Sigh

My last morning on tour.

Well, at least for the summer.  I'll be back on the road in October.  Of course, it still feels a little bit depressing knowing I'm done here. 

Don't get me wrong.  It'll be good to be home.  I miss the pirate.  I miss the animals, well the dogs anyway.  I miss my bed.  I've slept like crap on the road.  No Eddie, it wasn't your snoring, even though you can bring it like few others.  I couldn't sleep when John was my roomie.  I couldn't sleep even when I had the room to myself.  So yeah, it'll be good to be back home and back into my routine.  I am, after all, a creature of habit. 

Still...

How can you not miss this?  The shared emotions, traveling together, working together, the hijinks (an under-used, under-appreciated word in my humble opinion, in fact I'm going to use it again) yes, I said hijinks (see? I told you) that all blend together to make The Tour what it is. 

We've got some pretty special people here with us.  Of course, it's strange not seeing my guy from LA here working the room. 

We're leaving the tour in good hands though. Vickkkkkkkkki is still here and Jaime is the MAN, my guy Leonard knows what he's doing and Nick seems like he gets it too.  Seth is always eager to put on the turnout gear. 

Ok, brief detour here.  This is something I wanted to touch base on the other day but got sidetracked.  You know how sometimes you think of a snappy comeback to something but you think of it too late to use it?  So, here's my most recent...

On move-in day when we were getting ready to go back to the SUV which was parked outside, I thought I'd remembered hearing about a shuttle to the remote (but honestly not too remote) parking lot.  As we started across the show hall floor, one of the exhibit guys (a fire chief from who knows where) came driving by on one of the scooters provided to them for the show.  I asked him how we could catch a lift to our vehicle and he looked at me and said "it's only a five minute walk".  

To quote Jack Nicholson from "A Few Good Men" 

Don't I feel like an asshole. 

Except, it occurred to me (far too late to be of value) that the guy that belittled me over a five minute walk had his fat ass perched on a gas powered version of a Rascal scooter.  

Ironic, no?

But back to the show.  It's over in 6 minutes.  Then it's back to the hotel, back home and back to some semblance of routine. 

Again, sigh. 

Everything is packed up, we're just waiting for the official god bless from one of the Rascal scooters so we can start up the vehicles, build up air pressure and roll back to the hotel. 

Speaking of hotels, let me take a few minutes to throw kudos to the manager at our hotel last night. Wish I knew his name... 

While we were at the show, five boxes of shirts were delivered to the hotel.  That manager put them in a back room and forgot to mention to her replacement that they were there. 

They got sent back. 

Or so we thought. 

The manager got on his phone, tracked down the five boxes of shirts and then went and picked them up and brought them back to the hotel. 

ON. HIS. OWN. TIME. 

That's a something right there. 

Ok, here's another random observation... The show we just left was put on by the International Association of Fire Chiefs, a wonderful organization, I'm sure. 

Now.  Having said nice things.  Let me just add, I don't know which one of these fire chiefs had the responsibility for scheduling, but let me just put forth the proposition that holding this event on the same weekend as the Air & Water Show was probably not the best choice.  I'm glad I don't work for his or her department. 

Just sayin...

Ok.  We're finally almost back to the hotel and my ride home.  

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!!

As we pulled to a stop in the parking lot of the hotel we saw a Mom, and her two young daughters, in their car taking our picture.  I grabbed a couple brochures and handed them to her.  As I started to explain who we are and what we do, Leonard, Nick and Seth walked up.  I passed the proverbial baton off to them and walked into the hotel. 

My tour is done. 

Pink Heals Tour Baby. 

Pink Heals!

Peace.

Quick update to this post.

I just found out Mickie, our home visit from last week, passed away this morning.  She was at home, surrounded by family.  She never smoked, yet lung cancer took her away from her family and friends far sooner than any of them wished.  Please keep Mickie, her family and her friends in your thoughts and prayers.