Holiday Adventures of 2008-2009

I am now back in Colorado after three weeks of traveling to Minnesota and Missouri for the holidays and traveling to North Carolina last week for wind tunnel testing on the bike.
I had a great time spending time with family and friends and the holiday travel went pretty smooth...for the most part.
I did have one flight cancellation from Minnesota to Missouri on Christmas Eve. My original flight plan was on United (which unfortunately had a layover in Chicago....I thought this could be a mistake prior). I was scheduled to leave around 5:00AM for the airport, went to bed around 11:30pm, only to be awoke one hour later with my cell phone ringing. At first I just ignored the phone, but then realized that I was getting repeated calls with messages. Nate grabbed the phone and informed me it was a 1-800 number...I immediately sensed it was about my flight....and listened to the message to learn it was cancelled! So, we spent the next couple of hours trying to figure out what we were going to do....calling the airlines, rent a car (they were booked for a one-way). At 2:30AM, Nate came up with a bright idea of renting a U-Hall! So, at 9:00AM the next morning, we were headed to STL in a 14 ft. box truck....empty, unless you count two bags in the back!!
The trip went well, we made the trip in 9 hours and made the end of the Christmas party at my Aunt's home that evening. The only downside to the U-Hall was that we were getting 7.6MPG...but at least gas is cheap at the moment. This was a much better situation than spending Christmas in the airport. From now on, we are going to plan on driving around Christmas!! We also had a very easy drop-off site because my parents have a U-Hall service in conjunction with storage....so we only had to drive home!
Minnesota was beautiful with all the white snow, but it was soooo cold! I had to do all my training inside, but I got to train at Lifetime Fitness and the facilities are beautiful there. The pool is 25meters and separate from the leisure pool (where kids can play, and you don't have to worry about not getting in a swim because water aerobics is taking place). Also, you never have to worry about waiting for a treadmill because there are literally 500 cardio equipment machines. I was cold almost all the time, so I did really enjoy my hot showers there...and nightly hot cups of tea. One day it was -10 degrees...and it literally hurt to walk outside. I could feel my lungs and nostrils burning because the water molecules were actually freezing!! Despite the cold, I had a great time in MN!
Missouri seemed like a tropical climate compared to MN, but there were ups and downs in temps there as well. I did enjoy running outside on the trails in MO, but most of my rides were on the trainer...with a few rides outside when temps were in the 50s and near 60!
It is hard to believe that 2009 is here....it does not seem that long ago when we
were celebrating the Y2k!! Time really does fly by and you have to enjoy life, appreciate what you have and live life to the fullest.
I am ready to embark on another year, get into quality training and push myself----not only for another year, but another quad.