First Track Meet and Lost in Claremont

Last weekend A had her first track meet, and it was far away down in Charlestown, which I had never seen. The meet was a relay race, and only the older kids were participating, but A wanted to check it out, so that was in the plans. N said he’d like to go to check it out, too, but A was going with her friend who offered to pick her up and give her a ride. In the past, we usually asked to if N could along, as well, but that’s proving to complicate life and delay the fact that at some point their lives will diverge. N just likes to hang with his sister, but pre-teen girls don’t necessarily want younger brothers tagging along.

Either way, N and I went on our own, and A went with ES. Now I’d never been to Charlestown, but it was a pretty good trek, and of course we got lost going down there. The problem I run into is that the directions tell you to go along Route 12/5/11, and then 12 and 5 split off. Which one do you take? Actually, they all end up meeting at some point, it’s just that while you’re on it, you just don’t know. Kind of a pain. It turned out to be one of those situations where you think you screwed up when in fact you got it right. I need to have more faith in myself.

We got to the meet and I was surprised at the variety of schools that were participating. Hanover, Lebanon, Hartford, and Plainfield were all there. The race was kind of cool, and they had all sorts of food, so we chowed on burgers and hot dogs. I rather like watching track meets, the kids did a great job, and everyone had fun. We met up with A and her friend, but at some point it was time to go, so we packed up and headed home. We’d been there for about three hours.

Now you’re going to love this, but we got lost on the way home, as well, or rather, we thought we got lost. It turns out we were going in the right direction, we just didn’t know that until we arrived. It was frustrating while it was happening. The problem was when we hit Claremont, we thought it would be interesting to drive through town, but in doing that, we passed the turnoff that gets you straight back into Vermont. Leaving Claremont was a bit confusing, and we got a little turned around. Whatever be the case, we ended up driving around and popped out exactly where we wanted to be. Funny how that works.

In the end, it was fun, and we were in no hurry, so getting lost was not as stressful as it usually is. I was just glad to be home and out of the car.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to G.Francalanci for the pic.