Day 41

Today was an absolutely beautiful day! Mid-60s all day, sun shining, and we all felt great. This morning we got moving and stopped by Avery Town Hall to say goodbye and thanks to our friends we had met yesterday. They told us we should hit up the diner down the road for breakfast. We weren't sure if we were going to, until we realized our GPS was dead. We saw breakfast as a chance to charge it up so we could make sure we made it to our destination. We entered the diner and were immediately welcomed by the locals. Lynn, the secretary of Avery came in and told us lunch was on her this morning, we greatly appreciated it. There was a small group of older gentleman enjoying their morning coffee and talking about the latest news stories. The men were very interested in our trip, and we discussed their traveling past. One man told us we wouldn't want to leave San Diego when we see all the fine looking ladies on the beach.

We finished up breakfast and headed out of town. We stopped to talk to The Mayor and Lynn before we left, and they told us folks from the Clarksville (about 16 miles away) wanted to meet up with us when we came through. We took down their numbers and made our way down route 82. It took us a little while to get going since we had a bigger than normal breakfast, but we eventually started running around 9am. Every day we get stronger and stronger which makes the days so much more enjoyable. We moved at a really good pace and made it to Clarksville a little before noon. We met up with Diane, the head of The Chamber of Commerce, and Mayor Ann. We talked for a while about the run and the history of Clarksville. The city recently applied for Main Street Status which has allowed them to receive many grants to help revamp the downtown area. It was a beautiful downtown area with unique shops and a very nice town square. We immediately hit it off with the two and they brought us out to lunch at The Italian Bistro. Italian places are pretty rare down here, at least where we've gone through, so it was a nice change. I got some delicious Chicken Parm which Andy didn't think I could finish. We explained to our hosts how we've got a lot of pride in what we eat. If someone doesn't finish their meal we usually make fun of them for the rest of the day, you gotta get in your calories and you gotta get in your Gs. While we ate, we discussed how it was too bad we couldn't stay here for the night, since we had a lot of possible places we could stay. The Mayor told us we could even stay in the High School for the night, which has been a dream of ours since we started. We discussed the pros and cons of staying, and decided it was in our best interest to stick around and see what this town has to offer. Today was supposed to be a 30 mile day and tomorrow a 17 miler, so we figured we'd just swap the mileage, and still end up in our destination for tomorrow afternoon in Paris.

After lunch we explored the town some more and mailed home some souvenirs we got from the chamber of commerce. We caused a minor stir at the post office when everyone found out what we were doing. They were all pretty excited for us and wished us luck. As we left we were flagged down by an elderly women. It was a 91 year old women known around town as "Honey". Honey told us she heard about our trip and was very interested in it as she used to be a runner. We swapped running stories with her, and she even told us about her days as a wing-walker on a bi-plane. I tell ya you never know what to expect to find in these towns, and that's why we all love this trip. Every day there's a unique story we'll never forget. All the blogs and all the pictures really don't do this journey justice, you gotta get out here and be a part of this. We walked around town some more and decided to check out the local wood working shop. As we walked by a guy from the post office was unloading a large piece of wood (half of a tree) and he had told the man who owns the shop about us. We were glad to have an in with this guy since we had walked by before and really wanted to explore the place. We helped them unload the wood since it looked like they needed a hand. It felt good to help a stranger since so many have been helping us. We got the OK to look around the shop and it was really interesting. This guy is talented!

Once we were done exploring we made our way back to the chamber of commerce and figured out the details of staying in the high school. We made it in and had our first shower in two days, it was glorious! Yesterday Andy and I joked about how we wouldn't have cable that night and would miss out on the new episode of Rob & Big. We weren't really that upset, but Ken took it as us being too attached to pop-culture, and not being true to the road. Since this instance Andy and I have made it a point to talk as much about Rob & Big as possible just to annoy Ken. When we found we had wireless Internet I decided to check out MTV.com to see if we could watch last nights episode, we could. We were super excited, half because we knew it would bother Ken, and half because we got to see the episode! Those two guys have the life, they dropped about $2500 on remote control helicopters, only to crash them within a day or two. Since then we've relaxing and reflecting on how great the last 41 days have been. I'm so happy I'm out here, and so happy we've been fortunate enough to meet all these amazing people along the way. We're going to get to sleep pretty early tonight since we have to move out of here before the students and faculty get here, around 7:15am. An early start definitely won't hurt us tomorrow since we've got a 30 mile day, and we're looking at some rain in the mid-afternoon.

About two months ago Ken and I visited Lipsky at his home in Long Island. We talked to his dad, an avid himself, about the run. Mr. Lipsky was very excited about our trip and checked out the website. The next day he told us his old college roommate Tommy Lewis lived in Paris, Texas and that he had recently gotten back in touch with him. He told Tommy about our trip and he was very excited to meet up with us and take us into his home. I can vividly remember Mr. Lipsky telling us we had a place to stay in Paris, and thinking about how far away Texas seemed. We've come such a long way and things are going so much better than any of could have ever dreamed. We can't wait to meet up with the Lewis family and enjoy a well deserved day off. Rumor has it Tommy is hooking us up with a set of wheels for our day off, do I smell "The Rambler 2"?

Follow your dreams...right now!
-Durkin