Florida Training and Fleas

Well I can tell you that I am not in Florida right now and I have been back in Boulder for quite some time. I wanted to write about the second part of my training trip but the condo that we were in did not have Internet access and the training just made me way too lazy to drag my butt up to Panera Bread (that is where we would get a quick Internet fix) and type something out. But for my own journaling sake I will write something now...


One of the things that I have noticed lately is that people get their pantie hoes in a bunch when they are going to travel with a bike because of the outrageous fees that the airlines are charging. I was a prime candidate for getting totally screwed as I left Palm Springs to meet my buddies in Florida. I had a bike box, one checked bag, a wheel bag, back pack and second carry on. I could have been looking at over 250 dollars of extra fee's. That isn't the most pleasant way to start the morning.

But here is the deal. When you are traveling you ALREADY KNOW that high charges are a strong possibility so what is the point of letting that get your goat? I decided that I was going to work some mojo and see if I could get out of these fees. The first thing that I had to do before I even got to the airport was know that if I did get charged I wasn't going to care. Secondly, I got into the "character" that I wasn't a person that was going to be charged. Sounds a bit odd but just wait....

As I cart all my crap to the counter I begin to go about my check in as if all this luggage is normal. Not to mention I throw in a little charm which really is just making the person behind the counter feel good. They are human and even if they charge me I would still want to make that person feel good. It can't be bull shit. You have to be sincere. With my sincerity I do tend to pull an Obi Wan once in a while. "This is not the bike box you are looking for. This is not the bike box you want to charge." Make sure you do the whole hand wave thing too or it loses effect.

I stick to my guns when I say my mental approach to this situation is why I got all that luggage checked for $40 dollars. I kid you not. On UNITED! AND I walked to the gate with my wheel bag and stroller tagged it. That is a little secret that I have been using for a good while. Save room in the bike box and carry your wheels on. I figure, I am not having kids so they can stroller tag them for the next few years for me.

The flight had a stop in Denver and I was meeting up with Carole as she was on the flight with me to Florida. I got a text from her when she was on the train to the gate saying "I can't wait to see you. Lets do an airport scene!" Oh dear lord. I knew she was planing on pretending to be my girlfriend and do some obnoxious jump on my lap and act crazy. It's rough when you have people in your life that know how to embrace you.

I strated looking around to see if I could hear Sharps on her approach but somehow she manged so sneak by and before I knew it I was being straddled. "OHHH Babies!!!" Her hair tossing from side to side was actually a bit funny. I did the only thing I could to get her off me. "Lets go get some food."

When we got on the plane I had to tell Sharps about the Texan Cougars I sat next to for all of 5 min on the first flight. They were these skinny, chain smoking, jewelery wearing, hair sprayin little numbers chatting away in the seats beside me. The one by the window was reading a magazine and the other right next to me began to say "You need to be reading up on our trip to Alaska!" The other one agreed and then said in the thickest Texan accent I have ever heard, "I hope I can git Sara Palin to sign my MOOSE hat." "Ohhh we like Sara Palin" said the other one as she played her Sudoku (easy level of course). And right then this overweight, hillbilly, older dude sitting in the row back grabs our seats and leans over and says "We DOOOOOO too. WE DOOOOO TOOOOOOO!" Regarding the Sara Palin comment. I was hard for me to decide between laughter or a really dramatic eye roll. I just looked back and saw that the entire back row was free. I kindly said "Ya'll have a nice day" and busted to the back for a nap.

That was our line for most of the trip and it just got funnier as the week went on. As Carole would say to that, "Yeeees it DIIIID! YEEEEESSSSS IT DID!" I am so thank full that we have laughter in this life. I swear it is the only thing that keeps me going sometimes.

Carole and I got in really late and got lost a bit on the way to the condo. It wasn't until after the first 40 min of being lost that she was like "Oh JZ gave me the Garmin for the car. We could use that." She is lucky that I am the fun gay friend and not her straight husband! When she got it working I told her to type in Taco Bell. Food like that doesn't count when it is past midnight. Everyone knows that.

The beauty of getting in late was making JZ have to come out to the gate at 12:30 in her bathrobe! She had it all figured out on how to sleep through our arrival but of course we weren't going to allow that! We all actually had a good late night chat. Mostly telling JZ that she was crazy if she thought we would be ready to ride at 7am. Her exact words after that were "What about 7:15?" God love her.

The next day was smooth and we got settled in to the condo and now just had to wait for Billy to arrive. He would be there in the next day or so. I think I will finish up writing about the actual time in Florida later. It had it's moments for sure but I doubt I can hold anyones attention much longer on this one. I'll get to the fleas in a day or two.

Later