Atlantic Cit-Dee–Dee One

I often go to lengths to get a chance to dress–last year Vegas, this year Atlantic City–one casino capital to the other. 

Last year it was Dee-Va Las Vegas, this year a gathering of a different kind–the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships. It’s my one destination race annually, but this was the first not in driving distance. That brings benefits and complications. The benefit was my wife wouldn’t attend, and that meant unsupervised (thanks Ms. Dee-ism) free time. The complication was transporting a bike on an airplane, something I’ve never done before. 

During a chance meeting with a fellow triathlete (unlike me, he’s really good) at my local YMCA, and he offered use of his bike carrier. I welcomed his offer, and told him I would let him know if I would need it. 

As the races (two) were the second weekend of September, at some point I recognized the annual three day music festival hosted by my favorite radio station, WXPN in Philadelphia (I’ve been listening over the internet for almost twenty years) was the following weekend. The plan quickly gelled: fly to Philly, drive (one hour) to Atlantic City, do my Satur-Dee and Sun-Dee races, stay out east for the week, then attend the music festival before flying home. 

When my older son answered that he’d like to go to the festival too (he lives in Brooklyn, a 1.5 hour train ride from Philly), I had my bookends, and all I had to do was fill in the blanks in between. 

At first I consider first flying or driving down to Durham to visit my Dee-loving GG friend Renee to visit for a couple of days, but the timing just wasn’t right. Plan B was doing the math. If it was a 1.5 hour train ride from New York to Philadelphia, it should be a 1.5 hour train ride from Philly to NYC, right???? Three nights/four Dees in NYC would Dee-finitely phill in the blanks nicely. 

Between the time in AC and NYC, I could dress seven days, er, Dees, in a row. The final complication was to efficiently pack enough boy AND girl clothes for ten days, while also dragging around the beast of the bike carrier. Of course, when there’s a will there’s a way, and definitely I had the will. 

I arrived at my hotel in Atlantic City too late to get dressed on Thurs-Dee evening. On Fri-Dee morning and early afternoon I had triathlon related tasks; ride my bike to transition (after putting it back together after taking it out of the beast) and pick up my race packet. Those tasks accomplished, it was beach time. I packed multiple swimsuits, but choice one was my bikini. I had a little more tummy than I would prefer (Kan-Dee nods in agreement), but I bought it to wear it.

I was staying at a hotel with a casino, with no way to get to the beach from my room without walking through roughly a football field’s worth of casino. With my swim covers in place, and my beach towel and string bag (holding my water bottle, phone, and puzzle book) in tow, I strutted through the casino (by strut, read trying to avoid unnecessary attention).

The surf was too rough so swimming wasn’t permitted, not that I was going swimming with my wig anyway. I dipped my tootsies in the surf a couple of times but mostly laid on the beach–which I rarely do–baring all but the bikini and getting sun on the whiter parts of my torso that usually don’t get much exposure to the sun. I stuck it out for a couple hours, doing my math puzzles and enjoying the sun and breeze–and taking a few pictures, of course.

It was too early for dinner so I changed into a bra top, a crop top, and skirt, and walked to the local outlet mall. Like most bricks and mortar shopping locations these days, the stores were mostly void of customers.

After an hour or so, having made the rounds and finding nothing worth buying, I returned to my hotel, and changed into a nice summer dress and heels, to have dinner at the pizza restaurant in the casino. I did a bit of carbo loading, and returned to my hotel room, as I had a 4:45 AM wakeup call to make the race start.

Day two–Satur-Dee–next Sun-Dee.