2015 December - A Gripmas Carol (Part1) - anwnate

[anwnate]

So…I had been mulling over Gripmas for a while before committing. At the time, I didn't know what to expect after the procedure (heart). Maureen (the wifey) was hesitant about me going because of the ticker…but eventually gave her begrudging approval. By October 29th…I knew it was a "go" for Gripmas. I contacted Rich Cottrell (pronounced Cot-rull…or close to that) to see if he had plans on going. He's somewhat on the way, so I suggested that I drive and we split the costs (hotel, gas, driving) to make it more affordable. Since it's around 7 hours away, it was definitely going to be a two night stay (Fri, Sat). Furthermore, I definitely wanted to get on the road early, so we would have time to unwind and not go straight to bed.

It took a little bit for him to coordinate things and sell it to his wife…but 5 days later, he had the green light. During that interim, I had actually made a firm commitment to myself and booked the hotel room. When Rich got the go-ahead, it suddenly made things half-price…plus the added benefit of a second driver and conversation for the trip. I quickly sent Chris (Rice) a PM to arrange the Paypal and weightclass/2hp width details. Was there a tiny bit of trepidation for both Rich and I? Sure. You never know who you are dealing with until you spend a lot of time with them…something that took years to figure out with the ex-wife.

Friday, December 4th came quickly enough and I got on the road around 8:30am to pick up Rich. I went the slightly longer way to avoid Philly traffic and arrived around 9:15. He graciously allowed me into the house to use the facilities and to show off his "grip corner". Although his grip spot was much brighter, it reminded me very much of my basement corner in Brooklyn (see old videos). From humble beginnings and all that. Or…every mighty oak was just a nut that stood his ground. We get in the car overly prepared to get lost. I had a printout with the major highways listed, Rich brought an older GPS (which I scoffed at) and we both had GPS on our phones. (Little did we know that this preparedness would come in handy.)

We had both brought a number of CD's, yet never found a reason to put them in. The conversation flowed like beer at a Frat Party. Subjects ranged from Grip, to Adoption and everything else under the sun. Rich and I are both from the same generation and seldom were things culturally alien to each other. The drive passed quickly and somehow between the two of us, with two stops for gas and food/coffee, we arrived approximately 6 hours later. I must say that by the time we arrived at the hotel, I felt completely at ease with my soon to be roomie.

While booking the hotel, I had read a ton of reviews of the hotels in the general area of Crooksville. I chose the Best Western. There were a couple of cheaper ones out there (and a number of more expensive ones), but with the BW, I didn't read anything scary to turn me off from it. I've pretty much come to the point in my life that I no longer buy the cheapest beer (though I no longer drink)…or the cheapest hotel. We arrived at the BW to find we scored a room with a short walk on the ground floor. Additionally, while walking in, we see and pass a breakfast nook for hotel guests. Nice.

We unpack and touch base with the wifey's…handling any tasks we could do over the phone. At this point I saw Chris's online note that said people were welcome to drop by Friday evening. I didn't like the idea of dropping in unannounced so I facebooked Chris to get his number and then get a vocal confirmation. Chris gave an immediate "come on over" and so we did. Upon leaving the hotel, I immediately found out that T-Mobile's coverage of the area was sketchy at best. The very GPS I had once derided came in decidedly handy. On the way to Chris's…we managed to avoid, "THE CURVE OF DEATH!" Somewhere on the way…there is a sharp turn that goes under a small bridge. What differs from most small bridges with blind turns…was the Center Support from Hell. I can't imagine how many drunk drivers smashed into this thing…something I narrowly avoided stone cold sober. We arrived at Chris's not really knowing what to expect. There didn't appear to be any cars around.

This was the first time Rich or myself had met Chris and his wife Teresa. I should break a moment and talk about her. What a lovely lady. She welcomed us in, offered us coffee and pretty much acted like she was greeting old friends. A warmer welcome one could not find. When it did come time to leave, a hug seemed almost obligatory. Without a doubt, Mr. Rice did well for himself. Meeting Chris was slightly intimidating. He's not a small guy. Actually it kind of reminded me of meeting a slightly shorter (but not short) "Slim". Chris has an impressive build for any age, clear eyes and a firm handshake. He has a deep voice and an accent that I'm only left to guess to be Ohioian. Their house is quite eclectic. It has an overwhelming feel of "home" and reminders everywhere of their lives they spent. Sports equipment and bent metal adorn the home as equally as pictures of their children growing up. All in all, it makes you feel as you are visiting someplace special. We did some brief chit-chat and talked a little bit about climbing when Chris decided it was time to show us the Yol Bosun Gym. On the way out of the house, he asked if we noticed the sculpture on the side of the house. I hadn't seen it coming in and decided I must take a picture (nighttime or not). Pretty darn badass.

The Gym. While I had seen a few pictures here and there…nothing prepared me for the sheer space and well thought out designs of workout equipment. Every time you turn around there was another thing to see…from the pictures and bent metal, to the homemade training equipment, most of which are extra impressive due to the thought put into them. Chris later mentioned that he had moved a ton of items into the other building to make room for the competition. Heck, I didn't know there even was another building.

While showing us around, who but Jedd, Lucas and Tank (Christopher Andrade) walk through the door? Hellos and handshakes abound. Tank's beard was in full glory and I told him he now reminded me of Leonidas. It was decided to unload everything we had brought to Gripmas. I brought the Manna-nuff weight (John Manna gift) and a couple of larger Globs. Pretty sure Jedd brought a ton of stuff…including an INCH. After Jedd hung up his banner, I noticed some numbers on it that were separated by skulls. I tried for a moment to make sense of them, but then said "screw it" and just asked him. Jedd looked at me like I had three heads. It was a pretty funny moment. I was informed it was a phone number. Heh. If I had had a clue about Penn/Wyalusing Area Codes, or there had been dashes instead of skulls, I would have seen it right away. As it was, I apparently joined a high-schooler as the only two people to not figure it out. This would not be my last facepalm of the weekend. J I went ahead and attempted a few closes with the Ivanko we would be competing with. I'd never touched one and it felt completely alien to me. I pretty much gathered I wouldn't be starting anywhere close to what Jedd thought (based on my TSG's) would be my starters. We gabbed for a while, then it was decided that we'd (the visitors) would meet up for dinner someplace local.

After chatting a little extra with Chris (Rice)…and some more GPS issues, Rich and I arrived like 10-15 minutes late at the Bob Evans. Again we managed to avoid the Curve of Death…this time from the other side. Somehow, the group had waited for us. As was mentioned in the Gripmas thread…there is something "in the air" regarding this competition. This same feeling percolated throughout the dinner. Grip talk dominated of course. If we all were not so tired, I feel the night could have gone on even longer. Notables: The kitchen basically waited until the food was ready to inform the waitress they were out of my meal. For some reason the waitress waited to serve until my new meal was ready. She dropped off a waffle to Jedd that resembled a 5lb standard plate…at least in its texture. I believe it dented his fork. When informed, she quickly got a new waffle for him. Regardless of the food, which did the job of filling our stomachs, I really enjoyed the dinner. If another dinner goes down next year, I'd like to make sure other gripsters know about it. Anthony had texted me during dinner but it didn't make sense for him to join us since he was already settled in his hotel.

Basically, everyone was enjoying the moment, the freedom from daily worries and responsibilities and the expectation of tomorrow's comp. It was a very cool moment. I took a selfie I dubbed…"Four Gripsters and a Psycho." Yes, I would be the psycho in the pic.

We eventually head back to the hotel, called home, chatted for a bit and retired at a reasonable hour. Oh yes…I'd be remiss not to mention a couple of things. Around the 3rd week in November, Rich was trying to hunt down some DVD's. Knowing "Tank" Andrade's interest in strongman and grip history, I got them in contact with each other. Turns out he had what Rich was looking for. From that point on, they corresponded without myself as an go-between. Anyway…I told you that story to tell you this one.

When we got back to the hotel, Rich started asking me who the other guy was (aside from Jedd and Lucas) at the restaurant. "Was his name Chris or something?" LOL…hee hee hee hee. Man did I get a kick out of that. It made me feel much better about my banner phone number error. He literally had no idea the guy he was corresponding with for weeks was the same guy he sat next to and shared dinner with. HEHEHEHHhee. Boy did I have a field day with that…immediately texting "Tank" and letting him in on it. Chris basically laughed and said, "That's awesome!" Eventually I stopped poking fun at him…eventually. Rich was a pretty good sport about it…and immediately went to Chris's facebook page to do a little research. At this point the night was winding down.

During my shower, I quickly realize that the hotel has a water softener. That normal squirt of shampoo I used became impossible to get off my body. I literally tried rubbing my hair with a washcloth to get some of the shampoo off. With the exception of a free but less than stellar Wi-fi, this would become my only real complaint of the hotel. Before going to bed I make sure I warn Rich about the water situation. Unsure of breakfast, we decide to get up at 7:00am and see what the day brings. Just before I crashed, I got a text from "Tank" saying…"K baby, gonna shower and hit the sack." I managed to send back a "OK BABE I LOVE YOU TOO. " around the same time I got another text saying "Sorry, not for you Nate haha". Before lights out, I warned Rich that my wife says I snore on occasion. I probably should have mentioned that earlier.

Since Rich got up first, I had a wonderful 15 minutes of extra sleep. But…getting up, I knew my back was "out of whack". I went to take a shower. DOH! Put way too much shampoo (for the soft water) once again. You'd think I'd have learned…but nooooo. We eventually meandered to the breakfast nook and got some coffee. The nook had a pancake maker, eggs, sausage gravy and biscuits, bagels, english muffins, toasting bread, danishes, cereal, yogurt, fruit and juice. We ate and refilled our cups before getting on the road. We headed to the Rice's for "second breakfast".

We stopped by Rite-aid on the way over and I bought some foam ear plugs for my roomie. I felt guilty because when I got up in the middle of the night…I saw he had a pillow on top of his head. To me, that was a sign I had been snoring. Getting to Crooksville, we parked at the funeral lot across the street from the house. By time we walked in…it became apparent that a lot of people had already arrived. Teresa was in her element, making food and coffee and being quite the hostess. There were copious amounts of sausage eggs, bacon, toast and coffee. I met a ton of people at once. Anyone who has read my reports knows I'm not stellar with names when I arrive. I literally asked Jake (Sahlaney's) name enough times to annoy him a bit. What he didn't know was that in like ten minutes, for the first time, I met Sean, Josh, Jor-el, Barrett, Nick R, Nick A, Andrew P, Andrew D, Kody, and Kevin along with himself. I was pretty excited to meet Durniat, but didn't want to come across as a fan-boy. Additionally, Bob, Josh H, and Brent were in the mix. At this point my head was pretty much swirling. I attempted to introduce myself to everyone in a quick once around…but that's not exactly conducive to long term memory commitment.

I almost didn't recognize Brent without his strongman mustache. He's been busy with non-grip related commitments lately, but it was great of him to come out and help with the contest. He was instrumental in my grip motivation and I had hoped to get a chance to talk, but I'll have to wait for the next one. The funny thing about grip contests is that you never know beforehand who you will connect with on that exact day. Sometimes it's who you hoped to, and other times it's someone you barely knew…or even someone that you had pegged differently. It's part of what makes these contests so very memorable. Eventually, I finished my "second breakfast" and headed into the Yol Bosun Gym. (continued in Part 2)

[Jedd Johnson]

Yes, classic that you didn't realize it was a phone number, AND that Rich didn't know that was Tank Andrade.

[richcottrell]

I also just realized what the sculpture was of... It is a strong man on top of a mountain.

I did not realize that when we looked at it that night.

more later...

and yes I had not idea it was Tank. Sitting right next to him!

rich

[climber511]

I also just realized what the sculpture was of... It is a strong man on top of a mountain.

I did not realize that when we looked at it that night.

more later...

and yes I had not idea it was Tank. Sitting right next to him!

rich

Rich - you are the first person to ever notice what it is supposed to represent.

[jasonotto]

Funny how the car radio or CD player never seems to be needed on road trips to grip events or armwrestling tournaments. Even over drives of 9 + hours, the conversations seem to make the time drift by...i knkw we always cover a great array of topics...great write up, good memories for sure.

[bencrush]

Great write-up, Nate!!! I like your writing style.

The long drives to contests over the years with Josh Dale, Travis Mickelberry, and Scott Harris have been great times for me. Getting to know them and sharing some things about myself along the way is an enjoyable way to pass the long drive. Jotto, I know what you mean about not even needing the CD at all on drives like this. Not when there's good company to share!