Saturday 10-14-06
Jimmy gets up at some god-awful hour ... I sleep in ... a luxurious bed that I want to pack in my suitcase and take home!
Jimmy gets back around 11 am and I have been sitting in our room ... enjoying the view of downtown Austin from our 6th floor corner window reading my book and enjoying a cup of coffee. Ain't life grand!
Jimmy hops in the shower, changes and we head up to the 17th floor where the autograph/photography session is being held. Depending on the amount of your donation, depending on what "jersey" you were ... Green Jersey was $15,000 and entitled you to 1 item autographed. Polka-Dot Jersey (us) was $20,000 and entitled you to 3 items to be autographed, plus you could bring a guest for the photographs. I got to go along with Jimmy and meet Lance ... OMG ... He is the nicest, greatest and gorgeous man I have ever met ... well besides Jimmy .. Jimmy got our book signed that Lance wrote in conjunction with photographer Graham Watson ...
Pssst --- Doesn't Jimmy look like he could be Lance's older brother ??? ..
along with Jimmy's Discovery jersey that Jimmy had other Discovery riders sign last year at the 2005 Tour de Georgia ... and the banner that Katelyn Lau painted(Jeff's daughter) painted that we have at all of our functions for people to sign. One side is LIVING STRONG with survivor's names and the other side is IN MEMORY where we have the names of our friends & loved ones who have lost the fight against cancer. Even though it was only a couple minutes, it was so nice to meet Lance and get to talk to him. He really liked the banner and if we had more time, it would have been cool to open it up for him to see the entire thing ... it's 5 feet tall by 16 feet wide (and took up most of our 1 suitcase).
When our time was up ... we headed downstairs to our room, dropped off the autographed items and headed across the street to Bennegan's for a late lunch. We sat and enjoyed watching Wisconsin kick the hell out of Minnesota (48-12) ... of course later that night, Michigan beat us (PSU) for the 8th straight time in a row 17-10 ... but that is another story.
After lunch we headed back to the room and took a snooze while Purdue beat Northwestern on the TV.
At 6 pm we got up, showered, changed and headed down for the banquet. Now Jimmy told me it was casual ... but there were some very fancy dressed women and I looked like a real schlub. Guys don't get how important it is to know the dress attire for a function. Next year ... I'll be ready and decked out in all my new finery ...
We mingled and met some great people and shared fund raising ideas. The buffet was set up and we were asked to go in and get our seats. We were 2 tables away from Lance's and in direct line with the stage, so I got some great pics. Dinner was delicious and soon the program was underway. So many moving stories and the 10 fund raisers were recognized and able to speak for a few minutes. The most touching story/speech is about John O'Toole who Jimmy met at the Philly ride. John has had 3 brain operations with the last operation leaving him paralyzed on the left side. He rode in the Philly ride with his 2 sisters running along side him holding him up. He rode 8 miles that way. His wife is due with their 3rd child. His oldest child is 5 years old and John talked about how his son was so excited for Halloween and wanting to be Spiderman or Batman. John said he hoped when his son got older, he would think that his dad was a hero. John also said he hoped he would be here for Christmas. Lance got very choked up and said that John will be here for many Christmas's and for his son's college graduation and his daughter's wedding. Let me tell ya .. NOT A DRY EYE IN THE PLACE after that story. Whew ... Let me get a puff's ... PS -- Jake Gyllenhall was there too ...
After the program is over, we make our way over to talk some more to John and get to meet his lovely wife ...
Okay ... so after dinner ... it was about 10:30 pm ... we headed up to our room and got a great night sleep ... little did we know that was going to be the last great night of sleep we would have for many, many days...
Jimmy gets up at some god-awful hour ... I sleep in ... a luxurious bed that I want to pack in my suitcase and take home!
Jimmy gets back around 11 am and I have been sitting in our room ... enjoying the view of downtown Austin from our 6th floor corner window reading my book and enjoying a cup of coffee. Ain't life grand!
Jimmy hops in the shower, changes and we head up to the 17th floor where the autograph/photography session is being held. Depending on the amount of your donation, depending on what "jersey" you were ... Green Jersey was $15,000 and entitled you to 1 item autographed. Polka-Dot Jersey (us) was $20,000 and entitled you to 3 items to be autographed, plus you could bring a guest for the photographs. I got to go along with Jimmy and meet Lance ... OMG ... He is the nicest, greatest and gorgeous man I have ever met ... well besides Jimmy .. Jimmy got our book signed that Lance wrote in conjunction with photographer Graham Watson ...
Pssst --- Doesn't Jimmy look like he could be Lance's older brother ??? ..
along with Jimmy's Discovery jersey that Jimmy had other Discovery riders sign last year at the 2005 Tour de Georgia ... and the banner that Katelyn Lau painted(Jeff's daughter) painted that we have at all of our functions for people to sign. One side is LIVING STRONG with survivor's names and the other side is IN MEMORY where we have the names of our friends & loved ones who have lost the fight against cancer. Even though it was only a couple minutes, it was so nice to meet Lance and get to talk to him. He really liked the banner and if we had more time, it would have been cool to open it up for him to see the entire thing ... it's 5 feet tall by 16 feet wide (and took up most of our 1 suitcase).
When our time was up ... we headed downstairs to our room, dropped off the autographed items and headed across the street to Bennegan's for a late lunch. We sat and enjoyed watching Wisconsin kick the hell out of Minnesota (48-12) ... of course later that night, Michigan beat us (PSU) for the 8th straight time in a row 17-10 ... but that is another story.
After lunch we headed back to the room and took a snooze while Purdue beat Northwestern on the TV.
At 6 pm we got up, showered, changed and headed down for the banquet. Now Jimmy told me it was casual ... but there were some very fancy dressed women and I looked like a real schlub. Guys don't get how important it is to know the dress attire for a function. Next year ... I'll be ready and decked out in all my new finery ...
We mingled and met some great people and shared fund raising ideas. The buffet was set up and we were asked to go in and get our seats. We were 2 tables away from Lance's and in direct line with the stage, so I got some great pics. Dinner was delicious and soon the program was underway. So many moving stories and the 10 fund raisers were recognized and able to speak for a few minutes. The most touching story/speech is about John O'Toole who Jimmy met at the Philly ride. John has had 3 brain operations with the last operation leaving him paralyzed on the left side. He rode in the Philly ride with his 2 sisters running along side him holding him up. He rode 8 miles that way. His wife is due with their 3rd child. His oldest child is 5 years old and John talked about how his son was so excited for Halloween and wanting to be Spiderman or Batman. John said he hoped when his son got older, he would think that his dad was a hero. John also said he hoped he would be here for Christmas. Lance got very choked up and said that John will be here for many Christmas's and for his son's college graduation and his daughter's wedding. Let me tell ya .. NOT A DRY EYE IN THE PLACE after that story. Whew ... Let me get a puff's ... PS -- Jake Gyllenhall was there too ...
After the program is over, we make our way over to talk some more to John and get to meet his lovely wife ...
Okay ... so after dinner ... it was about 10:30 pm ... we headed up to our room and got a great night sleep ... little did we know that was going to be the last great night of sleep we would have for many, many days...
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