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So I get to Gloucester (where the Gorton fisherman lives) and it's raining and blowy. I make my way to the inn which is all cosy and warm with two fire places going. Four, count 'em, four women were waiting for dinner guests. There were none. I checked in only to find out I had to drive around back to the 50's-looking motel room which did indeed face the river. Of course, by then it was blowing so much that I took this picture through the window from inside the room.
I had to lean on the door hard to get it open. Those of you who are unfamiliar with New England (or just plain forget) -- all wood has been swollen for about a month now. It will shrink again after everything freezes. Anyway, I fall into a charming room with mint green painted wide board paneling and white trim. Good thing for the visual charm because I was less than impressed with the mildew smell.
Can you see the lump in the center of this pic? It was in/on the bed I didn't use. I was afraid to lift the bedspread, thinking it might be a body part or something.
The TV worked though, so I hurried off to meet Deb and Paul at Lobsta Land. (Little did I know that you had to walk over to the TV to turn the volume down. I was roughing it.)
Walking into the restaurant, I thought, 'This is going to be rustic.' The walls were paneled in knotty pine and I was wondering if their alternative to lobster was mac and cheese. Boy, was I wrong! We had gourmet food that was fabulous. Our shared sampler appetizer had very lightly breaded calamari that was very tender. Paul had tuna that was stacked on top of julienne veggies with squirts of wasabi cream sauce and possibly cocktail sauce (it was red). (This stupid spell check doesn't know how to spell wasabi -- now I'm going to have to Google EVERYTHING.) Deb's risotto had squash and cheese in it and it was very yummy. I had what I had wanted for a long time: boiled lobster. Yum, oh yum, oh yum!
After the wonderful meal, it was not only high tide on the marsh, but the wind had blown up to possibly 50 mph. I almost couldn't get my car door open, but I did and then I couldn't keep it open long enough to get my left leg in. It would have been funny, but I had to struggle for about five minutes until I could inch my foot high enough onto the door so I could kick it open a bit more. The wind was so strong, that I really believe the door would have broken the bone in my leg if it had hit it. So I went back to my (luckily) heated room to listen to the wind howl. Today I heard on the radio that about 1100 people in the Cape Cod area had lost electricity. I wasn't on Cape Cod, but the wind ...
So the 5 k race was today and I said to Deb, "So, will it be about two hours?" She said, "No, Mom. I'll be done in a half hour." Can you believe it? It was actually 33 minutes, but it was raining like a sumbitch, about 36 F. and toward the end, it snow flurried on them. I am so proud of the whole Nitsch team!
The pictures start pre-race in the Beverly community center.
Deb's on the bottom right and her running mentor, Lisa, is back row, third from the left. She kept the pace up for Deb. She's also the President of the company.
This is the very beginning while the starter was giving stretching exercise directions. You can tell these guys in front are serious runners. Deb said before she had completed one mile, they were already looping back to toward the finish line. Wow.
I'm guessing it wasn't fun waiting for the start -- it was cold and raw.
Deb did, however, keep her spirits up while waiting for the starting gun. Number 268 is not happy at me for taking pictures. He's either in the witness protection program or his wife thinks he's renovating their bathroom.
This guy was the first of "The Tutus." He came in on the second group of runners. There were a half dozen guys and gals wearing tutus in honor of a friend who had died from cancer this year. I thought it was so big of the guys to also wear tutus.
And here's our Deb behind the orange slicker. Yeah, I had wiped the water off the camera lens, but not well enough.
Pretty great for her first race! She only had about 20 more yards to go from here.
It's good to have great support. Paul was wonderful. Lisa's on the right probably still breathing hard. They had just finished.
After the 10 k'ers come in, we all headed to a hole in the wall, er, breakfast place. Deb and I got there first and she told the waitress that someone had called yesterday and told them to expect 10 people. The waitress said, 'She was supposed to call today and nobody called.' So she didn't want to seat us or even set up for five ... Around then, the waitress noticed my cane and figured she had better seat Deb and me. To cut a long story a bit shorter, we heard three times that around 10:10 a.m. on Sunday, they get a crowd and she didn't want to set up any tables until people came. Meanwhile, we're looking at six empty tables. Our group turned out to be 10 people. Then an old lady with an accent started to stop the waitress from moving another table next to us, but she let it go.
I told Deb I didn't want to be rude, but I wanted to order right away. I still had a two and a half hour drive ahead of me. After telling the waitress three times, she took my order. By then all 10 runners were there and they had changed into dry clothes and they ordered. I finished all of my food and sat around with another cup of coffee talking -- and their food still hadn't come.
Anyway, we got to telling stories. And Gary sitting next to me said he very often used to eat lunch with his co-workers in the same place in Central Square. Because of that, he knew that every Friday was fish day. This particular time, he had had fish and chips on Thursday night, so he didn't want fish. He ordered a burger. Everyone else ordered the fish dinner The old lady who ran the place was so incensed, she said to the old guy with the tattoos who spread the silverware around, "He doesn't get bread! Only the ones with fish get bread!"
At that point, the waitress said, "I don't think you want to leave now." I looked out and it was snowing like crazy! (It didn't stick.)
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I am so glad to be home! Now I have to turn all of my clocks back. I am so glad that I did laundry on Friday and Saturday. I got groceries on the way back from Beverly. Oh yeah! I got gas for $2.79/gallon. That's 10 cents less than the stated price because I had Stop and Shop points. Yay!
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