On the "Road" Again...well...plane anyway

It's been an interesting past month or so. I've been on the go more than anticipated but it's gone incredibly well. However, I better not speak too soon, I'm sitting in the airport in Cleveland waiting to fly back home, through Minneapolis, of course.

First my traveling started with a road trip to eastern Wisconsin for a B-E-A-UTIFUL wedding. It was an adventure through Amish country, cranberry bogs and lots of nothingness (particularly across Minnesota). The parents-of-the-groom do live in Austin, so if I ever need a break while making a trek like that again, I may just give them a call =)

Next was the branding in Lakeview. No surprises there, other than another AMAZING weekend with "family" that I love. No major injuries, just a few bangs and bruises overall. I rode horse, helped sort, wrestled calves and even learned how to give vaccination shots! Some people would like to say that the drive to Rosebud is a drive through nothingness, but I strongly object and say it's a drive right into God's Country!

My previous post was a little bit about my trip to DC. It was a whirlwind, too much conference and not enough tourist time. Blair, Nate and I did get to eat at a couple local places and take the After Dark bus tour of the monuments - I would recommend that tour to anyone. It's crazy how one statue, monument, or building can look so different. My favorite thing was the Marine Memorial (better known as Iwo Jima). I would have loved to stick around for the weekend, but I had to fly back home, do laundry and pack back up for my trip to Cleveland.

On Monday, I flew off to Cleveland, where I now sit, for a conference for the VA Spinal Cord Injury System of Care. It was a pretty good conference and I met some helpful people I will not hesitate to use in the future with questions or concerns that pop up. Networking is all it's about right??? I came to Cleveland not being too excited to come here, to say the least. For the most part, it lived up to my expectations, but there were a few diamonds in the rough. The architecture was striking, especially with all the old churches they have ALL OVER the city. I'm kicking myself for not getting any pictures of that. We had some poor directions of how to get to some places in the city, but stumbled upon it last night and were quite impressed with some of the shops and places to eat. I even rode a mechanical bull - twice! Of course, Lake Erie was a sight to see, but it's still pretty chilly and the area we were by didn't have much of a lake front or Pier, but now I am happy to say I've been to 3 of the great lakes.

Well, I'll have some pictures to follow about the above, but for now, I'm going to wrap this up and work on a crossword puzzle until it's time to board. Once I get home this afternoon, I'll be home for a little while. But I can't get too comfortable, there is always something (near or far) that it seems I need to run to.

PS: Cleveland does NOT rock...