yoga on the road: when harry met brigette

Good thing the Boston event was so worth while.... because when it was over, we had to go all the way back to the south. Our next event was in Austin, TX. This time, a 30 hour drive! Yikes!

I wasn't so lucky to have the opportunity to take the car again, since I had it last time. That meant I was at the discretion of the rest of our crew for this jaunt. It wasn't so bad, though. The first night we stopped in Toledo, Ohio, where my tour manager's parents live. His family treated us to dinner and we headed out early the next morning. Lucky for me, St. Louis was also on the way, so I was able to stop for a night back home. I stayed at my parent's house and spent some much needed time with my fam. Its funny, because now that the end is near, I was totally ready for my travels to be over. Its hard to stay focused on what's right in front of you, when you are ready for the next step. Once we got to Austin, though, I was able to come back to the "now."

Austin was a really cool city. We were excited for this event, because some folks from Kashi headquarters were going to be in town to catch up and talk about the future of the tour. After being part of something so meaningful, I was eager to discuss possibilities of this venture for years to come. For me, this tour was a one time deal. But, I still care a great deal about its effectiveness for next time around. The Kashi team is very passionate about what they do. No one who works there is just there to collect a paycheck. People work there because they are on a mission to provide the best product possible and help educate people along the way to lead healthy & happy lives. Its pretty impressive, actually. We went out to dinner as a group and shared ideas, feedback and memorable moments of this year's tour. It was great to celebrate our journey thus far.

As far as the event, this time we were at a LIVESTRONG event. It was our first indoor event, but given that Boston was so damn cold, we were all ok with that... even though Austin isn't cold. It was the principle. This event was very moving. Many folks had been training for months to participate in the charity ride on Sunday. There were several different options for distance, but the longest ride was a whopping 90 miles! Lance Armstrong himself was there participating with the best of them. It was cool to see him in action and hear him speak to the crowd with such eloquent words of wisdom about living.

In addition to the excitement around Lance, there were also other celebrities at this event. My personal favorite, Evan Handler (aka: Harry from Sex in the City). Apparently, he had leukemia twice in his mid-twenties and successfully beat it both times. He was at the event promoting his new book, "Its Only Temporary." The book is a great read. Its a light-hearted, yet respectful approach to continuing to live your life, even when you have no idea of the outcome in the near future. He has a very interesting perspective to battling cancer. I highly recommend the book, for sure. I made friends with "Harry" at the event and tried my best to get him to do a yoga class with me. He wasn't so sure his first yoga class should be in public, since he was expecting the worst. I let up on him, after a few attempts. He is a very nice man, though. He seems to be a genuinely caring person, even in the Hollywood spotlight. It was refreshing to see someone in his scene with such a down-to-earth attitude. If you read his book, let me know what you think.

The rest of the event was a lot of fun, too. The last day, we were set up near the finish line of the ride, so I got to work with the cyclists as they came off their ride. Working with athletes is a whole new ball game, when it comes to yoga. They have very strong, fierce bodies, but very strong, fierce minds to go right along with it. They are conditioned to compete... so, that's just what they do, even on the yoga mat. Yoga is so good for athletes, but I had to be very careful to keep the class at the same level (as much as possible) so no one gets hurt. To anyone who regularly attends yoga classes, you know how difficult this task may be. It may seem a little odd, since part of yoga is learning that everyone is going to look different on their mat. But, we are talkin' baby steps here. I had less than 30 minutes with each of them. My goal was to teach them a few alignment principals they could use during their warm ups and cool down and keep them safe. It was fun, but it was a challenge! We had a lot of fun that day!

After Austin, we were originally scheduled for an event in Houston. Since the hurricane hit so hard in Houston, our event there was cancelled. Way too much damage... so sad. With that being said, we had to work in another event to take its place. To my surprise, we were headed to Springfield, MO! I was thrilled with this news. It was on our way back to st. louis AND I was eager to get back to Missouri. What a great last stop this was going to be :)