Too Excited...

[This is post 2 of a multi post race event for original Special Operations Adventure Race post, John started here....link]

So John calls me last night. Kind of last minute, I need to hear your voice kind of stuff. What am I doing at that time??? Mowing the lawn, why you ask? Because I will be in no condition to mow it on Sunday. :)

I come in from the lawn last night, I get showered and Carla gives me the message from John. Something like… “Rob, give me a call, I would like to make sure I am bringing the right stuff, no emergency just call me tonight”… UM, what?… I am thinking to myself... that can’t be what John said or means. Why did I doubt the message I got from my wife? Because on Tuesday (5 days before the race), John was recounting his packing list with particular emphasis on the decisions he made the previous night (Monday). (Notably to repack and take a tube out of his saddle bag the night before) In a word John is prepared. So why the call…. Mox nix. The call was good for me, helped get me out of thinking about the work crisis du jour. (and it is a crisis, which I leave behind for Sam)

The call was good for me since I was able to convince John to bring his kayak paddle, in case at the race meeting Friday at 1900, they announce conditions that would allow us to bring paddles. This is a good idea to me, since I am not convinced attaching half paddles to a camelback on the race is a bad idea yet. The mountains of Highland, NC might help me decide in a hurry… I will let you know. The reason taking a kayak paddle makes sense to me, kayak paddles provides advantage in the water section (10% of the race), and even if we don’t use it, we have room to take it on the road trip.

Why do we have room to take it??? Because my cool wife let me ‘borrow the mini-van’… and it’s not just a mini-van, it’s a mini-van with a THULE luggage rack on top. (yes--- yet another indicator of self domestication, I am a proud owner of a grand caravan with stow and go and a roof rack and bike rack, and big cup holders) very good for piling the team and gear and bikes for road trips. (Very good for piling family and extended family and luggage for road trips to Disney… but that is another story) The Van is sooooooo large that we might just be able to sleep in the back in sleeping bags!. If that plays out and we move the bikes to the bike rack, then we could conceivably spend nothing on lodging for the trip… saving around 90 bucks we planned to spend on a hotel Friday night. (Thursday night is free due to John squaring us away with some free point rewards from Marriot. too cool).

So thanks again Carla, for letting me have the van again :)

You might be wondering why the post is called Too Excited…. Well I could not sleep in this morning. I got up before 0500 to update my laptop gps software. I t has us leaving my house at 1000 and arriving at the hotel tonight at 1859 tonight. We shall see just how long it will take us to get there. I also wanted to get an RSOI post out. We are taking laptops with us so we can post frequently on the trip. (yes we take the internet with us when we travel:) )

Well back to packing out the Van, optimize stow-and-go an luggage rack to keep the back open and ready for john’s stuff and possible sleeping accommodations. Yes I am Too Excited.

John and I are bringing podcasts for the road trip.... and I am bringing the Dune audio books; 18 CD's of some of the best science fiction (pr prophesy?) I have been exposed to. Yes I am Too Excited.