Saturday At Centre

Saturday morning found me and Dawn jumping into my ride at 6:45 AM EDT and rolling 85 miles toward the Bluegrass country in central Kentucky and the picturesque town of Danville.

Our destination was the campus of Centre College for the Statewide Fairness Summit. We were going to spend all day at Centre's Young Hall in a classroom with the state's GLBT leaders and some straight allies formulating our political strategy for the next few years.

It was appropriate that we were holding the meeting here. Danville was the cradle of Kentucky's emergence as a state. This used to be the entire western portion of Virginia back during the Revolutionary War period as Kentucky County. Ten constitutional conventions were held in Danville that led to Kentucky becoming a state in 1792.

If Centre College is vaguely ringing a bell in your minds, it's because the vice presidential debate was held here back in 2000. It's a liberal arts college of 1215 students which over the last 50 years has produced two thirds of the Rhodes Scholars from Kentucky. It has also produced 27 Fulbright Scholars over the last 10 years.

Our arrival was slightly humorous. There was an air guitar competition being held nearby and as we parked the car in the lot, the dueling banjos song from the movie Deliverance was blasting over the speakers.

I noted several cars with Texas license plates in the lot, and ironically one of them also had a bumper sticker for Carnegie Vanguard High School. I'm an alum of HISD's Vanguard gifted and talented program, which was housed at my alma mater Jesse Jones HS until it was controversially moved to its own campus in 2001.

We had a facilitated meeting in which we hashed out the initial seeds of the game plan we'll use over the next five years and beyond. We also took steps to exorcise the ghosts of the 2004 Kentucky marriage amendment defeat and have a little fun in the process.

I'm part of one of the working groups that was formed to do more detailed planning concerning one aspect of our plan. There are other leaders from various parts of the state who are part of working groups responsible for formulating other aspects of the plan.

While this was technically a business trip, it's always great to see some old friends in the civil rights community, meet new ones and meet our up and coming youth leaders. Once I get the okay from our communications group to reveal exactly what we were working on this weekend, you TransGriot readers will definitely be kept in the loop and advised what's up.

It was also a pleasure to meet psychology professor Dr. Mykol Thompson and some of our gracious student hosts at Centre. I'm looking forward to seeing them again in the near future.

It was also cool to get gas for $3.49 a gallon.

Tobacco Roading

I just got back into Louisville a few hours ago. Polar and I just completed a 450 mile run down to Charlotte and back to help our friend Joshua move.

I was definitely ready for another road trip, especially after the day from Hades I'd had at work Wednesday.

This one got off to a slightly late start Thursday morning, but it wasn't long before we got Joshua's belongings loaded into the back of Polar's Toyota Matrix, Joshua dropped his key off at the apartment office, said goodbye to a few neighbors and off we rolled off toward the Gene Snyder Freeway (aka I-265) Louisville's outer beltway. The weather was beautiful as we eventually reached I-64 east and pointed the car toward Lexington and rolled past the horse farms in Woodford and Scott counties.

We were having a great time enjoying life on the road again with lots of lively conversation on a wide variety of subjects. However, I was having a hard time getting a word in on this trip because I had two guys dominating it.

We eventually reached the junction of I-75 and I-64 in Lexington one hour later. It overlaps for a few miles before the highways separate and we began our southbound leg on I-75 toward Knoxville and the Great Smoky Mountains. We decided to grab something to eat and refuel in Richmond, KY before resuming our southward run toward the Tennessee-Kentucky border.

Once we got back on the road, other than noticing the fact that gas was significantly cheaper than inside the Louisville city limits, I also noted that despite the fact we were on a major north-south interstate route that terminates in Florida, there wasn't as much traffic on the highway. I also noted that more than a few gas stations at various exits were shuttered.

When we arrived in Knoxville around 3:30 EDT and prepared to enter I-40 east for our run through eastern Tennessee to Asheville, NC, we had to creep past an army of heavy-duty wreckers trying to deal with an 18-wheeler that had broken its axle and flipped over on its side.

We were still making great time as we zipped through eastern Tennessee, passed the exit for Dollywood and Pigeon Forge, Dolly Parton's hometown and got closer to the Smokies, The Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Tennessee-North Carolina border as I-40 wound its way through the Pigeon River valley.

Once you cross the North Carolina state line, you also cross the Eastern Continental Divide at mile marker 22. I-40 as it approaches Asheville also runs very close to the highest peak in North Carolina, Mount Mitchell. It is at 6,684 feet the highest peak east of the Mississippi River and has a state park surrounding it.


By 7:40 PM EDT we were in Gastonia, NC and the Charlotte suburbs after being slowed down for two miles by a paving project on US 321, which is a divided highway that runs between Hickory, NC and Gastonia. It also connects I-40 and I-85 and shaves some time and miles off the run to Charlotte. The nearest north-south interstate that cuts through Charlotte is I-77, but to get to it would mean going to Statesboro where it intersects with I-40, which is way east of Hickory.

A few minutes later we were at Joshua's new digs in an apartment complex two blocks from UNC Charlotte. We spent the next hour getting his stuff unloaded, took him to a nearby store to grab some goodies and for a ride around his new Queen City neighborhood.

Charlotte's called the Queen City because it's named for King George III's German-born wife Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Streilitz and was founded in 1768. Queen Charlotte is also a sistah. She's a direct descendant of Margarita de Castro y Sousa, who is a member of the Black branch of the Portuguese Royal House. Charlotte street signs have a crown on the left hand side of them to reflect the city's nickname.

After we got Joshua safely back to his new crib, we said our goodbyes and headed back toward Gastonia, grabbed some food and hit our hotel room to get some sleep for our return trip.

We didn't get up and hit the road until 10 AM. We'd had some overnight showers in the Charlotte metro area that cleared out into a beautiful and relatively cool day for driving.

But neither one of us were 100 percent. I spent most of the early portion of the drive battling an upset stomach. In the process of moving Joshua into his apartment Polar missed a step while carrying Joshua's TV and aggravated an old knee injury.

I spent most of the day drinking mass quantities of Sprite to settle my stomach while talking politics and a few other subjects with Polar. By the time we stopped for lunch around 1 PM in the Knoxville 'burbs I was starting to feel better. We stopped again at a truck stop near Corbin, KY to refuel and I noted the college kids were starting to roll back to campus.

We finally arrived back in Da Ville around 6 PM. Despite the upset stomach, as always I love doing these road trips. I get to see some great scenery, engage in some thought provoking conversation, and change up my daily routine. It was also neat getting to see another part of the country I haven't visited before.

Hitting The Road Again

In a few hours I'll be hitting the interstates and taking another road trip with Polar. This time I'll be heading to the Tarheel State and the Queen City of Charlotte via eastern Kentucky and Knoxville, TN.

Tell ya'll about my latest road trip and why I'm riding the highways again when I get back.

Pizza Run

Yesterday Polar and I decided we wanted to grab a bite to eat. We were in the mood for pizza, and since both of us were off from work we decided to go run out and get some.

In Indianapolis.

Actually, the reason we bypassed our favorite pizza place in Louisville (Impellizzeri's) and drove 100 miles for it was not just because we had the 'we need a road trip' itch that needed scratching,

It was an opportunity that popped up to meet newlyweds Waymon and Anthony, see Marti again (I haven't seen her in the flesh since the NTAC Lobby Day in DC last year) and congratulate her personally for being elected as a transgender delegate repping Indiana for the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Denver.

I'd also finally get the opportunity to fulfill my promise for a face-to-face meeting with Bil.

After Polar scooped me up at the house and we battled our way through the late afternoon rush hour traffic trying to get across the Kennedy Bridge to the Indiana side of the Ohio River, we stopped in Sellersburg to get gas.

It's cheaper there than it is here in Louisville, a fact that we in Da Ville gripe about every day. There's an investigation under way by Kentucky's state attorney general Jack Conway as to why we in Da Ville are paying far more for reformulated gas than our neighboring cities Indianapolis, Nashville and Cincinatti.

After Polar filled the tank, off we rolled northward up I-65 at a 70 mile per hour clip to our dinner rendezvous. I-65 is a major truck route and we noted the fact that like us, the truckers had pretty much slowed it down to doing speed limits these days and not because the Indiana State Police were busy patrolling the road in both directions.

We were enjoying life on the road again. Enjoying the scenery and seeing the corn grow at various heights as we passed numerous farms and outlet malls. We recounted past roadtrips as the numbers on the green mile markers on the side of the road steadily climbed up and the highway mileage between us and Indianapolis went down. It wasn't long before we reached I-465, the beltway interstate that loops Indy and headed east on it to the Washington Ave exit and our final stop at a pizza place in Irvington.

As we rode I-465 I noticed a gas price of $3.98 as we talked about the efforts of David Letterman fans back in 2002 to name the entire 60 mile I-465 loop for him. I knew from previous trips that I-65 through Indy was named for singer and Indianapolis native Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds and wondered if they were going to name a freeway for another Indy native, Vivica A. Fox. (I love me some Vivica A. Fox)

Polar pointed out the western end of I-465 that runs past the airport and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is named for four time Indy champ (and a fellow Houstonian) AJ Foyt, Jr.

We finally arrived at the pizza place in picturesque Irvington and ran into Marti, who arrived at the same time we did. After we all greeted each other, we were escorted by one of the enthusiastic young servers to the patio area where Bil and the happy couple were waiting for us.

Unfortunately, Jerame wasn't there, but we did spend a wonderful few hours talking shop, plotting the next moves of 'The Gay Agenda', getting to know each other on a personal level, Waymon and I telling a few stories from our airline days, Marti and I talking about some transgender issues, and catching up on the latest political news while Polar broke out his political science degree to pontificate on it.

We also got a good laugh about the latest tired twist to the 'TBP is too Black' spin. The whispers on the GLBT Net now is that the Project is a 'Black gay website'.

All power to GLBT Black people (raising clenched fist in air). Hmm, wish I'd worn my black polo shirt and black beret for the photos now that I've heard that nonsense.

And how was the pizza?

It was great, and so were the people I was eating it with.


Crossposted to The Bilerico Project

Today Was A Good B-Day

I still have a few minutes left in another Cuatro De Mayo celebration, AKA my birthday. As usual its been an interesting weekend.

I was born during the Kennedy Administration at 10:45 PM CDT on this day in H-town's Third Ward. At this point in my life I look at every birthday I reach as the blessing that it is, especially when you factor in that it took me awhile to evolve (and I'm STILL evolving) into the person I am today.

One of the neat things about living in Da Ville is that my birthday falls either just before, on or just after Derby Day. The two week period leading up to the Kentucky Derby is a smorgasbord of events, parties and festivals all leading up to the Derby and Kentucky Oaks. The Oaks is held the day before at Churchill Downs and the races that day including the Oaks have fillies running in them.

When I first moved up here in 2001, my big 4-0 birthday actually fell during Derby 128 in 2002. I still have memorabilia stashed from that one..

Of course, the GLBT community gets in on the fun as well. One of the parties I attended last night was sponsored by our local GLBT civil rights organization, the Fairness Campaign. It's a fundraiser for Fairness and an opportunity for our community to show some love to all the local, state and national political peeps and others who support us. It's also a chance for GLBT friendly celebs who are attending other Derby events around town to interface with their local GLBT fans. And hey, i get to dress up for it as well.

But that party made for a short night. I'd already agreed to roll up to Columbus this morning with Dawn to catch another fencing tournament with her, and we shoved off bright and early up I-71 north at 10 AM EDT to do so. A few hours later we were in Columbus, but not after a little Mapquest drama.

For those of you who Mapquest trips, you're probably aware of the quirks that sometimes pop up that have you taking counterintuitive routes to your destination point. Nine times out of ten it's on target, but every now and then you get one of those head scratching routings

Well, our target destination was a high school in Dublin, OH where the Great Lakes Regional Tournament was being held. We should have been routed off I-71 WESTWARD onto I-270. Instead, it gave us directions a few minutes into it I realized had us going EASTWARD away from Dublin. I ended up catching I-70 west, cutting through downtown Columbus and intersecting I-270 a few moments later and getting Dawn there 35 minutes before check in time at 3 PM EDT.

Well, despite that glitch, I did enjoy the tournament, have a pleasant trip up and back on a beautiful spring day through the Kentucky and Ohio countryside while blasting Janet Jackson's new CD and a host of old school R&B favorites on my system.

I also had the opportunity at various moments during that drive to reflect on some of the blessings I've received this year. Being invited to become a contributing writer to the Project. Speaking at the upcoming inaugural New England Transgender Pride March on June 7. Having people in my life who love and care about me in addition to the calls, e-mails, e-cards and well wishes I received from people who consider me an important part of their lives. I deeply appreciate all the love you've showered on me today.

When I blew out the candles on the cake, one of the things I wished for will hopefully take place on May 20, November 4 and January 20, 2009.

So yeah, today was a good day. And I hope to be blessed with another similar one like it or better 365 days from now.

I'm Going To Denver!

To be precise, I'm going to Boulder, CO and the University of Colorado campus.

This has been an interesting year for me so far, and this morning I received an early birthday present. (BTW, TransGriot readers, my birthday is Sunday)

I received word from the wonderful folks who put on the TRANSforming Gender conference on the CU Boulder campus that yours truly has not only been invited to participate in the 2008 edition of this conference, I'll be the keynote speaker!

The speakers at the two previous conferences CU's GLBT Resource Center and other campus organizations host have included people such as my 2006 Trinity classmate Gordene MacKenzie, Pauline Park, Andrea James, Calpernia Addams, Thea Hillman, Jamison Green, Dean Spade, Anderson Toone, Diane Tor, Avy Skolnick, Helen Boyd, Julia Serano, Matt Kailey and Dylan Scholinski.

The third annual edition of this event will be taking place October 17-19, and as I get more details about it I'll be passing that info on to you. It'll give you peeps who live in the Denver metro area who wish to attend an opportunity to meet the TransGriot. It's been twenty years since I spent July 1988 in the Denver area taking a training class when I worked for CAL, and now it looks like thanks to the Project and CU I'll be back twice in the span of a few weeks.

I'm really excited to be participating in this conference and I'm looking forward to seeing some of you on the CU Boulder campus in October.

An LFC Party At EKU

Once again I found myself behind the wheel driving at warp speed in the direction of Richmond, KY and the EKU campus for the USFA's Kentucky Division Derby Open Sectional tournament

It was being hosted by the Bluegrass Fencers Club once again, but most of the folks taking home medals were from Da Ville and the Louisville Fencing Center. Bluegrass grabbed their share of them as well.

This was a qualifying tournament for the Summer Nationals being held in San Jose, CA July 1-10. Dawn already qualified for that one, so she was competing in this tournament as part of her Summer Nationals training runup. In addition, we were also on the road early because as a dibision officer, she was going to help set up the Weaver Gym for the tournament.

I'd dropped her off at work that morning so I could get the fluids checked out in Wildcat, my nickname for her blue Volvo. After I spent a few hours that morning accomplishing that task, I crawled into bed to get some sleep for the hour run to Richmond, which is just south of Lexington on I-75.

After battling evening rush hour traffic on Shelbyville Rd and Hurstbourne Pkwy to go pick her up, we got rolling around 6:30 PM EDT. I made our obligatory cheap gas shop in Waddy, KY ($3.45) 50 miles east of Da Ville. I was mildly pissed when I arrived in Richmond an hour later and noted it was selling there for $3.39 a gallon.

We arrive at the gym at 8 PM to discover that it was locked, lights dimmed and the fencing strips had already been set up. We werr hungry, so we headed to the hotel on the other side of I-75 near the campus, checked into our rooms and went foraging for food.

In addition to being a nationally ranked Veteran's Division fencer, she's the board secretary for the KY division. There was a division board meeeting scheduled to start after the tournnament was over, so I knew Saturday was going to be a long day. After watching the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica while she got in contact with fellow board members to talk business, I crashed.

The next morning we're there at Weaver Gym bright and early. She was helping check in contestants for the epee competition since sabre wasn't starting until 11 AM. I grabbed a notepad and started jotting down some notes and ideas for future posts and reviewed my speech once again for the upcoming Trans Pride march while I waited for her competition to start. Her training partner Johann Gorr arrived a few minutes before the check in deadline for the sabre competiton.

As I've mentioned before, Dawn is no joke in the fencing community. She's ranked tenth in the nation and has been a a hot streak lately. She just finished winning the Knight of Swords club championship tourney, and after going through her pool boots at the Derby Open ended up seeded number two and with a first round bye because she lost to Johann in pools.

They did meet again in the champiuonship match, but only after Dawn survived a stiff challenge from a brother fencer and med student fencing for UK. Frederick had beaten her in a previous tournament and gave her all she wanted in this match. She eventually pulled out 15-13 after switching tactics on him and getting three straight touches to close it out.

Dawn and Johann's match looked like a Johann blowout at first. He was up 8-3 at the break and eventually galloped out to an 11-5 lead before Dawn started a finishing spurt that almost garnered her the victory. She closed to 12-10 before Johann regained his composure and won 15-10. She did finish first in Women's sabre and second overall in the Derby Open sabre competition.

The LFC fencers cleaned up at this tournament along with their hosts from Bluegrass Fencers Club. Some of the UK fencers also qualified for Summer Nationals as well. We also saw the emergence of another Kiefer family fencer, Alexandra and Lee's little brother. He's already a medal winning terror and he's just 13.

She's has another tournament she's competing in at LFC this coming weekend, and I'll probably be there for that one as well.

Gone Fencing

I'm not, but Dawn is.

Dawn's fencing in a sectional tournament that starts tomorrow in Richmond, KY on the Eastern Kentucky University campus. She wants me to tag along, it's time for another road trip, so I'll tell y'all how she did when I get back.

Escape From Louisville

TransGriot Note: This was originally posted to the Bilerico Project. Photo from the Courier-Journal

As many of you who've been monitoring the progress of the winter storm that's been shellacking the Ohio River Valley this weekend know, Louisville got whacked with a foot of snow.

But yours truly wasn't here to watch all the fun. I took a road trip to Chicago.

Actually, there was a reason for my seeming madness. I hit the road with Dawn Wilson early Friday morning to watch her fence in the North American Cup tournament in Chicago. Dawn is a competitive fencer and has been doing it for four years. She knows I love a good road trip, so I tag along to watch her when my schedule allows.

Dawn's no slouch as a saber fencer. In Vet 40 she was ranked number 16 in the nation and 24th in the combined rankings before we hit I-65 north for this event . She was eager to continue her push to the top of the Veteran's rankings in this tournament being held at the Rosemont Convention Center.

I had to work until 7 AM EST, so when my shift was mercifully over I headed straight home to finish packing. As I was driving hone from the airport area the first flurries were starting. By the time I'd gotten home, packed and put my bags in the car those flurries had rapidly changed into large, wet flakes.

Dawn was on her computer getting directions to our hotel in Rosemont. Usually she's badgering me to get moving because I'm the slowpoke when it comes to starting our road trips in a timely manner. This time she was the one holding up progress. I looked out the living room window at 8 AM and noticed the two inches of accumulated snow on my car. I'd only had it parked in the driveway for 20 minutes, so I knew we had to get moving soon or else we risked getting trapped in town.

We finally got moving northward ten minutes later and were dogged by snow and high winds all the way to Indianapolis. (sorry Bil, we'll catch ya next time). Once we got to the northwest side of Indy we broke into brilliant sunshine for the rest of our 165 mile run to Chicagoland through the picturesque northwest Indiana farm country. We arrived in Chicago about 1 PM CST and got her fencing equipment inspected after checking into our hotel which was right across the street from the venue .

After we finished, we walked around the center and ran into her LFC teammate Lou Felty and a few of Dawn's Vet 40 fencing buddies. They discussed the 'Baby Vets' nickname some of the Vet 50 fencers jokingly gave them. You have to be 40 to compete in the Veterans division and some of them just recently passed that milestone birthday.

But many of these Vet 50's aren't laughing tonight. A 'Baby Vet' won it, and Dawn and the rest of the 'Baby Vets' served notice with the beatdowns they adminstered that they were forces to be reckoned with in the Veterans Women's Saber Division.

Dawn and the 'Baby Vets' are part of the over 90,000 people in the United States that participate in this fast-paced Olympic sport. They range in age from 12 to 70 and some of those participants are also GLBT people as well. Even though I'm not a fencer, since I'm an FOD (friend of Dawn's) and have been to numerous tournaments with her, they show me just as much love as they show her in the fencing world.

Dawn's competition started at 7 AM CST this morning, so I decided to stay in bed for an extra two hours before checking out of our room since I'd been up a grand total of 32 hours since Thursday.

I woke up to Chicago being dusted with 2 inches of snow. By the time I sauntered over to the convention center, her pool bouts were over. She'd gone 5-1 in her pool and received a bye into the direct eliminations. She got through her first two DE matches before losing her third one 10-5 and missing out on a medal. After hanging around to watch the gold medal match and the medal ceremony, we headed back to Louisville.

Once again, just as we did on the trip up, we ran in and out of snow all the way to Indy, then had a clean 100 mile run to Louisville. Fortunately our driveway had been cleared when we arrived home at 7 PM EST since we weren't looking forward to shovelling 12 inches of show.

What Dawn is looking forward to is an upcoming July trip to San Jose, CA for the Summer Nationals. I'm just looking forward to the next time I get to hit the road.

Road Warriors

TransGriot Note: The interstate highway pictures are from AAroads.com

The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, aka the Interstate highway system, is comprised of 46,837 miles (75,376 km for you international readers) of limited access high speed divided highways and freeways.

The 50th anniversary of the creation of it was celebrated in 2006. Believe it or not, even Hawaii has interstate highways. They're on the island of Oahu, go from Honolulu to military bases on different parts of the island and are numbered H1, H2 and H3.

It seems like I've traveled on half of it for various reasons at different times in my life.

A few months ago when Dawn, AC and I traveled to Chicago for the Remenyck Open fencing tournament she was competing in, on the way up there I remarked that this was the first opportunity for me to travel on I-65 north of Indianapolis. That triggered a discussion into how much of the interstate system that each of us has traveled over our lives.

A lot of it.

Dawn and AC's interstate travels have been concentrated in the Midwest, the South and Northeastern US. In my case, much of my interstate highway travel has been concentrated in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. Since moving here I've been driving a lot of Midwest and Southeast interstates as well as the interstates that traverse Kentucky and the Louisville area. I've driven across West Virginia a few times en route to DC from here. I've also gotten to travel interstate highways in other states like Florida, California, Oregon and Colorado, the New York-New Jersey corridor, the Los Angeles area, Chicago and the Washington DC area thanks to my time in the airline industry.

When I thought about it, I've done so many road trips that on I-10 for example, which is a transcontinental route, the only section of it I haven't traveled is from the I-59, I-12, I-10 junction near Slidell, LA to its terminus in Jacksonville, FL. On I-65, which runs through Louisville, the only section of it I haven't traveled is from Birmingham, AL to Mobile.

And what are my favorite interstate trips or scenic drives along interstates?

I've mentioned I love the Atchafalaya swamp along I-10 between Lafayette and Baton Rouge. I was visiting a friend in Portland, OR a few years ago. We piled into her car and took a 40 mile ride east to Multnomah Falls and the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. We had a beautifully scenic drive down I-84 and the Columbia River Gorge that forms part of the border between Washington and Oregon and I-84 runs parallel to the river. Michelle and I were going to do a run up I-5 to Seattle on a subsequent trip I took up there but it didn't happen.

I like I-10 in terms of the contrasts in scenery. You get everything from the cities of Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Antonio, Houston and New Orleans to the varied topography you'll traverse. You'll see the deserts of California, Arizona, New Mexico and west Texas, cross the Continental Divide in New Mexico, traverse the Edwards Plateau and the limestone cuts of west and central Texas to the Gulf coastal plain and the Atchafalaya swamp in Louisiana. It even runs less than a mile parallel to the Rio Grande for about 100 miles, a fact I discovered during my 1988 trip to help my mom's friend Ms. Helene move.

After we zipped past two Mexicans trying to hitchhike early into our long eastbound run toward Houston we encountered the mandatory US Border Patrol checkpoint near Sierra Blanca, TX for all vehicles before I-10 turns toward the West Texas interior. There's a similar one west of Las Cruces, NM for I-10 westbound motorists and another one north of Las Cruces on I-25.

So for you GOP peeps flapping your gums about border security, Border Patrol was (and still is) handling their business. So chill with the racist rhetoric about it.

I-5 southbound once you get out of The Grapevine at night gives you a spectacular view of the LA basin in all its lit up glory. The same is true when you're descending out of the Rockies toward Denver and the Great Plains. I love I-24 in Tennessee as it descends out of the Monteagle area and winds its way around Lookout Mountain as it approaches Chattanooga.

One of the things that we talked about as well is that we felt sorry for the kids that are having to grow up with the reality of $3 a gallon gas. We all talked about the joys of hopping in our cars at various times, filling up the tank and just driving somewhere.

For me, it may have been a stretch of beach on Galveston Island, a two and a half hour hour run to San Antonio, or a five hour trip to New Orleans. There was another memorable trip I took to Fort Worth in 1982 with my godbrother Brent to visit his girlfriend who was attending school at TCU. AC talked about the drives he made from Louisville down I-65 to the Florida panhandle beaches, his journey to Boston to check out a Red Sox game, the trip to the IFGE convention in Toronto and his adventures when he lived in the Dallas area for a while.

The interstate highway system, in addition to being one of the largest public works project every attempted and completed(?), has impacted American lives in subtle and not so subtle ways. Note all the truck traffic the next time you're on a freeway as a prominent example of it. One of the other ways it impacted our lives is that it cut travel time to various cities in this country to hours instead of days.

Every summer during my teen years we used to drive seven hours from Houston to Jackson, MS to visit my great grandmother. Imagine how long that would have took in the days before interstate highways. And I can't tell you how many times I've hopped interstates to go to ball games, various events, conventions, do lobby trips or just give myself a change of scenery.

I'm looking forward to the next time I jump on an interstate and head somewhere. And it's no surprise that one of the things I have on my travel to do list is drive on Interstates H1, H2 and H3.

Back To Da Ville

Nashville, that is.

Heading down there again for the day to hang out with my peeps and talk 'bidness'.

Tell y'all about it when I get back.

Gold and Bronze

Gold and Bronze.

Those were the medals Dawn ended up wearing around her neck as the champion of the Women's Sabre division in the 2007 Cumberland Open.

This tourney is sponsored by the Vanderbilt University Fencing Club, one of many NCAA colleges who offer fencing either as a full fledged scholarship sport or a club sport. Since 1990 the NCAA has conducted a championship tournament for the schools that have fencing programs with Penn State winning their tenth team title last spring.

This was an open tournament, which means that women and men compete with each other under USFC regulations from ages 13 and up in the various disciplines (foil, epee and sabre). You also have people ranging from unranked novices to veteran's division fencers. Since the men tend to dominate these open events, the top three women's finshers get medals as well. That's how Dawn ended up with two medals.

Since Dawn just passed her milestone birthday, she's now old enough to participate in the USFA Veterans Division. She's already run into various veteran fencers at different tournaments over the last four years and they are looking forward to having her at some of their events. She's already looking forward to competing in her first Veterans competition on December 7 in Richmond, VA.

But back to the trip. Since I'm the night owl, I was going to be doing the driving on this one. On some of the trips I've taken with AC and Dawn I've been the passenger because they love and either currently own or in the past have owned cars with stick shifts. I'm an automatic kind of girl and despise driving a stick. They've been trying to teach me with limited success how to drive a stick since I've driven or ridden as much of the US interstate highway system as they have.

I was loving the fact that they just jacked the speed limit in Kentucky to 70 MPH to match all of the surrounding states in July. The other thing they did that month was name I-65 in Jefferson County the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Expressway from the Indiana-Kentucky line to the Bullitt county line. From that point to the Tennessee state line, since I-65 passes near Lincoln's birthplace in LaRue County, it's designated the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Expressway in honor of the bicentennial of his birth next year. Signs designating it are posted at the county lines along I-65 in Bullitt, Hardin, LaRue, Hart, Barren, Edmonson, Warren and Simpson counties

We shoved off at 5 AM EDT and made a gas stop in Shepherdsville, KY near one of my fave places, the Zappos.com Shoe warehouse. I inherited my mom's shoe gene and love my heels. Once I topped off the tank, I was determined to not stop until we got to Bowling Green, KY which would put us about 30 miles from the Tennessee-Kentucky border.

Interestingly enough Louisville and most of Kentucky is in the Eastern time zone while western Kentucky is on Central Time. You end up in the Central time zone once you cross over into Hart County on the southern half of I-65 near the Mammoth Cave area.

It's a beautiful stretch of highway, but I wasn't going to see it because we were still traveling in darkness. My major concerns were getting Dawn to the Student Rec Center on Vandy's campus before the 8:45 AM CDT start time of the sabre portion of the tournament and not hitting any deer.

AC still has bitter memories of a 2002 deer strike on I-77 south near Weston, WV that totalled a Grand Am he'd spent several months restoring. When we go to Washington DC either me or Dawn drives that winding stretch of interstate between Charleston and Morgantown and he will not drive that stretch at night.

Speaking of AC, he wasn't along for the ride on this one. He and his wife are headed west on I-70 as I write this to Lawrence, KS to see Susan's (I kid you not) 80 year old Aunt Dorothy. And no, her Aunt Dorothy doesn't have a dog named Toto.

I was feeling good and still wide awake when we passed the Corvette Museum on the outskirts of Bowling Green and decided to in the words of Curtis Mayfield, to keep on pushing until we got to Nashville, which is only 30 miles from the Tennessee-Kentucky border in central Tennessee.

After running the 55 MPH construction gauntlet in Simpson County for a few miles I found myself clear of it and on a freshly opened reconstructed stretch of six lane highway at mile marker 4 that continued to the Tennessee side. The I-65 construction was also done on the Tennessee side to my relief as well.

A few minutes later the towers of downtown Nashville were looming in the distance. One of the confusing parts of travel for peeps who drive the interstate highways intersecting in Nashville (I-24, I-40 and I-65) is that there's a inner loop around the downtown area that is multiplexed. If you're coming from Louisville like we are, for two miles you're on I-24/65 and there's a split that will take you either to I-24/40 or I-65/40 west. To get to Vandy I had to take I-65/40 west. After you cross the Cumberland River on that section there's another split that takes you to the westbound portion of I-40 and Memphis and you find yourself immediately after that split on I-65/40 EAST. I've done it numerous times since I've moved here so I'm used to it, but it did trip up a few peeps on the way to the Vanderbilt campus.


We finally arrived at Vanderbilt after grabbing breakfast near the campus on West End Blvd. We were parked and waiting at 7:40 AM CDT along with several fencers for the student staff and the VUFC members to arrive to open the facility.

The sabre portion of the 2007 Cumberland Open started with 17 competitors at 9:15 AM. I knew this trip was going to be different from the Chicago one. She went up against the VUFC club champ Chris Cheney and gave him a battle before losing a tight match 5-4. She ended up 3-2 in her pool and when the DE rankings and direct elimination brackets were posted a few minutes later Dawn was in the top 5.

She blew through her first two DE matches 15-0 and 15-6 before her rematch in the semifinals with VUFC's Travis Reece. Reece was in her pool and she lost another tough 5-4 match with him. Reece was also the runner-up to Chris Cheney in the VUFC club championship.

Dawn was beating him until disaster struck. While contesting a point she had guard to guard contact hard enough to jam and temporarily dislocate her wrist. She popped it back in place and was eligible for a ten minute injury time out to get it iced and wrapped. But after six minutes she notified the official (called directors in fencing parlance) that she was ready to continue. She scored the next three points in rapid succession to take an 11-7 lead but ended up losing the semifinal match 15-12.

Because fencer Linda Dunn of Indianapolis was beaten by Chris Cheney in her second DE match, Dawn ended up with the women's gold medal. I jokingly call Linda an unofficial LFC member even though she fences for Indysabre. We see Linda at a lot of Great Lakes region and Kentucky Division events. Linda is also an accomplished professional writer.

Dawn took the bronze medal by finishing third overall in this tournament. There was other good news for her as well. Because of her deep run in this tournament, she is now an E ranked fencer. Had she beaten Travis Reece she would have walked out of this tournament with a D rating.

The injury also impacted my plans for the return trip home. I work third shift, so I was way past my bedtime and wanted to get a nap in. There was no way I was letting her drive with a bandaged hand so I had to drive us back home. Sleep was going to have to wait until we got back to Da Ville. After watching the championship sabre bout (congrats to Chris Cheney), the medal ceremony and refueling the ride, I drained two Vaults to give me enough of a caffeine buzz for the return trip north on this crystal clear 65 degree fall afternoon.

We started rolling about 1 PM CDT Nashville time. The way Dawn was feeling she could've floated back to Louisville. My homegirl was a happy camper with two medals around her neck. As I enjoyed the fall color and concentrated on the road Dawn picked up her cell phone and excitedly recounted her triumphant experience in Nashville to Maestro Stawicki and her LFC teammates. (head coaches of fencing programs are sometimes called maestros). We got back home a little after 4 PM EDT and I trudged straight up to my room for a long nap after offloading Dawn's gear and bringing it in the house.

My mission was accomplished as well. I got myself and the wounded sabre warrior home in one piece. Look out vets, she's coming to a sabre strip near you.

The Road To Nashville

Hey TransGriot readers!

Hitting the road at 5 AM EDT to watch Dawn fence in the Cumberland Open fencing tournament on the Vanderbilt University campus.



Tell y'all about my latest adventure when I return to Da Ville

The Chicago Trip

Hey TransGriot readers,
Finally woke up after getting into Louisville at 2 AM EDT from our trip to Chicago for the Remenyck Open fencing tournament. To be precise, we were in Evanston, IL on the picturesque Northwestern University campus.

AC, Dawn amd I were in a familiar position. We're climbing into some kind of vehicle and about to roll on an interstate highway. With the tune of the Blues Brothers version of Sweet Home Chicago dancing in my head, we shoved off at 8:15 AM EDT and headed north on I-65 for the 5 hour trip to Chicago.

The picturesque section of I-65 between Louisville and Indy I've done numerous times since I've moved up here and I love the scenery. For you shoppers, there are outlet malls on this stretch as well. I've even been to the IU-Bloomington campus, but this was the first time I was going to be travelling the section between Indianapolis and Chicago and I was excited about it. I have relatives in Gary and Chicago as well, but since the purpose of this day trip was to be part of Dawn's cheering section, I wasn't going to have enough time to visit them.

I also contacted blogger Jackie to let her know I was going to be in town, but her mom's been ill and she's been spending long hours visiting her at the hospital. Give your mom a hug for me and let her know I'll be saying a prayer or two for her to get well soon. ;)

We were originally planning on driving through Circle City, but after getting within range of the Indy metro area and discovering there was going to be construction on the Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds Highway, (yes peeps, in 1999 the 25 miles of I-65 through Indy was named for the Indianapolis native) we decided to hit the I-465 loop around the west side of Indy past the airport and pick up I-65 on the northwest side of town.

By the way, Vivica A. Fox is from Indy as well. What freeway are y'all gonna name for her? There's also a push by David Letterman fans to get the entire 60 mile I-465 loop officially named for him as well. The freeway is unofficially called by people in Indy the DLX or the David Letterman Bypass.

After a stop in West Lafayette, IN for breakfast, we resumed rolling toward Chicagoland through the flat plains of northwest Indiana and the farms dotting the landscape for miles. We jetted through the Merrillville suburbs and past the industrial blue-collar grit of Gary and Hammond to eventually cross over into Illinois via the Chicago Skyway.

We were within a few minutes of our final destination when we ran into (what else) bumper-to-bumper downtown area traffic on the Dan Ryan Expressway. I call it from my numerous visits to Chicago the 'Damned Ryan'. We shifted gears and decided to get off the Dan Ryan and use Lake Shore Drive to get to the NU campus. This was also my first visit in the Chicago area since 1989, and as I stared out the window on a cloud-free and sunny 72 degree fall day I marveled at all the changes in Chicago since my last visit.

Eventually we arrived at the SPAC, as NU students refer to the Henry Crown Sports Pavilion around 1:15 PM Chicago time. AC and I had another solemn duty to perform before we could sit back and watch Dawn fence, so as she grabbed her equipment out of the hatch and hustled inside to check in for the tournament, we took off to perform that task.

Before AC's parents died, they expressed their wishes to be cremated and have their ashes scattered over Lake Michigan in Chicago, the city where his parents met. After saying a prayer and fulfilling that last request we headed back to the SPAC to take in some fencing action.

Dawn was warming up with her old LFC fencing partner Victoria Harris, AKA 'The Shark' when we returned. Tori's called 'The Shark' by her former LFC teammates because of her sly, toothy smile and her aggressive attacking fencing style that belies her diminutive size and shy personality. Tori and her parents moved to Chicago a few months ago and she was thrilled to see Dawn and a few of her old LFC teammates at this tournament.

Dawn went 2-3 in her pool matches and advanced into the Direct Eliminations, but lost a close 15-13 decision to eliminate her from the tournament. After hanging around to watch the finals, we rolled into a Giordano's in Morton Grove to grab some deep dish pizza and buy one to take back to Da Ville.

On our way to the Tri-State Tollway, we rolled through a section of Hillary Clinton's hometown of Park Ridge. That triggered a lengthy political discussion amongst us as we entered the Tri-State and began the journey home.

Hey, that's what happens when two of your best friends have political science degrees. ;)

While AC and I were disappointed for her that she didn't advance further into this tournament, she told us on the way back that she had fun and was actually pleased with her performance. She pointed out this was an 'A' rated tournament, that she won two matches in pools and lost the other three by 5-4 scores. Her ultimate goal was being ready for her first veterans division fencing tournament coming up in Richmond, VA on December 7.

She's recovering nicely from the ankle injury she sustained at last year's Nationals in Memphis and is counting the days until she steps on the fencing strip again. I'm just looking forward to the next time I can ride the interstates with my road dawgs.

Goin' To Chicago

Hey TransGriot readers,
Goin' to Chicago for the day to watch Dawn fence in a major tournament up there. Will tell y'all about it when I return.

I'll save some deep dish pizza for ya. ;)

A View To A Protest

Got back a few hours ago from my business ttip to Washington DC protesting the HRC national dinner.

These are Vanessa Edwards Foster's observations of the HRC protest.

I've been an activist for a long time, but believe it or not that was my first protest.



I left The Ville with AC at 6 AM and literally got dropped off on the steps of the convention center at 4 PM wih signs in hand while AC parked the car. We spent the next three and a half hours engaging HRC dinner attendees, various citizens, and attendees of other conventions talking place the same day at the convention center.

I spent most of the protest laying out the history to young transgender people, curious convention center employees, passerbys and explaining why we were there. I pointed out that the battle over HR 2015 is not just a transgender issue. I gave numerous examples of why it was important to have 'gender identity' in ENDA.

Without 'gender identity' in ENDA, it's a worthless piece of paper. Lambda Legal has said as much. Frank's Folly (HR 3685) not only doesn't cover us, it won't cover 90% of the GLB population or straight people. We all know women who have masculine body builds and upper lips they have to ruthlessly wax and shave and uncles who are slight of build and femme looking.

I also threw an occasional sarcastic comment or two into the chant mix.

I had a wonderful conversation with James, a gay man who exemplifies HRC's dilemma. Basically the young GLB people have interacted with transgender people their whole lives. The problem is the Mattachine gays who run HRC right now disproportionately come from my generation and hate transpeople.

I enjoyed the conversations I had with straight folks as well. Some absolutely get it. It's too bad that some of the peeps inside the Washington Convention Center that night and a purple congressman from Massachusetts don't.

On The Road Again

Well peeps, in less than 12 hours I'll be rolling toward our nation's capital to lobby in favor of ENDA and hate crimes.

So why am I taking a few days out of my schedule to lobby for these bills? Well, one of my guiding principles is to leave the world in a better position than when I arrived on the scene. I want the transkids who are now six and seven years old to have it better than we did. I don't want them having to wade through all the intolerance, ignorance and bull that we've have to endure. It's up to my generation to make sure that happens.

To borrow Dr. King's eloquent words, I want them to be judged on the content of their character. I want them to be able to achieve their dreams. I don't want them to be afraid to dream or live their lives like I was because I was fearful of what would happen if my gender issues were discovered. I want them to be able to contribute to American society without facing the resistance and limits that we've struggled to overcome. It's also another way I use my talents to give back and help build the community.

As much as I'm eagerly looking forward to lobbying on a Capitol Hill in which the Democrats are in control, it's the road trip I'm really psyched for. I've always liked road trips as I've stated on numerous occasions. In addition I relish the opportunity to see some old friends from around the nation and meet some new ones.

II think every American needs to get to Washington D.C. at least once in their lifetime. You need to see for yourselves how the legislative process works. There's nothing like being in DC and sitting in a hearing or a House or Senate session, watching the debates or talking to your congreessmember or senator. I've done that at the state and city council level but I really need to try to do it for the federal government level as well.

If I get access to a computer I'll try to update the blog and report to you TransGriot readers what's happening during Transgender Lobby Week. I'll be putting on my journalist cap and conducting a few interviews while I'm there as well.

Now I need to finish washing this last load of clothes and get some sleep. Got a long drive ahead of me.