Angela Ruggiero: Official Website :: Olympics Ice Hockey, Event Speaker, Hockey Camp Coach, Apprentice Candidate

China, Houston, LA, Detroit...frequent flier miles here I come!

April 17, 2006

I love to travel, and recently, I have been racking up the frequent flyer miles. My journey to China was absolutely amazing. It was a chance to spend some time away from my cell phone, time to relax and reflect, and an opportunity to visit one of the most ancient places in the world. My single favorite part of the trip was going to the Great Wall of China and seeing the beautiful mountains in the background. The people at the YMCA also made my trip second to none (shout out to Amy, Julie, Ray, Chris, and Liu-shin, and Audrey!). The flight home was much longer than I anticipated and my back cramped up a bit. As an athlete, I knew to stretch, stretch and stretch.... but even Olympic Athletes knot up if they are bad to their bodies. My sweet sister Pam and my mom picked me up from the long trip home, only to put me backs in the same spot a day later. I was heading to Houston!

I want to thank Henry Ford Health Systems, GE, and NASA for a great trip. Dr. Scott Dulchavsky and his entire crew were so friendly and professional. I spent the first day training at NASA's headquarters so that I could go on the weightless wonder, or the C-9 aircraft that does huge parabolas in the air, and in the process, makes you feel weightless. I went through the same training as any Navy Pilot or personnel that would be flying in a C-9. I took a few hours of science classes and learned all about gases, oxygen equipment, pressure, atmospheres... and other science principles that I would need. At the end of the day, all the students were put in a pressurized chamber, where we were exposed to the oxygen-depleted air that you would encounter if you were 25,000 ft in the air. In this, we were able to recognize our hypoxia signs or signals. After 5 minutes, we immediately put our 100% oxygen masks back on again. I was a little dizzy, but it was nonetheless, a cool thing to do and experience.

The very next day I was off and away with Henry Ford and our experiments in the sky. For the first 10 parabolas, I was able to "float" just like the astronauts would in space. I was letting my feet float and then kicking off of the ceiling ever so gently so that I would float back down. It was amazing! At the end, our very kind pilots also let us feel what it would be like on the moon, with 1/6 the gravity, and on Mars, with 1/3rd the gravity. I am going to try to get some video up so you can see me "floating" ASAP. My sister Pam was with me in Houston. We took a tour of the NASA training grounds (Thank you Elisca and Shannon) and even had a personal tour from the very kind and impressive Astronaut Donald Thomas. He has been on four shuttle missions, as a member of Columbia and Discovery. I was truly humbled in his presence. To hear personal stories of going into space and some of his missions was astonishing.

We were able to see the mission control centers for both the space station and for shuttle missions, including the very room where they directed the Apollo mission home (like in Apollo 13). We were also fortunate enough to see the mock ups of a shuttle and the current space station. Astronauts use these centers to train on the earth for the various conditions that they maight encounter in space. It is sort of a trial center where they can test out their training and emergency responses.

My journey home only lasted a few days...enough to cheer on Billy and his team, the Motor City Mechanics, who just qualified for the playoffs! Billy played great in the time he was in net. We had a great Easter dinner with my family and now I am off to LA for a benefit that the Women's Sports Foundation is hosting in Beverly Hills. Sir Elton John, Geena Davis, Bob Iger, and Billie Jean King, among others, will be in black tie to celebrate "The Billies," a program recognizing extraordinary contributions in the media's portrayal of women in sports. Obviously the media is an interregnal part of making women's sports successful, so I was happy to accept the invitation from the WSF for the event to show my support.

I hope all my readers are having a wonderful spring. There are still a few spots available for my hockey camp in Michigan this summer...so if you are going to be in the area, sign up! I promise that it will be a ton of fun!

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