4:00 AM Before Gigathlon

 Monday  July 2nd 4 am-  I was wide awake at 4am this morning and ready to run. I laid in bed tossing and turning until 5:30 and decided to get up.  I went downstairs around 6:30 planning on running for an hour and then taking a shower before time to get the RV.  It was raining. I hate rain!!! I decided to have some coffee and get on the computer for a while instead.  I wanted to look up the weather.  Damn!  It looks like it will be a rainy start of the race. I have not ridden much in rain and my arthritis flairs up with it. I have had great training weather for most of my races but when it comes to my big races it seems like I always get the rain.  I had 5 thunder storms at RAAM and everyone else that was racing only got the one in Kansas.  Well I am getting used to it. I think that when Zoot sent my new clothes before I left it jinxed me.  I also bought a rain coat…oops!

8am-  I took off from the hotel in the rain anyway to get my run in.  I called the RV place and they said it would not be ready until noon.  I needed to kill some time.  I had a nice run and did not crank the head phones up so that I could hear the cars. I could hear every foot pounding the ground.  I sound like a heard of elephants when I run…hehehehe  I did feel really good and my legs were on fire. I think I just needed to catch up on all the sleep that I have been missing out on and relax.  I could feel my arthritis but not bad.  I felt really great on the run.

The Camper-  I was running by the camper place and thought I saw what was going to be my camper parked outside. I was really excited to see all the room it had.  I decided to poke my head in and say “hi.”  They were really nice to me and told me that they would call me when it was ready.  I asked them if I could take a look and they pointed to me that something that looked no bigger then a mini van. It was not the camper that I was looking at.  I was thinking it was a joke but they were serious. I have taken a look and it is really small. I am not sure I can fit the luggage that I have now in it.  I think a Volvo would have been bigger…yikes! It looks like the crew might have to sit on top of the car to get around.  I called Dirk cracking up and he said we would make it work.  Peter on the other hand might wonder what he got himself into.

Roz-  I have had some contact with Roz and she and I will hopefully see each other this week.  She should write a blog….her emails crack me up.  She  is going to tell me about a story of when she got hit by lightning last year.  She really is a mess and a ton of fun.  I do hope that we get to do some of the last 3 days together.  I think she is a bit better then me on the skates and I should get a lesson from her.  She offered me to stay the night one night so we will see.  I would like to catch up with her sometime. I also want to see Dany and Sarah again.  I doubt there is much time for any of it.

2:30 PM—This is when I finally got the RV or what I would call a minivan.  The girl that showed it to me was really cool and the top does raise up so there is a little more room then I thought.  The bike rack only holds two bikes so this might be a little bit of a problem but Dirk is on top of things.  It does not have a shower either. I am sure glad that they have separate showers for men and women at the race!  The RV idea is not really looking all that great at the moment.  Anyway Dirk had given me some really great directions to get to his place and I printed them off before I left the states.  The directions were not from the RV place so I was off course from the start.  The girl at the RV place said she would give me the first part of the directions and then I could follow Dirks.  She gave me lousy directions!

LOST!!!! Before I knew it I was lost. I am pretty good about back tracking and starting over so I did this several times.  I needed to be on the A5 to Basel and the girl told me that the A3 would run into the A5.  These highways are not like in the states.  You can’t turn around  for miles.  I did phone Dirk and he did let me know to turn around.  I just knew that I was going the wrong way.  I decided it was time to buy a map.  The girl at the RV place said that she would provide this but she forgot.  I bought some maps and was not sure where I was at.  The store did not seem to have anyone that spoke English in it and did not let me know where I was.  How was I supposed to use a map if I did not even know where I was?  I decided to follow Dirks direction by the phone and did find my way back into Frankfurt and found some signs that said Basel and followed them.  The next thing I knew Basel was no longer on the sign so I guess I had gotten off that highway and was on another one.  I think I just did one big circle and next thing I knew I was in a town.  Just as I was thinking that I wished that I had bought an GPS system I saw a computer store.  I decided after two hours of driving in circles is was time to get one.  I went into the store and told the guy I would buy one but I would need him to set it up for me. I did not want to waste another 30 minutes on reading directions.

GPS-  I went to purchase this thing before the guy would set it up and they told me that I needed a German credit card and would not take mine.  I only had American cash.  The bank I had tried to exchange money at would not do it since I did not have an account there.  This was in Frankfurt.  I did not have time to exchange money in Chicago since my flight from Dallas was delayed…..blah..blah blah.  They pointed  me to another bank across the street. I was trying to ask what German word to look for and she did not understand what I was asking.  I did see something that was called a Volkabank but I did see 3 volvo’s in the parking lot so I was not sure if it was a car dealership but it was a bank.  I exchanged all of my American cash that I had and went back to the computer place.  I got that darn GPS and had the guy program it for me.  He had to call Dirk since I did not know the name of the town that I was in or where I was going.  This worked great except the guy programmed it to not use the toll ways and at this point I wanted the shortest root home.  After this I cruised very fast to Dirks.  We will see what kind of tickets I might get …yikes!

10 pm-  I got to Dirks around 10:00 pm and then we went to someone elses hourse for me to stay at.  It is a very small world.  We went to the Doc’s house that gave me the medicine for my eye the last time I was here.  Dirk is so nice. I did not expect the treatment that he has given me.  The people I am staying with are great also.  I feel right at home and the whole top floor is mine. I got to bed around midnight but it would have been later if  I had not spent my money on the GPS.