Miss Y'all Too Kentucky Division

The Super Youth Regional fencing tournament started yesterday at the Executive Hotel and Suites and is going on in Louisville this weekend through the 30th.

For a moment it looked like I might get the opportunity to fly up there and once again be the announcer for that event.  But alas, it didn't work out for me this time.

Dawn did call me last night with her latest Louisville update and what's transpiring in her life as well.   We're still tight even though I don't get to spend as much time with her (and Polar) as I used to.

Dawn is working the SYC, and one of the first questions from many of the participants that arrived to check in and participate in the various events was "Where's Monica?" 

It seems that my statuesque presence was missed, especially by the people of LFC, Bluegrass FC,  Indy Sabre, Knight of Swords and the Kentucky Division of USFA.   That made me tear up a little hearing that news.  

It may sound corny , but one of my goals in anything I participate in is to represent myself and my community with dignity and class, do the best job I can while I'm involved with it and leave it in better shape than when I found it. 

Guess I made more of a positive impact on people in the fencing community than I thought.  

On that note, have a wonderful and successful; SYC tournament.   I miss being the announcer for that event and had a lot of fun doing it.

And I miss you too Kentucky Division.



 

Good Luck At Summer Nationals, Dawn!

My sis in Da Ville shot me a message stating that she was leaving Louisville later tonight to take part in the 2010 USFA Summer Nationals Championships fencing tournament in Atlanta.

It started fittingly on July 4 and will be running through July 13 at the Georgia World Congress Center

She's currently ranked number 6 in the nation amongst the 'Baby Vets' in Veterans 40's women's saber. In the veterans combined saber rankings, which ranks the Vet 40's and the Vet 50's 'Senior Mamas' together, she is number 9 in the nation.

There is also a Vet 60's and Vet 70's women's saber division in which my Da Ville friend Lou Felty is tied for the Number 1 ranking.

Dawn's competing on Thursday and Sunday in women's saber, so if you're in the Atlanta area and curious to see what a fencing match looks like, hop on the MARTA and roll by the Georgia World Congress Center.

You can cheer for her and the rest of the 'Baby Vets' and 'Senior Mama's'.

Good luck sis!

Dawn's Headed To Cleveland

Dawn's fencing in a tournament that's taking place in Cleveland, but I won't be making the drive up there with her. The saber part of the competition starts at 1 PM Sunday, and I promised my pastor Rev. Sally McClain I'd be the worship leader for our services this weekend and next.

It's one I'm a little disappointed about because it would have been one of the last times I got to do a long distance drive with my homegirl and watch her fence for a while.

But I gave my word to Rev Sally I'd do it, and that's the end of the discussion. Edenside is where I'll be this Sunday morning and the next one.

Back to the discussion at hand.

In Dawn's last tournament in Dallas she finished in the Top 8. She's looking forward to this NAC event and changing the color of her medals to a gold silver or bronze one.

Best of luck sis, and sorry I'm going to have to miss it.

Dawn's Heading To Pittsburgh

Dawn's bouncing out of the house in a few hours and driving the six hours to Pittsburgh from Da Ville in order to participate in a USFA fencing tournament in the Steel City.

'Season's Beatings' will definitely be the order of the day as the 'Baby Vets' and 'Senior Mamas' face off in the women's saber event at the NAC-C Veteran's Tournament December 4-6.

The online trash talking has already commenced between the 'Baby Vets' and 'Senior Mamas' on Facebook and between each other.

Too bad I can't go watch the fun this time. Oh well, maybe the Dallas NAC will be doable.

Good luck sis in the tournament. As always, much success, represent and have a safe trip up and back

Dawn Does Dallas

Actually, Dawn is headed to the Dallas suburb of Grapevine, TX for the US Summer Nationals fencing tournament. She bounced out of the house about an hour ago enroute to the airport and will be winging off to DFW shortly.

She finished third in last year's Women's 40's Summer Nationals saber competition held in San Jose, CA. This time she's aiming to slash and parry her way through the Baby Vets to the top step of the victory platform.

In addition to her desire to win it all, she's still fighting to hold her spot on the USA Women's 40's saber team that is slated to go to Sydney, Australia for a Down Under world championship fencing tournament scheduled to take place in October.

So good luck sis, and hope you bring another medal or two back from my home state with you.

Dawn's Fencing In The A-T-L

Dawn bounced down to Atlanta with Polar for a veterans tournament that will be taking place in a few hours at the Georgia World Congress Center. Normally I'd be along for the ride since y'all know I like road trips, but had to work yesterday.

She also bounced yesterday to get her equipment checked prior to the tournament, get a little rest from the six hour drive down there from Louisville and because it starts around 8 AM.

I'm sure when she gets back she'll have some entertaining stories to tell about the latest round of competition between the 'Senior Mama's (the women's 50 fencers) and the Baby Vets (the women's 40 fencers)

I'm Going Downtown

Downtown Louisville to be precise. About to jet out of the house and make a short run to downtown Louisville and the Kentucky International Convention Center to watch Dawn compete in a major fencing tournament here.

The NAC D is one of eight major fencing tournaments for competitive fencing in the United States. For US based fencers wishing to represent our country in the 2012 London Games, this is a first step to making the national team from which our Olympians will be chosen.

The competition will be fast, furious and high level.

I'll tell you how she fared when I get back.

Interesting Chi-Town Day

Hey TransGriot readers,
As you know I hit the road Saturday morning with Dawn to watch her fence in this year's edition of the Remenyik Open along with our other roomie Karen.

We bounced out of Da Ville a little after 6 AM EDT local time even though Dawn's check in for this event wasn't until 3 PM CDT. We decided we were going to partake in some of Chicago's cultural attractions and kill a few hours in the Field Museum.

As usual Dawn and I made excellent time while Karen slept in the backseat. As we approached Greenwood, IN (the southern 'burbs of Indianapolis) we discovered the gas price was only $2.30 a gallon. Since we had 3/4 of a tank we pressed onward under the assumption it would be at the same price or cheaper on the other side of Indy.

Wrong.

We painfully discovered that the closer we got to Chicagoland the higher the gas price got. In fact we ended up refueling in Merrillville where we paid $2.60 and I picked up my bag of Jay's Potato Chips. It wasn't $2.30 a gallon but it was cheaper than what we were paying in Da Ville, and I correctly guessed they were still paying over $3.00 a gallon in Chicago.

A few minutes later we crossed the Illinois-Indiana line and saw the first evidence of the extent of the search for Jennifer Hudson's young nephew Julian King. We passed an electronic highway sign with the description of the white SUV and plate number as we sped toward the Dan Ryan exit off I-80/94

We pulled into the parking garage underneath Soldier Field a little after 12 noon CDT and sauntered toward the world famous Field Museum. We were planning to kill about two hours there before heading off to Northwestern University.

After spending an enjoyable two hours checking out the various exhibits we headed back toward the car and shoved off up Lake Shore Drive in the direction of Evanston.

For those of you who haven't guessed by now, I'm blessed with a formidable memory. When it comes to road trips, some of my family members and friends have remarked that I'm better than a GPS unit. All it takes me is one time to travel somewhere and I never forget how to get there or need a map from that point.

I have relatives and friends in the Chicagoland area and have been there numerous times, so I know my way around the city. Dawn does as well since she was born there.

Since I was along for the ride last year, I knew where the SPAC was and called off the necessary turns from Lake Shore Drive onto N. Sheridan Rd and the NU campus. A few minutes later we were gliding into the parking lot in front of the SPAC in plenty of time for Dawn to check in for the tournament.

From what Dawn told me earlier in the week and on the trip up I-65 the competition in the women's saber division was going to be formidable. She's a C ranked fencer, and this tournament had two A ranked fencers, several B's and several C's.

This tournament also had in it a sistah competitor she has a friendly rivalry with from the Detroit area by the name of Ashlee McLemore. We last saw her in Columbus at the Great Lakes Regional Tournament with her sistah training partner Roberta Sims.

Dawn went 3-3 in her pool matches, but got bounced out of her DE 15-9. She wasn't too upset about it since this was her first serious fencing action since she finished third at the summer nationals in San Jose.

We had to get Karen back to Louisville since she had to work Sunday afternoon, but we weren't going to leave Chicago without hitting Giordano's and chowing down on one of their world famous deep dish pizzas. There was one in Rogers Park on N. Sheridan, so after we found a parking space two blocks from the restaurant we eagerly headed in to partake of it before hitting the road.

We caught up on the latest Chicagoland news and ended up taking four slices with us since we were stuffed. We usually order a partially baked one to take home, but forgot to do that when we arrived (we won't make that mistake again).

We discovered on the return trip that the gas station we passed that morning in Greenwood had dropped its price to $2.29 but didn't bother doing anything except switching off drivers. I'd taken us from Merrillville to that point and the lack of sleep was kicking my behind. We eventually ended up in Da Ville at 1 AM after a long but interesting day.

We'll be back next year for the Remenyik since it's one of Dawn's fave tournaments. I also hope that I'll FINALLY get to do a Chicago trip and spend some quality time with Jackie and Monica as well.

Rolling Towards The Remenyik Open

Dag, has it been a year already since the last Remenyik Open?

Hitting the road in a few hours. I'm heading back to Chicago with Dawn once again to watch her compete in this year's edition of the Remenyik Open Fencing tournament on the Northwestern University campus.

Of course, I'll tell y'all about my latest road trip when I get back.

African-American Sibling Fencers Win Silver Medals

The Williams sisters aren't the only African-American siblings who will be taking medals back home from Beijing.

Meet Keeth and Erinn Smart. Keeth and Erinn are the trailblazing fencers from Brooklyn, NY who were the first kids that walked through the doors of the Peter Westbrook Foundation's fencing program when he started it in 1990.

Peter Westbrook was the last American man to win a fencing medal and the first African-American one to do so. He captured a bronze medal in the men's sabre event at the 1984 LA Games. The Smarts are competing in their third Olympics, and as the old saying goes, the third time was the charm. But they've had a rough year just getting to this point.

Their parents unfortunately weren't there to witness it. Their father Thomas Smart passed away in 2005 from a sudden heart attack,. Their mother Audrey Elizabeth died recently in March after battling colon cancer for two years.

Keeth contracted a rare blood disorder that put him in intensive care for two weeks while competing in a fencing tournament in Algeria. The disorder not only threatened his participation in the Beijing Games but put his life in jeopardy as well.

The Smart's roads to their respective medals were just as rocky. In the women's team foil event Team USA was ranked seventh out of eight teams. They upset Poland and then held off Hungary 35-33 in the semifinals as Erinn held off a furious late charge by the Hungarian fencer to send them to the gold medal match versus Russia.

Unfortunately Team USA lost to Russia 28-11 in the gold medal match, but in the process they earned the first US medals in the foil event since 1960.

Keeth's run to a medal was just as dramatic in the men's team sabre event.

Smart took over in the quarterfinal with the USA trailing defending world champion Hungary 40-36. In the team event, first one to 45 wins, and the Americans had their backs to the wall. Smart rallied to tie the match at 44 all, then scored the winning touch to send them to the semifinals against the Russians.

In the semifinals, Keeth found himself not only facing a 40-35 deficit, but a personal demon as well. At the 2004 Athens Games he came on the strip in the bronze medal match against the Russians with a 40-35 lead. Russia's Stanislav Pozdnyakov rallied to lead them to a 45-44 win and the bronze medal. The loss bothered him to the point that he took a two year sabbatical from the sport.

Smart was now ironically facing the same man in the reverse situation and rose to the challenge. He outfenced Pozdnyakov and led Team USA to a 45-44 win and the gold medal match against France.

Unfortunately in the gold medal match Team USA fell behind 40-28 before Smart took over. Despite the twelve point deficit, he almost pulled it out with another miracle rally against France's Julien Pillet. He outscored him 9-5, but the deficit was too much to overcome as Team USA lost 45-37 to France for the silver, the first fencing medals for the men's sabre program since 1984.

Congratulations Keeth and Erinn for making history in the fencing world, being trailblazing role models and finally earning those well-deserved medals while persevering through a tough year for both of you off the strip.

Good Day For Dawn and US Olympians

My roomie Dawn bounced out of the house early this morning to compete in the 2008 Bluegrass Games fencing tournament. She came back home a few hours later with an overall silver medal in the open saber competition and a gold in the women's division.

In addition to that, while she was at the venue they were using for the fencing competition, the announcement was made to a cheering crowd that the US won their first medals of the Games courtesy of a US sweep in the individual sabre event. Mariel Zagunis beat her teammate Sada Jacobson 15-8 to sucessfully defend the championship she won at the 2004 Athens games.

In the bronze medal match, Becca Ward came back from a 6-1 deficit to defeat Russia's Sofiya Velikaya 15-14 and assure the US fencers of their history making triumph. It was the first time since Germany swept the foil medals at the 1988 Seoul Games that a nation had swept all the medals in an individual fencing event. Zagunis was also the first fencer and first woman to win back to back gold medals in her event.

I watched nervously as Team USA in their opening game versus the Czech Republic pulled out their bricklayer's union cards. The Czechs took advantage of their early shooting troubles to race out to an 11 point lead. After coach Donovan called a timeout, out came their pressure defense and poof, away went their deficit.

Big Syl came off the bench to score 16 points and snag 14 rebounds as Diana Taurasi led all scorers with 17 points to pace a 40 point 97-57 win. All 12 Team USA lady ballers scored and team captain Lisa Leslie grabbed 10 rebounds. It was Team USA's 26th consecutive victory in Olympic competition and got their quest to win a fourth consecutive gold medal off to a positive start.

Da Fellas play tomorrow against Yao Ming and the homestanding Chinese as the 'Redeem Team' begins their quest to claim our first men's baskeball gold medal since the 2000 Sydney Games.

From An E To A C

TransGriot Note: I mentioned that Dawn spent the last few days of her vacation in San Jose, CA fencing in the US Summer Nationals tourney there. She said she was ready, so did Maestro Stawicki. I'll let her tell you in her own words how things transpired.

Guest post by Dawn Wilson

When I was growing up I had the distinct pleasure of hearing how athletic and competitive my family was. For example my uncle "Sweet" Lou Johnson hit two home runs, including the game winner while clinching Game Seven of the 1965 World Series for the LA Dodgers. My first cousin Jack "Goose" Givens scored 41 points to win the 1978 NCAA championship for UK. That competiive drive also extends to other sporting arenas as well. My whole family are equestrians and my aunt Mary Evelyn in Lexington, KY coached her junior high school football team to 11 straight championships.

You get the point.

When I started fencing, I was slow and uncoordinated. Four years later I am coordinated, fast and now a national medallist. It has not been an easy road. I did a lot of this while dealing with difficult people, but I did it.

When I arrived Monday I was a little upset because my United flight was late. (I'm sticking with Southwest from now on.) I got checked into my hotel, grabbed something to eat with a team mate and squeezed in some work out time before heading to bed to be rested and prepared for Tuesday.

Despite feeling like I lacked proper preparation time in San Jose because of my late arrival the day before, I started the day off winning the first two bouts rather easily. I then had to face Liz Enochs who had been the NAC champ and point leader this year. I beat her 5-2 and went on to win the pool 6-0!

By the DE Mary Wilkerson was ranked 1st and I was ranked 2nd. Liz was ranked 4th. Thanks to my sweep of my pool I had a first round DE bye. Then I faced Cat Randall and Anne Galliano beating them by 10-6 and 10-5 scores. In the semis I faced Katherine Bowden-Scherer and Mary faced Liz. Both Mary and I were knocked out and had to fence for 3rd. Liz went on to become the 2008 Women's Veteran's 40 Champion and I beat Mary for the bronze medal. In the process, I earned a new rating: C08.

What that means is that I not only jumped up two spots ranking wise thanks to my performance in this tournament, I will fence in Division 1 in Decemeber and in January 2009 at home here in Louisville.

I wish to thank everyone in LFC for all the support I have received over the years. It was you guys who helped make this possible! I would especially like to thank the following people for going the extra mile: Maestro, Michael Gauss, Lou Felty, Will Garner and Kate(who was one of the few people who stayed late to practice with me from the saber class), Michelle Reese and Orion Bazzell.

I guess I am the family championship athlete now!

Dawn Knows The Way To San Jose

In a few hours I'll have to get up early and take a vacationing Dawn to the airport. She's catching an 8 AM EDT flight to San Jose, CA for the United States Fencing Association Summer Nationals tournament that started July 1 and is running through July 10 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.

She's been looking forward to this for months and I'm so proud of my homegirl. She's been fencing for four years now, has an E08 rating, and for this tournament she's competing in Veterans 40 and Division 1. She's also ranked number 6 nationally in Women's Saber and in the Veterans Combined rankings she's Number 11 nationally.

She's also living the USA Veterans fencing motto of 'we have fun -- but we keep score!'

She and the rest of the 'Baby Vets' and 'Senior Mama's' will once again be slashing, parrying, trash talking and point attacking each other on the fencing strips in pursuit of medals and glory, then partying or reaching for the heating pads and ice packs when they're done.

Hey, I'm not being shady, I'm being real with y'all. You should see some of those bruises that sabers leave after you been hit with them.

Speaking of trash talking, the 'Baby Vets' have taken that originally derisive nickname bestowed upon them by the 'Senior Mama's and run with it. They now have their own theme song sung to the tune of the Supremes 'Baby Love' and I heard they may even unveil some special t-shirts for this events as well.

There's been talk in veteran's fencing circles since the Chicago NAC tournament in March about a possible Vet 40 world championship tournament in 2009. The rumored venue for it is Sydney if FIE (the world fencing governing body) gives its blessing to proceed with it. Where Dawn is ranked right now, she'd qualify for Team USA and that trip Down Under.

She not only wants to win this tournament, but a trip to Australia is even more incentive for her to do well and maintain her ranking. She's been training hard over the last few weeks since that birthday trip I took with her to Columbus for the Great Lakes Sectional Tournament. Dawn feels she's ready to take on her fellow Vet 40 saberists and the peeps in Division I and so does Maestro Stawicki, her LFC coach.

Well, you know I'll be telling y'all what transpired when she gets back.

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.

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.