We're Home!

We left Beijing on Tuesday, Sept. 16 at 3:45 pm. After a 12 hour flight we arrived in Newark on Tuesday, Sept. 16 at 4:30 pm. Crossing the dateline sure messes with my time frame. We got through customs and caught our plane to Houston. I know that was a weird scheduling thing, but it got us home 3 hours earlier. We rented a hotel in Houston and got about 6 hours of stretch out time. I got some good sleep in those 6 hours. We boarded our plane to Denver at 7:30 am and were in Denver 9:15 am. Our luggage followed us all the way.

We are now in Torrington. I am feeling a little tingly after going through all those time zones but we should reset our internal clocks with a good night's rest.

I have lots of thoughts about my first Paralympic Competition and maybe I will share those thoughts soon - when my brain doesn't feel mushy. Keep checking back. I hope to have some of the pictures up too.

4th Place Finish

What an exciting race it was! The guys knocked 3 seconds off their morning's time. We are so proud of them. It has been an exhausting day. The seating in the Cube is general seating - so fans have to arrive 2 hours early to get seats together. It has become a race as soon as the gates open. I think it should be a new event in Paralympic competition - the fan dash. Greece decided they wanted our seats and it got a little crazy but we finally figured it all out in the end.

Gotta pack - going home tomorrow! Glad the coverage was good.

First place Seed!

USA's 4X50 Medley Relay - 20 point was this morning. The four men who swam it were awesome and they will be the same 4 tonight. Lantz Lamback S7 swam the lead leg of backstroke, Dave SB4 swam the Breaststroke leg, Roy Perkins - S5 swam the butterfly and Joe McCartney S4 swam the last freestyle leg. Those fans in the stands who are in the know told us that our team could go faster tonight. Also there are a couple of teams that will have faster swimmers in the relay tonight. Our team's time was 2.46:40. Whoohoo - we were rocking the stands with that one.

We also have a 4X100 - 34 point relay tonight. I think we are seeded 4th for that one. We have several swimmers going to finals so it will be an exciting way to end 9 days of swimming.

Jerrica and I didn't eat bugs but we saw them. About the time I was ready to dare her to do so the stands closed down. Good timing on my part, eh? Zack and Jerrica have hoofed all over this town seeing more than you can imagine. We have seen enough to feel like we have been in China. We have haggled at flea markets with a bazaar type feel. We have haggled in the "discount" markets. After a while that gets annoying - if you make eye contact with any of them, they grab your arm and drag you in. They will not let go until you buy something - unless you are Zack. He got blocked into one spot - I'm not sure how long but he refused to buy, they finally let him go. I usually cave because I do want something and the more I look the more tired I became. I think I got some deals but after awhile, I just wished they'd give me a fair price and let me go on my way.

We tried to find a street fair yesterday. These next few days are "happy mid-autumn" Festival. We got lost and turned around. Finally grabbed a cab that would drop me off to finish up shopping and then take Tom back to the apartment. As I was leaving the market to go home, I looked for my paper that tells the driver where to go. I couldn't find it. There are volunteer stands all over Beijing. Most of these folks speak enough English to confuse things. However, they very much want to help. My new best friends did finally figure out where I wanted to go and wrote down the directions. It was a piece of cake after that.

We all went out to try Peking Duck last night. Probably the swankiest restaurant I've been in since we've been here. The duck is served family style and the duck is 198 RMB then with all the condiments - we threw a couple more beers on top of that. I think the bill came to 425 RMB with tip. that's about $65. It was a lovely meal. Zack did a terrific job ordering it for us. He had it when he was in Beijing before so he was the expert among us.

Our plane leaves here at 3:45 on the 16th. We arrive in Denver the 17th. By the time you wake up, you should know how our men did with their Relay. It should be very very exciting.

Change of Plans

Hurricane Ike has closed the Houston Airport which is how we were supposed to get home. It will probably be up and running but rerouting has been a nightmare for Continental, I imagine. Anyway we elected to stay a couple of days extra, rather than spend days in an airport. We'll get to see Dave's relay race on Monday, too.

Today has been a low key day. Dave came over and spent some time with us. We did find a coffee shop not far from the Paralympic Village. So we went there and got our coffee fix then rolled on over to the Village. We didn't get to go in but we did get to see some of the courtyards and buildings.

I think tonight is bug night. Zack and Jerrica found where they are - they only come out at night, after dark. Yeah, makes you feel kind of squeamish doesn't it? So maybe tonight is the night we dare each other to eat something exotic. We haven't gotten TD yet - after tonight it might be another story. Imodium is good for TD - there's a hint for what I am talking about.

Tomorrow night is Peking Duck night. We might try to get into wheelchair Rugby - of "Murder Ball" fame. Dave did sit next Mark Zupan one of the Rugby athletes at opening ceremonies. It would be fun to watch USA play but it's pretty popular - we might have to "settle" for any team.

100 Breast SB4

Dave finished 9th in his event - just missed finals by .05 seconds. RATS! I think I got it on video and will download and try to set it up here. He did knock off another 3 seconds of his best time though. I don't know how tired the athletes are but being a fan is taking a toll. We have to race to our spots for the finals - everybody thinks the Americans have the best spot and so do we. The Chinese have a high regard for those who can swipe a spot from someone else. It doesn't matter whether it is while walking, driving, or finding a seat in a venue. They start learning spatial relations early here.

While we were in the Temple of Heaven, a little boy was riding a bike with training wheels. He must have been about 3. He was weaving in out of people who were walking along the sidewalk and missing their toes by inches. He never hit anybody though. Now imagine that little kid as a taxi driver 30 years later. Somehow these folks just know how to squeeze into tiny spaces and yet I haven't seen any road rage, or foul tempers. It just is. So if they can swipe a good seat from a Yank, there are congratulations all around. On the other hand if we are bold in refusing them the seat, they are okay with that, too.

So today we went to the MacDonalds on the Green. A real American MacDonalds. The Chinese love MacDonalds, I think there were about 10 million of them standing in line and 5 more million milling around outside waiting to get in. I maneuvered my way into line and Tom was supposed to find a table for us. No luck, they were too sneaky getting in under him. We went upstairs and there were items on two chairs and an empty table. We just moved the items, sat down and ignored the people who picked up their items. They didn't say anything - we were pretty quick and when the rest of their family came in we were done and they got their table back. I took a picture of the millions of Chinese ordering MacDonalds. I'll post it later.

Kinda tired - hope to get some more stuff written before we leave on Sunday. David said he will be in the Medley Relay on Monday - alas, we will be home by then unless Hurricane Ike changes our plans.

Relay!

Tonight was the 4 x 50 freestyle relay. Dave swam the second leg and was in second place when he did the exchange. We ended up fourth - it should be on Universal Sports since it was a final. It took a long time for the results to come up - looked like a DQ was in the making. AND China's time did not go up right away. We held our breath. It was a DQ but not China or anybody that would have moved up but the DQ wasn't charged to the USA either. We thought Dave looked good doing the freestyle. After tomorrow he will have done all the strokes at least once. It's his big day tomorrow. Cheer loudly! I know it might be midnight for you all but cheer in your dreams! After all the theme here is ONE WORLD ONE DREAM.

The awards ceremony touched me tonight. One of the men who is blind got a bronze. I think he was from Canada. The metals are very stunning and they have braille on them, too. This young man fingered the bronze quite awhile - reading the braille then a smile broke out. That made me gulp a few times. How proud he was to get that medal. This was the award ceremony for the S11 which are those who are totally blind. Can you imagine diving into a pool of water - not knowing when you are going to hit or where? I know they do it all the time so it probably isn't that remarkable to them but it certainly is to me.

Our team is still doing very well. We went 1-2 in some events. Keep it up USA!

Jerrica, Zack and I went to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City today. We had to do it quickly so we could get back to the Water Cube. We also saw some events in the Bird Nest - wheelchair racing. I could get to be a fan of that. As we were wandering around Tianamen Square, I asked Zack if he could ask someone to take a picture of all of us. He said sure and pointed to some people and said he bet they spoke English. They did! They were from Alabama so like a well trained Auburn Fan, I hollered "War Eagle!". They responded louder (but there were 3 of them) "Roll Tide!" They took our picture anyway. It turns out that their son is a wheelchair racer. Small world isn't it?

Thanks Alabama for taking our picture and good luck to your son. and brother.

It's been found

Beijing has a population of 15 million people. Tom lost his phone in the taxi. God is good - the next person in that taxi was an American. He was able to call David who called us. We will be getting the phone in a few days. Hooray! We think it's pretty remarkable that in a population of 15 million, the right person got on that taxi!

Along with telling us the news that Tom's phone was found, Dave told us he would be swimming a relay tomorrow night. Now we have to scrounge tickets - wish us well. Bedtime here. Yawn! Goodnight.