The Summit 2010, Travelling to Dallas

By Debbie Kerr

I am the Immediate Past President of the chapter. In a draw that the chapter held to see which council member would attend this conference, my name was selected. The last conference did not go well for me -- my appendix ruptured and I spent my time in Las Vegas, the place of the conference, in a hospital room. The standard bon voyage message as I left for the conference had something to do with returning and having all my organs intact.

In an effort to keep costs down, I decided to fly out of Detroit. Although the drive was a long one, the weather was good and I saved about $400 in the process.

While the drive was long, the sleep was limited. I got up at 3:30 am to make sure I caught my 6:45 am plane. The lineups at the airport were like those at Wonderland. I couldn't believe that there would be so many people at the airport at that awful hour. The plane out of Detroit was delayed because of a storm (lightning, high winds, and heavy rains). I was glad that it started before takeoff rather than after. Although there was some turbulence, I arrived in one piece.

My husband came with me on the trip, so in an effort to do something together before all the meetings and education sessions started, we tried out Dallas's transportation system and went to the Dallas Zoo. The zoo in Toronto is a lot bigger, but from the walking we did and the pain in our feet, my husband and I were glad that the zoo wasn't any bigger.

Bedtime was early because, between the 3:30 am start and the amount of walking, we were exhausted. Our last bit of exercise was trying to climb up into bed. The top of the mattresses was about 3 feet off the floor, which meant that neither my husband or I could touch the floor when we were sitting on the mattress.

The Leadership Day started at 7:30 am the next day, so I wanted to be wide awake for the discussions.

Look for my next blog entry about Leadership Day. I am off to my first education session.