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In my opinion, Thanksgiving weekend is the best holiday weekend of the year for many reasons:
1) It is always on Thursday which usually means that Friday is a gimmee which stretches it out to a 4 day weekend
2) Other then the sit down meal on Thursday, there really is not too much formality and preparation that goes into it
3) There is a good chance that there will be snow. If there is no snow, the anticipation of snow is always in your head.
I could list a bunch more reasons, but will let you think of your own. The 4th of July is a close second on my holiday favorites, but since the consistency of having it on the same day is not there, it stays second.
Anyway, Thanksgiving Thursday started out with the 2nd annual Red Kettle Run down at the Y. An informal affair where a group of runners meet, drop a non-perishable food deal in the basket and you are off to pre-burn the calorie intake that will take place later in the day. Gary Fisher, one of the North Fargo guys suggested that we run mile repeats inter mixed within our scheduled 10 mile run. We had a number of takers and it actually went very well, like a sharp stick in your eye. We warmed up for a mile, drilled a mile, cooled down for a mile and then drilled it again. We did 4 fast miles mixed in with 6 slow miles - tough! When it was over I was glad that I participated as getting pushed in a group to run fast will only help when it really counts in a Race.
Spent Thanksgiving afternoon at my sister Julie's house where her husband Jim cooked up an excellent meal of the typical Thanksgiving feast. It was a nice day.

Friday's weather was scheduled to be perfect, sunny skies, light wind and temps in the mid 30's. Jay Richard's of Maplelag had been blogging how good the ice skating was on Big Sugarbush Lake - how could we pass it up? With the shopping malls filled to capacity, we pointed the F150 in the other direction and spent the day at Maplelag!
Jay and Jon Richard's ripping it up on the lake. There was over 6" of crystal clear ice - smooth as glass. All of the Richard's can skate like pro's. Jay said that everyone had improved with their immersion of skating everyday since the ice was thick enough.

Looking from the lake to the Richard home.

Matt and Ben enjoying the day. Both Matt and Ben held their own on the ice. Not sure how they figured it out as they do not skate very often.

Jay and Jon. Man can these two skate. Jon has a bright future playing hockey. Jay played throughout school back in the day and has not lost his skills.

Jake Richard's with Ben in the background trying to save the fall. Notice that the ice is as smooth as glass. The boys were skating all over the lake.

I brought my bike. The only place I could ride was on the little pressure ridges that held a bit of snow or along the shore. If I went out on the open ice there was no way to keep the bike upright. Sliding your foot would not even help.

I did manage to make it over to the famous Maplelag lake side drops. Jay was out on the ice with my camera taking photos. My prior post about gear ratios on my single speed held true. I could ride on the flats and of course down the drops, but was geared way too high to do any climbing.

Fun and games on the ice.

Matt and I had to take turns with our size 48 skates. Don't be fooled by the hockey stick, I am a runner and a biker, not a skater. The stick was used as a crutch to keep me from falling on my ass. I must say that the ice today was by far the best that I have ever skated on. It was so nice to have no boundaries or a bunch of little kids at a public rink getting in your way. I had a blast, used muscles that I have not used in a while - now I want a lake in my back yard......

More fun and games...kids had just as much fun without their skates.

Jay had to open a gate for a neighbor, so along the way we went and assessed the damage that some busy beavers were doing to this channel between two lakes. For those of you who know Maplelag, where Jay is standing is right at the base of where you cross over to get to Wavy Gravy and Twin Lakes. Crazy how much damage that beavers do and how quickly they get it done.We ended the day by having delicious burgers at the Ice Cracking Lodge east of Maplelag. There were still a number of relatives at Maplelag and the whole crew went along. Good people. Thanks to the Richard's for a great meal!

Jake drove back to Fargo with us to "hang out" for the weekend. We have a lot planned......