No medals... pooh!

Ron before the Road Race

Well, it's over, and we have no medals to bring home this time. The road race was today, and it was weird... it was Ron's category (LC2- single leg amputees) all combined with the LC1 (mostly arm amputees) class and one of the milder CP classes. The race was fast fast fast with all three medalists being of the LC1 category. There were 6 strong legs on the medal stand!! Even Ron's main rivals (Jiri and Roberto) weren't in the top five. Oh well... today's race results aren't as hard to swallow as yesterday's were, to me at least. Now we can take Ron out on the town and go have some fun!

The winners of Ron's race

Yesterday was completely taken up by the time trial. The course (which was the same course as the road race today) was fabulous! There was a big grandstand area for the spectators (and today, we managed to talk our way into the Family section-- which we are of course, but we don't have "credentials"), and behind the road where the riding happens a lake, then a beautiful pagoda on a peninsula, then mountains in the distance. This was, by far, the most breathtaking race site I have ever seen... wish it could've been the site of better memories for us.

Today, we started the day by going to see Chairman Mao. Yes, he's dead, but embalmed and on display just north of Tiannamen Square. Kinda creepy, but free. We then were taken to the course by a car service we'd hired... loved our driver! He talked his way right up to the course practically, past a bunch of credential-checkers and Paralympic volunteers. He did so well for us that we have hired him for tomorrow too...to take us out to the Great Wall and to pick up Ron on the way out of town.

Then was the race, and I've already talked all I want to about that.

On the way back, we asked Tan (our driver) to drop us off at the Olympic Green instead of the hotel, so of course he did. You couldn't actually get into the park area or anywhere near the Birds' Nest or Water Cube without an event ticket, but we got close enough to oooh and aaah over them and get some pictures.

The Birds' Nest Stadium

We taxied back to the hotel to change, and then walked to a restaurant we had previously spied across the street from Tiannamen Square... it was probably the best food we've had here! Well, it tied with the Peking Duck, and was cheaper!


So now that the races are over, I hope that we can get Ron out of the village to do some sightseeing. The Great Wall tomorrow will be a good start, and tomorrow night we have bought tickets to an acrobat show! We bought lots of tickets actually...nine of Ron's teammates/coaches/entourage wanted to go too! The hotel concierge must've thought we were crazy when we bought 13 tickets, but nah, she knows that already! We have kept the desk ladies quite busy with all our questions and need for translation!

Well, off to sleep... tomorrow will be a better day.

Oh, and here's another "cute baby" picture...

5th...

Well, the time trial is over, and Ron finished 5th. I'll leave all the descriptive details to him since we couldn't see much of the race, but I do know that it was hot and hard. The guys that we knew to worry about were indeed the ones that took the medals... we're disappointed, but you know, you just have to leave it all out there on the road, and Ron certainly did that. He was wiped out after it was all over.

Tomorrow is the road race, against the same old crew. It's never over till it's over, but the time trial today was where our best chance was.

On a high note, the course was beautiful...



I don't really know what else to say. There are definitely highs and lows on this journey, and the lows aren't very much fun. We are thankful for all the support we feel from all of you at home.

After the race, Barb, Brooke, Ron, and Sandy and John (of the Hartford)

My aching feet!!

We have walked one billion miles today... or at least it felt like it! We started by going to the Forbidden City, which of course was ah-mazing!! You could just imagine that you were an emperor (or empress!) wandering those grounds, or being carried around I'm sure...it would have been a long way to walk to get anywhere! The crowds were thick, and there was a lot of pushing and shoving to see some of the sights (thrones and such) inside the palaces...the doors were open but with rails, with everyone pushing to get up to the front to see. It reminded me of pep rallies at Auburn! Ah, China. The Forbidden City is not to be missed though! Here are some of my favorite pictures.

See the crowds?? Yes, they are pushy!

Ice Cream Break- it was hot!!

After wearing ourselves out at the Forbidden City, we hunted down a lunch-spot... that took a while, but we ended up very happy with our lunch of spicy chicken, noodles, rice, and broccoli. We then walked some more.... trying to see the Bell and Drum towers, but they were closed, so we started exploring the Hou Hai lake area. More walking, more shopping! I also finally got a picture of a Chinese child (with permission of his...or her- it was hard to tell- daddy of course). As an aside, it is the strangest thing I have ever seen, but the little toddler age children are dressed in pants with the inseam mostly cut out! And without diapers!! Their little heineys are just hanging out all over the place!! We haven't seen any pee-pee or poo-poo stains on the mothers who tote them around all day, but I don't see how we don't...the are too little to be potty trained! This child seemed to have intact pants, but I'm not sure!! :) The pediatrician in me also fully disapproves of all the kids on bicycles without helmets!! My PALS services have not yet been needed though...


After walking around Hou Hai lake and hutong, our feet demanded that we take a cab for once, and we headed back to our hotel to freshen up and rest. Later, we ventured out to the Night Market, where there are stalls and stalls of, well, interesting and unusual (read, disgusting!) food items for sale... the available variety includes silk worms on a stick, fried centipedes, scorpions, sea horses, starfish, kidneys and hearts of various animals, snake, mice, and a lot of other unidentifiable creatures.


It wasn't all horrifying though... we tried several (boring!) things, which were mostly good: chicken on a stick, pineapple rice with sugar, fried dumplings, fried bananas (which were very much like New Orleans' beignets), and fruit with a coating of melted sugar- like brittle! Yes, we ate some things we probably weren't supposed to, but hey, you only live once! I may regret it in the morning, we'll see! The fruit brittle stuff

And now, of course, we are turning in for the night. Tomorrow is the big day.... Ron's time trial! He's nervous... but he's ready! He's ready for all of his hard work to pay off, and to go out there and have some fun! We're meeting up with the crew from the Hartford and riding out to the course together, which is at the Ming Tombs. Should be fun! I am so proud of Ron, and ready to see those Go-Sticks in action! Stay tuned in (and keep your fingers crossed for him!)... he goes off at about 2:45 here, which is 1:45 AM at home- we should have some updates posted by the time ya'll wake up! Until then....

Parks and Hutongs and Duck, Oh My!

Today has been fun!! The weather is beautiful today... warm and sunny, the complete opposite from yesterday's rainy and chilly! We almost needed to use our umbrellas like parasols, like all the Chinese women do! We would fit in better if we did!

We started the morning by visiting Beihai Park! It was fabulous! There is a big lake (aptly named Beihai lake) with sections completely covered by huge green water lilies!

Beihai Lake, water lilies, and the White Dagoba

On an island in the center of the lake, there is a huge white temple called the White Dagoba. After hiking up many many stairs, you could almost get to the top, with a nice city view as a reward. Also at the top, we were crowned Empresses! :)

The Newest Chinese Empresses

We had lunch at a little cafe overlooking the lake, and ate dumplings and noodles (yum!)... a bit more authentic than yesterday's meals! This little Chinese lady struck up a conversation with us at lunch... turns out she was an English teacher and wanted to practice her English with some native-speakers I guess. She was very sweet, and even invited us to join her and her husband on a paddle boat ride in the lake, but we decided to keep with our plans for the afternoon instead. Hope that didn't violate any major rules of etiquette...we thanked her a lot for the invitation!

We had an hour or two until Butch was due to arrive, so we decided to start heading back to the hotel, and maybe to stop at Jingshan Park on the way back, but at the last minute, we were approached by (several) rickshaw drivers asking us to take their hutong tour... the is on our to-do list, and we had just enough time, so we went! It was so fun! Our driver was young and tried very hard to explain everything to us in English (and did very well actually!) as he pedalled us through a hutong behind the Forbidden City. The hutongs are the old tradional Chinese neighborhoods, still inhabited by the poorer people of the city, as well as some soldiers. We saw the little house where Mao lived as a student for a year or two in his twenties. It was really interesting... you wonder how people still are able to live in this way. There were some nicer areas (like the "rich people" house where our driver posed for the picture below), but mostly it was very ramshackle.

Our rickshaw driver and Hutong tour guide

Butch arrived after shortly after our rickshaw ride... we were happy he made it in one piece!! We walked around Tiannamen Square for a bit, then went on a culinary adventure- Peking Duck!! Our hotel had recommended a certain restaurant, Da Dong (yes, funny name...), and it was fabulous! It was a nice new swanky place, and we had to wait an hour for a table! Here is the story in pictures... Close your eyes, Chrissy Tatum!

All the ducks in a row!

Ducks in the oven


Veggies! Broccoli and snow peas...


Carving up the duck tableside


Ready to eat!


Our dessert... smoking fruit! (It had dry ice underneath!)

On a side note, I talked to Ron a few times today. He's in the Village now with no more planned adventures out until after his races! Ah, the focus! He's sounding ready... maybe a bit nervous, but mostly excited! I'm excited for him...and I'm the nervous one! I hope he'll just get out there and do his best on Friday and Saturday, and that that will be enough for a shiny prize! He did get to participate in the Opening Ceremonies this time, a first for him, and he said it was beyond amazing! We were in the airplane at the time, so we missed it, but we watched it on TV today in our hotel room. We just missed seeing the USA team march in, so I'm gonna have to watch it again! We did see the frog-children dancing though, which was hysterical! That was his favorite part, he said.

And finally, I just got an email from a former Paralympian's wife... she has taken my Oprah idea and run with it.... and just talked to an Oprah person on the phone! We may be going!! Woo hoo!! I'll be sure to post any more details if I hear them!

We're surviving!

Yay, I finally got my computer working in our hotel room, so now the updates will be more frequent and with pictures! I just needed the only converter piece that I didn't have... and Ron had one! Thanks honey! I'll go back and add pictures from my other post too...

So, let me back up to yesterday. Yesterday morning was good! We had slept for 12 hours (after 36 hours of awakeness, this was great!), so we were up and ready to go go go! First we wandered around Tiannamen Square for a little bit... the Chinese are fabulous gardeners, and there was a huge flower display about the Paralympics in the Square. We found the cyclist of course!

Tiannamen Square

After Tiannamen Squre, we walked to the Temple of Heaven. Yeah, it was a long walk! Totally worth it though... it was acres and acres of beautiful grounds, full of roses and cypress trees, and very cool old buildings. Loved the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests the best.

Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests at Temple of Heaven

After walking around the Temple of Heaven, we went shopping at the Pearl Market, which just happened to be in the neighborhood! Wow.... at the markets, you bargain, bargain, bargain, and I'm surprisingly good at it! We scored several necklaces a piece, and moved on...to more shopping in the Liulichang district. There they make "chops", which are special carved stamps. I got one with my name on it carved just for me! Very cool!

Shopping for Chops

And then, the day kinda went downhill on us! We had missed lunch in all the excitement of the Temple of Heaven and shopping, so we were pretty hungry by dinner time. We stopped in a little restaurant close to our hotel, and ordered by picture what we were assured was chicken. It may have been chicken, but not chicken meat really... just fried pieces of something very cartilagenous... must have been neck or feet! Ugh! That was kind of disastrous, but we were in a hurry to get to the Beijing Opera, which we had bought tickets for at the hotel. So we set off to find a taxi, and let me just say, that is a challenge anytime in the evening! Our major problem was that we were walking along busier streets, and were separated from the street itself by a little guardrail like fence. We might have well have been trying to hail a cab on I-65 back home! We walked and walked to get rid of the little fence... thought we were gonna miss the show! Finally we got a taxi and got ourselves to the Opera, but after the first half of the show, we wished we had missed it after all. It is, I could say, an acquired taste.... the first half was basically a lady with a singing voice that sounded like a cat singing and talking to an actor dressed to look like an old man. We didn't understand one bit of it, and it was mostly dialogue, not singing. Many people left at intermission, but we stuck it out and stayed for the second half, which was a good bit better. It was something about the Fight of the Monkey King, and multiple characters were jumping and tumbling about the stage without any singing. We survived, caught a taxi back to the hotel without too much trouble, and went to bed early.

The Opera

Today was a new day. Rainy, but new. We slept in, and then spent the morning at the Confucius Temple and the Lama Temple. The architecture at both was breathtaking... and so was all the incense at the Lama Temple (Buddhist, with lots of Buddhas and even monks!). The Lama Temple had a huuuuge Buddha carved from a single sandalwood tree, with a marker from Guiness Book of World Records to prove it. It was something like 85 feet tall. No pics of it unfortunately....it was inside and no pictures allowed!
Confucius statue

Confucius Temple

After the temples, we taxied it out to the Paralympic Village to see Ron! We hung out with him there for a while, then escorted Ron and a few of the guys to the Silk Market to go shopping...our specialty! We helped them bargain on pearls for their wives and silk dresses for their daughters, and of course picked up a few trinkets for ourselves! :) We have GOT to stop shopping! The boys took off quickly back to the Village, and mom and I ate some pizza (no mysterious chicken parts this time!) and made our way home, this time via subway!! It has rained all day, and hasn't stopped yet! It better not rain for the races on Friday and Saturday!!!

Us at the Village

Well, that's it really... tomorrow cousin Butch arrives, which we're looking forward to very much! Will update again soon!

We made it!!

Hello, from China! Mom and I made it safely, after about 18 hours in a flying cylinder! The flight was long of course, but not too bad really...we watched a lot of movies!


Yesterday afternoon after our arrival, we found our hotel (not an easy feat...the taxi drivers are a challenge), and then went out exploring.


We are very close to the Forbidden City, so we walked around it and of course made our first purchase... a surprise for Grandaddy! He's reading, so I'll keep it a surprise for now, but we did haggle with the little street guy. He actually followed us down the street for about a block before we agreed on a price! Yep, $6! We're high rollers!

When we were wandering around the Forbidden City, taking pictures along the way, a little Chinese couple came up to us and did some hand motions...we thought they wanted us to take their picture... in fact, they wanted to have their picture made WITH us! :) Yes, we stick out like blonde sore thumbs in a sea of otherwise Asian people.

Ron had arranged for a Chinese Sim card to be delivered to our hotel (sweet boy) so we were able to use my cell phone after we got here. I called him up, and we were able to meet up for dinner! It was good to see him after being apart for just over a month! We met at the Drum Tower, then walked down some street and stopped at a nondescript restaurant and had dinner.

It was interesting, but good. And cheap! It's a nice change for us to be able to have a Diet Coke for the equivalent of 50 cents, not $8 like in Italy! After dinner, we went our separate ways and took taxis "home"... and slept like rocks for 12hrs! We were tired...



That's all for now... going sightseeing and maybe to the Opera tonight! I'm having trouble with my computer (shocker!), so I'm updating from the hotel business lounge. If and when I get mine going, I'll post pictures.

Bye for now, and Happy Birthday Sarah Atkins!!

Off Like a Herd of Turtles!

Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind. ~Seneca

So, we're leaving bright and early in the morning! Well, actually it's gonna be "dark and early"! Ugh! Oh well... the earlier we leave, the earlier we get there I guess. I am excited. Ron arrived yesterday our time, and he's been able to call me several times. There apparently are some pretty strict rules about what you can blog about over there... The rules are set by the IPC (International Paralympic Committee) and basically restrict you from posting pictures or video clips of the events, venues, medal ceremonies, athletes other than yourself, etc. I can't say that I understand why these rules exist....I get that safety must be part of the equation, but I don't understand why limiting the accessibility of information about such a fantastic and inspiring event is productive. Oh well... ya'll know I am a rule-follower (to a fault!), so both of our blogs may be far more boring during this time than we want. We'll see how it goes.

I have just about worn myself out over the last few days packing up boxes of house stuff... no matter how much goes into boxes, more and more exists! It's really like it's multiplying! The movers brought me some wardrobe boxes today... I thought that surely4 would be enough, but I've already filled up three of them with just Ron's hanging clothes, leaving mine high and dry! I've also been wrapping up picture frames and china... and I am tired! I need a vacation!

And so, we go.... thank you to all who are out there cheering Ron on in this crazy journey! It's because of our friends' and families' support that he is able to go fulfill his dream. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Keep your fingers crossed for him! :) We hope to play out this scene again:

Us in Athens after he won the bronze...

Oh, and no, I haven't heard back from Oprah yet!

When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money. ~Susan Heller