A Wild Ride

Alright – Aaron’s back…

I’ve learned the hard way that you better be careful when you ask for help – especially when it comes to updating the blog. After seeing nothing but lies and exaggerations about my character and decision-making skills over the past several days, I’ve decided to try and right the ship. While there’s been some damage done, I have complete confidence in my P.R. skills. Plus the fact that I saved a bunch of women and children and a wounded puppy from peril Saturday night can’t hurt….

Saturday started like any normal day….

Our day began early with a 7 a.m. breakfast to recognize the GSE program and its participants. It was great fun to hear from District Governor John Davis about his GSE trip to Nebraska back in 1971 and learn that the entire group has stayed in touch for 37 years. In fact, John said that Saturday morning was the first time they hadn’t all been attendance at one of their reunions.

After “brekky” we hitched a ride to the conference. Since the conference is sponsored by Lexus, we’ve been fortunate to ride around in nice SUVs all weekend. Unfortunately, none of us are ready to drive on the left side of the road in the right hand side of the car, so we have been just passengers. As such, we all crammed into the Lexus for a three-minute drive to the Civic Center to make a presentation at the conference.

Since the day we received our itinerary, Saturday has been kind of a red-letter day, as it included a presentation to our largest audience. To this point, most of our presentations have been in front of about 40 people (100 max). So it was a bit of a change to stand under the spotlight in a lecture hall and give the same presentation to 850 people with a giant movie screen to our back. To top it off, we had to convert our 20-minute presentation to 15 minutes on the fly. Of course this group is loaded with over achievers and everyone did a great job of adjusting on the fly (notice how complimentary I am….).

Since we’re not Rotarians, we weren’t required to spend time at any of the sessions Saturday, which is good since we needed some down and reprieve from the 40-degree (105 F) heat. So we grabbed some lunch and headed back to hotel to unwind and get ready for an even bigger evening.

After some naps and general relaxation, we were invited to a small reception with John Davis (pictured with Aaron, Michael and Matt) and the outbound Australia team at 6 p.m. and this is where the night got interesting.

I am always disappointed when I don’t trust my instincts and Saturday night was definitely the case. We had to take an elevator (or a lift as they are called here) to the second floor to the reception. I guess the lamb, cheese, wine, coffee and dessert (and pretty much any other food left unattended) finally caught up with us, because we didn’t even consider taking the stairs.

Bad choice.

Michael from the Australia team and I were the last two to get on an already full elevator. We were decisive that we would take the next elevator. “No, there’s plenty of room,” our dear American girls insist. We squeeze aboard the lift.

Worse choice.

You could almost hear the Aussie elevator scream in pain.

So it quit.

In between floors.

And the doors wouldn’t open.

And it’s 110 degrees outside.

Funny how the temperature climbs about 15 degrees when you find out you’re stuck in an elevator with 10 other people. Things could have been really ugly here. You have to understand that Shepparton is a town of about 30,000 people. It’s a Saturday night in an empty building.

What do you think the odds are of having an elevator repair man in the building? Probably better than having an elevator repair man stuck in the elevator.

Seriously. We must be doing something right to get a break like that.

So Michael and I pried the interior doors open (I could have done it by myself, but I let him help). Of course the exterior doors were still closed, so our repair man, wiggled halfway through a small opening to flip a safety latch, so Michael and I could pry the second set of doors open (again, I let him help — by the way, notice how I’m the hero in my blog and the idiot in Christine’s blogs?).

We were only stuck for several minutes, but in case you forgot, Matt tried to lock us in a lift just a couple of nights ago. So we’ll be taking the stairs for the remainder of the trip.

Thanks to my efforts to free man, woman and child (is that too over the top?), the remainder of the night was a smashing success as nearly 1,000 people attended a concert with Roy Orbison and Elvis look-a-likes. I think we made America proud representing our proud dancing heritage – then again, maybe not. Either way, we had a blast and even managed to shove Jen on stage with a few others poor souls for a performance with Elvis.

Now that is quality entertainment.

After the dance, we capped off what was left of the evening with a quiet night by the pool. Oh wait – our group doesn’t do anything quietly.