Family Weekend at Lees McRae

The Beautiful Mrs. K and I drove the Grandparents and Eli's main squeeze to North Carolina this past weekend. It was Lees McRae's Family Weekend and a Collegiate Race Weekend on their home turf. The home course on the school property is no joke. Here we are posing with the man of the hour, in his fresh and minty new LM kit. And he got a hair cut!

Although the weather was spectacular for the start of the cross country race, it was damp from the heavy fog. This is at the top of the first climb, right off of the start. OUCH!! There were at least 25 schools in attendance, with an unbelievable number of students racing. 

Good start for Eli in a huge field of riders. The course is treacherous in the dry (I know, I rode it in June) but with the wet roots and rocks it was downright spooky! Eli landed a solid 11th place and no falls. 

After the XC race was over, we had to get ourselves fed. The school cafeteria was a good place to start, with lots of quick options. Of course, I made a snack faux pas and smothered my ice cream with what I thought were toppings.  Turns out, they actually use Cocoa Puffs as cereal in these parts. Who knew?

Later, we took the Grandparents up to see the views on Beech Mountain. I never get tired of this view myself. As you can see, the weather was just incredible. 

Although Eli didn't race the dual slalom, we all went over to watch the races. It's cool how integrated the race courses are. The slalom course fits neatly inside the Short Track course, and actually intersects the school's cyclocross course, too. 

Speaking of Short Track, this was one tough course on Sunday morning. Again, the heavy fog and dew made for some super slick grass and roots. Eli started WAAAYYY far back in the field. 

After one slow-motion slide out in the back field of the course, he made up some spots to finish 16th. The most grueling 25 minutes in mountain biking is a collegiate Short Track race!

Racing done, we turned our focus to family fun stuff. Every time we have visited the LM campus, we have driven past the Alpine Coaster. It's a wicked thing, like a one-cart roller coaster on small rails...that rises a couple hundred feet up the mountain and speeds back down. You have control over your cart's speed, but, no, not really. Here Eli and Kai are getting the down-low from the owner on how to behave while perched on these death machines.

This is the first climb on the cart, just after leaving the start house. I wish the photo could do justice to the steepness and sheer terror that this thing evokes. Well, the terror it evoked in me, anyway. We did three laps. I almost cried.

I had to include this cute photo of Eli with Grandma at the pumpkin patch. We drove up and over a mountain and into the boonies to see the sights and came upon this farm. Eli takes this route on his road bike and wanted to stop. 

And I had to get the love birds, too. I didn't catch them smooching, though. 

Obviously, any weekend trip that I'm going to be a part of involves food. We ate at some great places, but the Pedalin' Pig was a standout. It was next to our fabulous AirBnB, and we passed it several times a day over the course of the weekend. On our last night, we loaded ourselves down with this stuff. I highly recommend! Alas, our visit had to come to an end. We left our young cyclist/college student in Banner Elk again. I have to admit, it's not been easy. He leaves a pretty big hole with his absence.