LiveSTRONG Challenge: Thursday and Friday

After spending some fun days with my friend Sue and her family (did my first hay ride and corn maze and watched her son do Robotics) I arrived in Austin Thursday October 13th. After spending some (!) time at the airport waiting for Karen to arrive we made it to our rental car (got an upgrade) at 8.30 pm. To safe money we decide not to pay extra to be able to both drive so Karen was the driver for the weekend. Kind of odd for me though. Started driving to our motel and checked in. Upon arriving in our room we discovered there was only one bed. As I explained to the clerk, we like each other but not that much . She understood and gave us another room.

The other morning Karen and I drove downtown Austin to find LIVESTRONG village at Mellow Johnny’s for the package pick up. The sight of LIVESTRONG village is enough to put you in a great mood, the bright yellow and all those kindred spirits, all ready to kick cancer to the curb! It was really nice meeting Erik Pearson and his lovely wife Lynn just outside the pick up point and we decided to have coffee together a little later. After that it was time for Karen to have her first Mellow Johnny’s experience. Let me tell you, for LIVESTRONG supporters that place is heaven! (for cyclists too, but for another reason. Since I am both for me this a the best shop to go to). We both saw stuff we REALLY needed and that had our names written all over it. I also got to speak with Todd who assured me he had the perfect bike for me. It belonged to Lance’s stepdad !!! We had to hurry to be on time for our coffee with Erik and Lynn. I loved finally meeting Lynn, Erik I had already met during last years Challenge. After spending some quality time with them Karen and I headed back to our motel, since we both had places to be that afternoon/evening. I was very excited because Henrike, my friend and fellow LIVESTRONG Leader from Germany, had made Ride for the Roses status and invited me to be her guest for that weekend. Still can’t thank her enough for that! That mend I was co-invited to the Welcome to Texas dinner that evening.

As we arrived at our motel we where very much surprised to find ourselves locked out of our room. In a hurry we made our way back to the front desk where a new clerk told us to wait, she was going to fetch her boss. That lady informed us we where in the wrong room. I started to explain what had happened the other night, thinking this was the cause of the misunderstanding. She heard me out and than said, actually you are in the wrong motel and you will have to leave!!!!!! Turns out there are many motels by this name in Austin and the desk clerk on duty the night before should have seen we didn’t have a reservation there. The lady told us we couldn’t just switch our reservation to this motel because they are franchised, she already lost out on one night pay. I explained that we really couldn’t move out there and then: I had a dinner to go to and Karen would do some volunteer work at LIVESTRONG village and was expected there any minute. After some talking back and forth she told us we could stay until the next morning.

So we hurried upstairs and got changed. Karen went back to LIVESTRONG village and I made my way to the Hyatt hotel where the pick up for the dinner was. Arriving in the lobby I ran into my CCC “dad” Mike (he got me involved with CCC) and his lovely daughter Katelyn. As we started to catch up other CCC friends came in as well. Great meeting and talking to Steve Bartolucci and Scott joy again. After a while Henrike walked in and I was finally able to thank her in person for being so generous.

When we got on the bus and it moved away from the hotel we where greeted by a LIVESTRONG staff member who told us where the dinner was going to be held. Imagine the buzz when she told us it was at LANCE’S HOUSE!! How cool can it get. We hardly had time to get over the excitement when we arrived there. We entered the house through the dining room (we think) and made our way to the backyard where the horse d’houvres and drinks where served. Within minutes we ran into Matt McGinty and his wife and at last I saw the person I had been waiting for all day: the man that made it possible for me to come to Austin, Brad!!! He, of course was in the company of his lovely wife Jennifer, the lady getting the autographed jersey as an anniversary gift. Finally I could tell everybody how grateful I was for his help. Brad was the true gentleman and made it look like he had me to thank but we know better right  ! A few minutes later we where joined by Luke and his mom Victoria, other great Twitter friends that I now got to meet in person.

The dinner itself was amazing: the garden was beautifully decorated and the house made a stunning background. We sat down at a table with Matt McGinty and his wife and some other LIVESTRONG supporters. The food was excellent as was the company. The Gipsy Queens made their way from table to table and serenaded everybody and our “boss” held a speech that inspired all of us even more. It was an evening to never forget! I have been asking myself what pictures to include in this blog, I decided for LiveSTRONG Village, The Honor wall with my family members and one of The Boss’.