Travel day and meeting the team

Chris and I made it to Idaho late this afternoon, it was an adventure to say the least. After the ice storm in Oklahoma City the past few days we were both concerned that we would make it to Idaho. We changed our flight to 6:02am on WWednesday, not leaving tell a little after 8am we missed our connection in Denver which delayed us until to the 12:20 flight to Spokane from Denver. Well as many of you know the Central and eastern parts of the U.S. have been getting hammered with bad weather. Our plane was late getting to DDenver so we were almost an hour late getting out. Many of you are probably thing oh my goodness, I would have been stressed and especially if you know how wound tight I get. I will say that is the calmest I have probably been ever traveling, Chris and I had an absolute blast hanging out and I am so thankful for the time that we spent together today. To have the care free attitude that he has and just go with a flow is just amazing. By being "stuck" as many of you will say in Denver, we got united with 15 of our fellow torch runners, which was just awesome the comradry that we shared for that 2 to 3 hours we all sat around and visited. We first met up with Kevin Story, a trooper from Nebraska that Chris just hit it off with teasing him about his football team. The three of us were then united with Amara Coon(Hawaii athlete,) Chester Kau (Hawaii officer,) June Worden(New York Trooper,) Michael Kavenius (Wyoming officer, whos parents still live in OKC,) Ron Leonard (Colorado,) Jack Harris (Vermont and Chris roomate) and several others. It was like homecoming or a class reunion. Everyone was just visiting and enjoying one an others company and made what was a long boring wait go by fast and be enjoyable.
Once we landed in Spokane, beautiful is a good enough word to describes the scenery in Eastern Washington, Western Idaho.. It is absolutely breath taking.. We were greated with warm smiles and great hugs in Idaho by old friends as well, we took a short trip to our hotel in Coure d' Alene, Idaho. It is fairly new and very nice hotel. When we arrived we checked in and then went down to get our creditinals for the week and our gear. At the end of the check out line Chris and I both received a "boot camp" style bag from Columbia sports wear with an unbelievable assortment of gear. They absolutely out did themselves with our uniforms. The team will wear black pants with either a blue and black parka or a solid black top. Everyone looked like a kid on Christmas morning walking out of the equipment room. I met my roommate for the next 10 nights just prior to getting my equipment since he arrived even later than Chris and I did. His name is Aaron Aarseth, he and Chris hit off quick, which shouldn't surprise anyone that knows Chris. They both are truly just some of the most amazing people I have ever been around!! Their smiles today while they were talking with the officers who are here from all over the world reminds you what this is all about and why we do this. "People will forget what you said to them, they will forget what you did, but they will never forget the way you made them feel." Those two smiling along with the other 8 athletes I met today just reaffirm that we are doing a good thing and more people need to stand along our sides and join this cause.
For dinner tonight we had a special treat, we went to the Coeur d' Alene Resort. The team and support staff were served salmon and steak. Both of which were amazing. The reception that we have received from Idaho is amazing and it is obvious that they are glad to have us here. I can't wait until tomorrow, Chris and I will participate in the torch arriving into Coeur d' Alene with the other team members before we split up. Chris and I will both head to the Canadian border with our teams for a ceremony with the Royal Canadian Police. We have an early morning 5:45am team breakfast so I am off to bed, hope to have a blog posted tomorrow night!!!