Saturday, September 22, 2007

Mcdonalds in the Australian Outback?

You may recognize this photo from my Australia blog. Despite protests from the Aborigines, it would appear Mcdonald's now has a restaurant conveniently located at the top of Uluru. If it wasn't bad enough that tourists like me were climbing the sacred site against the will of the Aborignes, now the tourists can find an air conditioned haven from the 120 degree heat and enjoy a McFlurry after they've struggled up Ayers Rock.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Just Joshing around

Just Joshin' around in the Josh Billings Runaground. I signed up for this Triathlon slightly against my better judgment as cyclist along with teammates Ben and Gio canoing and Dan finishing up with the run. I was pleasantly surprised that my reservations were unfounded. I hung in their tough and didn't let my team down.

Steffen charging up Taconic Avenue at the beginning of the race before going down the hill passed Simon's Rock.

Jacinto grunts his way up the hill.

Gio strong arms it home while Ben rangoons the tennis ball handoff to Dan.

Last but not least, Dan heaves and hoes across the finish line.

Test Results!! I mean... Race Results!!

Place: 172 Dynamight cat: 02 cat place: 18 Total Time: 3:11:22

Person place split
Jake 121 1:17:35
Ben/Geo 205 1:01:47 canoe place: 149
Dan 260 52:00

Steffen placed solidly at 51st place with a time of 1:11 and Mario De Ris had an impressive finish of 1:07 putting him in 21st place.

Steve says:

I'm guessing the "canoe place" is excluding the kayaks, but don't know
for sure.

If you'd been in the recreational canoe cat, you'd have been 5th in that
category.

For what it's worth, Ben ran it in 45:39 last year, so he gets bragging
rights amongst the Schmolze boys. The field was faster this year though,
so places for the same running time are worse.

In other news. My little snazzle toothed squat little sasquatched gassipper of a car gets better gas mileage than any Prius owner this side of the moon. 63mpg anyone? Thank you and have a nice day. 62.6mpg was my average over two tanks of gas. That's 1026.64 miles on 16.4 gallons of gas (about an average tank for most cars)

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Bird Watching

Today had Field Methods lab where we watched hawks with binoculars. No way to get pictures of them, but here is an amazing video of some pretty spectacular bird formations.

click here, and make sure you watch the entire thing -- some parts are pretty amazing

In other news, been half-assing the training for the Josh Billings Runaground. Ben, Dan, Jake and Gio all competing as a team. Dan is running. Jake is cycling. Gio and Ben are hoofing it in the canoe. Rode up Mt. Washington today as a last ditch effort to prepare. Was a splendid ride. Flying Moseses.