Last SOAR, then Nashville; Beautiful Asters; A Patriotic Horse; Ready to Race; A Token??? Duh!

Suzanne completed her last (and largest) S.O.A.R! Workshop of the 2012 Tour Saturday at Christ Church Unity in downtown Rochester. It was a great success, and we have already talked about returning next year. 

Suzanne signed a lot of books, thanks to help from Bev Garlipp, who manned the book table all day. Bev has been a treasure this entire trip, and may now get a well-deserved rest back in The Villages after organizing all of our events since May.  

The asters presented to Suzanne by Richard and Mary Ellen Kladstrup were delightful, and now occupy a place of honor on the table aboard The Bus until they can be planted at our home in The Villages. 

While Suzanne was hard at work, the puppies and I goofed off at Starbucks... okay, we also got the laundry done, but I can’t say that Rudy and Gretchen were much help. Have you ever watched two dachshunds trying to fold queen-sized sheets? It’s not a pretty picture... they were so worn out that by the end of the day, they couldn’t keep their eyes open. 

While driving through Rochester’s outer business district, I noticed this very patriotic horse in a company’s front yard... but it wasn’t just any horse. I was very touched by the actions of one small company in memorializing 9/11. The inscription on the brass plate reads, “UNDAUNTED”  “I was created by the people of The Office Equipment Company, and born - not to parade - but to memorialize those of us lost to a despicable act - and to symbolize the spirit in every American’s heart - that the world should be forever free of terrorism!  I am just a horse - but an ALL AMERICAN HORSE!  We shall remain, America and I - “UNDAUNTED”. 

Saturday was pre-Race Day for the Rochester Half-Marathon that Chris Lavelle and I are running, so I drove to the administrative HQ to pick up my race number, safety pins, timing chip, and (most important) my race tee-shirt. I meditated last night and visualized the course and my running pace to be ready for The Big Day. Suzanne will probably be posting the blog Sunday morning while I’m running, but she will be there to greet me at the finish line ... 

On the way out of Rochester, we have to be careful and look ahead to obstacles which might slow us down or interfere with the safe passage of The Bus, which has a 12’ 8” air clearance. This 11’ 10” bridge isn’t marked on our GPS or maps, but thankfully the campground lady told us about it before we headed this way. Most (but not all) obstacles have warning signs up to a mile before the obstacle, but we were caught by one last year (just after we became owned by The Bus) that only allowed us 2 inches clearance, and I had to climb up on the roof and drop a tape measure to confirm our clearance before we dared pass under the overpass. 

My last to-do item last night was to take a shower. Because we don’t have a pump out here at our campsite, we have been frugal with water consumption to avoid filling our grey water tanks, where our shower and sinks drain, so we could wait until we were departing Sunday afternoon to dump tanks. I decided that I would take a shower in the campground shower facility about a half mile walk into the woods. When I got there, I prepared to get wet, turned the faucet, and nothing came out. “Isn’t that interesting?” I asked. “But I would have PREFERRED that the shower spit out hot water instead of air...” (See, husbands DO listen to their wives ... sometimes ...) Well, imagine my embarrassment when I saw the “Put token in here” sign on the little silver box on the wall by the door. It was cleverly hidden, in plain sight, on the wall to the right of the door. I mumbled a couple of appropriate phrases (not to be repeated here, as they are Top Secret) from my Navy days, and hiked back to The Bus for some money, as I had also neglected to bring my wallet. Sigh...