Almost showtime!

We arrived specifically a day before our scheduled Kentucky Horse Park arrival purposely to give ourselves some time to get ourselves together before our international debut. The day began with a stop at the best-kept secret in Lexington: Sam's, a small cafe mere minutes from the park. I'm pretty sure you could order everything on the menu at Sam's and the total would still be cheaper than a regular lunch at WEG. At one point, I literally ordered $6 worth of food and had two meals worth of leftovers at the end. At Sam's, we got our first taste of the hospitality of strangers in the WEG world.

Our waitress was tickled with the good manners of our group (way to represent HOW, girls!) and another lady stopped by our table to talk about how excited she (and the city of Lexington) were for WEG. This was only the first positive experience in dozens to come; we met so many enthusiastic people on our trip, it would be impossible to name them all.

After a quick grocery run, it was back to the farm for us. The rest of the vaulting team arrived and we were able to sneak in an excellent vaulting practice. The critters got bathed in Rachel King's beautiful wash stall, Vanessa got a ride under her belt, and then the mares were turned out in their luxury paddock.

We had to arrive at the park the next day at 9.30 am, and as the hotel crew headed back to our room at the Day's Inn, we had plans to be to Rachel's by about 7.00 or so. Our room was large and quite nice, with two massive king size beds and two cots. This might seem like a lot, until you realize that there were eight people (Hali, Brenda's niece who played the lonely goatherder, Hanna, Brenda's neighbor and friend who played the groom, Stevie, Brenda's daughter who played Maria, in addition to Clare, Emma, Maddy, Kate, and myself). While the room count varied between six and eight each night, we were a jolly bunch and remarkably had no squabbles regarding shower schedules. And I have to hand it to those girls, most of whom are teenagers: they were always ready on time, even though we had to be out of the hotel early every day of WEG, with zero complaints. This more than makes up for the fact that Hali hogs the bed like no other and Maddy has long conversations with herself while sleeping. I'm sure I snore and flail around, but hey, this was WEG - what was there to complain about?