Themes

Any of you poor souls that followed my scribbling on tour last year may recall my references to "A Streetcar Named Desire" the famous play by Tennessee Williams and, in particular the character Blanche Dubois and her assertions that -

"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers"

Welcome to the Pink Heals Tour version 2013

This year's theme is apparently "National Lampoon's Not For Profit Organization"

We had to reschedule an event we (read I) originally set up for yesterday due to logistics/scheduling/housekeeping issues.  Once those items were squared away, we had some idle time.

Enter John and Vickkkkkki.

And a large, Arkansas-based, super mega global, "if you need to buy it we've got it here", look out below small business owners (no endorsement opportunities needed) shopping experience.

This adventure started in McHenry.  Vickkkki and I took John to the local large, Arkansas-based, blah, blah, blah so he could look for copies of "his" movie to buy so he can sign them and give them to people. 

For real.

So, the nice ladies there, after about an hour (an hour which btw included Vickkkki and I digging through the $5 DVD bin looking for copies of said movie sigh), ordered 16 copies of the DVD "Twister" and donated 8 more copies and had them shipped to another of their stores down by here.

And so we enter the "National Lampoon" portion of our show...

Four and a half hours later, they came back.  With tales of purchases and subsequent returns, trafic jams stretching as far as the eye can see, wrong turns and missed turns.

And 24 copies of the movie "Twister"

I think we need to schedule a screening. 

Quick PHT factoid - at one time, our guy, John Rhyne, was the highest paid actor working in Oklahoma. 

Let that one sink in for a bit.

I'm not making any of this stuff up either. 

I think tomorrow I'm going to dust off "Meet Your 2013 Pink Heals Tour Drivers".  Tere should be plenty of ammo, I mean info by then. 

Depending on how the morning goes, I think I'm taking the kids on a field trip downtown today...

Wish me luck...

Pink Heals!

Peace

Aaaand we're slowing down...

Maintenance day yesterday.

June, the pink SUV (she's new to the tour this year) needed some minor stuff done to her (don't we all?) so Vickki (that's NOT misspelled, she really spells her name that way) took her to a local (for real, that's how she spells it) Ford dealer that (I know, right?  Too many "k's") one of our contacts (she's from south Texas, that's all I'm gonna say about that) hooked us up with.  If I knew who it was I'd thank him.

So, before we left McHenry (once home to the #1 arm-wrestler in the world, and I'm not even making that up) we needed to secure lodging for three nights before we set up our base camp for the first two weeks of August (more to come on that later) which meant we hung out at the hotel for a couple more hours.  Along with several Little League teams from various parts of the globe. 

Like these guys, from Puerto Rico, here demonstrating what they think of both the Pink Heals Tour and how they'll finish their tournament.  Loud, but polite kids.

So after multiple phone calls, texts and emails we found a place to land thanks to some friends of the program.  One, a local elected official who shall remain nameless because I didn't seek permission to use said person's info yet and two, Becky Nelson from the Downers Grove Chamber of Commerce.  Becky, I told you this yesterday on the phone and I'll tell you here today on the interwebz... YOU RAWK!!!  A couple semi-frantic phone calls on my part to these two people resulted in three rooms for three nights at the Marriott Suites in Downers.  Simply amazing!

So, while Vickki (I swear it's right) sat at the Ford shop, John, Dave and I shuttled the girls down from McHenry to Downers Grove (birthplace of such dignitaries as Emo Phillips and Randy "MACHO MAN" Savage) and we managed to do it without utilizing the wonderful Illinois Toll Road System.  Instead, by using state roads we not only saved $20 in tolls, we got free kidney massages driving through numerous construction zones. Hooray us!

Now, don't get me wrong.  I love the town I work in.  I genuinely do.  I recognize what it has allowed me to do for my family and the support I've received over the years in my various projects.  But I've never, NEVER, been happier to pull into DG than I was yesterday.  Holy moley I don't think my butt will ever recover...

And then, after our trip in, John was in need of a little TLC.  He's been fighting migraines the last couple days.  Since I know people here, I escorted him over to our local Level 1 Trauma Center and had him checked out.  I told him I wouldn't take any embarassing pictures...

I lied.

 

We spent three hours of quality time in the ER, John got a reasonably clean bill of health (it's naaaht a tumah) and after Vickkkkkkki (OK, that might be a few too many k's) picked us up, I took those two out for dinner.  Chicago-style hot dogs woohoo!!!

 

Cultural dining, it's what I do.

 

Still no edition of "Meet Your Pink Heals Tour Driver" I'm banking stories...

 

Pink Heals

 

Peace

Ok we're off and running.

 As I was waiting to get picked up for the first stop of the season, and I must admit, it was kinda nice to get picked up at the house instead of flying or driving somewhere, I looked down and saw this...

 

Now, if I thought for a minute she was doing that because she would miss me, I might've been moved.  But this one is named "Stupid" as in "what is wrong with that stupid cat?" which makes it slightly less meaningful, don't you think?

 

So the first official stop for me is in the books.  My friends Ann and Bob came to see us and Ann signed the Chicagoland chapter's future truck Leslie.  I was really glad they were able to come by.  Ann had a pretty big smile on her face the whole time they were with us. 

 

The folks at Fox Point (a senior living community in McHenry) put together a nice little stop for us. And for a somewhat last minute thing, we drew some people in from the area.  A bunch of survivors got to sign our "girls" 

 

 And we had some really nice visits with people, including a chat with these two survivors.... 

 

the one on the left (no, your left) is actually friends with one of the guys I work with, something we discovered while chatting about what it is we do on tour.  So, of course, since we had common friends, we HAD to take a selfie in front of one of the trucks.

 

It's a thankless job, but somebody's GOT to do it...

 

We've got a down day tomorrow.  Apparently the guy that did the scheduling for Illinois is a slacker...

 

Hey I tried my best.

 

We'll most likely find somewhere to go and do a static display for awhile tomorrow, we may be moving to a different hotel for a couple days too.  I've got a friend of the program looking for deals for us. 

 

Geez I'm gonna owe him big time.

 

OK, I think that's the high points.

 

Oh, wait, I almost forgot.

 

So driving home this morning, my regular routine when the pirate is not at sea includes pulling into our local Pacific Northwest based, super mega global, coffee-based beverage serving business (still available for endorsement opportunities, you know "the official coffee of I can relate to ducks" kind of thing) and as I walked up to the door, I looked across the street and saw a pink SUV (picture to follow at some point) with the driver, one Dave Graybill, sitting inside drinking coffee and checking email.  He was in getting coffee for the troops.  We chatted briefly and then I went home to finish my prep work for the trip.  Nice surprise.

 

OK, that should do

 

Wait one more thing...

 

I was going to do an edition of "Meet your Pink Heals Tour Driver" but Brad left before I could get a picture of him.  It'll have to wait for a day or two...

 

This time for sure.

 

Pink Heals!

 

Peace

T-minus 5 hours 37 minutes...

At least that's what it is as I type this ...

And just for emphasis, I'll steal a line from one of my favorite books, one that I read years ago; Ball Four by Jim Bouton

"It's Opening Day!  Or opening day, depending on your perspective."

Guess which one is mine today?  That's right, the first leg of my portion of the Pink Heals National Tour starts in less than six hours!  Finally.  Although I've been pretty active with PHT related stuff for several months, as well as trying to get our local chapter up and running (no comment) and even though I've had (gotta learn to crawl before you can walk, right?) a couple opportunities to get out with them for a day here and there, I'm sooooo glad today has arrived.  

Here's a fun fact.  This portion of the tour, I could probably do from home...  Except the commute would either kill me or make me completely crazy (quiet back there you).  For the next two+ weeks, we'll be based in the Chicago metropolitan area. 

About an hour and fifteen minutes from the house.  

Whatever.

There are multiple days where we'll be leaving the hotel before 6:00 AM, tack an hour and fifteen on to that and you see why I'm staying with them.  Who the heck scheduled this stuff anyway???

Oh yeah.

Never mind.

So, I'll do a short, little blurb here and do my level best to keep both of my regular readers updated on my travels, perhaps interject an amusing little anecdote or two.  Well, amusing to me anyway.  For example...

I would just like to go on the record here and say that, Milwaukee (Winnebago for "can we fit a casino over there?)  has produced many, MANY, fine human beings.  

Many.

We're off to McHenry, Illinois today.  Noon kick-off.  Be there or be square.

Pink Heals!

Peace.

PS I'm really glad to be back...

Pre-Tour Preview

Having nothing better to do, I flew to Rochester, MN yesterday. 

That's not exactly true, as regular readers of this space are well aware.  You see, I flew there to meet up with the 2013 version of the Pink Heals National Tour.  One of the perks of being married to the pirate, and there are many, is ridiculously low priced fares on pirate ships. 

Many, many perks. 

Thousands, if not millions. 

Stop it, I'm being serious. 

So she hooked me up with tickets to RST (a lovely little airport btw) and away I went, 40 minutes by air. I think it took us longer to taxi out than it did to fly there. A guy from the FD picked me up and brought me to the tour stop they were on, just in time to hit our first home visit. 

We met Kari.  

Fighting breast cancer. 

And 25 weeks pregnant. 

She's awesome!

Here she is on the trailer with my guy John from Oklahoma (he's baaaack) and Sam from LA (Lower Alabama) and this visit was, for me, a great start to Pink Heals season. We did a static display at Peace Plaza in downtown Rochester,

went to Gift of Life transplant house and Ronald McDonald House and did four more home visits including Emma 

And Erin

And then went to another static display for a couple hours. 

My original plan was to fly home from RST the next morning. I thought the tour was going to get up around 4:00 am and drive to Milwaukee for an 8:30 start. But Dave decided to drive to Madison, WI and start Tuesday at a more reasonable time. So I called the pirate, scrapped my original plans and drove Karen and the trailer down to Madison. We got in around 12:45 am, got up around 5:30 (when I said "reasonable" I meant it loosely) and as the troop headed off to Milwau"ya would you like a beer with yer beer, eh?"kee, I caught a cab to the airport. 

I don't know what the cabbie did before he turned 75, but he's driving around the dairylands Capitol these days. Against my better judgement, I tried to strike up a conversation with him. Told him, briefly, about Pink Heals. 

I'd have been better off telling him a Martian was crawling out of the neck of his shirt. I don't think he heard two words I said to him past "the airport please". 

Sigh

So I walked in to MSN (yet another lovely little airport) to no line and at least as many TSA agents as I had seen at ORD the day before. For real. It was insanely smooth getting to the gate. And the agents were very nice. No, I said it. Nice.  Now, you know me. I'm NOT a "BIG GUBMINT, BIG GUBMINT" kind of guy. In fact, I'm absolutely OK with government being as big as it needs to be.  But there's a serious resource allocation issue if you ask me. 

But no-one ever asks me. 

And so, gentle readers, as we come to the close of the first edition of "What I did on my summer vacation" let me just say...

OH WAIT I ALMOST FORGOT!!!

Heeere's Leslie!

Ok, for now, remember...

Pink Heals

Peace