Thursday February 22

I got up early, (not early enough, never early enough as I only love to sleep in the mornings. LOL).

I pack things up and pray that I won't dump my bike on my way over to "The Parking Spot" which is a covered parking strucure. This meant that I wouldn't need to go find a room to rent to store my bike in, but it also meant that I would need to get a move on because the bus would be there shortly after I parked.

So about 7:30 I go out to my bike with everything except my shaving cream, some shampoo and well, you get the picture. I want to shower after I load up my bike.

After I get everything loaded up, I run back inside--ready to take the shortest shower on record when I realize that the clerk/owner has checked me out of my room. And I can't find them. Immediately I become enraged. The night was crappy enough, no internet access, no refrigerator, no working remote in the room (actually this seems to happen to me a lot, maybe there's a message) . When I finally run down the clerk, I realize that if I say much, I will be late for the plane and I have to take luggage.

After I get to the parking spot, I finally calm down and start to relax. My bike is safe, I am safe, the plane is safe (what is the crash rate for US Air, anyway--I didn't look it up) and in a few hours I will get to meet some of my other friends who are trainers. They are a great group of people, Kathryn, Jim, Rob and Steve. It's a great balance of personalities.

I was told to hold a number of weekends, and hope that I will get to do more, but this situation has made me a little anxious as there was no intinerary and no mention of where we are to stay. I hope the place is a great place and that the weather holds as I don't travel with a winter coat.

Right after I pick up my luggage, I see Steve and give him a hug. It is so good to see him. Next I see Rob and try to draw his attention, but he is ignoring me. It fleetingly runs through my mind that he is probably trying to do that, but I think it through and laugh. When he turns around, I manage to grab his attention and tease him some.

Jim and Kathryn pick us up at the airport and we get to fully enjoy the country scenes. The scenery is truly gorgeous, (what we can see of it after dark) and the light snow fallling makes the world look clean and fresh.

We make it up to West Cornwall and then decide to slide back down the last hill. We try again and slide again. Hmm, do we call AAA or the Retreat Center that we are going to? Someone smarter than I makes the decision to call the Retreat Center and here come a couple of people. One I later find out is a waiter and the other is identified by his white coat as the cook. Talk about multi-tasking. grin

As we check in they mention that the dining room is now closed but they made us up some plates. We go, find our rooms and return back to the dining area. There is a key to the bar for which I am grateful. We chat about this and that, then go to turn in as we want to get up and meet early in the morning.

Well, maybe we don't want to do so, but we were late getting in and don't want to deal with it anymore tonight. I keep hearing about this kathy Flaherty person. Wow, she must walk on water or something.

There are a few others there but not too many. Some haven't been able to make it in due to the snow and some are coming in the morning.

I go up to my room and crash as nothing feels comfortable to me or feels that it is going right.

Happy trails, Marty