This post is going to be long.  If you want the cliff notes version, here it is, taken from my Facebook status update – “My weekend by the numbers: 900 miles driven. 1/2 ton of stone and 1 shed moved. 2 waterfalls hiked. 1 bonfire attended. 500 photos taken. Countless beers drank. 9 hours slept (this part sucked). Goodnight facebook!”

I’ve long called NYC my mistress.  We’ve had a few passionate flings, but in the end, she was never going to be the wife. Which is why, less than 24 hours after shooting the Pete Senia Memorial Race, I found myself packing up my NYC apartment for a move.  6 hours after that and I’m driving a truck out of the city with all of my worldly possessions in tow…save for one.

Monday: Pack/move/drive.  Arrive in Maryland (my new home) at midnight and crashed.

Tuesday: Unpack truck, return truck, unpack belongings.

Wednesday: Finish unpacking.  Start thinking about the logistics of the weekend.  Run errands.

Thursday: Tie up loose ends, pack.  Met a friend for dinner (this might have been my saving grace from the insanity that was my week) and relaxed for a few hours.

My weekend started on Friday.  I drove up to north NJ to crash at my buddy Aleks’s house.  Got there Friday afternoon and helped him move a bunch of slate and a shed.  It’s the least I can do to repay him for letting me crash so often.  Oh, and I also brought some cookies for his 7mo pregnant wife.  :-)

Finish hauling stuff, drink beer, eat steak, watch the Yankees, sleep.

5:30am and my alarm goes off.  I’m out the door buying breakfast for everyone, and we’re on the road by 7:30am, headed to Kaaterskill Falls to hike to the falls and take in the fall foliage.

Aleks and Maggie leading the way.  It was overcast, but red is still red, and orange is still orange, and trees don’t look like that all the time:

Me, following in that other worldly possession I mentioned before:

Because we got there so early parking was easy.  It’s only 1/2 mile from the trailhead to the falls, and it’s a pretty mellow hike.  Aleks, looking up at both falls.

Maggie very kindly hung around the bottom of the falls while Aleks and I went exploring.

The view from the top of the first falls:

The view from behind the second set of falls:

Aleks is the tiny blue dot in the pic.  That’s where I was sitting to take the shot above:

After that was Oktoberfest at Hunter Mtn.  It was cold, but fun.  No pics, my hands were too busy working a brat and a beer into my mouth. :-P

After Oktoberfest we parted ways.  Aleks and Maggie to head home.  Me?  I was headed to Plattekill to photo the finale of the Gravity East Series.

Got there before sunset which was nice as I was camping and would hate to put up the tent I was borrowing from Aleks (do you see why I helped him move all that rock?) in the dark.  Got that setup, chatted with some of the guys already camping and had a few beers.  Then it got cold.  My blackberry told me it hit a low of 29 overnight.  Brrrr!  No wonder I only slept for a few hours!

Racing, from Sunday morning:

I’ve been in contact w/ guys from Team Voncooper – hopefully that video camera on top of #105 got a shot of me laying prone, taking shots of these guys.  Always being behind the camera, it’s nice to be in front of it every now and again.

Saying goodbye to the Gravity East Series for 2009:

The full set from Sunday’s DH on the Pro course can be seen on my site.

I decided to drive home from Plattekill, NY to DC (basically).  On 9 hours of sleep over two days it wasn’t the most fun thing I’ve ever done.  But I did see a few neat things on the ride home.  First was a trio of Jaguar E-types cruising down 287.  Classic cars.  Gave them a thumbs up and continued on.

An hour later, still on 287, an orange Lamborghini Gallardo blew by me.  But not before I snapped a pic ;)

No, it’s not easy taking pics that are in focus while driving…

This coming week finds me in Philly for a ‘cross race and in NJ for Dual Slalom and DH @ Diablo.  This is fun.