Just back from one road trip, getting ready for another (and another).

I would like to observe that even the best hotel beds in the world fail to live up to that which I find at home. Add in lumpy pillows and noisy air conditioning and you’ve got a winning combination. That is one of the major factors (along with missing my family, obviously) that motivated me to make a delivery run down to Virginia leaving this past Sunday morning and yet returning just some 36 hours later on Monday night in time to watch the latest DVRed episode of Boardwalk Empire with my beloved (she was kind enough to wait for me) before stumbling off to bed. It’s the little things, you know?

One reason I made that run when I did was to clear the proverbial decks. We are beginning a five week stretch here that will more or less define our fall. Oh joy! As I have told folks for some time now: it is the on season which gives the upcoming off-season its relevance.  I will grant that driving to Essex, VT (Green Mountain show) and Syracuse, NY (Empire Extravaganza) pales compared with hauls to places such as Portland (the western one), Salt Lake City, Fort Wayne, or Louisville, as we have many a spring before (and will again) but it is the fact that the upcoming shows will come on back to back weekends and amidst the craziness of our kids’ fall sports schedule that make it all a bit more stressy. Oh well, c’est la vie. The funny thing is that when the grand finale comes for us in Oklahoma City and the National Elite Auction on the weekend of 11/6, we will actually be out there with a sense of relief: that is the last major event for us of 2010 and the boys’ dueling soccer seasons will have concluded 6 days prior.

Before all of that nuttiness gets well and truly started though I am off to Magical Farm’s always excellent Breeder’s Choice auction at their place in Ohio this coming Friday. Jen is staying back to chaperone a 2 day soccer tournament for our 9 year old and though I’ll miss most of the action there I should make it back in time on Sunday morning, weather permitting, to see the finale. I’m flying this time, I’m not that masochistic you know. In the mean time both the Kindle and the Ipod are filled with new material to entertain and enlighten, preferably in that order, while back on the road. Hope to see some of you out there…