If you guessed the Air Canada Lounge at the Ottawa Airport – you’re correct!!!

This is so crazy it is close to being laughable.

We boarded at 10:30 and then got off at 1:30 – we were deiced and then a mechanical issue was discovered.

We are supposed to leave at 6:15….

Maybe I’ll get to ride on Thursday. More later – hopefully from Belgium and not Ottawa.

Yep – still here in Ottawa… In the airport. Flight was canceled at 3 a.m. this morning…. It took 1.5 hours to get the luggage off the plane.

Then we had to wait until 6 a.m. to check in. Now we don’t have flights booked from Frankfurt to Brussels… We’ll have to stay overnight in Frankfurt – at our own expense. We are not too jazzed right now.

At least this proves why you should always leave lots of time for travel. So now we essentially have lost two days of our trip.

So tired. Can’t really think right now. More later – I guess from Frankfurt. I need to ride my bicycle!!!

(Sorry to those of you who read both of my sites – this is the same content that I posted on Victoria’s Island. Just so tired and have a wicked headache can’t really come up with anything original.)

I can say that I miss real food. At least in the Air Canada lounge there is some yogurt and museli. Can’t wait to get to Belgium. I’ve never wanted to ride my bike so badly. I don’t care what the weather is like, I need to ride. This will be my third day without riding now. Too busy on Monday – getting ready for Tuesday’s flight. Couldn’t ride Tuesday because the bike was in a bike box. Can’t ride Wednesday because the bikes are somewhere in the airport. Hopefully Thursday – assuming we get a connecting flight and the bikes arrive… Sigh.

Don’t travel close to your race. Luckily we just have a couple of local races this weekend. But this was not part of the plan. Okay – having trouble typing – must get some sleep.

At least I’ve got my Skins on – they’re keeping me fresh…

Well, we’re getting closer. We are now at the Air Canada lounge in Ottawa.

We managed to cram all our stuff into four bike boxes and two pieces of luggage. We didn’t want to add the second piece of luggage but really didn’t have much choice. Luckily we got a very friendly lady at the check-in counter – she cut us a deal on the extra baggage. Nice.

Huge thanks to Robbie O for the bike box. Massive thanks to Vince for the bike box. You guys saved us again – thanks – expect some Belgian chocolate in your future. Huge thanks to our neighours for looking in on Murphy and for taking care of our driveway. More chocolate is on order.

Dudes – Belgium. Cool or what? We’ll be racing this weekend. Going on the big group ride on Thursday. Just like home (our home away from home). We miss Murphy already but we know he is in good hands.

Okay – I best go. A few things to check out. Look for me tomorrow from Belgium.

Best of of luck at Nationals in Kansas City – we’ll be watching. Pedal hard. Remember to accelerate out of the corners and keep the elbows pointy.

Dudes, we’re supposed to be leaving for Belgium today… But the weather isn’t playing nice. Keep your fingers crossed that the freezing rain doesn’t appear… Really don’t feel like being stuck here because of the weather man.

Weather aside, things here are running smoothly. Two bikes are packed. Clothing is sorted. Extra gear is organized.

We’re both a bit worn-out right now – the trip home from Rhode Island was long and a bit stressful and yesterday was pretty busy getting last-minute errands done and packing. Ah, but all this chaos and craziness is totally worth it. Belgium. Racing in Belgium and Holland this weekend. Yeesh – am I dreaming? I forget sometimes how lucky we are to be living this life. Really can’t take anything for granted.

So I got some new gear last week. Another set of wheels thanks to OGC and Mavic. I raced them on the weekend and they are totally bomb proof. I hit so many roots and those wheels kept on rolling. Thanks OGC and Mavic for the wheels.

I also got some Skins. I’ve been trying to get some Skins for a while now. Thanks to Vince at The Cyclery, I’m good to go. I wore my Skins on the trip to Rhode Island and basically whenever I wasn’t racing. I like them. A lot. They prevent the nasty leg swelling I was getting and my legs really do feel better recovered. Thanks Vince for getting these for me on such short notice. I’ll definitely be wearing these travel and recovery tights on the plane tonight.

Okay dudes, I best go. Still lots to get done. Two bikes still need to be packed. And unfortunately it looks like we’ll be shoveling the driveway one last time for 2008…

Well, our trip to Rhode Island has come to a close. We missed this weekend last year and were really looking forward to racing in Goddard Park again. The weekend did not disappoint. Excellent race courses. Lots of great competition. Good organization. Lots of friendly faces and fans. All in all, a most excellent weekend in this little state.

As you probably know we awoke to the white stuff on Sunday morning. I wasn’t totally surprised to see snow on the ground. But I was hoping it wouldn’t show up. Ah well, could always be worse. At least we didn’t have that crazy New Jersey mud… Day started early again with the some early laps before the races got started. Then it was time to chill out in the van and then off to the pits for Marc’s race. Marc had a good day on the bike. A solid result and a nice way to close off the domestic cyclo-cross season. He was still a bit sore from Saturday’s crash but you wouldn’t have known it – he took risks in the technical sections and his power was looking pretty fine. Steve had a solid day as well but a few crashes set him back a bit – he recovered well from these and still had top ten result. Nice to see David D. from True North Cycles on the podium in the Masters 45+ category – congrats on the third place. Pretty quiet day in the pits – no craziness that we saw on Saturday – mostly a lot of people throwing their glasses at us.

I jumped on the course right after Marc’s race to check out the lines. Well, I sort of got on the course. I discovered that my bike – that I had placed in a safe spot leaning against the gazebo and had been knocked over. The seat was all twisted – not cool. Luckily a friendly guy was on the side of the course who happened to have a multi-tool in his pocket – after a few twists and turns I was off again. The course had definitely changed with some clear lines being worn away in the snow. Got a couple laps in. Then chilled in the gazebo and jumped on again after the women’s 3/4 race. Headed to the car after the warm-up and got suited up. Then it was race time. Amazing how quickly the last hour before the race passes. I’ve written a race report and posted it. 11th. Not stellar. Not terrible.

We took off pretty quickly after my race – we were on the road by 3:30 (my race was at 1:30). Quick stop at Sbucks. And we were on our way to Burlington, VT. We decided on this route because we wanted to avoid the lake effect snow that we drove through on Friday… Well, instead we drove through a snow storm until the Canada/U.S. border. Very unpleasant. Poor Marc – he essentially drove all the way – I just couldn’t relax in the snow storm and white out conditions. A quick stop at Moe’s for some tacos and another Sbucks stop and it was homeward bound. Luckily the drive from Montreal to Ottawa was clear. But boy it was cold – we stopped for a little break and couldn’t believe the wind.

So our trip to Rhode Island is in the books. A great weekend. Quality time spent with good friends. A great chance to re-connect with our southern racing pals. Lots of good conversation, laughs and smiles were shared. Toss in some excellent racing from everyone and it was a great weekend. Awesome to see such a big crew come down from Toronto. Perhaps one of the best parts of this weekend for me was the other elite women racers – I’ve gotten to know a few of the women over the season and it really makes me feel great to know some people well enough to chat and hang out with before and after the races. Thanks – for welcoming me – it really makes the race experience that much better. I met GeWilli on Sunday – nice! Best of luck to everyone making the trip to Kansas City – travel safe, race hard, have fun.