Alpine Shop Blog – News and Events
Since 2010, Alpine Shop customers have donated over 7000 coats to help keep our communities warm during our winter coat drive. This year, we’re asking for your help in bringing in 1000 more as Alpine Shop kicks off it’s ninth annual One Warm Coat Drive on Monday, November 24, 2014 at all Alpine Shop locations.
From Monday, Nov. 24 through Sunday, December 7, we’ll accept clean, gently-used coats, jackets and sweaters at each and every Alpine Shop location.
• For each coat or sweater donated you will get one entry into a drawing for one of four $250 Alpine Shop Gift Cards that we will give away when we reach our goal of 1000 coats.
• For your participation in the coat drive, you’ll also receive a $30 off coupon to Alpine Shop.
NOTE: Alpine Shop will only give away one coupon to each customer during the coat drive no matter how many different coats you donate. However, each item donated will still earn one entry into the gift card drawing.
Alpine Shop has made donating simple. Just bring your clean, gently used coats, jackets and sweaters to any Alpine Shop location. Bring your coats inside the store and check them in with one of the store’s outfitters to make sure you receive your coupon and get entered into the drawing. Then, Alpine Shop and One Warm Coat take care of the rest.
Donated coats will be split among organizations in St. Louis, including: Sunshine Ministries, St. Patrick Center, Coats for Kids and Edgewood Children’s Center. In Columbia, all coats will go the Salvation Army.
Here’s a little bit of what your donations have meant to the St. Patrick Center in St Louis.
Thanks again for thinking of SPC for your One Warm Coat Drive. The coats we received were distributed immediately. Case Managers were able to support their clients and families as were people in the community in need. All of the coats were distributed within 2 days of receiving. It was especially gratifying with the quality (gently used) coats that clients received.
Thanks again to you and your customers for your support of our clients and community.
Regards,
Gene Smith
St. Patrick Center
One Warm Coat is a national non-profit organization that supports and encourages coat drives. It helps individuals, groups, companies and organizations across the country collect coats and deliver them to local agencies that distribute the coats free to people in need. More than one million coats have been provided to those in need at no cost since its inception in 1992.
“Overall, Team Alpine Shop covered approximately 9 miles of paddling, 26 miles on foot, and 80 miles on mountain bikes, all through the hilly Maryland terrain.”
Hi Everyone!
Wow, it’s been about six weeks since we finished the race, and have had time to contemplate the enormity of what we did.
You heard about the race mostly from my point of view, the support crew director. I thought it would be fun and interesting to hear about the experience from the teams, and my helpers. We had a “hotwash”, to explore what we did right, what we could do better, and what we learned.
Like David Letterman, the MacKeens also have a Top Ten…
Top Ten Things Learned from the MR340
10. Install a GPS in the RV…what’s wrong, Jarod and Kaity, you didn’t enjoy all of our “adventures” while getting lost?
9. When applying sunscreen, don’t forget your lips (and your thighs). Ouch! Need I say more?
8. Always follow the directions….or, don’t put “Nuun” tablets in your mouth without water!
While attempting to overcome boredom, especially with the food selection on the kayak, Nikki thought she’d shake things up by putting her Nuun tablet, that she normally puts into her water bottle directly on her tongue. She says, “It started out okay, but I immediately regretted it. I guess I hadn’t thought it through, because it only occurred to me after it was in my mouth that it made bottled water fizzy…and that was in my mouth. It really started hurting, but I was determined to carry through with my idea. I made it about halfway, realized how dumb it actually was, and ended up spitting it out into a water bottle. I’m not doing that ever again!”
A shout-out to Nuun & Company, Inc. Thanks for the tablets; they really helped us get through the race! www.nuun.com
7. When all else fails, learn to juggle! Being on support crew consists of short, extremely intense periods of activity, followed by looooong periods of waiting (at least for those not driving the RV!). Jarod combatted the boredom by teaching himself to juggle! And he’s pretty good at it, too! Whatever you’re faced with, be creative!
6. Be consistent. This helped Heather to make it through. When you’re paddling, just keep up a steady pace. If you don’t, “first you annoy the other person, and (then) you get tired really quickly!” This goes for anything in life.
5. Paddling (and life) is a lot harder if you don’t use the right technique. Heather says, “At the end of the first day, before we started night paddling, my arms were very much in pain. It hurt to paddle, and when I did I wasn’t helping very much. By the middle of the third day, Dad commented on how I wasn’t really doing torso rotation (an important technique…find out how to do it when you take a kayaking class from the Alpine Shop, www.alpineshop.com). I had been trying to, but I wasn’t doing a very good job. Amazingly, when I changed the way I was paddling, my arms stopped hurting. I was able to do longer times of constant paddling after that.”
4. Deer swim, and swallows dive-bomb. The teams got to experience some amazing parts of nature! They watched deer swim across the river, and swallows dive-bomb them to “feast(ed) on the bugs we disturbed from the water,” Rich and others commented. “Turkey vultures, swirling whirlpools, piled debris from the last flood stage water (was) just some of the splendor we saw. When we were not talking to each other, just the natural peace and quiet with the backdrop of forested riverbanks and the cliff faces near Hermann, MO…priceless!” Rich shared.
Heather was impressed by the meteorite shower that they paddled through, “that lasted all three nights we were out there. I counted twenty and more.” Our recommendation? “Get outside yourself”, and experience nature!
3. Teamwork is essential to success in any venture. Nikki mentioned that “being a team-player is super important, because there is no way I could have done that alone.” Chris appreciated strengthening his friendship with Nikki by the time they spent together…even though they had disagreements! Rich said, “My favorite thing was to see my children start and finish this race with a greater understanding of themselves, the level of this accomplishment and a greater understanding of each other. This includes our support team who had to overcome obstacles of their own. The look of accomplishment and success on everyone’s face was priceless! Since the race there have been occasions of doubt for a school assignment or extracurricular task, but without my even saying so the kids sail out of the doldrums with the simple comment… ‘Why am I worried about such and such…I did the MR340.
2. ’You gotta have a sense of humor. Rich quips, “A funny thing happened to me on the way down the MO river…I won’t quit my day job…we occasionally saw a floating water bottle, who we affectionately named ‘Bob.’ The floating walnuts we called ‘Wally” and the wood debris ‘Woody.’ Yes, you get giddy and start to sing or hallucinate! We would comment, ‘How did Bob get in front of us again, must have been an African (or European) swallow.’”
1. And…the Number 1 thing we learned from the MR340?….Drumroll…….NEVER GIVE UP!
Rich said, “This was my first kayak race and we were counseled not to do this by some and encouraged by others. I have always been a ‘Glass half FULL’ kind of person and have raised my kids to also have that outlook. The organizers of the event pulled no punches about how hard it would be, but were very clear that this was as much of a mental challenge as physical, maybe even more mental. Life changing events, such as this, are choices. You can decide to participate or not. We overcame the physical fatigue and put our minds to the task of just getting past the next bend in the river. It was very similar to the age old question of ‘How do you eat an elephant?…one bite at a time’, but rephrased as ‘How do you complete the MR340?…one paddle stroke at a time.’ I highly encourage anyone contemplating doing the MR340 not to let naysayers or negative people affect your decision. You will never be able to know if you could or could not have done anything until you try. In fact, the only way to fail is to not try. Even trying is not failure if you attempt it again, so rephrased, the only way to fail is to give up.
After the Battle of Britain on October 29, 1941 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited Harrow School. His famous quote is so applicable to the MR340…
‘But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period – I am addressing myself to the School – surely from this period of ten months, this is the lesson: Never give in. Never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.’
“The more common shortened version of this speech is: ‘Never, never, never give up.’”
This philosophy was exhibited recently by our oldest, Joshua. He raced at the USA Cycling Collegiate Track National Championships in Indianapolis, September 25 – 28 for the Air Force Academy cycling team. He was doing quite well, until he was involved in a crash. Despite major road rash, he got back in there and raced! Go to @randrwoodcrafts on Twitter to see photos of him racing. http://www.usacycling.org/2014/collegiate-track-nationals
I have enjoyed sharing our experiences with you. We hope that you will be inspired to “Get Outside Yourself!”
Mary MacKeen
MR 340 Thought for Day 3: “All the kayakers have to do is float down the river all day.” – Sandy Sandi
When I began to plan for the MR340, I thought, “All I have to do is organize food and supplies, look at the map and guide book and drive to a checkpoint and wait for hours.” How hard is that? I even brought projects to do, thinking I would have time for them. Hasn’t happened yet!
A month ago, when the MR 340 was going to be in July, I got my RV license. My sister-in-law Sandi, who has previous experience driving large vehicles, gave me some informal lessons.
From Day 1, Sandi and I have been extremely busy planning our route, and then having to change it when things didn’t go right. You don’t want to miss a turn in a motor home…have you ever tried backing one up? With a trailer attached to it? Or a burning car in your path?
We came up with “handles” for ourselves. I’m Scary Mary, and she’s Sandy Sandi. Explanation: I told my oldest daughter Nikki the other day, “I’m really getting the hang of driving the RV.”
She responded, “How do Kaity and Jarod feel about your driving?” Hmmm…I asked them. Their response: “Scared.” “Terrified.” Hence the handle! However, Jarod was sleeping when he was supposed to be navigating today. Looked pretty relaxed to me!
The other day, Sandi was driving us to the checkpoint in Glasgow. We had inadvertently printed an older MR 340 guide book, so the directions were a little off. We turned too early at one point, and ended up in a Sand Plant. I remember Sandi saying, “Oh, this is not the checkpoint, I’ll just turn around here. We might get into a little sand.” A little sand! Well, let’s just say after a tow truck got us out, we were fine!
This morning, we saw the kayakers off into a light fog at Katfish Katy. Each time we saw the teams, they all seemed in fairly good spirits. They should be; they have moved up in the ranking! On Day Two they were #176 and #179 out of 283. On Day Three they were #135 (RED-E Oar Knot) and #138 (RED-E Set Go)! They got in fairly early at Hermann, MO, around 9:00pm. We are had a good night sleep!
On day 4 the thought for the Day: “We got this!” – Nikki MacKeen
We’re all pumped! Teams were up at 5:15am, left Hermann by 6:00am. Crew waiting for teams at Klondike, MO. They should be here by about 1pm. Not even getting out of the boat; crew bringing them tea and crumpets…no, just kidding, sandwiches and coffee.
When Nikki got out of the boat, she put her fists in the air and yelled, “We got this! Only 27 miles!”
The air was full of anticipation and excitement. There was a ceremony at 7pm, we were excited to receive our final results. We ended as #163 RED-E Set Row, and #164 RED-E Oar Knot (out of 283 teams). The teams tied for 14th place in the Mixed Tandem (out of 22). We did pretty good for our first time!
Till next time,
Mary Mackeen
The thought for Day One of the MR340: “The secret to getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain
Last night we considered parking our RV at a nearby WalMart, but opted instead for the parking area by Kaw Point, a stopping point for Lewis and Clark, and for the MR340. Right by train tracks, and heard the loud whooshing and rattling of trains on the track all night. Despite that, most of us slept pretty well.
Ground crew up at 5:20am to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Coffee, pancakes, oranges, and we all piled out to get teams and kayaks to the river. A DJ playing upbeat music, Lewis and Clark reenactors walking around in costume, and even a flying GoPro whizzing over the river made for an animated early morning scene. As the 8am start neared, the DJ shouted over the loudspeaker to “Get your boat in the water!” About 250 boats of various sizes and colors filled the river, the Kansas City skyline in the background.
The mayor spoke, and several in 1800’s costume shot off guns to start the paddlers. With the crowd yelling and gun smoke filling the air, the paddlers were off! I managed to get some pictures of both teams, RED-E Oar Knot and RED-E Set Go before they followed the pack down the river.
Jarod and Kaity have been making awesome food, and were a great help to the teams, getting them down to the starting point on time. I had heard from Rich via cell phone, and Nikki and Chris via the Safety Boat Crew (not to worry, no problems, just no phone!) that both were due at the first checkpoint in Lexington, MO around 3:30pm. We arrived safely there at 2:00pm, after a few errands. Sandi and I took turns driving the RV. I did pretty well, if I do say so myself!
As we began day two of the race the thought of the day was “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities. Heather said, “This has been the worst day of my life! But it was fun!” The first day is the toughest day. It’s the longest, at 105 miles. Even if you don’t finish the entire race, even one day is an accomplishment. And at the end of it, there are blisters, sunburn, sore muscles, exhaustion…you get the picture.
RED-E Set Go (Rich and Heather, had it reversed yesterday!), and RED-E Oar Knot (Nikki and Chris) made it to the third checkpoint at about 1:30am! So, technically the second day. You can keep up with their progress on www.raceowl.com. Currently, RED-E Oar Knot (Nikki, Chris) are 176 out of 283 teams and RED-E Set Row(Rich, Heather) are 179!
Kayakers have to make it to a checkpoint by a certain time. The “Grim Reaper” Safety Boat (how’s that for ironic?) gets to each checkpoint by the deadline. If you end up behind the Grim Reaper, you are out of the race! The deadline for the third checkpoint, Miami, MO, was 11am today. So they were safe! And worn out.
As Jarod and Kaity, our youngest children and ground crew, waited at the boat dock with me. Jarod helped a safety crew member carry his kayak to a large grassy area. Those who were staying the night there kept their boats in this place. Safety crew have been so amazing and helpful, working round the clock.
Our son Josh who lives in Colorado is lending his support by racing with the USAFA Cycling Team while we race on the Missouri River.
We may be tired and sore but we are still in the race! We’ll update you on Day three as soon as possible!
Mary Mackeen
Here we go! The MacKeen Teams are ready for the MR340. We had our kayaks on a trailer behind our RV, and were on our way to the starting point in Kansas City, KS last night. After we had a safety briefing in Kansas City at 7pm and a good night’s sleep, we have an 8am start for all racers. There are currently around 250 boats racing in the MR-340. If the race had taken place last month as originally planned, there would have been closer to 400 boats (we lost some, as not everyone could get the time off).
We are nervous and excited, and looking forward to the bonding time we will have as a family. Rich is anxious to hear the peaceful sounds of the river as he paddles with his daughter Heather. Siblings Chris and Nikki are packed, ready to go, and relishing the thought of passing father and sister!
Drivers Sandi and Mary have studied the map and are ready to meet the teams and supply them. Jarod and Kaity, well, they’re just looking forward to a little R & R with no home chores! But they know there will be many short crazy times of hard work, followed by long stretches of waiting (they’re already planning bike rides, and kicking a ball or throwing a Frisbee around). Josh is waiting patiently in Colorado Springs to hear news, as he cycles and goes to classes.
Here’s a question: How many times do you think the MacKeen Teams will get hit by flying carps?
Stay tuned as we update you daily on our adventures on the Missouri River, and we’ll let you know how many carp we catch! Tom and Huck didn’t have nuttin’ on us!
-Mary Mackeen
“About six weeks ago, my husband Rich came home and announced that we were signed up for the MR340. For those of you who don’t know, this is an 88 hour, 340 mile kayak race across the entire state of Missouri. We will be using two Current Designs Double Vision tandem kayaks, bought at the Alpine Shop.
Now, add to this-we have not done anything like this before. Many people think we are crazy, and they’re probably right. But, we like adventure.
We were both saddened and slightly relieved to find out the MR340 had been postponed until August 12, due to dangerously high waters and potential flooding. The good news…we still plan on racing and we have a little more time to do so! So we will keep you posted on all of our training.
While we were first considering ourselves The MacKeen Team’s 1 & 2; we have come up with proper names! Took a family vote around the breakfast table and decided the names should have something with “red” in them, as our uniforms and kayaks are both red! We came up with Red – E or Not and Red – E Set Go.”
As a family, we run a small hobby farm, and a home-based, internet business (www.randrwoodcrafts.com), so we are used to working hard. However, we have heard that even tough Marines and football players haven’t been able to finish this race, as it is a totally different type of work.
We wanted to find a sport that the whole family could enjoy. Now, we could have started slowly by taking short day trips here and there (and that is what we recommend), but that is not our style! We have jumped in with both feet! And many kudos to the Alpine Shop for all of their help, advice, and encouragement.”- Mary Mackeen, mom, media manager, and all-around “whip cracker”
Rich MacKeen- Father, airline pilot, retired Air Force pilot
Heather MacKeen- Daughter, 16 years old, Cadet Airman First Class (Civil Air Patrol)
Nikki MacKeen- Daughter, 19 years old Cadet Second Lieutenant ( Civil Air Patrol), two time participant of Johnson Flight Academy, where she accumulated 19 hours flying time in a Cessna 152
Chris MacKeen- Son, 18 years old, Eagle Scout, 2 time participant of Northern Tier, Boundary Waters canoeing trip with the Boy Scouts
Sandi Riemann- Sister-in-law and aunt, “Bus” (RV) Driver Extraordinaire
Kaity- Daughter, 14 years old, chief cook and gofer
Jarod- Son, 13 years old, chief paddle washer and gofer
Josh MacKeen- Son, 21 years old, U.S. Air Force Academy cadet (Class of 2017) and on the USAFA Cycling team, he is supporting us emotionally from Colorado!
Mary will be keeping us posted on any further training and race updates! We are proud to see families, such as the Mackeens, getting outside and transforming generations. The Mr-340 is no cake walk and will take great diligence and hard work, but we have profound positivity for the Mackeens! The Alpine Shop is rooting for you, all the way!
We are thrilled to offer Ryan a $150 Alpine Shop Gift Card, a Mountain Hardwear Hueco 20L Pack, a limited edition 40th Anniversary Tee-Shirt and a Logo Pint Glass!
Thank you, Ryan Davies for transforming generations by discovery outdoors and by being a super cool daddy-o!
Who have each won a $15 Alpine Shop Gift Card!
Tom Holdmeier kayaking at The Castor River, Fredericktown, MO
Pierre Politte at Cayonlands National Park, UT. Back country camping with family, Boys 8 & 10.
Paul on the Ozark Trail
Steve, three generations in North Carolina.
Check out all of our awesome entries posted in our Facebook album!