DAILY DOINGS:  Well, it was a long trip out from New Hampshire...actually Barb, Karen, and I drove to New Hampshire from Alabama then from there back to Alabama then to Costa Mesa.  We had to go to NH to get the equipment and since we're going to be gone so long and probably not taking the vans back to NH between rides, we needed to pack stuff for the next ride too.  In doing that, we had much too much stuff to carry on the first ride so we drove back to Alabama and dropped off the excess in my garage.  Just what I need...more stuff in my house...but not to worry, we'll be home soon and put it back in the van!  Anyway, the drive to Costa Mesa with the diversion to Alabama was surprisingly less than 100 miles farther than going the most direct route and we missed all the bad weather that was going across the midwest during the time we were on the road. 

We arrived in Costa Mesa on Thursday which gave us plenty of time to get set up and get some much needed rest before the guests started to require our attention. But our travels were not without the usual "interesting" occurrences along the way.  When we are traveling over 600 miles each day, we never know where we'll be staying until about 3 in the afternoon when we figure how much more we want to drive.  Then we usually call ahead and make a reservation...well, as we were coming into Las Cruces NM, Karen was assigned the duty of calling a motel and getting us a reservation while Barbara and I were driving.  We discussed several motel options...we liked one Comfort Inn but it was much to far from the interstate...ok, Karen, call the Comfort Inn that's next to the freeway.  She dutifully called and made our reservation but when we arrived about 3 hours later, the Comfort Inn didn't have a reservation for us.  The desk clerk apologized...but no room in the inn!  But we have a confirmation number...what's up?  The clerk called all around the neighborhood to other motels to see if our reservation had somehow been misdirected to another motel...nope.  Finally, she called a Sleep Inn up the road...viola!  They had our reservation.  We drove to the motel and guess what?  It was next to the Comfort Inn that we didn't want to stay at because it was so far from the interstate!  How did that happen?  As it turned out, Karen had read the info from the Comfort Inn we wanted but called the number to the Sleep Inn that was directly below it in the Choice Motels motel book she was using.  Karen got a great big DUH for that day...but the good news was that at least the "wrong" motel she called was in the same town where we wanted to stay.  It could have been in Albuquerque or someplace 400 miles away from us in the wrong direction and too late to cancel the reservation.  As it worked out, it was only as far as we didn't want to go in the first place but well within our ability to get there.   With a little remedial training, Karen will again be allowed to make reservations along the route...she's trainable.

We set up an early registration on Saturday and most of the folks came by during that time.  We got all but 9 individuals that came in on Sunday taken care of so Sunday wasn't too bad a day as far as being really busy.  We had one hiccup in that Bill Sheahan's bike got lost in transit by the airlines but luckily they found it before it got shipped overseas. 

After a late dinner with the J-birds, friends from several previous rides, we packed the vans and prepared for the morning.  We are ready to go...we'll wake early and get on the road tomorrow.  Hope you'll follow us as we travel across the country.  Pray for our safe travels and we'll try our best to finish strong.  M

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