I believe you are in the stall and it will take time to climb out of it. You could reheat it in your oven with some broth the day of the get together then wrap and place in cooler and transport to work. Alternately, you could transport in a crock pot and reheating at work. As to your question about lowering the temp, it could dry it out. Wrapping in foil and keeping it warm at 140 might work.