Trains 🚊, Planes ✈️, and Automobiles 🚙!

One of the interesting things about this last trip was that I got a chance to travel by train one way and by plane the other. My realization coming from the trip is that as long as I’m able and not in a big hurry I would much rather drive. There is so much more freedom when driving and setting or changing the schedule, route, or routine any time I choose. 

I read two interesting “road books” on this trip. On the train out I read a biography of Fred Harvey and the amazing impact he had on the nations hospitality industry and then one of the books that I got from Stacie for Christmas was “A Lap Around America”. The second book wasn’t anything special but it was a reminder of two things. The first is how much more I enjoy traveling by car and on my own schedule and the second was that my blogs aren’t a whole lot different than many of the books I read. 

I have been talking about getting rid of things that I no longer need or use and I actually started making a dent this time. First starting with T-shirt’s and books. I still don’t understand why it’s so hard to get rid of things I no longer wear, never wore and never will wear. Other than the fact that there is a little sentimental connection because they represent races run. That’s a reason I now take pictures of all my shirts and medals from races. 

Just a small sample of what I was getting rid of. The pile on the right was going. I did the same thing with books and took them to Half Price Books in Dublin to sell after I ran a race in Livermore. I seldom reread a book and I give away books others will be interested in but others just seem to hang around and collect dust. 

The next race I ran was one I had run before and enjoyed for the course and the organization, “Run to the Flagpole “ in Livermore. Most of the race is run in a beautiful area full of large Sycamore trees and even without leaves this time of year it’s nice. The only negative and it’s a negative shared by too many races is they discriminate against older runners by making the upper age group 60 to infinity. They don’t make any other age groups that broad and it really is unfair. My running friend Joe Lobianco is 91 and we were in the same age group with the guy who won our age group and was 61. That’s quite a gap. 

Sadly we lost another of our dogs yesterday. Shorty had basically been on comfort care for a while because she had some new tumors under her legs. She’s already had multiple cancer surgeries. When we took her in we had them take an X-ray before making a final decision and it turned out that her lungs were full of cancer. It never gets easy losing one but first we won’t let one suffer and second we know we have them a good life while they were here. 

Seven years ago today this girl chased us down the road and became part of the family.