Well the toying with the idea became a reality . . . I'm headed to the Liberty Mutual U.S. National Cyclo-cross Championships at Roger Williams Park in Providence, RI.

I'll be leaving tomorrow at 10p out of Washington's Union Station. The train will go through Providence, but I'll stay on until we reach Boston's South Station so that I can borrow a car from a friend and have a place to stay. I expect to arrive at 7:50a, bright and early.

USAir didn't have any spots for me to use my voucher, and the train is the easiest way to get there. I'll be flying back Sunday on Southwest out of Providence. I'd fly in with Southwest, but I'd arrive too late to catch a bus to Beantown. All in all, it should be a good trip. I've never taken Amtrak other than from Boston to Providence a few years back, so I'm excited to be riding the rails. I decided it was too risky to try the Chinatown-to-Chinatown-to-Chinatown bus route from DC to NY to Boston. That's by far the most cost effective solution, but also the most sketchy and least predictable.

I was able to get the lens from Penn Camera for tomorrow through the weekend, so I'm all set there. Pat's letting me borrow a laptop so I'll have somewhere to dump the pictures. I've got 3GB worth of flash and a card reader so that I don't kill my camera battery. I also picked up and voice recorder for the iPod so that I can possibly get some interviews or sounds of the racing and record anything good I come across.

It's going to be great to be back in Boston, but the weather looks rough. They're calling for snow up and down the East coast and I think Providence may get hit pretty hard. Fortunately, they know what they're doing up North, so hopefully everything will run smoothly. Right now the plan is to be there for all of the races except maybe the AM races on Friday. I'll probably use that time to get a run in and get my bearings set before driving down to P-town.

With all the planning and packing and violin lessons tonight, I wasn't able to get a run in. So my streak lasts only a day. I'm going to have to be very hard core to get runs in everyday on this trip, but I think I can manage. I should have Schmeck to get me crackin' and for some good motivation. Boston, here I come.