Day 60

This morning we woke up at our usual 7am. Andy came into my room to wake me up and said that I "looked lost" in my King size bed I slept in last night. I was sleeping diagonally. We all got ourselves dressed and got the joggers packed for the day. Thressa Harp prepared us, what we all agreed on, the best breakfast to date on our trip. This is quite the statement as we are 60 days into our journey and we have had 60 OTHER breakfasts to compete with...but this one was the best. She prepared us: waffles, cinnamon buns, scrambled eggs, biscuits, a fruit spread (oranges, strawberries, grapefruit, apples, bananas.) Needless to say, we were filled up and ready to go for the day. Thanks to the Harp family once again for giving us a wonderful breakfast. The dinner last night was also exceptional. The company was so incredible, it was nice talking to everyone. Hopefully we will be meeting up with you all sometime in the near or distant future.

So Thressa drove us to the downtown area. She took a picture of us in front of the scrolling marquee for their local newspaper and we were on our way. We walked out of town and were immediately presented with a very long and big uphill climb. We walked for a while longer than we usually do in the morning today. We usually walk for a good 20 minutes or so to get ourselves mentally and physically ready for the day. Today, the hill kept going and going, so we walked for about an hour before we reached the top and started our running for the day at around 9:40.

It seems as if I am the only one that ever talks about this, because I think it's only been the worst on the days that I write our blog...but the wind today was ATROCIOUS!! Andy said he had looked at the forecast for today, and it didn't have a "partly cloudy" symbol or a "sunny" symbol even...it just said "Windy" and it had a picture of a fierce gust of wind. That is exactly what we got today. I found myself, when it wasn't my turn to push the jogger, shielding myself from the wind by drafting behind Durkin or Andy. It was unbelievable how windy it was today. I remember thinking to myself: "This is the strongest wind I have ever run through" and right as I thought that to myself, the wind got another burst of energy and I was almost blown backwards! We joked about how we should just stop right where we were (as we have reached the halfway point) and run back to Savannah, GA! Don't worry though, we'll rough it out and keep going through anything that comes our way. Most people that have run across the country, as we have found out, run from West to East. We figure that this is because of the wind patterns going from West to East as well. the way we're doing it...we're running directly into the wind out here.

Halfway through the day, we stopped and walked for about 20 minutes as we ate some fantastic sandwiches that we're prepared by thressa! Once again, thank you for everything that you helped us out with. It was awesome!

So by the end of the day, we were pretty much spent from running 25 miles into the wind. I was very glad to see town...even though it seemed to take much longer to reach the water tower than I initially thought it would take us when I first saw it. I figured we would be into town in around 20 minutes when I first saw that tower...it ended up being more like an hour and 20 minutes.

We got into town and were interviewed by a Fox station in Lubbock, TX. As soon as we were done with that, we went into City Hall and they immediately hooked us up with some showers next door in the fire department. When we were all dressed and clean, we headed over to the community center and library. They have offered for us to stay inside for the night. As you can see, they have Internet. They also have a carpeted floor for us to lay down and sleep on tonight. Our streak of not camping out in Texas continues! A little later, Jerry Webster, who has helped us out since we came into town, is going to pick us up and drive us to a local eatery...I believe the name is Jollytown!! I am super excited about the name and also to fill my tummy with goods.

Tonight, we will probably relax a bit. There is a TV in the room where we are staying and the ONLY movie around is "The Sandlot." The Sandlot is about a kid named Scotty Smalls who moves to a new neighborhood with his mom and stepdad, and wants to learn to play baseball. The neighborhood baseball guru Rodriquez takes Smalls under his wing, and soon he's part of the local baseball buddies. They fall into adventures involving baseball, treehouse sleep-ins, the desirous lifeguard at the local pool, the snooty rival ball team, and the travelling fair. Beyond the fence at the back of the sandlot menaces a legendary ball-eating dog called The Beast, and the kids inevitably must deal with him.

The tag line for this movie is as follows: "They're more than a team. They're the best buddies in the entire history of the world... " I don't know about that. I think Andy, Durkin, and myself could give them a run for their money.

We're pretty excited to watch another children's movie. I don't know if you remember, but the last movie we saw was "Bushwhacked" starring Daniel Stern!

Well, I guess we have QUITE the evening in store. We will let you all know how The Sandlot turns out. Hopefully that dog doesn't kill them or eat all their baseballs!

Have a good one :)
-Ken

P.S. Tomorrow is April Fool's Day, so I plan on getting them somehow. Maybe i'll fill their running shoes with shaving cream or something!! THAT'LL GET 'EM!