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Trip to VT!
Apr. 30th, 2017 06:14 pmWent to a weekend gaming party in Vermont at the Hulbert Outdoor Center, our third trip there. Jocelyn, despite having something to do Friday evening AND Sunday morning, wanted to (a) go and (b) bring the aerial rig. Somehow, we agreed to this.
So, since there was predicted rain Friday evening, when we put the mat onto the top of the SUV, we also covered it in plastic. This had an additional design goal of preventing air from getting between the mat and the top of the car, causing it to fly (and, worse, fly and stop flying with a ka-thump). We ended up duct-taping the plastic to the top edge of the windshield, putting flaps through the doors and under the mat at the back, using clips to tie the flaps together across the top of the car below the ceiling in front and below the mat itself in back, and then more duct tape at the rear end to "wrap it like a gift". There were, um, issues with the front edge at the beginning of the trip, but I'd brought a huge roll of more duct tape and was able to redo it a couple times along the way when it got loose. It seemed that 55mph was OK, but 60mph gave trouble. Even 55 was a little dicey, so I finished the last 30 miles at 50mph. Including Friday afternoon traffic getting out of Boston (I had to wait til 2:45 when Perry got out of school) it took well over 4 hours to get there -- it should be about 3 hours.
The trip back was easier, because (a) there wasn't as much traffic, and (b) I'd learned from the first experience how to do the duct tape and it was better to get it right first rather than trying to slap it on at the side of the road, so I stopped a couple times to verify all was well, but mostly we just drove. Still, it was more than 3.5 hours. (Ken managed to duck any of the driving of the mat because he was bringing Jocelyn either to or from VT at night, and all my driving was in the daytime, which is easier to deal with problems.)
Many people enjoyed watching Jocelyn and participating in the easy beginner tricks she can teach on Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon we participated in the ropes course. I had a better time than last time -- I think because fewer people were participating so there was less waiting for staff to check that you were clipped in properly, so there was more doing stuff. I don't think Jocelyn played any games. I played some Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday morning. Perry played all the time, and Ken played some while Jocelyn and I were roping.
I managed to bring my bicycle on top of the rig inside the SUV. The difficult part of putting the bike in was not tangling in the ropes holding the mat cover in place. I did two 8-mile bike rides in the mornings. One of them was up a fairly tall hill. I didn't get to the top because the pavement quit before the hill did, and I don't do dirt, but it was still pretty high. I looked at the GPS readings on my phone, which claimed about 940 feet. USGS claims that the nearby lake's elevation is 417 feet, so it was a little over 500 foot climb, in about a mile. This is equivalent to Blue Hill, though I think Blue Hill has a short stretch that's a lot steeper than anything on Terry Hill Road.
So, since there was predicted rain Friday evening, when we put the mat onto the top of the SUV, we also covered it in plastic. This had an additional design goal of preventing air from getting between the mat and the top of the car, causing it to fly (and, worse, fly and stop flying with a ka-thump). We ended up duct-taping the plastic to the top edge of the windshield, putting flaps through the doors and under the mat at the back, using clips to tie the flaps together across the top of the car below the ceiling in front and below the mat itself in back, and then more duct tape at the rear end to "wrap it like a gift". There were, um, issues with the front edge at the beginning of the trip, but I'd brought a huge roll of more duct tape and was able to redo it a couple times along the way when it got loose. It seemed that 55mph was OK, but 60mph gave trouble. Even 55 was a little dicey, so I finished the last 30 miles at 50mph. Including Friday afternoon traffic getting out of Boston (I had to wait til 2:45 when Perry got out of school) it took well over 4 hours to get there -- it should be about 3 hours.
The trip back was easier, because (a) there wasn't as much traffic, and (b) I'd learned from the first experience how to do the duct tape and it was better to get it right first rather than trying to slap it on at the side of the road, so I stopped a couple times to verify all was well, but mostly we just drove. Still, it was more than 3.5 hours. (Ken managed to duck any of the driving of the mat because he was bringing Jocelyn either to or from VT at night, and all my driving was in the daytime, which is easier to deal with problems.)
Many people enjoyed watching Jocelyn and participating in the easy beginner tricks she can teach on Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon we participated in the ropes course. I had a better time than last time -- I think because fewer people were participating so there was less waiting for staff to check that you were clipped in properly, so there was more doing stuff. I don't think Jocelyn played any games. I played some Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday morning. Perry played all the time, and Ken played some while Jocelyn and I were roping.
I managed to bring my bicycle on top of the rig inside the SUV. The difficult part of putting the bike in was not tangling in the ropes holding the mat cover in place. I did two 8-mile bike rides in the mornings. One of them was up a fairly tall hill. I didn't get to the top because the pavement quit before the hill did, and I don't do dirt, but it was still pretty high. I looked at the GPS readings on my phone, which claimed about 940 feet. USGS claims that the nearby lake's elevation is 417 feet, so it was a little over 500 foot climb, in about a mile. This is equivalent to Blue Hill, though I think Blue Hill has a short stretch that's a lot steeper than anything on Terry Hill Road.
