Day 54

We woke up at about 7:00am this morning. I had the most wonderful night sleep EVER last night. I can't even describe the comfort radiating from that room I slept in. It was really nice. I actually have never felt so at home yet on this trip :)

Greg and Angie made us a really great breakfast that consisted of eggs, breakfast burritos, waffles, and orange juice! We ate as much as we could and finished packing up the joggers for the day. I strapped up my brand new Saucony shoes for the first time to see how they ran for the day. Their first test would be a 33 mile run from Throckmorton, TX to Haskell, TX! Durkin also put on his new shoes...Andy's shoes arrived today in Haskell, so he would have to wait one more day to put on those new Saucony sweets!

We got moving around 8:30 after a stop at the gas station to get some Gatorade. The sky was crystal clear...but as soon as we got out of town into the open expanse...the winds came and they did not let up all day.

We moved at a pretty good pace for the first hour or so, and at this point the wind was really starting to break us down. It was right in our face the entire time, and it felt like at times I wasn't even moving at all! We decided to run until 11 o'clock and take a rest. We all actually passed out for a good half an hour. I literally fell asleep!

At 11:30, we hopped back on the road. Today's run was very flat with some rolling hills every now and again. It was broken up, in my mind, by some very large segments of land. We would reach the top of a hill, and we could see for MILES!! Durkin and I at one point guessed how long it would be until we reached the top of the tallest hill on the horizon. Durkin guessed 25 minutes, and I guessed around 35 minutes. It ended up being a solid hour! That wasn't even the longest segment we ran today. The landscape is really unfolding and our horizons are becoming farther and farther out there. At one point, I thought there was no end to the land I was looking at.

Back to the wind, in case you forgot....we were dealing with like 30 mph winds at least! We were feeling pretty beat at one point in the day...and I was kind of feeling defeated...when I looked up into the sky and saw a bird flying into the wind. This thing was flapping its wings with all its heart yet was making ABSOLUTELY no ground...or air I should say. For a good 10 seconds the three of us ran and watched this bird try so hard and could not defeat the wind...it eventually gave up and flew with the wind the other direction. I laughed and laughed because it was QUITE a funny sight to see. Unlike the bird, though, we kept marching westward. No wind, no obstacle is going to keep us or block us from reaching that Pacific Ocean. In my opinion if an obstacle is presented to us that tries to stop us...we will make sure that we defeat it...most likely in humorous fashion...in fact...we may destroy it. AT no point will we ever turn our backs on our goal and head back east. For some reason...this funny little bird got me going real good and I felt pretty good for the rest of the day.

Each of us had our ups and downs today. Andy especially, was feeling warn down for most of the day. He attributed his exhaustion to our races yesterday (maybe not the best idea on our parts...all out racing while we try and run across the country!!) By the way, do not be alarmed by the fact that Durkin won yesterday...I was pushing a 60 pound jogger and I could not open up into sprint mechanics like Durkin. I will challenge him to any sprint race and I will beat him in an embarrassing fashion....aight?! And I will make sure that my peoples are there to witness such an event of this magnitude!!

BACK TO TODAY..Andy is warn down....So we had about 10 miles left on the day. All of a sudden, a white car pulled up beside us and started yelling at us with a huge grin on his face! Andy turned to him and said "hello" and didn't think anything of it. After a double...or even a triple take, Andy realized that it was none other than his brother Jim and Jim's girlfriend Kathy!! Andy was completely caught off guard and loved the surprise! They took one of our joggers so we would only have to push one for the last 10 miles of the day. We did the last segment of the day without any complaints or setbacks. We arrived in Haskell at around 3pm.

We were starving, so we headed over to DQ for some lunch. all three of us were starving...so we had a pretty large order between us. We sat down and got our food...and Kathy had ordered a blizzard. DQ has a company policy that they must flip the blizzard upside down before they give it to you or it's free. Up until now, every blizzard that we have ordered has been flipped upside down in this way...I believe it is to show us that its made correctly and at the right viscosity so it doesn't come out. Well, when the waitress delivered Kathy her blizzard, she did not flip it upside down. Kathy was not aware of this loophole, but I was. When the waitress left, Andy, Matt and I all got to "a-talkin" and we decided that we would try and get some free bizzards. We placed our order, and sure enough when they were delivered, they did not flip them over. We thought we were home free, and Andy went to present our case. When we asked if they were free, the waitress responded with "Oh, we don't do that anymore..." So were were very disappointed. As a side note to this little tale...Durkin, just for kicks, flipped it upside down over my head as he posed for a picture. The ice cream started to slide out of the cup onto my head...but Durkin BARELY flipped it right side up in time to escape the ice cream from hitting my head. We thought it was funny, because that proved to us that the ice cream was made INCORRECTLY!!! We exited the DQ quite dissatisfied and made our way back to the hotel.

Jim's brother is with us and we are about to head out to grab some dinner and perhaps find out if there's anything to do in this town! We have a scheduled day off tomorrow, so we will be spending it with him and Kathy. We are all pretty excited to have them around. They will be here tonight and tomorrow!

All in all, today was an okay day. It was good to get it behind us, but everyday gets us a couple centimeters on a map closer to that little dot that is San Diego. But...as we have discovered on this trip...It really isn't about going from Savannah, GA to San Diego, CA anymore...it's all of this in between stuff that has changed our lives. It's all the people that make up the excitement in our day that has made this four month sacrifice worthwhile. I am very glad to be out here, enjoying this trip. Keep following us on our journey, because I know something memorable is always just a couple miles ahead...I just never know what its going to be.

Ken