Stay Awake

April 7, 2007

Once we got checked in, unpacked & showered, we all met for a walkabout. One thing you never want to do when arriving in a new time zone is go straight to sleep or you'll never adjust.

We hopped in a cab at 1:45 and arrived at the Spanish Steps a few minutes later. After some pointless wandering – we were sleepwalking really – we came upon a sidewalk café (in Rome! Imagine that!) and decided it was time for some food.

After our late lunch we continued strolling along and found ourselves in San Pietro Piazza (St. Peter's Square). It was fairly busy and we were fairly brain dead. After walking around it a bit we ended up leaning against a railing, then Carol sat down and the rest of us soon followed. We sat there for some time people watching and not really saying anything. And then fell asleep. Right there sitting on the cobblestones at St. Peter's. Yeah, we were tired. I was nodding in and out, Carol was totally out and Ed & BJ were also dozing.

After our refreshing nap, which only ended because someone felt some raindrops, we began the walk back to the hotel. If you're familiar with the layout of Rome, our hotel was on the north side of Villa Borghese. If you're not familiar with Rome, it's still a very long walk. One that was interrupted by a downpour or two. We ducked under a bridge and sat out the first one, made it to the next bridge before the next heavy rain and during the third Carol and I found a café and had some espresso & magnums (YUMMY!).

That night was filled with a very long meal at a great place around the corner from our hotel. The host and staff were most excellent and come to find out that's the same place we were to have a few team meals over the next week.

We all crashed HARD that night and I didn't move until about 9:00 a.m. Then I rolled over and went right back to sleep for another hour.

We spent that afternoon walking around the neighborhood to figure out what was nearby, where we should tell the players to go, etc., and then the arrivals started rolling in that night.

You have HOW MANY bags?

April 7, 2007

Just to be up front about this, we never travel light. Ever.

Carol, Ed, BJ and I were arriving in Rome a day ahead of the players and coaching staff and Carol had already called ahead to let our host, Maria Christina, know that even though there were only four of us, there would be many, many, many big bags. We needed a short bus or a luggage truck.

"Yes, yes, no problem!"

Well, since we had a total of 34 checked bags (thankfully two never arrived that day, including the oversized training table), in addition to our large carry ons, there was a BIG problem. They sent a driver to pick us up in a large nine-passenger van. It was big and boxy, but not nearly big enough for our bags. No matter how hard we tried, they just weren't going in .

It became even more comic when some of the skycaps' people came to watch. We dubbed one guy the supervisor because he stood behind the bags smoking and pointing. We've all had to load bags into small spaces – we have issues with an entire team and buses on a regular basis – and attempted to assist in the loading. Nope, they were like three-year-olds and wanted to do it all by themselves.

Nothing was being stacked, everything went in all willy-nilly and therefore even less would fit in the van.

However, the driver called one of his friends with another ban of the same size and after another half hour or so of shoving, packing, repacking, etc., we finally had all the bags in the vans and, miraculously, still had room to fit the four of us ... barely.

As an after note, when the bulk of players and coaches showed up on Saturday, most of them were loaded onto a bus. However, we still had four who were coming later so BJ and I hung out at the airport and waited. This being Easter weekend, you can only imagine how busy the Rome airport was and more bags were lost. There was a driver sent for three of the players (the fourth person had missed his connection thanks to delays out of COS – shocker – and wasn't on the pick up list), but he was driving a sedan, one with a normal trunk. Thankfully (although not for them) some of the bags didn't arrive otherwise we'd be taking a cab full of bags back to the hotel in addition to the car.

More on Jackson

So this is more of Jackson, my lil cutie. He's a trip. I think of him often, especially after Cheryl's cat got mauled by a pack of wild dogs roaming the streets of Atlanta (another reason to not like the south). Poor thing :-(