Training (my palate)

Well today was an off day in Milan.  I had ambitions to rent a motorycle and try to drive the Stelvio, but the combination of there being snow and just the experience of italian driver's I decided that could wait for another trip.  Instead we had a plan to drive to a wood working shop to buy some wood to make a roof race for the rental car.  After making directions and look at maps we set off.   Let me just say that driving in Milan is ambitious, just the vast number or cars combined with lane splitting scooters/motorcycles along with lots of cyclists and pedestrians makes things difficult.  About a quarter of the way there I ended up taking a wrong turn,  then took and even worse one heading further into the city center.  It took driving in a bus lane and some aggressive driving to make it back in the right direction. Once we got to the spot where I thought the store was the next task was finding a parking spot.  After a few go rounds of the streets in the area we actually managed to find one and with a little direction I was able to parallel park the car, which I believe is honestly the first time I've had to do it since my drivers license test. Then, we had to find the actual store, the unfortunate part was that we actually weren't at the right spot and after spending half an hour wandering around we gave up and headed back. After driving in Milan traffic for a good portion of the morning I came back and took a nap.  Later in the afternoon we headed out again but this time on foot.  We already saw the Duomo yesterday so today we went to an old castle, not really sure of the name but it was cool.

The main entrance of the castle

Outside of the entrance there were some crazy street performers.  The top one is sitting on a soccer ball on top of a pole held in one hand by the man on the bottom who is sitting on a glass jar.  The were just sitting there static, who knows for how long.

from inside the castle

Some castle's have moats with water, this one has a moat of stray cats

The view out the back of the castle

After all this wandering we were getting hungary. I heard tip from one of my old roomates about a cool coffee shop in Milan, after looking them up, it turned out they had an eight course dinner special that night, so that sounded like a good thing to try.  First was some Jean-paul Deville champagne 

Next, was basically a vegetable medley, but with 15 different elements and it was amazing

Next was a sort of tomato paste with stewed yellow tomatoes, basil and several other things I can't remember

this course was branzino (sea bass) with sea urchins, and a spinach cream sauce

Then came the some sort of meat? haha well it was marinated for 3 hours, then roasted and dried slightly and served with a light mustard sauce on thin slices of toasted bread doused in olive oil

Then came a shot of yogurt with ginger to cleanse the palate

Ah dessert, dark chocolate mouse, with rasberry jam, and white chocolate cream,  not nearly enough of this, so they have us another plate

Top it off with some really good espresso and some cookies. An excellent meal in a really cool cafe.  Going to try and head back in the morning for this before leaving Milan, so good.

Long Flight and First Impressions

Well my self and Chris Norbury (Team Manager) have arrived in Milan and we made it to our hotel or at least that's the short boring version.  Going back a few steps, we both were on the same flight and ironically the same row of the plane which made the logistics of meeting in the airport easier.  Once we picked up our luggage, the plan was to rent a car and make our way into Milan (the larger airport is a little ways from the interesting part of Milan).  Since Chris would be heading back sooner than I, was he was going to put the rental car in his name and I would share cost.  Yet Chris didn't know his driver's license was expired until he tried to rent a car at the airport, so now the rental car was in my name, but attached to Chris's credit card, haha perfect...  Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear said that the fastest car in the world is a rental car, because it's a car you will drive to the limit.  I disagree, I say the fastest car in the world is a rental car on someone else's credit card haha.    So we hopped in and started on our way towards finding our hotel.   Let's just say that being jetlagged and jumping straight into absurd crazy italian traffic is not the most relaxing, luckily I can drive quickly,  we made it through the madness to the hotel.  Since it was still early, we couldn't check in, but we were able to park the car and explore a little on foot,  there was a nice restaurant a little down the street so we went there for lunch, after two airline meals, the food was delicious and the shot of espresso that came the meal was much needed to keep the jetlag at bay.
After the meal we still had some time to kill so we walked to the city centre.  I've never been in any of the really old cities so it was cool to see everything made of stone instead of asphalt. We wandered around the plaza of the Duomo and even went inside for a bit (I didn't have my camera on me so google duomo, the third largest church in the world).  It wasn't long until the inevitable happened, someone asked me if I played basketball..... After a while we went back to check into the hotel and shower, and sleep a little.
I booked the hotel through hotwire for two adults,  I was sort of hoping that it would mean two beds, but it didn't.  The receptionist even tried to be coy be say there was only a single available, which I responded with a deadpan stare and stammering uhhhhh, luckily she was joking but there is only a queen size bed. Ah memories.

Italy Bound

Hi there, well later today I will take a flight to Italy to begin training for the World Championships.  I've always like the idea of trying to keep this updated but recently there have been several distractions: graduation, picking grad schools, find places to live,  and even working in NC for the past two weeks. Since this is my second World Championships race I have a better idea of what to expect and how things will play out.  I'll keep this updated as training progresses and especially for the races.  Thanks to everyone who helped by donating or buying a shirt!

Kurt

Fundraising!

In 10 weeks I will be representing the United States at the Wildwater World Championships in Italy. Since wildwater isn't an olypmic sport there is no funding, so to try and raise money for this trip I'm selling t-shirts. $20 for cotton, $30 for synthetic. All proceeds go towards my expenses. Plus I have a pretty cool boat designed... So if your interested, message me or email krsmithgall@gmail.com. I'll be submitting the order on April 15th so if you are interested, make sure to get in contact with me before then, but donations are welcome anytime. Thanks, Kurt

T-shirt design

Polo Shirt Design

Boat Design

Fundraiser Letter

Hello my name is Kurt Smithgall and I am a member of the United States Wildwater Team.  In June, I will represent the United States at the Wildwater World Championships in Italy. I am contacting you in hopes of raising money for this trip.  In case you are unaware, Wildwater kayaking is a non-Olympic discipline where competitors race kayaks down different lengths of whitewater.  It is a sport that tests both the competitor’s skill as well as strength. While it is not an Olympic sport, it is quite competitive. When I first raced on the team in the summer of 2012 there were over 70 competitors from 35 different countries at the World Championships in France.  This coming summer I hope to improve my rank and better represent the United States in international competition.  Since France, I have continued to train hard and get faster.  For 2013, I was ranked 2^nd in the national rankings for wildwater. Before I go over the specifics of what I am asking I want to tell you about my personal background.

  I first started whitewater kayaking when I was 12 and it quickly became a passion of mine.  Once I became comfortable on whitewater, I started racing and by my senior year of high school I had become hooked on the new challenge of racing.  I made a commitment to training and racing through college despite the rigors of engineering classes. It was a lot of hard work, and this May I will graduate from Penn State with a degree in Biological Engineering and with a 3.5 GPA no less. I apply myself in all aspects of my life and I have worked very hard to get to where I am now.

As I mentioned earlier Wildwater is a not an Olympic sport.  What this means is there is virtually no funding for the national team.  All major expenses from airfare and transportation to hotels and lodging are up to each individual competitor.  I work as both a teaching assistant and research assistant while being a full time student in addition to training ten times per week. There just simply aren’t enough hours in the day to work enough to afford this trip on my own.  I am asking if you would be willing to donate some money to help fund my trip. Every penny that you give will go toward my direct expenses.  Several of us on the team are starting to plan the logistics and I will need to book an airline ticket as well as start to save for my expenses while competing in Italy this summer.

My projected costs are between $6000 and $7000 and if you chose to donate I will be extremely grateful and you directly help me represent the United States in international competition.   As an added incentive if you donate $20 I will send you a cotton tshirt, a $30 donation will result in a synthetic tshirt, and a $45 donation will result in a US Team polo shirt.  If you would like to support me you can mail a check to the address below with your shirt size or send it by paypal to krsmithgall@gmail.com.  If you have any questions feel free to call or send me an email.  Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope to have your support.



Kurt Smithgall
225 Montour Street
Montoursville, PA 17754
krsmithgall@gmail.com

Long Overdue Update

I've found that is takes a bit of time to make a proper write up and recently there's been a lot going on so this blog has been put on the back burner which explains why its been almost a year since my last post.  Now that its less than 6 months to Worlds I'll be a little more diligent.

Well a lot has happened in the last year but the highlights were passing the FE to become an engineer-in-training.  I landed an internship at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory.  That summer resulted in a lot of kayaking, I spent a good deal of time in my sprint boat after work in the evenings then every weekend had some great whitewater in it.

Back at school for the fall semester I loaded up on classes to have an easier spring, I was also an undergraduate research assistant as well as teaching assistant,  throw in 19 credits and training for the US Team and you can imagine why I didn't have much time to update.  Oh yeah there was also the GRE's and grad school applications, and Wildwater Team Trials haha I'm sure there's still other things that I'm missing.  Everything worked out though, my classes went well and I should be writing a journal article this spring from my research. But anyway this is just a little background information from the past year.

In the Fall I qualified for the US Wildwater Team to compete in the World Championships on the Adda River in Valtelinna Italy. I also plan to stick around for a few of the World Cups which will be in Austria.  In the next couple days I hope to have an winter break update and keep them coming regularly.

Kurt

The Long Haul Back (Part 2)

I made it into Seattle and to Tom's house on the early evening of the 30th. We loaded the trailer that night and to be honest I was pretty worried how the Blazer would do with the extra weight but mostly air drag.  Driving out I was getting mostly 13miles per gallon which is pretty bad even for the blazer, but the only way I would know is to just go and drive.  But first I had to have a little paddle after all the last time I paddled that boat was July 1st on the Isere in france and I was anxious to get back into it again.  So on the morning of the 30th Tom and I met up with Andrew McEwan to do some attainments.  It was great to get out in that boat again on something that wasn't shallow or flatwater.   Since I had some delays from weather driving out and I had an even longer drive coming back so I decided to hit the road that afternoon.

Coffee is a big part of Seattle culture, and there are tons of little drive through espresso stands to get some fresh coffee.  I'm told some of them even have "bikini barista's".  On my way out of town I had to stop and get some because after just sitting in a car for days the short workout made me a little tired.  The barista's at the stand I stopped at were fully clad, but they had a rather american menu option.

Oregon was pretty much like this, cold barren and not much there.  That night was particularly cold, it's not fun trying to start a diesel engine when it's -7 in the morning, but at least there was a nice sunrise

Oregon and Idaho were pretty hilly and desolate, but once I hit Utah there were clear blues skies and that reflecting off of the snow was pretty neat, it was also very flat which was good for the gas mileage.

It was a pretty remarkable day considering the terrain change that occurred. I started out with sort of scubgrass plains in Oregon and Idaho. Then I hit barren Utah and near Salt Lake I hit the mountains again, and heading east toward Green River, I went through a portion of canyon country.

By the next morning I was back into Wyoming but the southern side this time.  It was sort of snowing, but really windy, so not much to look at. 

At this point, after two solid days in the car I found this gas station name a little funny. But Wyoming was good for cheap diesel.

Shortly after crossing into Nebraska, I caught up to this tractor trailer.  It was going at a good speed and since elevation change doesn't exist in Nebraska I just set the cruise control the same speed as him and tucked in about 30ft behind him. 

Oh look a huge train, and the same truck.  We both even had to stop for fuel at the same exit.  I caught up to it again shortly after getting back on the highway.  I seriously drafted the same semi for about 400 miles.

There was some huge roadway monument so I took a picture of it. You can get a sense of how exciting Nebraska is, after driving 500miles through it, I took pictures of a train and a monument and that was it.

Two consecutive nights is my mental and personal hygiene limit to sleeping in my car.  This was my hotel room about 30 seconds after I entered it.  I then ironed my jeans, and walked to a nearby micro-brewery, drank some beer and slept like a baby.

Compared to the previous day, today had a lot of states to cross and several big cities.

This was a pretty cool bridge over the Missouri River in Kansas City.

This was one of three Centralia's that I passed on the trip, but none of them boasted an underground coal fire that's been burning for 50 years, so I didn't think it was worth stopping for.

Hmmm St. Louis traffic with cross wind and a boat trailer, so fun.

I managed to pry my white knuckles off the steering wheel for a second to grab this rather bad photo of the arch.  I kept trucking the rest of the evening before making it about an hour or so west of Chattooga where I would drop 4 of the boats off the next day.

One last picture of the full trailer before dropping the first four off.

If you look closely above and to the inside of the trailer lights you can see the little bike lights I zip tied on the trailer and would turn on at night. While this was sketchy at best, it was apparently legal enough for the half a dozen cops I drove past at night. 

Oh look its those long boats where you face the wrong way and an angry midget tells you what to do...

After dropping off the boats I stopped by NOC to say hello to the people there and go for another paddle.  It was nice to see some familiar faces there and good to get out in the boat again.  The paddle was pretty much like every other time I paddle with Hipgrave. I was 100 yards upstream warming up and he gives a signal and just goes for it. I spend the next 15 mins trying my hardest to catch up while trying to appear that I'm not trying hard.  Eventually he slows down a bit and I catch up, but that's the way it goes between two competitive people.  Each of us is secretly trying to drop the other while looking like they aren't trying, haha I love it. 

After the paddle the plan was to meet another friend at a brewery in Asheville, but of course what's a long road trip in the blazer without a break down. About 30mins from Asheville I was getting pretty hungry so I pulled off to stop at a Subway, shortly after I put it in park the engine just died.  I tried cranking it but it wasn't going, so I went to subway and got food so I wouldn't have to worry on an empty stomach.  30mins later its still dead, with my limited mechanical knowledge I quickly determine that it is outside the scope of my fixing and quickly put up a plea on facebook about diesel mechanics near Waynesville, I was soon able to get a mechanic/tow truck called and I received several support calls and texts for which I am very grateful for.  The blazer was towed that night into Asheville, at least it's heading in the right direction.  The mechanics were able to diagnose a bad fuel pump that night and that was all they could do.  They were a pretty nice group, they made room for the kayak trailer so it could be locked up over night and pushed the blazer outside so I could sleep in it that night. That morning I went for a walk to get breakfast and to get out of their hair for a bit because the part hadn't arrived yet. Luckily there was a Bojangles nearby so that was a good way to start the day. Around 10:30 the fuel pump showed up and 15mins later the blazer was running, those guys knew what they were doing.  I got the trailer back on and I was on the road again.  

The final leg went reasonably quick its I drive that I know quite well at this point after working at NOC for two summers and going to several training camps and races there at other times. I also made it back into Sheetz territory which was good.  Around 8:30pm I make it to Marysville to drop off two more boats and then make the final drive back to Montoursville.  While this would seem like the point where I would start to relax, it wasn't.  My first class of the spring semester started in less than two days and I had major laundry and packing to do as well as deal with the trailer of boats in the backyard.  But it wasn't a big problem and eventually I was back at school with an epic adventure under my belt.

After 6167 miles of driving my boat from Worlds was at my house 100% intact 

Since some time has passed since I finished the trip I'll add my comments of the trip.  

Driving cross country and back with a trailer in the middle of winter is not a vacation it just isn't.  I'm not going to say it was fun, because being in a car by yourself for 10 days isn't, but it was an experience.  You can't have the good without the bad (sleeping in your car when it's -7 just plain sucks) and no matter how much you plan and prepare things happen, like your fuel pump giving out.  All the cold, pain and discomfort are all in the past now, but the memories I have will stay with me.