Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Party On Ragnar


When last we left our intrepid adventurers - at least *some* of them -  they had just arrived at Boston Logan.
Hi there!!!

Did you miss that part?  Well then, by all means, catch up on the adventures here and here...


See? Utterly GINROMOUS
We hailed an uber which, I have to say, is probably my favorite thing so far about living in 2016. 

Even if it has actually been *a thing* since 2009. 

What can I say? I was not an *early adopter*...but hey, I live in Amish country, so cut me some slack. It's not like they have uber horse ad buggy...or *do* they???

Anyway, first stop was the van rental place, Adventure Rentals. Let me pause here and give them a little love...the vans, though GINORMOUS, were AWESOME. Clean, new, comfy and utterly GINORMOUS.

After a few tense moments, figuring out that *someone*, who shall remain nameless, but who may or may not be photobombing the picture of the van, had somehow put the van into a strange "manual mode", we were on our way to our hotel.

While en route there, we heard from the NY crew, who were packing up into a car, to begin the trek northward.
From top left - Undercover Superhero, Brother of Undercover Superhero,
The Executive Pastry Chef,
The PIC's SIL and The PIC's Bro 
We checked in, without incident, piled into one of the vans and then made our way out to eat and then grab provisions...

Pillows - Check!
Water- Check!
Window Chalk Markers - Check!
Swedish Fish - Check!

...ok, we were good.

Also? It's pretty and airy...
We headed back to the hotel, to get ready for the pre-race party, which was held at Reebok headquarters and then took off for Canton.

Now, let me tell you a thing about the Reebok headquarters...I want to live there. They have a full sized soccer pitch...they have a rubberized 1/4 mile track, encircling one of the buildings. They have conference rooms that double as cardio studios. They have random treadmills just hanging out in the hallway. I'm pretty sure I could live there, happily ever after.

Oh, hello 1/4 mile track...
After ogling the grounds a bit, we headed in to the registration area, to check our team in and watch our safety video...

We checked in without incident and then heard from the NY crew that they were almost there...so we wandered around, taking in the sights, awaiting their grand entrance...

Gee, *what* kind of event was this?
Too bad there weren't any signs...
The Mighty B and The Flash had plans to take in a Red Socks game at Fenway, so they skedaddled out, but not before the NY crew got there and introductions were made...

I will say this, in the interest of full disclosure...for a party that was so widely publicized by Reebok/Ragnar, I was a little disappointed in what they had to offer. I was expecting something more like a typical race expo...I mean, there were some vendors, but probably no more than 5. The invite promised van decorating goodies and, best of all, FOOD TRUCKS. There were 2. We left hungry.

At some point, for reasons that I no longer remember, I was left alone in the expo...now, if you've been reading Duchess Pandora's Box for any length of time, you know darned well that this is a recipe for calamity...or at least something really messed up to go down.

This was no exception.

One of the 5 vendors was hawking some sort of race belt, calledThe Tube...now, I'll say this, it's quite comfy and stretchy. I know this, because one of the sales women grabbed me and slid one on me.

Which was awkward aplenty.

Then she went on to show me the various pockets.

By putting her hands into them.

While I was wearing the contraption.

Even more awkward.

She was especially exuberant in her demonstration of the rear pocket, right on my butt.

At which point I looked at her and said "Hey, this is the most action I've gotten all day...and I've already been patted down by TSA twice, so that is saying something."

She didn't seem to get the point.

At any rate, while a comfortable product, it has 2 major drawbacks (three if you count an overly handsy salesgirl)
1 - It's not waterproof or even wear resistant
2 - No bib clips

These two were really great sports!
Anyway, I finally managed to extricate myself from her groping, just in time to see the Amish arrive.

No, really. Ish.

I guess they *do* have uber.

Right after that, the NY crew made their grand arrival and we headed out to the food trucks and the van decorating.

Although Ragnar *did* supply us with some glass decorating markers, they were barely noticeable, so I am really, really glad that we stocked up earlier, at Walmart and Target.

The PIC's brother proved himself to be quite handy at reproducing the Sole Crushers logo on the van, so we of course had to document his efforts.

Such concentration 
Which were AWESOME.
Pretty sweet, eh?


We also decided that no van, carrying so many OD30 members, would be complete without a little "Daily Bunny" love, so we added him to our sweet ride.
The PIC is no Picasso, but it ain't half bad
Wile we were decorating, there were shenanigans...there was a beer mile going on, on the aforementioned track...Reebok was providing shoes for you to run a mile in while throwing back some cold ones...being a lightweight, I passed.

Zoolander and Hansel put in an appearance, as well, so I *had* to get a picture with them..though I have zero chill or blue steel apparently...

I'm more of a confused smile kind of girl myself...
Shortly after that, it was time to head back to Logan Airport and pick up Mr. Man and TBC. The drive into Boston at dusk was really pretty...and surprisingly fast!
That'll do Boston, that'll do...

We had them in the van in no time! We checked in with the others, to find out when and where the eating would go down...and checked in with the baseball buddies...who were having a ball, as it were...
Oh, and also, clearly a hot dog
We met up with the rest of the crew at a local place and threw down some grenade to fuel us for the next day's adventure and then headed back to the hotel to crash...

...the rest? Is a story for another day.


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