Litchfield Park "Sprint in the Park" triathlon

I SWEAR to you, once you do it, you'll want to do it again and again.

No, I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about a triathlon!

I just did my 3rd sprint triathlon, and we took 3 rookies, and saw a bunch more rookies over there when we went.

Ask any one of them. They were scared to death, dreading it, wondering what the H they had gotten themselves into, and then they crossed the finish line and said, "Dangit! It wasn't that hard! I should have pushed myself harder! I want to do another one!"

They are so fun! They really are, and I love having something to train for! So, here are some shots that my awesome neighbor (who was there watching her husband and son do the race) took for us.

300 meter swim, 8.6 mile bike ride, 2 mile run

See what I mean? EASY!!!!!!

Before we started . . .

Me contemplating how I HATE the swim part of this dang thing!

Coming down the final stretch of the bike race . . .

Our "fake finish" to the run. Our camera girl was in the wrong place and missed the cross, so she made us do another one!

The "crew". Lisa A, Lara J, Natalie A, Me, Lisa A

We're totally faking it - we weren't tired from the triathlon, we were probably just tired from the lack of sleep we got the night before!

So now I gotta get the courage to do an Olympic Triathlon! Those usually take place in shark -invested lakes though, so it makes me a little scared. ;)

The Safari!

In journalism, the following questions are the ones you need to answer when covering a story:

Who: Lane and Kathryn, Kaelyn (without Scott :( ), and mom and dad

Where: Medikwe, South Africa (near the border of Botswana)

Mosetlha Bush Camp

What: Awesome Bush Camp that you enjoy an awesome safari.

What else: Bush camp means no running water, electricity, or fences! Every man for himself! :)

Why: Because when you go to Africa, you have to go on a safari!

So, we had a great time on the safari. It really was amazing to be out there just driving around with all these animals out just living. What a life, by the way - walk around, eat and sleep. Course, being an impala or smaller animal would be a little unnerving at night - seeing how there are lions and stuff out there hunting you!

In the collage above, you will see our "cabin" that was up on stilts about 3 feet off the ground, our eating area, inside the cabins, our Range Rover we rode in, and of course mom in her tourist safari hat! :) We got there Monday afternoon, were fed hamburgers, then about 4:30 left on our afternoon drive. We got home at 8, just in time for a dinner of beef and vegetable "stew" - so they say. Then it is lights out at 10, because we are getting up at 5:30 in the morning. By the way - they don't recommend you leave your cabin at night. So if you need to pee - they have bed pans in the room for you. Well, Lane woke up about 2 in the morning, and being a guy - he could stand at the stairs and take care of business. That was soooooo unfair, because my body suddenly decided I needed to go, but there was NO WAY I was going in the "chamber pot"! So I had to wait until morning. Ugh. Probably too much information - but oh well.

The next morning we left at 6 a.m. and drove until 10 a.m. then returned for breakfast, and we headed home around noon. It was over too fast, but at the same time we were glad we weren't staying another night like the rest of the visitors there with us. I don't know if I could have taken 4 more hours jostling around in that Range Rover!

The next post will cover the animals and safari highlights.

Getting kissed by an elephant!

So maybe it wasn't at the top of my list of things I am dying to do. Or, maybe it never did make my list at all, but once you're there, being offered, you might as well let the elephant kiss you! :)

Not to be upstaged, Lane got a nice little smack-a-roo too!

Here's the aftermath of an elephant kiss. Makes you kinda thankful humans don't leave that kind of mark!

I saved the best for last: Mom's kiss.

The Elephant Sanctuary was pretty cool. For the bargain price of ONLY ***$70*** cough - each, you get to meet the elephants, learn about their whole bodies, touch everywhere all over them (the favor, thankfully, was not returned) and the get the kiss. It was very interesting, and a very nice place. It actually is a rescue park that gets the elephants together, helps them form a family, then releases them to the wild when they are ready. That was a good day.

Africa . . . continued

So to get to Johannesburg, South Africa, you board a plane from Phoenix to Atlanta - bare bones flight. Not even an in-flight movie for the 3 hour flight with US Airways. Then, in Atlanta, you board a nice big Delta plane that has a TV for each individual passenger. Tons of movies, TV shows, games and music are at your fingertips! It really is pretty awesome. Then you settle in for a nice, comfy 16 hour flight! Ugh! I think I watched 4 movies, blew $200 of fake money at blackjack several times, won at Solitaire a few times, and saw a couple episodes of Friends while sleeping off and on. Wow, what a long flight! But it actually wasn't horrible!

Somehow we arrived all in one piece and took this totally illegal picture at customs in the airport. The passport guy chewed us out for snapping the picture. Ooops!

I interrupt the Africa posts to post a picture of who DIDN"T go with us!

I'm sorry, but she really is just too cute. I know, I know, I'm her mom. But seriously - isn't she cute?

Finally - Starting the Africa posts!

Wow, what a trip! Where do I start to tell, and where do I cut off? You all know me - I could talk forever! So, for history's sake I'll tell a lot, but for all 3 of my readers I'll keep it from being too long!

The trip started off with a bang - Scott not being able to get on the plane! Kaelyn and Scott were coming along too - and we had all sorts of fun stuff planned. We were each flying to Atlanta, and then flying together from there. We knew we were in trouble when we got off the plane and about 10 minutes later Scott was calling us - from home in Utah!

They learned the hard way that South Africa won't let you come into their country if your passport expires 30 days after you enter! What? What good is a passport if the expiration date varies by each country? What a pain!

Anyway, Kaelyn got on the plane and left Scott behind to figure out the passport mess and come as soon as he could. We were bummed, but Scott caught up with us on Wednesday night (then had to just go home Sunday night. I sure wouldn't have done that, but he was a great sport about it all)

Lane and I laughed that no one but Scott would have been able to handle that debacle with such patience. I probably would have gone postal on everybody. Thus, I am not a gun owner! :)

So the collage below shows us at the Elephant Sanctuary, and on our river rafting trip.

For the bargain price of $70, you can go in and have a one-on-one meeting with an elephant. You get the whole "tour" of the body where you touch and feel, scratch and sniff, etc. It was very, very interesting. Then, the elephant gives you a big slimy, muddy, stinky kiss after you have basically groped it! YUCK! But, kinda cool. The picture of mom getting the kiss is the best!!

The river rafting took place in Swaziland. That is a separate country within South Africa. The border crossing was quite a pain, but we got there, and it was beautiful!! Lane and I opted to do a river rafting excursion while there. We have done this before in Mexico, and thought it would be similar. Nope. This trip was 2 people per raft! Guides were in their own rafts, usually clear down or up the river! They also happened to mention real quick as you are handing over the $100/person that there ARE crocodiles in the water. Wait a minute, what did you say? Yeah, there are crocodiles, but don't worry, they won't bother you. Lane started to second guess, but then I said, "What a story we'd have! We got bitten/eaten by a crocodile in South Africa!" Who can top that? So, we decided to go.

Happily, we were one of 2 rafts that didn't capsize in any rapids! Yeah, we are expert rafters - or just very lucky. It was really fun, and actually a little anti-climactic when we didn't see a single croc, and the rapids were no more than a grade 3 out of 5. Oh well, it was still fun!

After that, we ran into the local Pick n Pay (grocery story) and just happened to see a huge South African soap star! There was quite a commotion at the front of the store, and I asked a worker what was going on. She pointed out the star - who you really couldn't miss as he was a rather beautiful tall "built" guy with long-ish dreadlocks and glasses. Yeah, I could see how he would cause a commotion in Swaziland's Pick n Pay! Too bad I didn't have my camera with me!

The Safari post will follow, OK?

Another rite of passage, but for my boy????

Aren't girls the only ones who are supposed to try cutting their own hair? I guess not!