. From there i went in to work for an hour or so, helping to move all of the zip and challenge stuff which i'd spent Monday and Tueasday organizing into storage.
Once we were done moving stuff, i drove down to Sportscar Services in Keene and dropped off the Mini, then all the way back to Rutland to drop off the trailer.
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Farm.
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Spent the morning with Greg and Chris taking the braking systems down from ziplines 1 through 5. Greg did most of the heavy climbing but we figured out soon that it went faster if i climbed up to help out as well. It was kinda cool to self-belay down off of tower 6 once we'd removed the auto-belay device. The rest of the Ski Patrol crew had to get some other work done, so we left the removal of the brakes on lines 6 and 7 for another day.
Since it tiurned out to be a gorgeous day, i spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the outside of the Scamp.
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I went over to the Green Mountain College homne tournament to see if i could play a little. There were a lot of players and alumni around, so i felt a bit shy about jumping in to play and i wasn't feeling terribly well either. Eventually i played one point and got scored on by a tall college kid and that was all i played, but i took a bunch of pictures.
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I went over to the Tinmouth Cider Presstival at Wheaton's house. I had to wait a half an houre or so before i could go though, because i'd left the key on in my FJ the day before and the battery was dead. Fortunately i have a charger and i hooked it up.
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Took my FJ in for its 75,000 mile service. When i drove away, i heard a slight ticking noise in one of the back wheels so i drove it back. They said that it was a little clip that expanded and needed to be replaced but they'd have to order it.
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Farm.
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Florida trip, day 1. I got up and got on the road by 7:30. The GPS said that i'd make it to the Cape May Ferry by 1:51. The ferry departed at 2:30, so i made as few stops as possible—three overall, one for gas, two for pee. The fall foliage colors were vivid in New Jersey—much better than the overall browns and yellows that Vermont had this year.
I pulled in to the ferry lot at about quarter after two and got parked near the back of the boat. At the beginning of the crossing, the ferry was rolling in a decent swell and walking along the deck was a wobbly affair, but after about halfway it smoothed out. I had a decent cafeteria cheeseburger on the ferry and spent a while standing on deck watching the scenerey. I talked a bit to a Delaware Coastal Police officer who was on board. When we got to Lewes, DE, i was the last vehicle off the boat. I turned left from the ferry terminal and pulled in to Cape Henlopen State Park about a mile down the road. Once settled in a camping site, i got out my unicycle and explored the park, eventually finding the beach. I looked for the disc golf course, hoping to shoot a few holes, but didn't find it until my way back as the sun was setting. I shot a few discs on hole 18 just for kicks.
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Day 2. I didn't get up as early as i would have liked, but i got up early enough. I munched on a few things but set out in search of a nice place to have breakfast. Couldn't find anything. Finally as i approached Ocean City, MD, i asked for a recommendation at a gas station and they suggested a place a few miles away. I got there to find that it was closed, so i pressed on, still finding nothing. Eventually i got some more snacks and in the mid afternoon stopped at a bistro in Nag's Head, NC, where i had a delicious Italian panini. From there i continued south along the Outer Banks and arrived at the campground at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse to find that there were no electric hookups and no trees. But there were also barely any other campers there, so it was OK. I took a walk out to the beach, a half mile or so away, and watched the sunset.
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