Just realizing that under normal circumstances next week I would be in Manchester UK for my 11th World Masters Track Championships events. It’s 2020, I shouldn’t have to explain the reason I’m not there. Like most, I’m trying to find a new way to find value and purpose in life when things are so unreasonably not right. Once I figure out how to write that episode, I’ll post that and I’m not sure if that will be positive or negative, to be determined.
Instead, I’ll dwell on the positive and some fun adventures that are a reflection of my past hobbies that brought fun and excitement and friendships to my life.
I’ve been lucky enough throughout my life to figure out how to find great ways to enjoy life while working hard at a career. Friends have opened doors for me and once open I seem to take charge and follow those paths, sometimes to the extremes.
Sailing, I took it up with encouragement from a good friend back in the early 80’s. He was generous enough to partner with me purchasing first one small sailboat and then a second slightly bigger sailboat a few years later. I sailed the second one for a number of years locally until some other hobbies, first ball room dance and then track bike racing took over. Dance fell to the bike and for the last 15 years I have been addicted to racing bikes at our local velodrome, which was closed and demolished recently.
I still have desires to race a track bike and go back to World Champs where-ever they next occur. I still have a coach and train daily to maintain a level of performance I’ve acquired. In the interim, sailing has come back into my life. I tend to keep things, like the second boat we bought back in the 80’s, still have it and over the last couple of years I have refreshed it and reconditioned the trailer that hauls it. There are still a few things yet to be done but it’s close to my picky persistence.
It’s been in Lake Pepin, part of the Mississippi River between MN and WI south of the metro area about 100 miles. Next week’s plan is to sail and/or motor the boat upriver to a boat yard called Watergate, St Paul with a slight excursion up the St Croix river. I made this same trip down river mid-summer in 2019 so I’ll get to see what it looks like from the reverse. The next posts will be a bit of a travel log.