Welcome home, July Trippers! Travel stories??

[TarHeelMom]

Hi y'all!!!

WOW -- it's noon and I'm still sitting here in my Friday night jammies , with nothing urgent to do except stinky laundry and a nice stretch for my Lower Body Blast-sore heinie & legs! YAY!!!!

Thank you again from the bottom of my heart to all of you July Trippers for all of your hugs, appreciation, warm and kind words and generosity to us Coordinators. We LOVED your gigantic card, we loved your surprises for us, and most of all we loved being with all of you. This was our 3rd Cathe RT and it was so great to see some of you for the 2nd or even 3rd time -- it felt like a perfect combination of fun (and challenging) time with Cathe and a girlfriends' reunion weekend!!

August Trippers, we can't wait to see you too! You are in for a fabulous time, we promise! Your itinerary will be identical, but we are already working on tweaking a few things just a tiny bit to make them even more Road Tripper-friendly.

So did everyone get home okay and has your luggage caught up with you yet?? Y'all wanna share your travel war stories?? We might as well laugh about them, huh? Wow, yesterday afternoon was some kind of airport purgatory after that violent thunderstorm in Philadelphia, wasn't it?

Lorrayne and Debbie and I drove our rental car back to the airport RIGHT in the middle of that storm -- coming across that Walt Whitman Bridge I couldn't see a thing except rain, mist and lightning, and I kept thinking "Lord, please don't let me go out this way -- I haven't even had a shower since kickbox class!" All three of us were very late getting out of Philly, of course. My flight to Atlanta changed gates FOUR times, ending up leaving WAY far from the original gate. I had to chuckle even though I was getting tired of schlepping my gear -- you should have seen 300+ passengers hustling from gate to gate like a herd of highly annoyed sheep.

But the airport hangin' out time for me ended up actually being fun -- since lots of travelers were being re-routed thru my hometown airport, I ended up sitting at one of my gates (before the final move) for quite a while with a wonderful bunch (shout out and hugs to Amy, Lisa, Jean and Cheryl) -- what fun we had reminiscing about our fantastic weekend!

Poor Amy (Seedorf) -- she was going to Chicago and ended up stranded in Atlanta. And there's more. She and I ended up on different flights but managed to re-converge at the same baggage carousel in Atlanta at the same time (translation: about 11:45) and wouldn't you know that her bag was lost?? I got her all set up with a hotel for the night (since I live quite a ways away and she had an early morning flight) and personally put her onto a shuttle to the airport Fairfield Inn (seemed appropriate ). The good news is that I talked to her a little while ago, and she is in Chicago and her bag was there waiting for her!

I should get that laundry started before I have to fumigate my laundry room. I know all of you July Trippers are feeling just like I am -- a combination of nice relief for your tired body and a little sad achiness in your hearts. But let's just all plan RIGHT now to do it again next year!!!

Sending hugs to all of you!!!

[banslug]

Hey Kathy! I heard you were Amy's angel while she waited and waited for travel updates and progress. So thank you, on Amy's behalf, for all you did for and with her at the airport.

I made it home safely after I dropped Jean, Amy and Pennie off at the airport. I drove smack thru the middle of that horrible (yet amazingly beautiful) lightning storm that stranded so many of you fine young ladies. My drive was about 90 minutes home, about 85% of it in the rain. But safe and sound.

Reality smacked me HARD in the face when I got home. Tears were instant. I'm glad to be home, but sad to be away from all the energy and excitement of the RT gang.

Gayle

[THARTMAN]

I was stranded in the Philly airport for 12 hours!!! Did not get home til 3 in the morning and because of the rain my luggage was wet. My sweet boy was so good during the loonnngg wait

Tracy

[rgs424]

This was my first road trip, and I had a BLAST (in more ways than one thanks to Cathe) ! It was great to meet Cathe and her crew, the AWESOME road trip coordinators, and all of the road trippers. I really felt like I got my money's worth...the event was planned and handled extremely well !!! I most definitely plan to come back next year for sure !!

I was lucky in that I pretty much had a straight shot home to Baltimore...no airlines to deal with !

[Love to Run (aka Kathy G)]

I'm so glad to hear everyone is making it home safely. I only had to drive an hour home but got caught in a surprise hail storm! It was coming down so hard I had to pull over on the side of the Atlantic City Expressway for 10 minutes while it passed. Getting back into traffic from the side of the road was a nightmare. I said a quick prayer and went for it at one point when I saw a small opening. But I ended up home safe and sound (and so did all my stinky bags of workout clothes!) Oh my, it's a great idea to "baggie" every thing but be sure to clothespin your nose before opening. I about knocked myself out, lol!

Thanks again Kathy....you Lorrayne, and Debbie did a stupendous job again this year!!!!

Kathy G

[lauramangano]

This was my first road trip, and I have to say that I had an excellent time! It was so nice to meet people that love fitness and Cathe the way I do. My ride home was okay until I hit the Verazzano Bridge, then the heavens opened up and the lightning and thunder were actually scary! Many, many drivers had to pull over because of flooding and being unable to see for the sheets of rain coming down. But I made it home safe and sound, just a little sore. Thanks again to everyone who made this possible and I hope to do it again next year! Laura

[materialsgirl]

Well, I just got home a little while ago. Air travel was a huge pain yesterday due to the thunderstorms in Philly. I was one of the lucky ones - my flight was only delayed 3.5 hours. I got to Chicago at 8:00pm and stayed the night with my parents so I wouldn't have to drive home at night while exhausted. I drove home this morning instead. (I live 3 hours from the airport in Chicago)

The RT was a total blast and I'm so glad I went, despite the travel difficulties. Thank you Cathe and coordinators for another wonderful road trip! Sign me up for next year!

[bitmover]

I got home a little after 2am PST, which of course was 5am eastern (and I had thought I would sleep on the plane, but just couldn't!). It was quite a day, but what a fun, fun weekend! They did warn us that weather happens, but boy, the reality of it was something else. Some saint from Orlando had bought a huge bag of Dove bars and gave me one before she got on her plane. I think it was that that kept me awake for my 45 minute drive home from the airport.

-Beth

[PinkMom]

After going through security 3 different times and running from Terminal E to Terminal D and back to Terminal E because Southwest kept changing its mind about how delayed my flight would be and what would be the best way to get all the way home, I got on my original flight and flew out only about an hour late. My connection in Houston was delayed, but I got home last night only two hours late -- my sweet family met me at the airport just after midnight. It was all frustrating at the time, but it could've been worse.

Thanks to Cathe, I'm fit enough to run back and forth between terminals lugging a full gym bag and a full rolling suitcase. I tried to just consider it a bonus workout.

The weekend was amazing -- travel challenges notwithstanding! I can't wait to see you all again next year! Now off to start the next load of laundry.

[Ly10up]

OMG what a ball that was. I still can't get over it. The weekend exceeded my expectations, and my expectations were pretty dern high. 5.5 hours in the car gave me some quality time to reflect on everything and everyone. I pulled in around 4:00pm with 6 baggies full of stinky workout clothes and a huge fat grin on my face.

When does the presale start for next year?