August 27, 2002

Sorry I've been away a bit, of late. I've been both a little tired and suffering from writer's block. Actually I'm not sure it's so much writer's block as it is that there just hasn't been all that much to talk about. I've had a few horrific travel experiences but I couldn't bring myself to go on yet another airline tirade. (Believe me though I wanted too). This past weekend something very unique happen so I am once again inspired to write.

The unique experience of which I speak is actually the completely uncommon, good fortune with travel. As strange as it is to hear me say it, or at least see me type it, it is true. I had stretch of good fortune with travel this week. It wasn't a long stretch but I'll take a break whenever I can get it. What makes this good fortune even more unbelievable is that it took place in, of all places, New York City. There was even a bit of good luck in Ohio but that is more a Christian story and I'll add that at the end if I have room.

We were in New York for both Summer Slam and Raw this week. We (Christian and I) actually stayed in Newark, NJ the whole time but I pretty much consider the whole area New York. I despise this area of the country. To me it represents TRAFFIC, or more accurately TRAFFIC JAMS. I hate traffic. Granted so does everyone else, but when you travel as much as I do you also have a very short fuse.

When Christian and I travel we try to plan out our next days events before we go to bed. Pace or selves to decide what time we have to get up, to get everything done and still get to the show on time. We never seem to have enough time to sleep so we try to plan it as tight as possible. Saturday night we planned out our Sunday schedule. Leave hotel by this time, finished diner by this, drive to Long Island (this is the real crap shoot, because traffic on the Belt Parkway can double and triple your travel time, arrive at gym around here, train for this long, back to building by X o'clock. This is our usual plan and it almost never works out to schedule. That's the nice thing about finding a gym right near the building; you can lengthen or shorten your work out as need be to still make the show on time. We are given a little bit of leeway on our arrival time but TV and PPVs it's a good idea to be there as close to on time as humanly possible.

On Summer Slam Sunday we started off right on schedule. I was in the car 1 minute early Christian was there 45 seconds after I was. We ate at the Sky Line Diner and were paying our bill right at the end of our 30 minutes of allotted time. Now the tricky part, the drive into Long Island. I have never, in my life, done this without hitting traffic. It's never a question of if; it's a question of when. We usually don't add too much time to account for traffic because we don't like passing up those few extra minutes for sleep. We usually make those minutes up with a rushed work out. This trip we didn't hit a single traffic delay. I couldn't believe it, good thing too because even with our unprecedented stop free trip we arrived at the gym right on schedule.

This was a new gym for me, but Christian had been there before. We got our full workout in and didn't have to rush or skip a set. Very seldom, on the road do we find both a good gym and the time to hit a full workout. This day was going great. We left the gym right on time and hit the arena 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Being early to the arena is never a bad thing and on a PPV day it can be a blessing. At this point I figured we were in big trouble. Things never go this well for us on the road and New York City is never kind. It was about this point that I mentioned to Christian that I was worried about out match. I said, "Things are going far too well for us today something very bad is going to happen and it will likely be in our match."

Well as most of you hopefully saw, nothing bad happened in our match. As a matter of fact I was extremely happy with it. We had a ton of heat and the crowd was totally into it at the end. Whenever you have the crowd count out loud with the near falls or the finish, you've done your job well. When Booker covered Christian after the side kick the crowded counted as loudly as I've ever heard them. I think I should mention that the crowd was hot the entire show and we (WWE) delivered the best PPV in a real long time. This was a top-notch show from top to bottom.

After the show our luck continued. We left the arena and made it back to the diner in Newark in record time, not one traffic hold up. We ate hit the hotel and were amazed at our day of good fortune. A good match, a great show, and hot crowd, and no traffic jams in New York. I guess miracles can happen.

Till next week,
Lance

OK I didn't forget about Christian's bit of good luck. Friday night in Ohio Christian and I didn't travel together. My flight was extremely late (go figure) so he went to the show by himself. We never take the insurance packages with rental cars when we rent. With the amount we rent it would really add up. Most of us have Gold Credit cards of some type which will cover us if need be. It's likely a hassle but it's nothing we've ever had to use. It's pouring rain after the show Friday night. Christian is backing his car out to follow me back to Cleveland.

With the pouring rain he doesn't see a cement wall behind him and backs right into it. When he checks for damage he finds that he's cracked the plastic bumper quite badly, part of it is hanging off and another part has the huge crack. Christian is a huge scammer and he's trying to think of a way out of this one without having to pay or try to file an insurance claim through his credit card. We never come up with a plan so he just returns the car and hopes they don't notice it until he's gone so he can deal with it later.

He returns the cars and when they give him the receipt they charged him $64 instead of the $26 he booked it for. He goes off at this. Let's not mention that he crashed their car, how dare they over charge him. He goes into the counter and starts to complain. When the lady looks up his contract, she apologizes and says, "I'm sorry sir, I had you down for full coverage (insurance). I can take that off if you'd like." Christian realizing that he just found his way out of his accident, replies, "No that's okay, I can write it off anyway, just leave it on." and walks away.