Did you hear that Appalachian State beat Delaware for the FCS title?!

Yeah, I didn’t care either. Go Pats. Booya.

In more exciting news that I’m sure will be featured on the cover of the next Sports Illustrated, HealthNet had a mini camp here in Asheville. Three of their riders came to town to visit the new boss-man and partake in some riding. I happen to be friends with one John Murphy and therefore got to poach their mini camp bike practice. Under the auspices of being a friendly cyclist, I learned all sorts of insider tidbits that will allow me to trump their success in the upcoming cycling season. Victory will be mine!

We followed up a particularly lengthy and high calorie expended ride with a trip to the local bakery. I enjoyed one of their famous cinnamon buns. The picture doesn’t offer any sort of scale, but I think the diameter was about 18 inches, or the size of an SUV’s wheel. That might be a gross exaggeration, but I forget… The sugar coma made for omitted details.

The riding continues to be marvelous, albeit intertwined with some strange weather. Temperatures fluctuate between the 30s to the 70s in the past three weeks, and generally come in multi day phases. Three days of cold temps, four days of warm temps, etc. (It was 70 two days ago and spitting snow as I type this.) I cashed in on a recent warm day and summited the Eastern Continental Divide. I don’t have the facts and statistics right here in front of me, but I’m pretty sure this is the highest point in the United States. Maybe even the world. The “ELEV 3028″ refers to miles. Yup, 3,000+ MILES above sea level. Crazy. Needless to say, it was a fairly epic climb.

The fluctuating temperatures this time of year and rolling, rugged terrain strike me as very New England-like. As the fabled expression says, “You can take the cyclist out of New England, but you can’t take New England out of the cyclist.” Very sage. Here are two pictures from recent ride that could just as easily be Vermont or New Hampshire as they are western North Carolina. Beautious.

Lastly, Mayo and I shot down to Greenville to visit her brother this past weekend before they drive back home to Vermont for the holidays. Mayo’s brother and roommates celebrated the end to a semester of school with a pretty sweet Christmas party. The camera soon went into hiding for it’s own protection, but not before catching a glimpse of me in costume. With appropriate Christmas attire required, I tried out the local consignment shop but was totally unimpressed with their selection (meanwhile, I foolishly forgot my three-piece green checkered suit with complimentary red turtleneck at home in NH. Blast.) I therefore made do with a trip next door to the Dollar Store; one roll of wrapping paper and Scotch tape later, I had a butter costume:

The outfit was a stunning success. It features articulated elbows and knees for superior dexterity, as well as slits up the side of the apron/dress/overalls/shirt for the same reason. Believe it or not, the suit remained entact for it’s entire life. After about three hours with the suit still fully functioning, I simply got bored with it and removed it.

Mayo and I welcomed ourselves into our new home in Asheville, NC this past week! What fun. We decided to avoid competing with the crazy folk who travel on the Sunday following Thanksgiving, and instead departed early Monday morning. We worked off a good portion of Thanksgiving’s delicious gluttony by packing our Penske 12′ trailer to the gills. This picture does not do it full justice, but rest assured that we utilized at least 98% of the storage space available on this yellow badboy. Floor to ceiling, front to back, this truck is FULL.(FYI, Penske was great. U-Haul is the typical go to for peoples’ traveling needs, but after about a minute of online research you’ll realize U-Haul sucks.)

Our last night in New England gave us an idea of what we are escaping by making this journey… namely cold weather and snow. Yes a mere dusting, but snow nonetheless. In fact, as I write this one week after departing, I was told by my friends on NPR this morning that New England is being blanketed with snow today. The salt-of-the-earth part of me longingly misses a good dumping of snow in my native New England; but the cyclist part of me reminds me that at a time like this, change is good. Here’s a parting shot of Mayo and me taking last minute pictures with Mayo’s coworker/friend/roommate Tyne.The drive was enjoyable… or I should say, as enjoyable as a 20ish hour drive alone can be. See, in order to have a car upon arrival, Mayo drove her Hybrid Civic (which you all remember gets a sweet 40+ mpg) alongside the Penske. With an iPod full of Podcasts, I was set for the entire drive. One night and roughly 1000 miles later - with much thanks to the Ashtons for a superb night of hospitality in Virginia - we made it safe and sound to Asheville.

I can thank an untimely crash to being able to opt out of heavy lifting and moving in. My broken arm, albeit mostly healed, gave me a verbal doctor’s note that I shouldn’t be lifting large or unsteady objects. Nice! As a result, Mayo’s brother came up from Greenville the day after our arrival to help move everything in, with me providing uplifting moral support and directions for a solid dose of feng shui in our apartment. It’ll be fun having him a mere hour away… especially when the temps drop here at altitude in Asheville and I can join the Greenville winter bike league. 80 people on a winter group ride?! Unreal.

When not getting acquainted with the town, our neighbors, and the local riding scene, Mayo and I are continuing a short lived tradition of playing Scrabble. There have been lots of good games and solid plays lately; here is one of the finer and more apt plays Mayo had in a recent match. The word: SPANDEX. In fact, she opened with this word and in doing so used all seven letters for a 50 point bonus! For you non-Scrabble players out there, that is a solid move. And for you nay-sayers out there who claim that SPANDEX is a proper noun and therefore not applicable, the Scrabble online dictionary says that SPANDEX is a synthetic elastic fiber. Moreover, there is the plural SPANDEXES.

It’s worth pointing out, though, that I’m undefeated in North Carolina. Two and oh, baby! Thereby bringing my record up to 5-1, including games played back home in NH.