Copper Country

I guess it was probably a day or two ago when I arrived at the Anchorage International Airport at 3:20am to meet the Seawolves for a 5am flight that would get us to Minneapolis by early evening. I had a few things to wrap up around the house, and a couple of errands to run. An old college ski teammate was in town with his daughter, who was competing in the tryouts for Biathlon World Juniors, and I wanted to get together with him for a beer and hear the latest news from his world. Considering that I was going to need to wake up a little after 2am anyway to make our flight, it seemed easier to simply stay up all night rather than to try to get one or two hours' of half-sleep. 

I'm not someone who sleeps on airplanes. That's just not my thing. I enjoy flying too much to sleep through it. A six-hour drive from Minneapolis to Houghton, Michigan after our arrival meant that we got to bed the next night (this morning) around 3:45am. It might be another day or so before we're all feeling completely rested.

Our first RMISA college race of the year is the day after tomorrow here at the US National Championships. We're looking forward to it. There's plenty of snow, plenty of daylight, and comfortable weather. And most of us have never been here before. It's always fun to see a new part of the world.

We're enjoying each others' company. We're having a lot of fun and a few laughs. We talked about our new year's resolutions over dinner this evening. One resolution that nobody made tonight was to stay awake to ring in the new year. After our recent travel to Michigan from faraway states and distant countries, we'll all be fast asleep long before the arrival of 2023.