On The Pegs March 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 3 | Page 79

On The Pegs
VOL. 5 ISSUE 3 - MARCH 2020
79
EVE IT OR NOT
Story Number One: I earned my first ISDE medal in Italy when I was seven-
teen. Obviously, I was over the moon and wanted to celebrate. Unfortunately,
my teammates on the women’s team had not had a great week. They were
grouchy and went to bed, which was problematic for since my parents forbade
me from going out alone in a foreign country. Since celebrating is more fun
when you all speak the same language, that limited my options to either the
Canadi-ans or Australians. Now, the Australians are way too wild for my taste,
and I happened to be good friends with one of the Canadian riders. We had a
good time that night in Sardinia, walk-ing around the downtown area of the city
where all the teams were staying, with the blue of my Team USA jacket sticking
out like a sore thumb in a sea of red maple leaves.
The only problem came as the night was winding down. I had noticed all the
beautiful stone facades and embellishments on the buildings – very different
from what you see in Indiana! As someone who also loves to climb things, I
noticed how all of that stonework could make excel-lent hand-and-footholds. I
mentioned this to one of the Canadian riders and he told me there was no way
I could climb up a building, fancy stonework or not. Now my honor was on the
line, and I felt like I had to prove him wrong.
The building in question was the hotel booked by the FIM, where all the ISDE
officials were staying, and I thought it would be funny to climb up to their sec-
ond-floor balcony, plus I could prove the guy wrong. I kicked off my sandals at
the base of the building and used the notches cut into the corner of the build-
ing to pull myself up to the top. I slid over the railing onto the balcony, waved at
all the Canadians below, then swung myself over the railing again and began to
climb down. I got to the bottom, sat down to put my sandals back on then saw
a polished shoe uncomfortably close to me. My eyes crept upward, and I saw
that shoe was connected to a pair of uniform pants which was connected to an
angry looking Italian policeman.
He and his partner started speaking to the crowd, and finally a woman came
over and began to talk to me, explaining that the cops did not speak English and
she had volunteered to translate for us. She then asked me if I realized that the