Team Blog

We woke up this morning to quiet. No phones ringing and no one rushing around. A nice change for once but also disconcerting. I knew this wasn’t a good sign concerning the car and being able to drive today.

Regardless we got up and started getting ready for whatever the day might bring. When I looked in the mirror I was dismayed to find a weird sunburn on my face.  Red along my hair line and a red nose – I MUST make sure the alarm goes off in the morning so I attend to these finer, very important details!

Mom came to relay the news that Dad had traveled up to Albany again at 5am to get a new babbitt. It was pretty dreary outside and we couldn’t wait to check out of our Bates style motel so we packed our one plastic bag lickety-split. The rest of our gear was still in the trailer back at the shop so we were all wearing the same clothes we had on the day before. Fortunately we had the foresight to at least grab our toothbrushes and a change of underwear!

We headed into the town of Waterloo to grab some breakfast at the Green Apple – yummy french toast! And then headed into Seneca Falls to visit the National Women’s History Hall of Fame.  The staff there had been waiting for our arrival but we were late.  The fine folks in Buffalo had also been awaiting our arrival and I have been feeling really bad about being late, off schedule and not able to meet our commitments.

This morning we should have been in Buffalo.  We were scheduled to be interviewed on the NBC morning TV station as well as participate in several festivities in conjunction with the Pierce Arrow Auto Museum.  I think the team was feeling down about missing the fun up in Buffalo but once we all filled our bellies with a good breakfast and some coffee (or maybe it was tea Bengt?!) the excitement started again as we headed for the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame staff were so welcoming!  We had a very interesting tour – artifacts of Amelia Earhart’s, all of the inductee’s photos with bios on the walls.  So many of these women I had never heard of but all of them had done some incredible things!  Even women I had heard of accomplished things I didn’t know about. For instance – Lucille Ball was the first woman owner of a major film production company.

I knew Alice Ramsey had not yet been nominated and part of our mission in visiting the Hall was to find out how the process works and what we needed to do to induct her.  We’ve got all of the paperwork now and we’ll just have to get cracking on completing the application prior to 12/31/09.  Check out www.greatwomen.org

Updates on the car and mechanics were coming in regularly.  It sounded like another long day for Tim, Dad and the guys at Steve Bono’s shop.  As the day wore on the news became more promising and the sun started to shine – always a silver lining!  I got a lot of work done and spent some good time with the baby.  She has been showing some residual signs of the colic flaring back up the last two nights.  Much to my dismay.  Poor thing – I hope all of the moving around and lots of stimuli is not bothering her little system too much.

The little one has kept me a little more removed from being able to fully participate in most of the evening festivities.  I feel bad about this too as I know folks have been waiting to meet us and so incredibly warm and generous.  However, I am a mom first and with the extra challenge of colic I can’t so easily take the baby just anywhere when bedtime rolls around.  It is important for she and I had to have some time each day and for her to have a little consistency so she can make it to San Francisco herself!

Arriving in Buffalo we were greeted by the nicest hotel rooms with the greatest view of the city.  A HUGE thanks goes to Jim Sandoro for hosting us and arranging these fantastic accomodations!  The team is so lucky and although we have missed some of the festivities we are looking forward to visiting the Pierce Arrow Auto Museum and meeting everyone who has been waiting for our arrival.

Spirits are lifting again and Christie and I are eager to put some miles on the car.  I feel like we’ve just gotten a taste of what is to come and we are antsy to really get the drive under way.  I am not sure we will feel like it has happened until we enter another state and we get a few days in a row of consistent driving.

Thanks to everyone who has left comments for us – my brother Micah keeps calling to tell me about the comments as he is managing the website while we are on the road.  In his words – “You can’t be discouraged for long. Once you read what people are writing you will only feel good again!”  And he is totally right!!

We’ll be in Buffalo until Sunday morning so time to stretch and catch our breaths before really cranking into high gear and heading west!