Traveling East

There's was never any doubt in my mind that traveling across the country for the race was going to add in a level of difficulty and emotions to the weekend.  As expected, I was running around like a mad woman after work trying to get ready to head to the airport.  I had to take my bike to the bike shop to get the pedals taken off before I could pack it up in the box to bring on the plane with me.  It's a good thing I gave in and brought it to the shop because I was trying to get them off incorrectly and never would have figured it out on my own.  I also had to drop my cat Jack off at Cara's house so she could watch him for the weekend.  Despite the fact I didn't have much time, I chatted with her a bit - it was exactly what I needed to calm my mind and take a breather!  I quickly ran home, finished throwing a few things in my suitcase and made the drive to DIA.

Dragging a large bike box through the airport definitely created some attention and lots of questions and looks - I even had someone ask if I was traveling with a flat screen TV.  I was very thankful for the Jetblue coupon that I had which allowed me to check my bike for free (a savings of $50-100).  Thanks to the wonderful ground crew at the airport, the process to check in all my bags went very smooth, which made me feel a lot better. 

While I wasn't thrilled about my red eye flight to Washington DC on Thursday night / Friday morning, I knew it was the best way to get me to the East Coast at a reasonable hour.  I generally have no problem falling asleep on a flight, except on red eyes - I think I get so worked up and nervous about needing to sleep that I end up not being able to sleep.  Unfortunately, tonight's flight wasn't much different.  I'm pretty sure that I did fall asleep but it wasn't the quality sleep that I was looking for, despite the wonderful eye covers that Jetblue gave me (which came in handy throughout the entire weekend). 

After a quick layover in Boston, I made my way to Washington DC and was able to pick up my baggage with no issue.  My sister Danielle had a flight into DC the same time as me and of course she was delayed a little bit due to weather.  I was so anxious to see her and was so excited when I finally saw her walking down the hallway where I was waiting for her!   While I was excited to see the entire family later that day, it was really nice to spend some alone time with Danielle for a few hours in DC.  We cabbed it over to our hotel and got settled there, anxiously waiting for Mom, Dad and Josh to arrive.  I was very thankful that my night/day of traveling went as smooth as it did so I could enjoy the time with my family on Friday!