SuperNationals!!

Today was a lot of rushing around for a minute then waiting. I started off trying to figure out where the nearest post office was, and realizing that I did not have any postcards to send out, I very much dislike trying to find post cards. But the experiment did lead me to a new way of doing things.

My previous way of doing things was to start the day hitting up a truck stop or similar and try to find a postcard that was indicative of the area to send to myself and my archivist. This has only failed me on one previous occasion when I was in Desloge. There is no postcard regionally available in that area and as such I had to send out postcard that were from Toledo instead. I also vowed that I would not do this again in the future, so I keep a day's worth of postcards for emergency situations. Well, Albers, IL also had no postcards. So now I am looking through my stash and all of the ones I have left are from Missouri or Ohio and Clarksville has nothing local. I do a search and find a truck stop 13 miles  up the road, just off I-24. I get up and around by 0930 and head down the road. They had two postcards for sale I picked up a bunch to send and found the local Post Office and sent them off. I also located another Post Office that was in Nashville and sent one from there also. I figured out that if you do your shopping during the hours that the Post Office is closed, you can save valuable time during operating hours and get more bang for the buck. Will have to see how this works out.
The next stop was the Opryland Hotel for the tournament. I sent a text to Jean-Marc to see where they wanted to meet. He said they were at their hotel for lunch but were heading back shortly. I met up and rode with them.
The tournament is the size of a small town all crammed into the convention center. This year set a new record with 5335 participants, and since this is all scholastic in nature, parents and chaperones for them. I imagine the total number of people at this was around 20 thousand. At 15 minutes to the beginning of the matches, everyone goes running for the tables and checking for pairings.  After the matches start, it becomes a steady waiting to see if the participant you are waiting on won, lost or drew. This is tedious unless you bring something to do/read. I did some light braiding of a sling to keep myself busy. In the process I met Brian from St. Joseph, MO and we talked about braiding and boy scouts for a while. I have been doing rope work for over a decade now and braiding leather for about 7 years. So he asked some questions. I answered some stuff and we got to know each other a little better. This is probably my favorite part of this weekend. I got to know new people from all over the world with different goals and expectations.  I got a few decent pictures of Nick as he was getting set up and  prepped for his match at 1400.  Jean-Marc took the pictures of me braiding.