I must say I have perfect organizational skills. Woke up on time today, cut red peppers for the road, packed oranges, bread, cheese, chicken breast, my bag and left the house by 7:30. Including a water break and outgoing break I reached Miami whitewater forest just before noon, obtained my packet, got on the bus to the start and was ready to go with 3 minutes to spare. Perfect organization skills.
Hoe perfect? Well I have about an hour + with this lap top, since I forgot the pack a charger… my phone will die soon, I do have a car charger but it's in the car… I packed some extra peppers, but didn't bring a knife, see perfect.
Well the point of this trip is orienteering. There are some places that host championship level competitions. If I want to be us champion, I should go to each of these, the trouble is that they are all over the country, and I am not good enough (minor point). Still, one of these events is in Cincinnati every year. It is called the flying pig. Don't ask me why I don't know yet, I asked the bus driver in the park but she didn't know, I will have to look it up later. I chose the green course, which is competitive, but not extreme, usually. This is a new area for me which always adds an interest. It was cold when I got there and somewhat windy, but not too bad, a few minutes in and I was warm enough. Made a mistake with the 1stcontrols and spent too much time till I found it, I did well on most points, but botched 2-3 more (out of 18) and spent time back tracking a bit. The course on this green level was much harder than the local events I go to. If one point is on some side of the hill, the next points is on the far away side of the next hill range and there is a creek in-between. Lots of up down, more up than down… and creek crossings, those were hard, and I had to find a good spot to pass multiple times to avoid proceeding with wet shoes. Speaking of shoes, I have "quality" shoes from Nam. They were kind of surviving till now, but the left shoe decided it was enough and gave up. The whole half of the sole was no longer glued to the rest of the shoe. This was manageable mostly, but on the down part it kept buckling under, stuff got stuck there and I had to clear it and one branch decided to jam itself all the way in. I somehow made it through the n2d half of the course in this condition. I lost steam around point 14-15. 16 was easy, I could see it almost from the bottom of the hill, but it was at the top… so far away, a bit exhausted I pushed myself to the top, got 16, down to the next creek, with 2 points on the other side and back to the top for the finish…. I compensated myself with a banana and 4 cookies…. Sinned a bit, but I felt I needed some sugar. From the finish, there was still a bit of a walk to the end. At the welcome center I compared my results. And though not final, I finished third my age group!!!! The problem was only three people in my age group on the green, and the 2ndwas about 40 minutes faster!! This is a good level.
I got new fancy orienteering dedicated shoes, with spikes and I think there is a jet stream in the back, will see how I do tomorrow.
I drove a bit to the town of Harrison. In the 2ndhalf of the course, the wind picked up greatly. At one point a branch fell from the tree and was plunged in the ground, straight in, I was close to that, a bit scary. As I arrived at the hotel the wind was intense. I ate some bread and chicken, a couple of oranges and felt normal after a hot shower.
The wind could be heard from the outside and power was partially out. I heard on the radio that 55 MPH winds were recorded today and many homes are out of power. My hotels is semi impacted. I have lights, but the TV is out in all rooms. With an afternoon to spare, I decided to do something I have no time for at home and got a haircut. There is a new chain for me, sports cuts, and the hotel had vouchers for free haircut. Can't say no to that. This offer is for MVP treatment, cut, warm towel with something with pepper mint on it, shampoo and neck and shoulder massage, that was perfect. I could use a full body massage now to recover, but free is free.
Hair less, I decided to visit Cincinnati itself. 20 minutes + and I reached down town. I had not researched this and randomly arrived at fountain square, the main city square, parked and did a tour of down town. I obtained a map in one of the hotels and spent the next hour and a half walking around taking photos of interesting things (not too many of those) and stopped at Huit, which is a very good rice BBQ place. A great random find. Had a bowl of rice, shrimp, and some vegetables in a rich curry sauce. Ate half. The other half will be breakfast tomorrow. The wind was real crazy, I walk in a square. Sometimes it pushed me forward and other times I had to push to move forward.
At one point I saw something of interest. A big cart type transport, where people were connected to paddles. A kind of public tour where you do the work weird public transport device, I didn't take a photo, phone was dying by then.
On the way, I looked up the hollows series. A book of modern day phantasy series that I read most of it and it takes place in Cincinnati, but I couldn't find anything. Too bad. But the main building in the city matches the one in the book, it felt authentic to me a bit.
Drove back to Harrison and now I am TV-less and half of lap top battery left to go
Tomorrow is another morning of orienteering with my fancy shoes and crampy legs followed by 4 hour drive back home, hope it does not rain….
Cheers from Miami white water forest.
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