Safe Thanksgiving Journeys To My TransGriot Readers

Today is one of the busiest travel days in the United States.  People are converging on airports, train and bus stations or hitting the interstates to go to whatever final destination they are traveling to for Thanksgiving dinner or saying bump it and taking a mini vacation.

I used to dread this period when I worked in the airline biz, but didn't hate on the paycheck because the floodgates got opened on all the overtime and the personnel we needed to efficiently get through it.  

Besides, there were some humorous moments that came out of it at times.  My coworkers and nice passengers also made it bearable and fun to do so. 

Wednesday was a pain, but Thanksgiving Day itself and Saturday were slow and made up for the drama we had to deal with on Monday, Tuesday and today.   

I wanted to take this moment to wish you TransGriot readers in the States who are either traveling to your ultimate destination, see your family and friends or are about to do so, safe journeys up there and back to wherever you're getting your grub on.

And when you do arrive at your Thanksgiving destination get there, may your food be tasty and your day be drama free as well.

UK Home Office Considering Gender Neutral Passports

I'm late to this one, but in the wake of Australia changing its policies, the UK Home Office announced on September 19 it was considering following the lead of Australia and not displaying gender on UK passports.   

While transpeople in the UK can get passports with the correct gender markers, intersex people who may not identify with either gender are forced to choose either 'M' or 'F'.   The Home Office in those cases would allow for an 'X' to be placed in the gender marker field or eliminating it altogether.  

A UK Home Office spokesperson stated: “We are exploring with international partners and relevant stakeholders the security implications of gender not being displayed on the passport".

Mismatched gender codes are a major hassle for transpeople who travel internationally.  Those mismatched gender codes have led to transpeople being hassled when transiting customs in various countries, denied entry into nations or being subjected to embarrassing and humiliating situations while doing so.

The US State Department implemented rule changes last year that allow for transpeople to get passports without requiring genital surgery.  Australia recently announced in September they would no longer require genital surgery in oder to issue new passports and would issue them to sex and gender diverse applicants in either  M (male), F (female) or X (indeterminate/unspecified/intersex).

The proposed passport policy change would not require legislative action since passports are considered under royal prerogative and would require only a simple ministerial order to implement.

Will keep an eye on it and see if that happens.

Headed Back To Houston

The 2011  OUT on the Hill has concluded for this year along with the CBCF-ALC event, and I'm taking some wonderful experiences, a reenergized sense of purpose, the glow of finally meeting some of the people I've been either talking to on the phone or chatting with for several years now and a lot of extra business cards with me on the return trip home from Washington DC..

And hopefully I made a few new friends along the way as well.


I also want to thank my gracious hosts Denise and Jeri for offering me their home to crash at while I was in our nation's capitol.   Enjoyed the thought provoking conversations that we engaged in while I was there.

I have a lot to do and think about, but the goals remains the same.  It's past time for my people inside and outside the TBLG community to recognize that we are human beings with civil and human rights.

The other thing we transpeople of African descent must do is love ourselves before we can tackle the systemic ills and isms that retard our progress.

Well, that's something I'll have to think about on the plane ride back to the Lone Star State.

Air Marshal Is Taking Flight

The Air Marshal is getting back to her jet setting ways today and has hopped on an airplane from Hobby destination: _____________ .

Well, this time I'll let y'all try to guess where I'm traveling to today.

The answer will be revealed for those of you who don't know where I am on TransGriot tomorrow.

NCLR Incident Report For Trans Travelers

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is traditionally the busiest travel day of the year.  Transpeople already have their share of personal anxieties when they interface with the public transportation system, and the heightened concerns about the TSA only exacerbate them. 


For you trans folks about to fly home or to wherever for the holidays, the National Center for Lesbian Rights wants to document any stories about the new TSA policies that negatively impact you.

The goal is to compile evidence that these policies are problematic for trans travelers, take it to the TSA and push for the changes in training, techniques and attitudes amongst TSA employees that will make our flying experiences more pleasant

Here's an incident report form to use if you have a negative TSA experience you'd like to share with the NCLR

Surgery No Longer Requirement For US Passport Gender Marker Change

Some welcome news for those of us who either have, need or soon will be applying for or picking up United States passports.

The U.S. State Department announced yesterday a new policy that no longer requires passport applicants seeking a gender change to have undergone genital reassignment surgery.

Incorrect gender markers on passports are a major concern to tarns people traveling abroad, and can lead to harassment or worse when a passport is presented with a gender marker that doesn't match the person's gender presentation.

The policy, which goes into effect today, allows a gender marker change with a certification from an attending physician.

The doctor's certification must confirm only that the passport applicant has undergone treatment for gender transition. Limited-validity passports for applicants who are in the process of gender transition also will be available under the policy.

More Flight Anxiety For Transpeople As New TSA Rules Implemented

I worked for Continental Airlines for over a decade and spent a lot of time on my off days flying the friendly skies before 9-11. Thanks to some of my speaking engagements I have had the opportunity to experience post 9-11 air travel.

Whether it was before or after 9-11, it's an irritating challenge at times to travel as a transperson. I do have some stories I'll talk about in later posts about my own personal drama with flying while transgender.

What's driving this post is the news that TSA regulations will soon take effect that require all passengers to declare their full name, age, and gender to book travel.

This is related to the Transportation Security Administration effort to streamline their Secure Flight database and reduce the number of times a passenger is misidentified as a possible terrorist.

But since policies have unintended consequences, many of us in the transgender community are nervously apprehensive about how things will shake out once these procedures are implemented.

The first implementation phase of the initiative required that airlines collect the names of all passengers as shown verbatim on government-issued identification.

The next phase began August 15 on several air carriers. It requires passengers to declare their gender at the time of booking their flights.

By the end of March 2010 all companies will be required to obtain gender information from persons booking travel.

TSA spokesman Dwayne Baird told Advocate.com in a recent interview that transgender travelers who are purchasing tickets should declare "the gender that they were at the time that they booked their flight."

However, Baird said he was unsure whether those who don't identify with a specific gender or are in transition would be held to the same rules.

Kristina Wertz, the Transgender Law Center's legal director, said the new regulations will likely exacerbate airport hassles that some transgender people already face while traveling.

No kidding. One of the potential consequences of having your trans business disclosed is a situation in which the traveling transperson could be subjected to harassment, disrespect and discrimination by airline personnel, security, customs officials if they're travelling internationally and other passengers.

One major reason it happens as Kristina Wertz points out and I can tell you from my time as an airline employee is government issued ID's, passports and other documents that don't match the current gender presentation of the person possessing it.

"A lot of transgender people don't have documents that match up with how they currently identify. There are always troubles that arise when dealing with documents. People are sometimes forced to disclose their transgender status in a situation where they may not want to."

Wertz said she hopes that the TSA is open to receiving training on transgender issues to prevent uncomfortable situations at the airport.

In the interim, the transgender community will be anxiously watching how these new rules impact our flying experiences at our local airports.

Looking North

I've always loved to travel, and one of the best times in my life was working for an airline that allowed me the opportunity to indulge in one of my favorite pursuits. One of the countries that's very high on my travel to do list is our northern neighbor.

I've been fascinated with Canada ever since I was a kid. While my Black Canadian cousins may be on the other side of the border, they have made contributions not only to their own nation's culture, but mine here in the States as well.

As I became more aware of the history of African descended peoples across the Diaspora and cognizant of the deep connections that Afro-Canadians and Afro-Americans share with their African cousins around the world, and the similarities in our lives despite living on opposite sides of a long border, it has only increased my desire to visit the country.

I definitely want to visit Nova Scotia, see the stops on the Black History Trail in southern Ontario, check out Toronto and Montreal, and bounce up to the Falls and visit a certain Canadian based blogger and hand her in person the cornbread recipe she's been hounding me about.

Being in Louisville I live near the Ohio River, and every time I cross it on one of the three bridges in the area, the Kennedy, the Clark or the Sherman Minton I remember the symbolism of it. Crossing it represented freedom to those traveling on the Underground Railroad.

But I think that my wanting to visit Canada is a little deeper than that. It's as I make that journey northward along concrete ribbons of interstate highway I ponder my ancestors who were trying to get to Canada while being chased by slave catchers seeking to return them to the life of involuntary servitude they wished to permanently leave behind. It's also the desire of wanting to symbolically tap into my north of the border history as well.

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.

Happy Canada Day!

Today our northern neighbors are celebrating the 141st anniversary of their founding as a nation. July 1, 1867 is the day the Canadian constitution took effect.

If it falls on a Sunday, the holiday is celebrated on July 2.

I've never had the opportunity to visit our beautiful northern neighbor, and the closest I've come to crossing the Canadian border is looking at Windsor, Ontario from Belle Island Park. I would dearly like to do so one of these days.

So in honor of Canada Day, I thought I'd just note the places in Canada that I'd love to visit with time and opportunity.

1-Toronto

Canada's largest and most multicultural city. I want to visit the CN Tower, check out a Blue Jays game at Rogers Centre (aka Skydome) and see all of the other attractions in the area. I also want to do the Ontario Black Heritage tour.

2-Ottawa
Canada's capital. Would love to see Parliament Hill and the other attractions in Canada's capital city.

3-The Maritimes
Much of Canada's Black history is centered here as well. Many of the Black loyalists who departed New York after the American revolution settled in the Maritimes. I want to visit Halifax, Nova Scotia and the site where Africville once stood. I'd love to see PEI (Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia as well.

4-Montreal
I've wanted to visit Montreal ever since I had the pleasure of seeing the city's various venues during the 1976 Olympic Games. There's also a certain surgical center just outside of town I'd like to have a little work done at as well. ;)

5-Vancouver
The host city for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Been to the US Pacific Northwest a few times and peeps who've been there tell me Vancouver's scenery blows that away. Would like to visit Victoria Island as well.

6-Banff National Park
It's in the Canadian Rockies and from what I've heard about it from people who've visited it, pictures don't do it justice.

7-Calgary
The host city for the 1988 Winter Olympics is compared by most people to H-Town. They have the similarities of being the largest cities in Alberta and Texas, embracing their western cowboy heritage (Calgary Stampede-Rodeo Houston), and being oil business centers. Calgarians will emphatically point to their winter sports pedigree and say they have more in common with Denver than Houston.

8-Edmonton
Calgary's provincial rival in everything, including NHL hockey and the CFL. Think the Dallas-Houston civic hatefest and multiply it. Only difference is the country and the mileage separating the two cities. In terms of the civic shadefest, Edmonton is the capital of Alberta, has more NHL Stanley Cups than Calgary and is home to the largest mall on the planet, West Edmonton Mall.

9-Quebec City
Would love to visit Old Quebec, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2005.

10-Horseshoe Falls
You've heard of Niagara Falls? On the Canadian side of the Niagara River there's Horseshoe Falls (or the Canadian Falls as it's sometimes called. It's the more beautiful and impressive one.

That's my Canadian travel to do list. Hope I get to do it one day.

What A Weekend!

I got back to Louisville last night after spending a slammin' weekend in Western Massachusetts. I was speaking at the invitation of the wonderful folks who organized the first annual New England Transgender Pride March and Rally.

My trip there got off to an anxiety filled start. When I fly, I usually check weather.com or the Weather Channel to peruse the weather for the cities and the area I'm flying into before I leave. Because my schedule got rearranged by the unexpected trip I had to take in to work that morning, it threw me out of my usual preflight routine.

I arrived at Louisville International Airport around 4 PM to get a head start on clearing security, catch my 6:50 PM United flight to Chicago and subsequent connection to Hartford. It's been a while (2002) since I'd last flown and I'd forgotten about the fact that the TSA has severely limited the size of personal toiletry items you can take in carry on luggage. I had to throw away a full can of shaving cream and my three quarter used deodorant stick before clearing security and was mildly pissed about it.

My pissivity quickly dispersed when I started chatting with two Dallas based Southwest Airlines flight attendants. I walked with them to their gate as we talked about the airline industry good old days and how the industry has changed to where it was less fun than it used to be. The flight attendant also told me a story about one of the people she knew at American who was on one the fateful 9-11 flights and how he ended up on it.

They eventually had to go board their aircraft and do their preflight checks, so they gave me hugs before they departed. I arrived at my United gate only to discover that Chicago was getting whacked by a nasty thunderstorm. The previous Chicago flight was delayed, so I decided to kill a little time and figure out my options by taking a walk. I ended up standing next to the shoeshine booth as I checked the flight information board. Since my black flats needs some TLC, I decided to let the handsome brother sitting there make them look good for me.

I returned to my gate to discover that my UA flight to Chicago was cancelled. The agent rebooked me on US Airways through Philadelphia, and best of all I was now going to arrive at Bradley two hours earlier. In addition to that, the gate for my US Airways flight was right next door. I pulled out my cell phone and called Kris Colton, my ride to Springfield and Louis Mitchell, my good friend I was staying with and advised them I was going to be arriving in BDL at 10:20 PM instead of 12:52 AM.

I was concerned about my tight connection in Philly, but after sprinting through the airport to my gate once I got off the shuttle bus from Terminal F, I was relieved to discover my aircraft was just arriving and disgorging passengers from the inbound trip. It would be a few minutes before we began boarding to Bradley.

I ended up in a neat conversation that lasted through the short one hour flight to Bradley with my seatmate Kathy. We exchanged details on our lives and she wished me good luck for the upcoming speaking engagement the next day before we went our separate ways.

Kris rolled up thirty seconds after I called her and scooped me up from the arrivals loading area. We were quickly headed north on I-91 to the Massachusetts-Connecticut border (the airport is in Windsor Locks, Connecticut) and Springfield.

Kris and I hit it off immediately and we were chatting like two old friends instead of people who'd just met for the first time. I was going to see much more of her tomorrow since she was the stage manager for the rally.

A few minutes later Kris and I were pulling in front of Louis and Krysia's two story corner house in a quiet, tree-shaded Springfield neighborhood remarkably similar to my own back in Da Ville. Louis' house, which was built in 1917, is actually older than mine. I was greeted by him and Imani Henry, who was also staying with us. Miss Major, who was going to be the parade's Grand Marshal unfortunately wasn't staying with us because she's allergic to pets. There are three cats at the Mitchell-Villon household along with a lovable black dog named Lola.



His wife Krysia was asleep at the time, so we bounced to Denny's to grab breakfast and chat. During a trip to New York in 2000 I was supposed to meet Imani for lunch, but got detained by a long chat I was having with the mother of our movement, Sylvia Rivera. So I apologized to Imani for missing our meeting, and we settled on discussing what was going to transpire the next day before going back to the house and grabbing some sleep for what promised to be a long and excitingly historic day.

But just before I dozed off another stress inducing complication arose. I wanted to review my speech, and discovered that I didn't have my WNBA notepad I put it in. It has major sentimental value to me and I feared I'd left it on the US Airways airplane at Bradley. I had a copy of the speech posted on TSTB and saved on my blog just in case I had to download and print it at Kinko's in the morning. Louis' printer was down, so that wasn't an immediate option. I called Kris on my cell, left her a message and hoped for the best as I went to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

That morning I got up a little after 6 AM to Springfield being enveloped in fog and low cloud cover. The forecast was for a 30% chance of rain and we were hoping it would hold off until the rally was over at 5 PM. I received some good news when Kris returned my call and let me know she'd found my notepad in the backseat of her car and she'd bring it with her to the rally site.

One minor crisis solved, I wandered downstairs and finally met Louis' lovely wife Krysia. You know how much I love intelligent conversation, and I was in for a treat hanging out with her, Louis and Imani over the next 36 hours.

The time rapidly approached for all of us to get ready for the march and rally. Louis had already left to meet the lady renting us the RV for the day. I rode to the rally site with Krysia, who as we rode through the beautiful western Massachusetts countryside enroute to Northampton told me a little about her background as I did the same. She was also acting as out hostess in the RV green room for the speakers, and Louis was our MC.

We get to the rally site, a large parking lot hemmed in by restaurants, shops and a six story parking garage in downtown Northampton. The RV was there and the owner was explaining and pointing out all the various features to Kris as I walked in to check it out.

Over the next few hours the lot began to be transformed. The stage was already set up with the sound equipment. The various organizations were setting up their tables, and the various speakers were beginning to arrive. The cloud cover was keeping the heat away from us and didn't break until 11 AM, revealing brilliant sunshine about an hour before the march started.

I finally got to meet Donna Rose a few moments later. We hugged and hit it off like two sorority sisters. By looking at her its hard to believe this woman is hitting a milestone birthday next year. I also got to meet Ethan St. Pierre's wife Karen as me and Ethan caught up on a few things. I was also happy to meet some of the transbrothers like Bet Power, Hawk Stone and some of the members of the Boston based drag king troupe All The Kings Men.

I got a taste of just how widely read my blog was when I started meeting the young transpeeps and college kids like Dustin, Jacklyn and others. Once they found out the TransGriot was on the scene, they raved about how much they loved my blog and I thank them (and all of you) for reading it. A writer always loves it when their work is appreciated.

After the march kicked off at noon from a nearby park and brought a crowd of 700 mostly energized people to our rally site, it began. I was scheduled to speak at 2:40 PM, but hit the stage a little early because we were running ahead of schedule. I delivered my speech, got some cheers at major points in it and some high fives after I exited the stage. I also had the pleasure of finally meeting Dr. Enoch Paige and reconnecting with more than a few old and new friends as the historic day progressed to a close.

Sunday dawned and after a lazy morning conversing with Imani, Krysia and Louis it was unfortunately time for me to head back to my life in Louisville. Since I was in Springfield, the home of the Basketball Hall of Fame, on the way to the airport Louis dropped me off there and let me run around the place for an hour and a half. That's not enough time to see and do everything in this interactive shrine to one of my fave sports.

It was also the first time since I left Continental that I'd be flying the airline, and the flight that ironically greeted me at my departure gate in Hartford was a weather-delayed one headed to Houston.

Eventually I got to board my flight to Cleveland, and two of the flight attendants recognized me from my Houston airport days. As I went to the lav after they finished the beverage service Ann Marie greeted me. She filled me in on just how much I was missed by all my CAL co-workers not only in Houston, but system wide. We exchanged numbers as something told me to use the bathroom and get my butt back in my seat.

Ten minutes later I was glad I listened to my inner voice. There was a line of late afternoon storms pounding the Detroit area and I was concerned before we left Hartford that the tail end of that nasty front extended almost to the Cleveland area. As we descended through the cloud cover from our cruising altitude we got whacked with a microburst that roughly forced the aircraft down approximately 500 feet. I heard the engines power up to regain the altitude we lost as we immediately got hit with a second microburst.

I've flown hundreds of flights, but this was the first time since a 1987 one I took to Chicago I was genuinely scared shitless. We were still over the edge of Lake Erie a few miles from Cleveland-Hopkins Airport, and as a former airline employee I already had the '90% of airline crashes happen on takeoff or landing' mantra playing in an endless loop in my brain. To calm myself down I (and probably 'errbody' else on that flight) said a prayer that we weren't going to end up on the national news.

As I watched the airplane descend through my window seat, it continued to fight nasty crosswinds as we flew over a nearly subdivision and strip center. As we continued to descend and crossed the interstate bordering Hopkins I knew we were almost on the ground. I'd heard the comforting sound of landing gear deploying but I knew we weren't out of danger yet. When the welcoming bump from the wheels touching runway happened and the aircraft's braking flaps deployed, there was a huge cheer and clapping that arose from everyone on board.

We'd had what I call a Pope John Paul II landing. I'm referring to his practice when he traveled around the world of kissing the ground when he stepped off his papal aircraft. If it weren't for the fact I needed to expeditiously get to Concourse D for my Louisville flight, I would have probably done so in the jetway when I disembarked. We did have to call the paramedics for one of the flight attendants and a passenger in the seat behind me, but everybody else walked off under their own power.

I didn't have time to get scared because I had a connecting flight to catch. I pulled out the cell phone and called Dawn to let her know what time I'd be in Da Ville when I sat down in the lobby area. She and AC were there to greet me outside the security checkpoint when I arrived at Louisville International around 9:55 PM.

Eventually I arrived safe and sound without incident at home as I told them everything about what transpired on this wonderfully empowering, historic but emotionally charged weekend.

And I'm looking forward to seeing how you peeps in the Western Massachusestts area top this event next year. Make sure y'all get that RV again, too.

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.