Heading Back to New York...More Luge.

In the middle of February I received an email from USA Luge, congratulating and inviting Ellie back to Lake Placid for more sledding, this time alongside girls from the Jr. National Development Team. This time there was no choice of weeks, they gave you the week, March 3-8, so essentially 3 weeks from the email to the travel week.

Crossing the frozen river on the ferry

We quickly discussed it, and during the same week we got the Luge email, St. Justin’s had a speaker talking about a Spring Break trip to Washington DC for next year’s 7^th and 8^th graders. We gave Ellie the option, travel to Lake Placid for luge, or Washington DC. She chose luge. So back to the freezing Adirondacks it was.

Ellie and I flew JetBlue on a redeye flight late Saturday. The initially idea was that we were going to have a softball game that day and wanted to get out after that. The softball didn’t happen because of the massive amounts of rain we’ve been getting this winter. **On a side note, usually we’d have 10 or so practices under our belts before opening day. This year we had about 3 because the rain washed out all our field time.  But we’ll get to softball soon enough.**

We flew from San Jose, into JFK in NY City, arriving about 5:30 a.m. Had breakfast in the airport, then took the one-hour flight up to Burlington, VT. The same place we flew into last time. Got the rental car and drove to Lake Placid. Once again, we had to take a ferry, but this time the ferry was part ferry, part ice breaker since the entire 2 miles of river was frozen. 

The nine girls trying out for the Jr. National D Team
Adeline, Caylin, Lilly, Mikahala, Liberty, Ellie, Jolyn, Tyne, Haidyn

We arrived in Lake Placid and got Ellie checked in. She roommates with Lilly, the 10-year-old from Mt. View who was in her initial screening camp back in December. She also saw Mikahala, the 12-year-old from Minnesota who was also in her initial screening camp. So, a couple familiar faces were a welcomed site for Ellie.

Although, that first night was like the first night back in December. Lots of phone calls and texts wanting me to pick her up. She wasn’t sure she could do it. She couldn’t sleep. So, I had to drive over to the OTC and have a little conversation with her in the lobby. When I got there, there were two members of the D team with Ellie, and Renee, the chaperone. Ellie was in tears, but after a conversation, and some encouraging words from others, she went back to her room, didn’t have a great night, but got through it.

It didn’t seem to hurt her sledding the next day, she did great up on the hill, but I will say, it was COLD. Freezing! It was so cold it hurt to be outside. The temperature was in the single digits, and the wind chill had it -15 at times. Again, SO COLD!!

I stayed in the same Hampton Inn as the last time, again it worked out just fine. Minutes from the OTC, 12-minutes from the luge track.

This trip the parents seemed more interactive. 7-8 of us went to dinner a couple times – BBQ place good, Mexican place, not good – and that was nice, so I didn’t have to just grab a meal and head back to the hotel.

Opening Day for Lukas, Rookies

Finishing one of her runs. Fun to see her smile.

All in all, the trip was a success. Ellie seemed to have a good time. She did very well – she had the 2^nd fastest time on Friday when they did a race with all the girls who were trying out of the team.

I took a ton of photos of all the girls and shared them, which the parents seemed to really like. I also made quick posters, which was more of a fun project for me to work on late at night.  Photo Gallery - https://adobe.ly/2IRxa4G.

What’s next? Ellie will hear in early May if she makes the team. Making the team is a year commitment and is 3 two-week training sessions in the winter, and a week in the summer. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now it’s certainly a fun story to tell, and a fun adventure to be on. But now, on to softball and baseball.