Day 34

Greetings from Strong, AR! The guys called me tonight from their campsite and campfire while looking at a sky full of stars. Durkin said the trio got moving today around 8 am. He said it was kind of hard to get started because the mindset was much different than the previous weeks. The guys had not spent 1 night in Mississippi outside, or looking for a place to stay. They had arranged places to stay, and then the Durkin's generously had them in a hotel for over a week. Andy said it was nice to start the day without knowing where they would stay, as the adventure was back, and the guys were back in the swing of things.

Most of the day's run was through a wildlife preserve. The road was lined with huge trees, so it gave some real nice shade on the 65 and sunny day. I asked if it was a shirtless one, and Durkin assured me that it was. All three guys were very excited about the shoulder of the road today, as it was about 10 wide according to Andy. Other than the trees, the excellent weather, and the gigantic shoulder - nothing too exciting happened.

They rolled into Strong this afternoon, to find not all that much. They got some grub at Rachel's Diner. Durkin said he had an amazing pulled pork sandwich. After they grabbed some food, they moved on to the Post Office to pick up their second mail day's gifts. Ken got an amazing care package from his girlfriend Claire (nice work ClaireTown!) Andy got one from his parents as well. This included a new cell phone, as Andy's old one could not endure the Nation. Between these two, Durkin said they got some really good food. Unfortunately, Kaitlyn's package did not make it (it's not your fault Gigs!) After the nice gesture from back home, they decided to move a little closer to the next town in search of somewhere to stay.

The guys ended up meeting Kevin Black who hooked them up with a place to pitch their tent and helped them get the first campfire of the trip going. Ken was especially excited to get it going, as campfire's are his favorite thing in the entire universe. The morale of the team was very high tonight, and for me that was very nice to hear. As Ken said yesterday, they have a bunch of contacts for the next couple days and that will be very exciting. Check back to see how Arkansas treats `em!

Rick

This is Babs, Rick's mom . Rick is home with us for a few days and I just wanted to say that it was so awesome to talk with Andy today for the first time in a month. We are so proud of Nationrun! You are all on the most amazing journey and we look forward to reading the daily updates everyday. My entire office reads them daily! Hawk says" monster mash" to Matt, he needs all of you for partners in foosball and golf ball string ladder (House came up with that name) cause no one plays with him unless you guys are here. I miss "my boys!"

Babs