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[RC] [USA: Kathy Brunjes] 11/03/2008 07:56:00 AM - Kathy

Time is running down now...so many things to do still, and it's suddenly the week of the race!

My day started today with no power/electricity in my room - so might as well have breakfast while I was waiting for that to get fixed. Then an hour later I had the men in blue coming back to my room because the flush wasn't working - a common ocurrence around here. So while the men in blue were working away, the supervisor for this crew stood outside in the hallway with me - he looked at me, looked at the floor, looked at me again and blurted out "you 50 years?" I'm thinking to myself, now I really didn't hear him say that - it must have been something else - so I looked around, pointed at the USA on my shirt and responded, "yes, I'm from the United States" - he shakes his head and says, "you 50 years? not 40 years?" So I quickly shot back "you don't ask women that question!" and he says, "no, no - you strong. Malaysian women, they are (and here he demonstrates an old women all bent over with a cane) not like you - you strong" . At thisp oint, I figured the only gracious way out of this was to accept the somewhat backhanded compliment and go on. Well!

I had breakfast with Meg, Dave, Steve, Deb, Martha and Jerry, Vonita and Joe. Then we headed out to the stables - a bit later than usual - I didn't get there until almost 9:30. I decided to ride my horse at a marching walk rather than hand walk him this morning - they will all get worked tonight during our night ride. So I saddled up and Stewart walked Reason while I was riding - we went out for an hour, got back and hosed the horses down and put them out in their pens for the day (only in the mid-80s today with moderate humidity). Jan and Meg went out for a short ride and John and Flavia & Alfredo hand-walked Sonny and Flame. Lunch and we all decided this was the last chance to go shopping and take our crews out for the afternoon . Deb and I headed out ahead of others because I wanted to get my hair cut at the place where Meg and Cheryl went yesterday. I had my hair cut and off we headed back to the hotel with Dewayne, and after a quickstop to change clothes, headed to the large markets in the old section of town - Wendy Fournier (Grace's daughter) has joined our group - so we had Wendy, Jan & Grace, Deb, myself, Stewart, Cheryl, Martha, Dewayne, Judith, Tony and Terry Benedetti, Kathleen and Ann all out for an afternoon on the town.We spent two hours in town at the souks and bought all kinds of fun articles of clothing for gifts and some jade bracelets for gifts...then back to the hotel for an hour's rest before our 5:30 group meeting with Vonita and Becky. The rest period turned into a party in my room, with everyone piling in for beer, juice and talk - foot massages by Dewayne, and lots of laughing.

At 5:30 we had our meeting and Becky presented Jim and Vonita with special thank you gifts (Vonita received something liquid and Jim received something gold and shiny and could be used as a lethal weapon in an emergency). After the meeting we headed back to the Marquee and stables - the Marquee to eat dinner and then stables for our night ride. We had a most excellent training session with the road crews at one water stop to practice handing off bullets of water and scoops of water - Meg, John and I rode together, Jan and Cheryl went out together - Val had ridden earlier to test Flame's new shoes. We all practiced using our head lamps and decided which lights were best for signs/signage and which worked well for just trail illumination - and I kept thinking how I could avoid using a light at all...I'm not convinced that the lights don't affect my motion sicknes/nausea. At any rate, we strapped them onto our helmets and away we went. It was a much more humid evening and no breeze - the humidity was so dense it was a bit like fog - and in the distance around Elephant Mountain, you could see the lightning. Our horses all cooled down quickly, and were eating a late supper at 10 pm when we left the barns. Another good day of riding/training. Tomorrow we will have individual meetingsto go over our (riders') preferences for crewing and cooling our horses.

It's now 11:30 pm and I'm beat....Tom gets here tomorrow and I'm looking forward to having my full crew. >From now on we will be having much activity related to the race and the functions we are expected to attend leading up to race day. It poured rain this morning and flooded the basement garage here at the hotel - the rain lasted about an hour, and was slightly sprinkling while I was riding this morning - but tonight it's hot and humid - no rain. We are anxious about what the weather will be on race day, and keep hoping we will have the luck we had last year and have it a bit cooler (although we wouldn't mind if we don't have torrential rain!). Tomorrow night is the official opening/welcoming reception at the Marquee, with our casual "dress" outfits - navy polo shirts with USA emblem and Khaki pants - we will look sharp.
Kathy

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Posted By Kathy to USA: Kathy Brunjes at 11/03/2008 07:56:00 AM