[Empire Orienteering Club]

Colonie Town Park
April 23, 2005

Geez, the weather was lousy! I guess when the National Weather Service declares a flood warning, somebody should really pay attention, but plans had already been made......

Friday when I was hanging controls was real cloudy, but not bad at all........Sunday, when I was picking up controls after the meet was pretty nice too. It switched from cloudy with a little drizzle to warm, sunny & humid. Perfect day for hanging wet controls on the clothesline & packing them up.

SATURDAY, however, which is when my meet took place was pretty darn BAD! (Nice weather for ducks, good for the crops, April showers bring May flowers.....) It began just cloudy, when Bill Jameson came by to help me move a few picnic tables, & hopes were high, but then turned drizzly. Good thing I brought my tarp! As the day went on, it switched from drizzly, to raining, to just POURING, then to raining, drizzly, just cloudy, then we got everybody to finish & we went home!

Thank heaven I got a lot of help. The Hawkes-Teeters were there to help with registration & instruction, & the Trysons took a lot of the load off by commandeering & organizing the equipment for Glen's next meet (5 Rivers, May 15th - be there!).

It was a challenge to make 5 courses, including a difficult green & red course in the little Colonie Town Park, but I didn't get any negative feedback, even though I used a "surprise" control for the last one on the red course; you could also call it a "gotcha". Of course, the only ones who took the red course were Marty Hawkes-Teeter & Glen Tryson. Marty didn't yell at me for the surprise, 'cause he knew i'm an old guy & he is a very respectful young man, & Glen didn't yell at me 'cause he didn't get to GO to the last control......the next-to-last flag had been removed by a helpful elf & Glen never found it - why? It just wasn't there! SORRY, Glen!

We had a total of 13 cards out there in the park, & it was a treat to see the doughty competitors who did me the honor of showing up in the rain to run around in the mud. It was fun, even though the cards came back in various forms of handfuls of green, yellow & orange mush.

Remind me - next time - ALWAYS get a pavilion, regardless of the forecast!

At the end of the day Saturday, I had to beg the people who wanted to pick up controls to let me do it myself on Sunday. Saturday afternoon, all I wanted was to go home, get a drink, & have an hour in the hot tub!

Thanks to all who came out, & thanks to the previously mentioned who helped to make my second meet directorship less torture, & more fun.

-Bob Lange

The day after a very wet meet...

White
Jonathan Wettergreen33:25
Charles Dieterle38:15
Mickey Lavicska group69:00
Yellow
Christoffel group50:30
James Martel family (group)52:10
Orange
Cynthia Johnson66:35
Amy Conway group69:10
Krista Canham group83:51
Melissa Behr groupHFA
Green
Janet Tryson70:49
Sue Hawkes-Teeter89:35
Red
Marty Hawkes-Teeter56:00
Glen TrysonHFA

Phil and Sue Hawkes-Teeter with Janet Tryson

Melissa Behr talks with Sue and Phil Hawkes-Teeter

The younger members of the Martel Family group dash for the finish

last updated: --Tue Apr 26 2005 08:15:59 PM EDT--