The morning began where last night left off - Andy had an enormous headache, Matt still felt under the weather, and Ken felt amazing! Regardless of how they felt, they wanted to make strides toward arriving at the Grand Canyon. Carl made Andy some eggs, and Matt and Ken had some cereal. After a small bite to eat, Carl and his son Dana drove the guys back out to where they left off the day before. He said if they had any problems that they could call, he would pick them up, and they could stay there again. Thanks Carl! He left them with some PB&J sandwiches and some apples, and the guys were on their way.
The guys were excited to get moving today, because they really felt they had spent a lot of time in Tuba City. The guys had an awesome time in Tuba City, but were very excited to explore the remaining part of the country on the NationRun route. They spent most of the day walking because they were not feeling as well as they would have liked. There was one positive thing to walking - they got an even closer look at all the incredible scenery along the road! Andy said that these large, sharp looking rocks would just come out of nowhere! They could even see the Grand Canyon in the distance! Andy said it looked forever away, but they will be there soon! They also passed and looked at real dinosaur footprints! This is the only place in North America where you can find such things, and the only other place in the world is in China! Andy said that these were really neat, and it was interesting to think that they had withstood millions of years of weather and erosion and still were around!
As they left the reservation that the footprints were on, another dog began to follow them. Andy was not comfortable at all with this dog, but Ken seemed to grow attached quickly. A little while later, Ken told the dog to go home. I think Ken was missing Big O, and the new friend only made him sad. The dog left, and the guys moved on. They also went down a few big hills during the journey. They finished about 800 feet lower in elevation today! The guys did a lot of road switching today as well. They began on RT 150, turned on to RT 160 to travel down the biggest hill of the day, and then on to RT 89. Once on RT 89 they could see Flagstaff, AZ and the San Francisco Mountains in the distance. These were snow capped, even in the hot weather they guys were traveling in! These mountains have the nickname of "The 7 Day Mountains." They are called that because it took Pioneers 7 days traveling 15 miles a day to get there. Andy quickly followed that with, "So we're quicker than pioneers! A-BOOYA!"
They also had a visit from a biker today that was kind of strange. The biker first lectured them on having florescent vests so that traffic could see them.He said, "They are like 10 bucks at Wal-Mart!" The biker did not have one on himself! They caught up to him a bit later and then he told them that they should put a pedometer on the joggers claiming, "They are like 10 bucks at Wal-Mart!" The guys came to the conclusion that he worked at Wal-Mart and only wanted their money!
The day finished by crossing over the Little Colorado River and entering Cameron, AZ. Carl had called ahead to Sister Walberger and the Church of Latterday Saints. They took the guys in and got them out of the wind and hot weather in order to rest up and get healthy! Andy and Ken walked to a restaurant about a half mile away to get some food while Matt passed out. They ate, and got some food to go for later. They planned on getting to bed early tonight and hope that helps with getting healthy.
Tomorrow they will climb about 2,800 feet on their way to arriving in the Grand Canyon! They are very excited about getting here, taking a day or two off, and meeting up with Los! Kyle "Los" Walcott is one of the guys' best friends and now works in Utah. He is going to drive from Utah to meet the guys and see them for the first time in months. They are very excited to see him and see how he is doing since his move out west!
One last thing! Dave and Scott - this is for you. The guys found 11 - count em - ELEVEN Mad Dog 20/20s today! So drink up fellas!
NATION!!!!!!!
- Rick
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Day 88
Today just wasn't in the cards for us. We tried to run, tried to walk, tried everything that we could but it just wasn't happening. We called it a day early and got picked up by Carl after only 8 miles on the road. Durkin did his best to tough it out but we all decided it wasn't worth trying to go any further. We are all still confident that we will be finishing this journey on May 26th but now we have to reshuffle and reschedule a few things. Not a big deal. We'll do what we always do and make changes on the fly. Its the one thing we have come to love about this trip. We never know where we are going to be the next day or what town we might be in. We adapt and change just as the roads below us do. Some days we are up and others we are down but above all we know how to make the best of a tough situation and continue to have a good time exploring this country and the great people that make it up.
I woke up around 5:30am to get a drink. Durkin was also awake and said to me "today we run". He was feeling better and thought it would be possible to make it to Cameron so we gave it a shot. We woke up around 6:30 and began packing up our gear as Amanda cooked us breakfast. She made us a traditional Jewish dish usually prepared during passover. It was almost like a pancake as we ate it with syrup. We also had cereal and sandwiches for the road. Around 7:30 Pat picked us up and we headed back to where we stopped running yesterday.
We were literally on the top of a huge hill overlooking Tuba City about 6 miles below. In the distance we could see the horizon and giant peaks of the Grand Canyon. It has been extremely hazy the last week or so and we were told it was a result of the fires and dust storms that have been taking place around the world.
We walked for about 4-5 miles directly downhill and enjoyed the scenery. There was road construction taking place which made our travel even slower and we all struggled to make it to the top of the hill and reach the heart of Tuba City. We were traveling on the edge of a cliff that overlooked a valley below. Farm fields from the Hopi people are still being used after hundreds of years. It was kind of neat to see and experience first hand.
As we arrived in town we stopped at a gas station to get something to eat. Durkin was not feeling that well at this point and we were deciding what to do. On the way out of the gas station a man came up to us. He asked us about our journey and as we told him about ourselves we all could see his excitement. As we left, he slapped us five and gave us a strong hand pound. It got us all pumped for a few minutes before reality once again sunk in.
After another mile or two we decided to call Carl and get picked up. This sets us back another day but as I already stated we will be making it up one way or another. Back at the house Durkin slept for most of the day. He has just recently started moving around and eating chicken soup. We are going to see how well he feels tomorrow morning and attempt to run again. If not, we will take another day off.
Ken and I watched the hit TV show Planet Earth, specifically Ice World and Caves, this afternoon before walking over to the post office to mail home a few things. It has been a lazy afternoon of watching tv and taking naps. We are currently watching A Beautiful Mind and waiting for dinner. The family has been busy with softball, baseball and t-ball games as the three of us have been watching over the house.
We also played Wii with their four year old son Dana who kept calling Ken "Eric". He showed us how to play cow races and the fishing game. I think Ken was the best personally.
Tomorrow we will try again and hopefully have a better result. Either way we are truly thankful to the Perry family and everyone else who has helped us along the way. I can't imagine where we would be without everyones help.
Wish us luck. We'll see you tomorrow.
-Andy
I woke up around 5:30am to get a drink. Durkin was also awake and said to me "today we run". He was feeling better and thought it would be possible to make it to Cameron so we gave it a shot. We woke up around 6:30 and began packing up our gear as Amanda cooked us breakfast. She made us a traditional Jewish dish usually prepared during passover. It was almost like a pancake as we ate it with syrup. We also had cereal and sandwiches for the road. Around 7:30 Pat picked us up and we headed back to where we stopped running yesterday.
We were literally on the top of a huge hill overlooking Tuba City about 6 miles below. In the distance we could see the horizon and giant peaks of the Grand Canyon. It has been extremely hazy the last week or so and we were told it was a result of the fires and dust storms that have been taking place around the world.
We walked for about 4-5 miles directly downhill and enjoyed the scenery. There was road construction taking place which made our travel even slower and we all struggled to make it to the top of the hill and reach the heart of Tuba City. We were traveling on the edge of a cliff that overlooked a valley below. Farm fields from the Hopi people are still being used after hundreds of years. It was kind of neat to see and experience first hand.
As we arrived in town we stopped at a gas station to get something to eat. Durkin was not feeling that well at this point and we were deciding what to do. On the way out of the gas station a man came up to us. He asked us about our journey and as we told him about ourselves we all could see his excitement. As we left, he slapped us five and gave us a strong hand pound. It got us all pumped for a few minutes before reality once again sunk in.
After another mile or two we decided to call Carl and get picked up. This sets us back another day but as I already stated we will be making it up one way or another. Back at the house Durkin slept for most of the day. He has just recently started moving around and eating chicken soup. We are going to see how well he feels tomorrow morning and attempt to run again. If not, we will take another day off.
Ken and I watched the hit TV show Planet Earth, specifically Ice World and Caves, this afternoon before walking over to the post office to mail home a few things. It has been a lazy afternoon of watching tv and taking naps. We are currently watching A Beautiful Mind and waiting for dinner. The family has been busy with softball, baseball and t-ball games as the three of us have been watching over the house.
We also played Wii with their four year old son Dana who kept calling Ken "Eric". He showed us how to play cow races and the fishing game. I think Ken was the best personally.
Tomorrow we will try again and hopefully have a better result. Either way we are truly thankful to the Perry family and everyone else who has helped us along the way. I can't imagine where we would be without everyones help.
Wish us luck. We'll see you tomorrow.
-Andy
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Day 87
I will recap the days events directly after I give my personal input on some of the events of yesterday.
Yesterday, as you read...we found a dog that followed us for the last 19 miles of the day. I was THRILLED to have this dog, that we named Owen, be with us the entire day! She had such a great attitude...many times she would get distracted by some passing butterfly or some smell coming from the grass off the road a bit...and every now and then I would get worried that she was gone for good...but every single time I would hear the assuring sound of Owen's feet sprinting from behind us on the road and it lifted my spirits knowing she was with us for the long haul! Like Rick said yesterday, we fed Owen every time one of us ate or drank fluids. We found a frisbee that became her drinking bowl. Everything about Owen made me feel so good. I think it was her carefree attitude and spirit that I really connected with. I felt like a little kid again on this trip with her by our side. I was fully prepared to care for her until we reached those shores of San Diego...and I was also fully prepared to bring her home with me back to New York. Andy and Matt told me that they would not pet her until she got a flea bath. They were pretty against having her around...and in the end I think they got the best of me. We dropped her off in the town where she first started following us. I told the guys that I will never forget Owen...and part of me thinks that Owen will never forget the time she spent with us on the open road. She moved up to 4th place on the all time cameo running list in 1 day. There are few regrets I have on this trip...and letting Owen go might have been one of those precious few that I have on our run.
We woke up at around 7 o clock. Juwan's mother, Christine, prepared us some breakfast sandwiches. They were fantastic...By the way, we want to thank Juwan and his entire family for everything that they did to help us out. Much love and thanks for everything. We appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts. So we got on the road at about 8 oclock...but Durkin was feeling under the weather. We only ran for about 3 or so miles until Durkin started feeling really bad. He felt pretty sick all day so we walked the entire day after that.
About 9 miles into the day, we turned around and saw the Special Olympics caravan coming our way. We got really excited! There was a primary police escort..we believed this first barrage of police was to get people out of the way, and then there was the secondary escort, police officers on bikes...we said that these were to talk to the people who were wondering what was "up." Then there was a tertiary row of police escorts right in front of the athlete holding the torch. The olympian was on horseback! The horse was neighing like it was its job! I yelled "Hi Ho Silver!" to myself because this olympian and its horse looked like it was on a mission. They passed us and they went on their way.
Like I said, we were walking all day because Durkin wasn't feeling too hot. We were walking when a local biker named Pat O'Connor passed us and asked us what we were doing. He saw that Durkin was feeling a bit ill, so he asked if he could pick us up a little later. We accepted his offer and we kept walking as he biked back to his house to get his car. About an hour later he returned. We had gone about 20 miles on the day. Pat brought us with his wife Ann to Subway to get some lunch. I got the Chicken and Bacon ranch sub while Andy went with the classic and safe Steak and Cheese submarine. I also added on a white chocolate and macadamia nut cookie and I had ASKED her for a M&M cookie...but, unknowingly to her and to me, gave me a regular chocolate chip cookie. I was mad at first...but then as I saw how gooey the chips of chocolate were, I forgave her. Dr. Peppers were had by all.
Pat drove us to Carl Perry's house from there. Carl is the cross country coach here in Tuba City. Matt had met him the other day when they went to the track meet. As e unloaded all of our stuff, I was quickly distracted into playing some hoops with Carl's son Zach and his neighbor Kerry. Andy and I played some 2-on-2 action with these guys. It was me and Kerry vs. Andy and Zach. I definitely had the height advatage...but Kerry and Andy held the veracity factor. We went up 2-0 right off the bat, but Andy and Zach came back eventually and tied it up at 8's a piece. In the end, Kerry and I defeated Andy and Zach 11-9. It was a pretty close game. I shot a side angle shot that was very Dirk Nowitzki-esque. I was proud of my skills...one could say I had enough to pay the bills...but that's neither here nor there.
Another acquaintance from the Track meet came over to the Perry's house for dinner, Bill Orman. He is a doctor that was worried about Durkin, so he brought over some IV fluids for him, so durkin was hooked up to an IV earlier and got 3 bags of fluids! He was telling us that Durkin should be more hydrated and ready to go tomorrow than me and Andy will be, so look out!
The Perry's cooked up some homemade pizza, which was delicious! Along with the pizza, we had some salad, garlic bread, and some homemade brownies for dessert. Everything was fantastic...it was the best homemade pizza I've ever had. After dinner, we just talked for a while about just about everything you could think about. It was very good company to be with.
Durkin, although he had a pretty rough day out there today, has assured us that he is feeling better and hopefully he is good to go tomorrow. We are officially 3 days away from grand Canyon Village...and only 2 days from actually entering the National Park. I am very excited to see what sights are to come. My mind is ready to be blown away, that's all I'm going to say!
have a good one...sorry for the lateness!!!
Ken
Yesterday, as you read...we found a dog that followed us for the last 19 miles of the day. I was THRILLED to have this dog, that we named Owen, be with us the entire day! She had such a great attitude...many times she would get distracted by some passing butterfly or some smell coming from the grass off the road a bit...and every now and then I would get worried that she was gone for good...but every single time I would hear the assuring sound of Owen's feet sprinting from behind us on the road and it lifted my spirits knowing she was with us for the long haul! Like Rick said yesterday, we fed Owen every time one of us ate or drank fluids. We found a frisbee that became her drinking bowl. Everything about Owen made me feel so good. I think it was her carefree attitude and spirit that I really connected with. I felt like a little kid again on this trip with her by our side. I was fully prepared to care for her until we reached those shores of San Diego...and I was also fully prepared to bring her home with me back to New York. Andy and Matt told me that they would not pet her until she got a flea bath. They were pretty against having her around...and in the end I think they got the best of me. We dropped her off in the town where she first started following us. I told the guys that I will never forget Owen...and part of me thinks that Owen will never forget the time she spent with us on the open road. She moved up to 4th place on the all time cameo running list in 1 day. There are few regrets I have on this trip...and letting Owen go might have been one of those precious few that I have on our run.
We woke up at around 7 o clock. Juwan's mother, Christine, prepared us some breakfast sandwiches. They were fantastic...By the way, we want to thank Juwan and his entire family for everything that they did to help us out. Much love and thanks for everything. We appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts. So we got on the road at about 8 oclock...but Durkin was feeling under the weather. We only ran for about 3 or so miles until Durkin started feeling really bad. He felt pretty sick all day so we walked the entire day after that.
About 9 miles into the day, we turned around and saw the Special Olympics caravan coming our way. We got really excited! There was a primary police escort..we believed this first barrage of police was to get people out of the way, and then there was the secondary escort, police officers on bikes...we said that these were to talk to the people who were wondering what was "up." Then there was a tertiary row of police escorts right in front of the athlete holding the torch. The olympian was on horseback! The horse was neighing like it was its job! I yelled "Hi Ho Silver!" to myself because this olympian and its horse looked like it was on a mission. They passed us and they went on their way.
Like I said, we were walking all day because Durkin wasn't feeling too hot. We were walking when a local biker named Pat O'Connor passed us and asked us what we were doing. He saw that Durkin was feeling a bit ill, so he asked if he could pick us up a little later. We accepted his offer and we kept walking as he biked back to his house to get his car. About an hour later he returned. We had gone about 20 miles on the day. Pat brought us with his wife Ann to Subway to get some lunch. I got the Chicken and Bacon ranch sub while Andy went with the classic and safe Steak and Cheese submarine. I also added on a white chocolate and macadamia nut cookie and I had ASKED her for a M&M cookie...but, unknowingly to her and to me, gave me a regular chocolate chip cookie. I was mad at first...but then as I saw how gooey the chips of chocolate were, I forgave her. Dr. Peppers were had by all.
Pat drove us to Carl Perry's house from there. Carl is the cross country coach here in Tuba City. Matt had met him the other day when they went to the track meet. As e unloaded all of our stuff, I was quickly distracted into playing some hoops with Carl's son Zach and his neighbor Kerry. Andy and I played some 2-on-2 action with these guys. It was me and Kerry vs. Andy and Zach. I definitely had the height advatage...but Kerry and Andy held the veracity factor. We went up 2-0 right off the bat, but Andy and Zach came back eventually and tied it up at 8's a piece. In the end, Kerry and I defeated Andy and Zach 11-9. It was a pretty close game. I shot a side angle shot that was very Dirk Nowitzki-esque. I was proud of my skills...one could say I had enough to pay the bills...but that's neither here nor there.
Another acquaintance from the Track meet came over to the Perry's house for dinner, Bill Orman. He is a doctor that was worried about Durkin, so he brought over some IV fluids for him, so durkin was hooked up to an IV earlier and got 3 bags of fluids! He was telling us that Durkin should be more hydrated and ready to go tomorrow than me and Andy will be, so look out!
The Perry's cooked up some homemade pizza, which was delicious! Along with the pizza, we had some salad, garlic bread, and some homemade brownies for dessert. Everything was fantastic...it was the best homemade pizza I've ever had. After dinner, we just talked for a while about just about everything you could think about. It was very good company to be with.
Durkin, although he had a pretty rough day out there today, has assured us that he is feeling better and hopefully he is good to go tomorrow. We are officially 3 days away from grand Canyon Village...and only 2 days from actually entering the National Park. I am very excited to see what sights are to come. My mind is ready to be blown away, that's all I'm going to say!
have a good one...sorry for the lateness!!!
Ken
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Day 86
I would like to start off tonight by assuring everyone that Ken is feeling 200% better today! He had a rough day yesterday, but was feeling much better by about 6pm last night. He ate a good dinner, got a bunch of sleep and was feeling great today.
The crew woke up around 7 this morning, and had breakfast at Juwan's. After eating, Juwan drove the team to mile marker 376 where they had left off two days ago. Juwan began the day with the guys, running a NationRun official 5.2 miles! Ken said that the view was incredible all day, especially the first 5.2 this morning with Juwan. They continued the recent trend of hilly terrain, but Ken said that the view was awesome from the top of these mesas. Juwan stopped for the day in the village where he grew up, but the guys kept on moving. They would be coming back there to spend the night later, but had some mileage to get done before they called it quits for the day.
With about 19 miles left, the team rolled into Hotevilla, AZ. This is where the NationRun team would gain another member. The guys named him Owen, but called him "Big O" after the McDonald's Dollar Menu commercial. The guys really liked this commercial, and decided that their new companion would have the name of one of the characters in the commercial. Not knowing what the dog might do, the guys attempted to tell the dog to return to its home, but it was persistent and would not leave their side. The guys found a frisbee on the side of the road, and filled it with water for Big O whenever they stopped for a drink. They also gave him part of their sandwiches when they ate, and a little Gatorade. Ken thought that the Gatorade was a must, because Big O needed to replenish his electrolytes too! Big O was definitely a team player during the travel. If someone stopped for any reason, Big O would hurry to the person's side, check if everything was alright, and then return to the front of the caravan to keep moving forward! By the end of the day, Big O began to tire, but that did not stop him from finishing out the day with the guys. Owen ran an official NationRun 19 miles! That puts him ahead of Papa D! The guys said that Owen really raised their spirits today, and they were glad to have him around.
They finished the day at 27 miles, leaving 27 miles for tomorrow's travel to Tuba City. Juwan and Elaine picked the guys up at around 3:30, loaded up their gear and Owen, and headed back to Juwan's village. They stopped in Hotevilla to let Owen back out, and Ken said his goodbyes. Ken was very attached to the dog, and was very sad to see him go. He wanted to go the distance with Owen, and then bring him back home!
On the way home, the crew stopped in Blue Canyon. It was filled with amazing rock formations. This is the place where Elaine grew up. Elaine is a member of the Navajo tribe and Juwan a member of the Hopi tribe. In 1896, a treaty was signed that let the Navajo move on to and live on the Hopi land. In 1996, this 100 year treaty expired, and the Navajo people asked to leave the Hopi land. The guys drove down into the canyon and saw where Elaine's grandmother had gone to school when she was a young girl. They also moved a fence and went right up to the edge of the canyon for a spectacular view. They took lots of pictures, and as soon as they can upload them, you will be able to see them!
The crew then went back to Juwan's village where they would spend the night. Old Oraibi is the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the United States. It was settled sometime in the 1150s and has had people there ever since! The town has limited electricity and water, but does have Alltel Wireless service, and that's how I talked to Ken! They went to a local store to get a late lunch/dinner. They all got 12 inch subs at Kyaotsmovi Kiikotsmori Huuyanki (sorry if I butchered the spelling of the store!). Ken was amazed by the length of the name of the store, but was so happy because the sub was excellent!
Tomorrow the guys will run to Tuba City, AZ. There is a Special Olympics relay currently happening that will also end in Tuba City tomorrow. The guys and the relay will be arriving in the city on the same road. The team was told that if the relay catches them (they have a 30 mile head start) they would be able to participate in the relay and carry the official torch! They are very excited about the chance to participate, and are making arrangements so that they can meet up with the relay before it reaches Tuba City! Ken also told me that they have been told Verizon service will return once they arrive in Tuba City. So if you are trying to contact the team, tomorrow might be your best shot!
4 Days to the Grand Canyon!
- Rick
The crew woke up around 7 this morning, and had breakfast at Juwan's. After eating, Juwan drove the team to mile marker 376 where they had left off two days ago. Juwan began the day with the guys, running a NationRun official 5.2 miles! Ken said that the view was incredible all day, especially the first 5.2 this morning with Juwan. They continued the recent trend of hilly terrain, but Ken said that the view was awesome from the top of these mesas. Juwan stopped for the day in the village where he grew up, but the guys kept on moving. They would be coming back there to spend the night later, but had some mileage to get done before they called it quits for the day.
With about 19 miles left, the team rolled into Hotevilla, AZ. This is where the NationRun team would gain another member. The guys named him Owen, but called him "Big O" after the McDonald's Dollar Menu commercial. The guys really liked this commercial, and decided that their new companion would have the name of one of the characters in the commercial. Not knowing what the dog might do, the guys attempted to tell the dog to return to its home, but it was persistent and would not leave their side. The guys found a frisbee on the side of the road, and filled it with water for Big O whenever they stopped for a drink. They also gave him part of their sandwiches when they ate, and a little Gatorade. Ken thought that the Gatorade was a must, because Big O needed to replenish his electrolytes too! Big O was definitely a team player during the travel. If someone stopped for any reason, Big O would hurry to the person's side, check if everything was alright, and then return to the front of the caravan to keep moving forward! By the end of the day, Big O began to tire, but that did not stop him from finishing out the day with the guys. Owen ran an official NationRun 19 miles! That puts him ahead of Papa D! The guys said that Owen really raised their spirits today, and they were glad to have him around.
They finished the day at 27 miles, leaving 27 miles for tomorrow's travel to Tuba City. Juwan and Elaine picked the guys up at around 3:30, loaded up their gear and Owen, and headed back to Juwan's village. They stopped in Hotevilla to let Owen back out, and Ken said his goodbyes. Ken was very attached to the dog, and was very sad to see him go. He wanted to go the distance with Owen, and then bring him back home!
On the way home, the crew stopped in Blue Canyon. It was filled with amazing rock formations. This is the place where Elaine grew up. Elaine is a member of the Navajo tribe and Juwan a member of the Hopi tribe. In 1896, a treaty was signed that let the Navajo move on to and live on the Hopi land. In 1996, this 100 year treaty expired, and the Navajo people asked to leave the Hopi land. The guys drove down into the canyon and saw where Elaine's grandmother had gone to school when she was a young girl. They also moved a fence and went right up to the edge of the canyon for a spectacular view. They took lots of pictures, and as soon as they can upload them, you will be able to see them!
The crew then went back to Juwan's village where they would spend the night. Old Oraibi is the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the United States. It was settled sometime in the 1150s and has had people there ever since! The town has limited electricity and water, but does have Alltel Wireless service, and that's how I talked to Ken! They went to a local store to get a late lunch/dinner. They all got 12 inch subs at Kyaotsmovi Kiikotsmori Huuyanki (sorry if I butchered the spelling of the store!). Ken was amazed by the length of the name of the store, but was so happy because the sub was excellent!
Tomorrow the guys will run to Tuba City, AZ. There is a Special Olympics relay currently happening that will also end in Tuba City tomorrow. The guys and the relay will be arriving in the city on the same road. The team was told that if the relay catches them (they have a 30 mile head start) they would be able to participate in the relay and carry the official torch! They are very excited about the chance to participate, and are making arrangements so that they can meet up with the relay before it reaches Tuba City! Ken also told me that they have been told Verizon service will return once they arrive in Tuba City. So if you are trying to contact the team, tomorrow might be your best shot!
4 Days to the Grand Canyon!
- Rick
Friday, April 25, 2008
Day 85
Today Andy and Matt woke up and packed up the gear. When they tried to wake up Ken, he was completely drained and told them he was feeling very queasy. Ken was not feeling well and did not eat anything of substance the day before, and it looked like it carried into today. Rather than push Ken's condition and possibly make it worse, the guys took an unscheduled day off. They are currently playing around with the remaining off days and where they should take them. They want to spend two nights at the Grand Canyon, so they may just skip the last day off on Day 112 and keep on going straight to the Pacific. We will keep you all updated!
Ken spent the day at Juwan's house sleeping and trying to recover so they can get back on the road tomorrow. Andy and Matt decided to go to a track meet with Juwan to watch Hopi High School compete. There was a problem with the entry system, so the Hopi athletes were unable to get entered into the meet until this morning. They all ended up in the slow heats, which would make thier tasks more difficult. The guys were excited to watch because this would be the last meet before post season competition. They were sure they would see some top notch performances.
The meet was in Winslow, Arizona. That's right folks the home of the famous corner in Winslow, Arizona mentioned in one of the Eagles smash hits. They actually drove right past the corner that the band talks about in the song, "Take it Easy." Matt said it was pretty cool to see something that he has heard about for so long. Matt and Andy both said that the scenery on the way to Winslow was incredible. There were awesome rock formations and plateaus all over the place. They drove past a mountain range that was complete with snow caps. The beautiful scenery continues!
They spent the rest of the day at the track meet watching Hopi tear it up. They even saw an athlete who looked like good friend Ryan Pennell, who they called "Bizzaro Pennell." Bizzaro Pennell was in the 4x800m relay. When he gained control of the baton, he took the lead. A little while later in the leg, he began to lose the lead. Matt quickly called the real Ryan and told him to pick it up! As Ryan answered the phone, Bizzaro Pennell took the lead back and gapped the field in a huge move! Looks like the phone call was just in time! During the meet, the guys met many people who were very interested in what they were doing. It was a venue filled with runners, so they had a lot to talk about. They also met some people that live along the route that has yet to be traveled, and these people have offered to help them out as the team rolls through.
It was a pretty laid back day, but Matt and Andy both said it was nice to meet so many great people and watch some great competition. They would also like to send their congratulations to Marty Nicholson who ran the 10,000m at the SUNYAC Conference Championships today and placed seventh! Nice job Marty! DRIVE THAT BUS!
The guys think they will be without cell phone service for the next couple days, until they arrive at the Grand Canyon. Keep checking the blog to see how they are doing! Thanks for all the support!
Keep movin!
- Rick
Ken spent the day at Juwan's house sleeping and trying to recover so they can get back on the road tomorrow. Andy and Matt decided to go to a track meet with Juwan to watch Hopi High School compete. There was a problem with the entry system, so the Hopi athletes were unable to get entered into the meet until this morning. They all ended up in the slow heats, which would make thier tasks more difficult. The guys were excited to watch because this would be the last meet before post season competition. They were sure they would see some top notch performances.
The meet was in Winslow, Arizona. That's right folks the home of the famous corner in Winslow, Arizona mentioned in one of the Eagles smash hits. They actually drove right past the corner that the band talks about in the song, "Take it Easy." Matt said it was pretty cool to see something that he has heard about for so long. Matt and Andy both said that the scenery on the way to Winslow was incredible. There were awesome rock formations and plateaus all over the place. They drove past a mountain range that was complete with snow caps. The beautiful scenery continues!
They spent the rest of the day at the track meet watching Hopi tear it up. They even saw an athlete who looked like good friend Ryan Pennell, who they called "Bizzaro Pennell." Bizzaro Pennell was in the 4x800m relay. When he gained control of the baton, he took the lead. A little while later in the leg, he began to lose the lead. Matt quickly called the real Ryan and told him to pick it up! As Ryan answered the phone, Bizzaro Pennell took the lead back and gapped the field in a huge move! Looks like the phone call was just in time! During the meet, the guys met many people who were very interested in what they were doing. It was a venue filled with runners, so they had a lot to talk about. They also met some people that live along the route that has yet to be traveled, and these people have offered to help them out as the team rolls through.
It was a pretty laid back day, but Matt and Andy both said it was nice to meet so many great people and watch some great competition. They would also like to send their congratulations to Marty Nicholson who ran the 10,000m at the SUNYAC Conference Championships today and placed seventh! Nice job Marty! DRIVE THAT BUS!
The guys think they will be without cell phone service for the next couple days, until they arrive at the Grand Canyon. Keep checking the blog to see how they are doing! Thanks for all the support!
Keep movin!
- Rick
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Day 84
First, we would like apologize for the lack of phone calls to our family and friends. We have not had service over the last few days and the phone cards we purchased turned out to either be a complete waste of money or have taken all our minutes on a mere three phone calls for a total of maybe 8 minutes. So much for 500 anytime minutes. We want everyone to know that we are in good company and doing fine.
We woke up early this morning, around 6:15, as the sun was already out. We were all kind of excited to see this because if we ever decide to get out early we will have the advantage of an early sun. After saying goodbye to Lolini's daughter, who caught the school bus, we packed up the car and drove back into town and to our starting point for the day. We left off at a local cafe and were all excited to grab breakfast here as well. I was the winner on the morning as I dominated "The Whole Thing" which consisted of two pancakes, two eggs, sausage, bacon, ham and hash browns. Durkin and Ken both got pancakes and Ken topped his off with blueberry syrup.
After breakfast we walked next door to the grocery store to stock up on Gatorade for the day. Ken and Matt both decided they also needed to purchase a pair of sunglasses for $2. Take my word when I tell you they look ridiculous. Ironically, Matt dropped his current running pair of glasses on the ground and stepped on them. He scratched the lenses pretty good and wasn't happy to say the least. I thought it was very funny that he bought a joke pair of glasses and seconds later destroyed his pride and joy. He tried running with the $2 pair for a while before realizing it was a big mistake and wore his scratched pair the rest of the day.
We were only traveling 27 miles today since Juwan offered to pick us up and house us for the night so we were in no real rush. He would not be able to get us until 3:30 so for the first 3 miles we walked in silence. I know personally I was day dreaming about a lot of things. I was picturing what it would be like that last week or that last day of our journey. I do not know what the guys were thinking about but I am sure it was something similar. Finally, around 9am we started to run. The morning went by fast and I was really enjoying the run. The scenery has just been amazing lately and today was no different. Off in the distance we could see huge plateau's and to our right there were giant Mesa. We could see where we drove last night and the steepness of the road we drove on. I could even see the small houses that stood on top.
With about 6 miles to go in the day we began to climb a huge hill that last for about 3 miles. It rose and rose as the road curled around the mesa giving us an incredible view of the valley below us and where we had just traveled from. On the left was nothing but sheer rock that climbed forever and to the right was a cliff that dropped off suddenly. There was a walkway on the far side which I ran on while taking pictures of everything. We will try and get those up soon. If we had more time they would be up tonight. About halfway up there was a traditional spring sticking out of the rock. We took a few minutes to check it out and enjoy the view and later found out from Juwan that the local village still uses it for ceremonies.
We reached the top and ran on flat land for a few miles before heading back down another steep hill. Before we left however we stopped at the cultural center to look around and get something to eat. This hour break really refreshed us and when we got running again we all felt amazing. We planned on getting picked up at 3:30 at mile marker 376 and the second we arrived Juwan pulled up in his truck. The timing could not have been any better.
On the way back to his house we talked to him about his cross country team at the high school. He is the assistance coach and it was great hearing what type of training and the different workouts the kids do. For those of you that do not know Hopi High is the current 18 time Arizona State Men's Cross Country Defending Champions. Led by the legendary coach Rick Baker this team is something to fear. I was amazed when I first heard how many consecutive titles they had won but after talking with Juwan and Rick I could see why.
Later in the night we had dinner with Juwan and his family as well as Rick and his. They made a delicious pasta dinner with traditional blue marbles or "pa-vel-piki" in Hopi. We all enjoyed the meal and the company was even better. We watched LeBron and the Cavs get crushed as we talked running for most of the night. Rick was a really interesting guy and we all enjoyed getting to know him. They have a track meet tomorrow which they may or may not be registered in. I guess they will find out when they arrive. Best of luck to Rick and all the Bruins for the rest of the season.
Juwan brought us over to the high school to make a few late late late night calls and update the website. As I said earlier, if we had more time we would have got some pictures up. Sorry about that. Tomorrow we are running another 27 mile and getting picked up by Juwan once again. We will be staying with his mother for the night and experiencing even more Native American Culture. I know personally I can't wait. This is the whole reason we decided to do this run in the first place.
Finally, we would like to congratulate our friend Mark Seigers for winning, in a very impressive fashion, his first 100K in a time of 8 hours and 16 minutes. Sorry we haven't been able to call you Mark. We have been trying almost daily. Keep up the monster work. We all love you.
Thanks for reading. Sorry for the lateness.
-Andy
PS: If you have a minute check out Juwan's website www.oraivifootrace.com and his yearly trail race.
We woke up early this morning, around 6:15, as the sun was already out. We were all kind of excited to see this because if we ever decide to get out early we will have the advantage of an early sun. After saying goodbye to Lolini's daughter, who caught the school bus, we packed up the car and drove back into town and to our starting point for the day. We left off at a local cafe and were all excited to grab breakfast here as well. I was the winner on the morning as I dominated "The Whole Thing" which consisted of two pancakes, two eggs, sausage, bacon, ham and hash browns. Durkin and Ken both got pancakes and Ken topped his off with blueberry syrup.
After breakfast we walked next door to the grocery store to stock up on Gatorade for the day. Ken and Matt both decided they also needed to purchase a pair of sunglasses for $2. Take my word when I tell you they look ridiculous. Ironically, Matt dropped his current running pair of glasses on the ground and stepped on them. He scratched the lenses pretty good and wasn't happy to say the least. I thought it was very funny that he bought a joke pair of glasses and seconds later destroyed his pride and joy. He tried running with the $2 pair for a while before realizing it was a big mistake and wore his scratched pair the rest of the day.
We were only traveling 27 miles today since Juwan offered to pick us up and house us for the night so we were in no real rush. He would not be able to get us until 3:30 so for the first 3 miles we walked in silence. I know personally I was day dreaming about a lot of things. I was picturing what it would be like that last week or that last day of our journey. I do not know what the guys were thinking about but I am sure it was something similar. Finally, around 9am we started to run. The morning went by fast and I was really enjoying the run. The scenery has just been amazing lately and today was no different. Off in the distance we could see huge plateau's and to our right there were giant Mesa. We could see where we drove last night and the steepness of the road we drove on. I could even see the small houses that stood on top.
With about 6 miles to go in the day we began to climb a huge hill that last for about 3 miles. It rose and rose as the road curled around the mesa giving us an incredible view of the valley below us and where we had just traveled from. On the left was nothing but sheer rock that climbed forever and to the right was a cliff that dropped off suddenly. There was a walkway on the far side which I ran on while taking pictures of everything. We will try and get those up soon. If we had more time they would be up tonight. About halfway up there was a traditional spring sticking out of the rock. We took a few minutes to check it out and enjoy the view and later found out from Juwan that the local village still uses it for ceremonies.
We reached the top and ran on flat land for a few miles before heading back down another steep hill. Before we left however we stopped at the cultural center to look around and get something to eat. This hour break really refreshed us and when we got running again we all felt amazing. We planned on getting picked up at 3:30 at mile marker 376 and the second we arrived Juwan pulled up in his truck. The timing could not have been any better.
On the way back to his house we talked to him about his cross country team at the high school. He is the assistance coach and it was great hearing what type of training and the different workouts the kids do. For those of you that do not know Hopi High is the current 18 time Arizona State Men's Cross Country Defending Champions. Led by the legendary coach Rick Baker this team is something to fear. I was amazed when I first heard how many consecutive titles they had won but after talking with Juwan and Rick I could see why.
Later in the night we had dinner with Juwan and his family as well as Rick and his. They made a delicious pasta dinner with traditional blue marbles or "pa-vel-piki" in Hopi. We all enjoyed the meal and the company was even better. We watched LeBron and the Cavs get crushed as we talked running for most of the night. Rick was a really interesting guy and we all enjoyed getting to know him. They have a track meet tomorrow which they may or may not be registered in. I guess they will find out when they arrive. Best of luck to Rick and all the Bruins for the rest of the season.
Juwan brought us over to the high school to make a few late late late night calls and update the website. As I said earlier, if we had more time we would have got some pictures up. Sorry about that. Tomorrow we are running another 27 mile and getting picked up by Juwan once again. We will be staying with his mother for the night and experiencing even more Native American Culture. I know personally I can't wait. This is the whole reason we decided to do this run in the first place.
Finally, we would like to congratulate our friend Mark Seigers for winning, in a very impressive fashion, his first 100K in a time of 8 hours and 16 minutes. Sorry we haven't been able to call you Mark. We have been trying almost daily. Keep up the monster work. We all love you.
Thanks for reading. Sorry for the lateness.
-Andy
PS: If you have a minute check out Juwan's website www.oraivifootrace.com and his yearly trail race.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Day 83: 2,000 miles
Today was another incredable day on the road. We enjoyed great sights, great food, and met some great people.
I'll start off with a play by play of last night, post-blog. The station we were staying in was in a valley, and directly behind the station there was a hill/cliff. Andy had earlier climbed to the top in search of cell phone service, but came up empty handed. He did however find the perfect spot to watch the sunset. We decided We'd make our way up around 7-7:30 and see what Mother Nature had to offer. Our climb was pushed back a little bit, since Back To The Future: Part III started at 6pm. Ken had been talking about how badly he wanted to see the whole trilogy at some point on this trip, and while it was only 1/3 of his wish, we still enjoyed every minute of it. I'm not as into the series as Ken and Andy are, but I've definetly become much more into it since being around their enthusiasm towards the film. Marty and Doc made it back to 1985 and we were on our way to watch the sunset. We found a nice spot with the remains of a fire pit, so we decided we'd start a small camp fire. We were surrounded by sand, had a few full Nalgenes of water, and had 3 wilderness experts on hand. It was a modest fire but it was more than enough to keep us warm as the sun went down. After we made it to the top Josh and Pat decided we needed some music, so it was decided that Josh would climb back down to the car to get the guitar, ukilali, and melodica. As if the ukilali wasn't exotic enough, Josh brought the melodica, an instrument Andy, Ken and I had never even heard of. Basically its a plastic keyboard with a tube you blow in to create the sound. According to Josh music students throughout Europe and South America use it to learn the basics of music, similar to our use of the recorder in The States. Josh and Pat jammed out for a while, playing some originals and some covers, most notably "The Year 3000" by The Jonas Brothers (video coming soon). Ken tried his hand at the melodica for a while and did some serious freestyling during "The Year 3000".
Onto today. We got up a little before 7am and started to pack up our stuff. Our gear found its way into most of the rooms in the fire house, so packing up took a little longer than usual. We got done around 7:45, said our goodbyes to Pat and Josh and got on the road. About a mile or so down the road we hit up a gas station for some snacks and Gatorade. We were greated by about 5 "Res dogs" who wander freely around the reservation, looking for a snack or at least a pat on the head. After fueling up we made our way to Keams Canyon.
There were some pretty serious uphills, which led to some pretty serious downhills. The day went by pretty quickly, partly because we felt so good, and partly because it was a shorter day than we've been used to. We made it to about 8 miles outside of Keams Canyon when the view started to get really good. Out of nowhere we were in the middle of the most vast valley I've ever seen. It was beautiful, but we couldn't enjoy it too much since we were on a downhill. Throughout the day we discussed whether or not Keams Canyon would actually be a canyon or not. We came into this trip without doing a lot of research on our route. Sure we planned it out, but we really didn't look too into each individual town. Some might consider that poor planning, but we all see it as part of the adventure. It's so much more exciting not knowing whats around the corner, and today was no different. We were less than a half mile away from the canyon and still couldn't see it. Not only could we not see the canyon, we couldn't see a town.
We were starting to think neither would exist, when out of nowhere it appeared. A beautiful canyon with spectacular rock formations, and a town right at the bottom. We made our way to the bottom to a crossroads. Left was our route and a gas station, and right was a post office, church, as well as some other buildings. Andy and I wanted to go right, but Ken was passionate about going left, especially since it meant we could get some lunch. Andy and I agreed and we went left. We made our way into a cafe next to the gas station and got situated. Ken poked around a shop, Andy cleaned out the jogger, and I took a seat. I could have helped Andy clean out the jogger, but I know how much he enjoys it. While he was going to work, Andy was interrupted by a couple of women leaving the cafe. He told them about the trip and they told him we could stay with them if we couldn't find a place to stay. Eventually Ken and Andy came to the table, and Andy had a smile on his face. Ken and I knew something was up, and asked Andy over and over again what the conversation was about. Andy finally let us know by singing "If you got a place to stay throw your hands up!". Ken and I were very releaved. We had just made it into this town, and already had a place to stay! This made lunch that much more enjoyable. We all ordered some Dr. Peppers and our lunch. Andy went with a boring double cheeseburger, while Ken and I felt a bit more adventurous. Ken went with a tortilla filled with roast beef, peppers and onions, and I ordered the Chili Burger Delight. The C.B.D. was an open faced double burger, smothered in chili, cheese and onions, definetly one of the highlights of the trip for me.
After lunch we relaxed for a while and poked around the shops attached to the cafe. I got a delicious choclate milkshake as we sat around planning out the next couple days. Andy was staring at the milkshake the whole time I was drinking/eating it. He said he wasn't jealous, but we all know he wish he came up with the idea to get one before I did.
We eventually met back up with Lolini, the women Andy had met earlier, and made our way to her house for the night. She lives in a small neighborhood right next to the Junior High and High School. Word had gotten around to a couple runners in the neighborhood, and we were welcomed in with open arms. We got showered up, and did some laundry. We just barely made it here with clean clothes, so it was a real good feeling to get the laundry done. We met up with Dennis and Juwan, both runners who work with Lolini at the school. Dennis is a long time runner who has run all sorts of distances, from 5ks all the way up to marathons. Juwan was a star athlete in college, pulling down the prestigious honor of being a Division I All-American in Cross Country. His team placed 4th in the country in 2001 and he earned individual All-American status finishing 40th overall. He has continued to run and coach at the high school here in Keams Canyon.
Lolini made us a delicious dinner, some of the best home cooking in recent memory. We had BBQ chicken, salmon, rice and carrots, it really hit the spot! After dinner Juwan gave us a tour of the surrounding area and gave us some history of the Hopi area. There were a lot of small villages on top of mountain ranges. Juwan explained that this was an effort to have the higher ground in battle. As the Spanish came through and tried to convert the Hopi, they stayed in the hills and attacked from above. We drove around and learned some more, and also devised our plan for the next few days. Tomorrow we'll start off where we left off and run about 27 miles, where Juwan will pick us up. We'll start back off there the next day and then stay with his mother outside of Hotevilla. After that we should be able to be set up with some of his girlfriends family in Tuba City. The next few days are looking much better than expected. We've been planning on camping for the next few nights, so we're all pretty happy we met our new friends.
Tomorrow should be a pretty easy day, from the looks of it it'll be pretty flat until the end.
Keep movin', and keep an eye out for some great pictures and videos coming up soon,
-Durkin
I'll start off with a play by play of last night, post-blog. The station we were staying in was in a valley, and directly behind the station there was a hill/cliff. Andy had earlier climbed to the top in search of cell phone service, but came up empty handed. He did however find the perfect spot to watch the sunset. We decided We'd make our way up around 7-7:30 and see what Mother Nature had to offer. Our climb was pushed back a little bit, since Back To The Future: Part III started at 6pm. Ken had been talking about how badly he wanted to see the whole trilogy at some point on this trip, and while it was only 1/3 of his wish, we still enjoyed every minute of it. I'm not as into the series as Ken and Andy are, but I've definetly become much more into it since being around their enthusiasm towards the film. Marty and Doc made it back to 1985 and we were on our way to watch the sunset. We found a nice spot with the remains of a fire pit, so we decided we'd start a small camp fire. We were surrounded by sand, had a few full Nalgenes of water, and had 3 wilderness experts on hand. It was a modest fire but it was more than enough to keep us warm as the sun went down. After we made it to the top Josh and Pat decided we needed some music, so it was decided that Josh would climb back down to the car to get the guitar, ukilali, and melodica. As if the ukilali wasn't exotic enough, Josh brought the melodica, an instrument Andy, Ken and I had never even heard of. Basically its a plastic keyboard with a tube you blow in to create the sound. According to Josh music students throughout Europe and South America use it to learn the basics of music, similar to our use of the recorder in The States. Josh and Pat jammed out for a while, playing some originals and some covers, most notably "The Year 3000" by The Jonas Brothers (video coming soon). Ken tried his hand at the melodica for a while and did some serious freestyling during "The Year 3000".
Onto today. We got up a little before 7am and started to pack up our stuff. Our gear found its way into most of the rooms in the fire house, so packing up took a little longer than usual. We got done around 7:45, said our goodbyes to Pat and Josh and got on the road. About a mile or so down the road we hit up a gas station for some snacks and Gatorade. We were greated by about 5 "Res dogs" who wander freely around the reservation, looking for a snack or at least a pat on the head. After fueling up we made our way to Keams Canyon.
There were some pretty serious uphills, which led to some pretty serious downhills. The day went by pretty quickly, partly because we felt so good, and partly because it was a shorter day than we've been used to. We made it to about 8 miles outside of Keams Canyon when the view started to get really good. Out of nowhere we were in the middle of the most vast valley I've ever seen. It was beautiful, but we couldn't enjoy it too much since we were on a downhill. Throughout the day we discussed whether or not Keams Canyon would actually be a canyon or not. We came into this trip without doing a lot of research on our route. Sure we planned it out, but we really didn't look too into each individual town. Some might consider that poor planning, but we all see it as part of the adventure. It's so much more exciting not knowing whats around the corner, and today was no different. We were less than a half mile away from the canyon and still couldn't see it. Not only could we not see the canyon, we couldn't see a town.
We were starting to think neither would exist, when out of nowhere it appeared. A beautiful canyon with spectacular rock formations, and a town right at the bottom. We made our way to the bottom to a crossroads. Left was our route and a gas station, and right was a post office, church, as well as some other buildings. Andy and I wanted to go right, but Ken was passionate about going left, especially since it meant we could get some lunch. Andy and I agreed and we went left. We made our way into a cafe next to the gas station and got situated. Ken poked around a shop, Andy cleaned out the jogger, and I took a seat. I could have helped Andy clean out the jogger, but I know how much he enjoys it. While he was going to work, Andy was interrupted by a couple of women leaving the cafe. He told them about the trip and they told him we could stay with them if we couldn't find a place to stay. Eventually Ken and Andy came to the table, and Andy had a smile on his face. Ken and I knew something was up, and asked Andy over and over again what the conversation was about. Andy finally let us know by singing "If you got a place to stay throw your hands up!". Ken and I were very releaved. We had just made it into this town, and already had a place to stay! This made lunch that much more enjoyable. We all ordered some Dr. Peppers and our lunch. Andy went with a boring double cheeseburger, while Ken and I felt a bit more adventurous. Ken went with a tortilla filled with roast beef, peppers and onions, and I ordered the Chili Burger Delight. The C.B.D. was an open faced double burger, smothered in chili, cheese and onions, definetly one of the highlights of the trip for me.
After lunch we relaxed for a while and poked around the shops attached to the cafe. I got a delicious choclate milkshake as we sat around planning out the next couple days. Andy was staring at the milkshake the whole time I was drinking/eating it. He said he wasn't jealous, but we all know he wish he came up with the idea to get one before I did.
We eventually met back up with Lolini, the women Andy had met earlier, and made our way to her house for the night. She lives in a small neighborhood right next to the Junior High and High School. Word had gotten around to a couple runners in the neighborhood, and we were welcomed in with open arms. We got showered up, and did some laundry. We just barely made it here with clean clothes, so it was a real good feeling to get the laundry done. We met up with Dennis and Juwan, both runners who work with Lolini at the school. Dennis is a long time runner who has run all sorts of distances, from 5ks all the way up to marathons. Juwan was a star athlete in college, pulling down the prestigious honor of being a Division I All-American in Cross Country. His team placed 4th in the country in 2001 and he earned individual All-American status finishing 40th overall. He has continued to run and coach at the high school here in Keams Canyon.
Lolini made us a delicious dinner, some of the best home cooking in recent memory. We had BBQ chicken, salmon, rice and carrots, it really hit the spot! After dinner Juwan gave us a tour of the surrounding area and gave us some history of the Hopi area. There were a lot of small villages on top of mountain ranges. Juwan explained that this was an effort to have the higher ground in battle. As the Spanish came through and tried to convert the Hopi, they stayed in the hills and attacked from above. We drove around and learned some more, and also devised our plan for the next few days. Tomorrow we'll start off where we left off and run about 27 miles, where Juwan will pick us up. We'll start back off there the next day and then stay with his mother outside of Hotevilla. After that we should be able to be set up with some of his girlfriends family in Tuba City. The next few days are looking much better than expected. We've been planning on camping for the next few nights, so we're all pretty happy we met our new friends.
Tomorrow should be a pretty easy day, from the looks of it it'll be pretty flat until the end.
Keep movin', and keep an eye out for some great pictures and videos coming up soon,
-Durkin
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Day 82
Today was one of those days that we always imagined the Nation would be. When we would day dream back in January, this was the type of day we thought running across the country would be. Before I talk about that let me tell you a little about last night. After our tour of the Navajo ruins we were taken to our new friend Bud's land and set up for the night. He had a few small houses on this property and let us stay in one of them. It was complete with a shower, kitchen and three rooms to stay in. Durkin and I shared a classroom, Josh and Pat bunked in the computer room and Ken had the entire storage room to himself. It was a great night sleep out of the cold desert night and we all appreciated being invited into his home. Pat and Josh made us soup and mushy rice for dinner and we all enjoyed a few Mexican lemon lime sodas from the fridge.
As we were getting ready for bed I had one of the cans of soda next to my sleeping bag just in case I got thirsty in the middle of the night and Durkin couldn't believe it. He really wanted to be awake if I did crack into it and asked me to wake him up. Around 4am I got up to use the bathroom and blow up my sleeping pad (in has a slow leak) and in doing so accidently woke him. It was at this point that I did indeed open that soda and eat half a power bar that I also was storing next to me. We both laughed for a few minutes before returning to bed.
We woke up around 7 to the smell of pancakes. Pat had got up early to cook us oatmeal pancakes the size of frisbee. They were huge and one was more than enough to get us going. Bud dropped us off where we finished yesterday and said goodbye. The weather was still cool and we all had multiple layers on including winter hats and gloves. Ken had 4 or 5 shirts on which is no surprise. He usually wears the most layers out of all of us considering he didn't pack a hoody like some people on this trip (Durkin). Pat and Josh wanted to run with us as much as possible and took off toward Steamboat. Their plan was to park the car and walk/run back in our direction until we met up. Everyone wants to be a part of the run!
Within the hour it heated up and we were all running shirtless. It is always funny to watch as someone else takes off another piece of clothing. It seems like every mile the jogger gets a bit heavier and someone is wearing a little less. Today was no exception. It was however the first time we ran shirtless in almost a week. The wind has been a force almost everyday and kept most of our clothes on.
We all were feeling really good as the sun was shining and there was barely any wind. We made great time getting to the only gas station/Burger King for miles and decided to stop for a few supplies. We grabbed a few post cards, Gatorade's and hit the value menu at BK. As we headed back on the road we joked that BK needed to put out a sandwich that was called the King 3,000 (like in the tv commercial) and consisted of 3,000 calories. I told the guys that no one would ever buy something like that and Durkin quickly responded, "we would".
At this point in the day we were running up a long straightway on the road. The view all around us was amazing and I could not believe how small we are compared to the vastness of this country. We seemed to get lost out here. To our left stood massive mountains and rocks coming out of the earth. They were all sorts of colors, starting from the ground in a number of browns, reds and a layer of white towards the top. It was beautiful. The scenery continued like this for most of the day until we were about a mile or two outside of Steamboat. At this point we dropped a couple hundred feet into a valley surrounded by gigantic rocks everywhere. I ran behind the guys, as I usually do, enjoying the day a little bit more. I know this trip is almost complete and when we finish, that's it. There are no second chances or days left on the road. I want to make sure I take in every thing for the next 34 days.
With a little more than 6 miles left in the day we spotted Josh and Pat coming toward us on the other side of the road. They immediately jumped up and down excited to see us and even held hands briefly. I know exactly how they felt to see someone they recognized while on the lonely road. They were able to experience a small amount of what our day is like and I think they might have enjoyed it more than they want to admit. At one point I caught Josh staring off into the distance and focusing in on some of the mountains.
We have talked the last few days about their cross country adventure and our own. Both trips are different but unique in a lot of ways. The two of them remind me a lot of ourselves and our quest to follow our dream. I am really glad they decided to take a small detour and meet up with us. I hope their adventure is everything they imagined it to be, just as we have dreamed about our own.
Officially we are calling the run 6.3 miles. They didn't knock too many people down on the list but had a great time doing it nonetheless. They both were glad to have hiked close to 13 miles on the day and we all got to spend a lot more time together. With less than a mile to go in the day Ken noticed the yellow jogger had a flat. We figured it was from all the off road running we have been doing the last two day since we lost our shoulder. However, Ken pulled out a thorn from the wheel and heard the air come rushing out. He then took out 3 or 4 more from the same wheel. As we were changing out tubes we noticed there was a thorn in the red jogger as well. The same thing happen and we had to now change out two tubes. After a few minutes we got back on the road and finished off the day.
Even with a number of stops we finished the day around 12:30. We all felt great and had the entire day to relax and recover for tomorrows monster 23 mile day. We stopped at the local fire station after being told we could stay there for the night thanks to the Ganado Fire Department. After a half an hour, one of the guys came to open the building for us. As we waited for someone to show up I decided to climb the mountain directly behind the building to see if there was cell service up top. Unfortunately there was not but the view was amazing. I could see everything in the valley as well as the water tower in the next town. I think we are all going to hike up there tonight to watch the sunset and perhaps get a camp fire going. Ken can't wait.
Once inside the fire house we all showered before looking for something to eat. Pat and Ken drove a few miles down the road to the gas station and on their way noticed a sign that read "Navajo Taco - House 17". They told us about this and we decided we had to try the local flavor. We walked around a small neighborhood before finding house 17 and the sign for Navajo Taco/Yard Sale. For $3 we got some of the greatest taco's we have ever had. They were open faced on flat bread, sort of like a pizza, with the complete works. As we were leaving Josh purchased a mug that was shaped like a boot and Pat bought himself a scarf.
We have been hanging out the rest of the day and watching tv. Pat and Josh went through their car and reorganized as much gear as they could. It is funny to watch them struggle with all of their stuff and to know that we are living on maybe 1/3 of what they have stuffed in their car.
Before I leave you I must tell you all that Back to The Future III is currently on. We have been talking about these movies for the last few weeks and decided we had to see at least one of them, if not all of them, before we finish on the 26th. We couldn't not believe our luck when it came on! I suggest everyone that reads this to go out and purchase this trilogy today. Marty and Doc Brown are a deadly combination. They are the originally NationRun adventurer's. Just watch out for Biff, no matter what decade you might be in.
I am going to leave you with another quote. This one came from Ken's father's boss. Apparently he is really into our run and sent this to him.
Everything is within walking (running) distance if you have the time.
-Andy
As we were getting ready for bed I had one of the cans of soda next to my sleeping bag just in case I got thirsty in the middle of the night and Durkin couldn't believe it. He really wanted to be awake if I did crack into it and asked me to wake him up. Around 4am I got up to use the bathroom and blow up my sleeping pad (in has a slow leak) and in doing so accidently woke him. It was at this point that I did indeed open that soda and eat half a power bar that I also was storing next to me. We both laughed for a few minutes before returning to bed.
We woke up around 7 to the smell of pancakes. Pat had got up early to cook us oatmeal pancakes the size of frisbee. They were huge and one was more than enough to get us going. Bud dropped us off where we finished yesterday and said goodbye. The weather was still cool and we all had multiple layers on including winter hats and gloves. Ken had 4 or 5 shirts on which is no surprise. He usually wears the most layers out of all of us considering he didn't pack a hoody like some people on this trip (Durkin). Pat and Josh wanted to run with us as much as possible and took off toward Steamboat. Their plan was to park the car and walk/run back in our direction until we met up. Everyone wants to be a part of the run!
Within the hour it heated up and we were all running shirtless. It is always funny to watch as someone else takes off another piece of clothing. It seems like every mile the jogger gets a bit heavier and someone is wearing a little less. Today was no exception. It was however the first time we ran shirtless in almost a week. The wind has been a force almost everyday and kept most of our clothes on.
We all were feeling really good as the sun was shining and there was barely any wind. We made great time getting to the only gas station/Burger King for miles and decided to stop for a few supplies. We grabbed a few post cards, Gatorade's and hit the value menu at BK. As we headed back on the road we joked that BK needed to put out a sandwich that was called the King 3,000 (like in the tv commercial) and consisted of 3,000 calories. I told the guys that no one would ever buy something like that and Durkin quickly responded, "we would".
At this point in the day we were running up a long straightway on the road. The view all around us was amazing and I could not believe how small we are compared to the vastness of this country. We seemed to get lost out here. To our left stood massive mountains and rocks coming out of the earth. They were all sorts of colors, starting from the ground in a number of browns, reds and a layer of white towards the top. It was beautiful. The scenery continued like this for most of the day until we were about a mile or two outside of Steamboat. At this point we dropped a couple hundred feet into a valley surrounded by gigantic rocks everywhere. I ran behind the guys, as I usually do, enjoying the day a little bit more. I know this trip is almost complete and when we finish, that's it. There are no second chances or days left on the road. I want to make sure I take in every thing for the next 34 days.
With a little more than 6 miles left in the day we spotted Josh and Pat coming toward us on the other side of the road. They immediately jumped up and down excited to see us and even held hands briefly. I know exactly how they felt to see someone they recognized while on the lonely road. They were able to experience a small amount of what our day is like and I think they might have enjoyed it more than they want to admit. At one point I caught Josh staring off into the distance and focusing in on some of the mountains.
We have talked the last few days about their cross country adventure and our own. Both trips are different but unique in a lot of ways. The two of them remind me a lot of ourselves and our quest to follow our dream. I am really glad they decided to take a small detour and meet up with us. I hope their adventure is everything they imagined it to be, just as we have dreamed about our own.
Officially we are calling the run 6.3 miles. They didn't knock too many people down on the list but had a great time doing it nonetheless. They both were glad to have hiked close to 13 miles on the day and we all got to spend a lot more time together. With less than a mile to go in the day Ken noticed the yellow jogger had a flat. We figured it was from all the off road running we have been doing the last two day since we lost our shoulder. However, Ken pulled out a thorn from the wheel and heard the air come rushing out. He then took out 3 or 4 more from the same wheel. As we were changing out tubes we noticed there was a thorn in the red jogger as well. The same thing happen and we had to now change out two tubes. After a few minutes we got back on the road and finished off the day.
Even with a number of stops we finished the day around 12:30. We all felt great and had the entire day to relax and recover for tomorrows monster 23 mile day. We stopped at the local fire station after being told we could stay there for the night thanks to the Ganado Fire Department. After a half an hour, one of the guys came to open the building for us. As we waited for someone to show up I decided to climb the mountain directly behind the building to see if there was cell service up top. Unfortunately there was not but the view was amazing. I could see everything in the valley as well as the water tower in the next town. I think we are all going to hike up there tonight to watch the sunset and perhaps get a camp fire going. Ken can't wait.
Once inside the fire house we all showered before looking for something to eat. Pat and Ken drove a few miles down the road to the gas station and on their way noticed a sign that read "Navajo Taco - House 17". They told us about this and we decided we had to try the local flavor. We walked around a small neighborhood before finding house 17 and the sign for Navajo Taco/Yard Sale. For $3 we got some of the greatest taco's we have ever had. They were open faced on flat bread, sort of like a pizza, with the complete works. As we were leaving Josh purchased a mug that was shaped like a boot and Pat bought himself a scarf.
We have been hanging out the rest of the day and watching tv. Pat and Josh went through their car and reorganized as much gear as they could. It is funny to watch them struggle with all of their stuff and to know that we are living on maybe 1/3 of what they have stuffed in their car.
Before I leave you I must tell you all that Back to The Future III is currently on. We have been talking about these movies for the last few weeks and decided we had to see at least one of them, if not all of them, before we finish on the 26th. We couldn't not believe our luck when it came on! I suggest everyone that reads this to go out and purchase this trilogy today. Marty and Doc Brown are a deadly combination. They are the originally NationRun adventurer's. Just watch out for Biff, no matter what decade you might be in.
I am going to leave you with another quote. This one came from Ken's father's boss. Apparently he is really into our run and sent this to him.
Everything is within walking (running) distance if you have the time.
-Andy
Monday, April 21, 2008
Day 81
Let me start this blog off by letting the whole world know that we were ONE Bingo ball away from mule rides at The Grand Canyon. Now when I say one ball I don't mean "Oh if this one had come up we would have won", this ball came up! It was the final round and the rules were get a straight line in the first 10 balls, or cover your whole sheet after the first 10. Each ball was previewed on a TV screen, then announced. You can't yell Bingo until after the ball is announced. 6 balls into the final game Andy had 4 in a row horizontally in the center, all he needed was O-72. Sure enough after the 6th ball was announced, out rolled O-72 in the preview screen! We had done it, WE WON BINGO! Unfortunately before O-72 had a chance to be announced a soft voice proclaimed "bingo". The previous ball had yielded a winner that was not us. It was very unfortunate, we discussed how the loss might not have hurt as bad had we not seen O-72 in the preview screen. We still had a great time, and got to know a lot of the locals.
This morning we woke up around 7 as usual, packed up and hit the road. We returned to the Denny's we had eaten at for dinner last night, and enjoyed a hearty breakfast. Andy ordered the weakest breakfast out of all of us, but had the last laugh when Ken and I couldn't finish ours, while he reaped the benefits of leftovers.
After breakfast we slowly made our way back on the road. It was very slow going at the beginning due to consuming well over 1000 calories for breakfast, and a lonnnng gradual uphill climb. This hill seemed to never end, and peaked at 7500 feet, 1200 feet higher than we started at yesterday. After about 6 miles we thought all the hard work of the day was over, we had made it to the top of the hill! Unfortunately as we got to the top of the hill our shoulder disappeared. As we've said before, the shoulder is one of the most important features of roads for us. Bad weather and hills pale in comparison to a non-existent shoulder in a heavy traffic area, especially when you're carting around two baby strollers. We cautiously made our way through The Navajo National Forest, hopping off the road when cars came by, and especially when over-sized loads hauling pieces of The Crushinator drove by.
We made it about 2 miles outside of Ganado when a green VW pulled off the side of the road. It was Josh & Pat, Ken's long time friends from Chingacook. Josh and Pat are on a cross country trip of their own, cruising around the U.S. hitting up National Parks and visiting old friends. They'll stay with us tonight and tomorrow in an effort to get a taste of what The Nation Run lifestyle is all about.
We got into town and got a nice lunch at a deli inside a Conoco station. We swapped from our respective adventures and discussed our plans for tonight. We decided to split up and try and figure out a safe place to rest our heads. Josh and Pat went to a trading post, while Andy, Ken and I inquired at the fire station. We were immediately welcomed at the station, and were told we could stay at a house associated with a church one of the volunteers worked at. We met back up with Josh and Pat and relaxed at the station as we waited for our host to finish up his work.
On our way to our resting place we got a tour of the area and learned a lot about The Navajo people. We even saw an old Navajo building that dates back to the 1500s. We were all pretty glad we got to check this place out, there's a lot you miss running on the main roads.
From what I understand Pat is currently cooking up some pasta for us right now and I am very hungry. The plan for the night is to eat, shower and sleep, hopefully we can accomplish all those goals, but if I had to choose I'd go with eat.
Also I would like to wish a happy birthday to two very special people in my life. My nephew and Godson Liam turned 3 today, and little Danny Verdi turned 26. Dan celebrated his birthday by running in The Boston Marathon. Dan finished the 26.2 course in an impressive 2:47, much faster than any of us could dream of right now.
Keep movin',
-Durkin
This morning we woke up around 7 as usual, packed up and hit the road. We returned to the Denny's we had eaten at for dinner last night, and enjoyed a hearty breakfast. Andy ordered the weakest breakfast out of all of us, but had the last laugh when Ken and I couldn't finish ours, while he reaped the benefits of leftovers.
After breakfast we slowly made our way back on the road. It was very slow going at the beginning due to consuming well over 1000 calories for breakfast, and a lonnnng gradual uphill climb. This hill seemed to never end, and peaked at 7500 feet, 1200 feet higher than we started at yesterday. After about 6 miles we thought all the hard work of the day was over, we had made it to the top of the hill! Unfortunately as we got to the top of the hill our shoulder disappeared. As we've said before, the shoulder is one of the most important features of roads for us. Bad weather and hills pale in comparison to a non-existent shoulder in a heavy traffic area, especially when you're carting around two baby strollers. We cautiously made our way through The Navajo National Forest, hopping off the road when cars came by, and especially when over-sized loads hauling pieces of The Crushinator drove by.
We made it about 2 miles outside of Ganado when a green VW pulled off the side of the road. It was Josh & Pat, Ken's long time friends from Chingacook. Josh and Pat are on a cross country trip of their own, cruising around the U.S. hitting up National Parks and visiting old friends. They'll stay with us tonight and tomorrow in an effort to get a taste of what The Nation Run lifestyle is all about.
We got into town and got a nice lunch at a deli inside a Conoco station. We swapped from our respective adventures and discussed our plans for tonight. We decided to split up and try and figure out a safe place to rest our heads. Josh and Pat went to a trading post, while Andy, Ken and I inquired at the fire station. We were immediately welcomed at the station, and were told we could stay at a house associated with a church one of the volunteers worked at. We met back up with Josh and Pat and relaxed at the station as we waited for our host to finish up his work.
On our way to our resting place we got a tour of the area and learned a lot about The Navajo people. We even saw an old Navajo building that dates back to the 1500s. We were all pretty glad we got to check this place out, there's a lot you miss running on the main roads.
From what I understand Pat is currently cooking up some pasta for us right now and I am very hungry. The plan for the night is to eat, shower and sleep, hopefully we can accomplish all those goals, but if I had to choose I'd go with eat.
Also I would like to wish a happy birthday to two very special people in my life. My nephew and Godson Liam turned 3 today, and little Danny Verdi turned 26. Dan celebrated his birthday by running in The Boston Marathon. Dan finished the 26.2 course in an impressive 2:47, much faster than any of us could dream of right now.
Keep movin',
-Durkin
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Day 80
Hey guys, this is Travis Visco, AKA Travis Visco writing for the guys today. Now, the fact that I have been given the honor and responsibility of writing this can only mean two things. First, they clearly don't have access to Internet, or they would be doing it themselves. The second thing is that absolutely no one else was available. So it has come down to me. Just so everyone knows, I am a blog noob, so I will try my best.
The guys woke up around 7 am today and enjoyed a nice continental breakfast. Soon after, they would head out for their last day in New Mexico. After leaving the town of Gallup, the guys endured some pretty heavy traffic for the first several miles. Once they got onto Route 264 the traffic cleared and they had plenty of open road to run on. They guys said they all felt absolutely great today. After taking the much needed rest day, the guys are ready for what lies ahead. The past few weeks had been especially difficult, and they are excited to have some easy weeks for a change.
Today marked a big day as the team crossed yet another state line. As usual, the guys made up another game, this time seeing who crosses the state line first. Before today, the score was Ken 2, Andy 2, and Durkin a mere 1. Durkin isn't too upset however, because he is confident he will be the first one into the ocean. As the guys were a few miles from entering Arizona, Durkin thought he would take a picture of the scenery. In the short time it took him to reach into his bag for his camera, Andy and Ken had abruptly dropped him, as they increased the pace towards the state line! With no intent of engaging in a footrace, Durkin wisely let them go. As they put distance between themselves and Durkin, they randomly stopped. Unaware of the reason behind this, Durkin caught back up to where the guys were standing. What had made them stop? A massive stampede like a scene from Jumanji!! Actually that was a lie. But there were four cows walking aimlessly through the streets of a small town! These cows, apparently on their own, were just walking around town, blocking traffic and creating a scene. Durkin described them as, "cows just walking the Earth". While some people were bothered by this natural traffic block, the guys loved every bit of it. Maybe it reminded them of college when cows would be walking all throughout campus! Either way, it was the high point of the day.
After being held up by the cows, the guys made their way to the state line. Filled with determination, Ken took off sprinting for the line. Ken was so caught in the moment that he kept up his sprint even after he had crossed the barrier. Good job Kenny, you now have 3 points, and are guaranteed at least a tie for first! As the guys made it inside Arizona, they headed to a really cool town called Window Rock. Durkin said the town was visually amazing, with numerous natural rock formations. As they made their way into town, the guys looked for a place to stay for the night. They first headed to the police station, where they met some supportive and enthusiastic officers. However, the setup wasn't ideal and there was no food nearby so they decided to search elsewhere. A little further down the road, they decided to enjoy a nutritious and delicious meal at Taco Bell. Ken and Durkin got the "Big Bell Value Box", also known as the Pampers special. This bountiful feast included: a chicken club chalupa, hard taco, bean burrito, cinnamin twist, and a large drink for just $4.99! Other notable events at the Bell included Andy and Ken enjoying a Mountain Dew Baja Blast, which they said is only available at Taco Bell.
After the meal, the team headed a little further down the road into a town called St. Michaels. Here they found a church and asked if they could spend the night. The folks here were more than generous in offering them a place to stay as well as shower! However, they warned it might be a little crowded because tonight was Bingo night. Upon hearing this, the guys became super excited to join in on the Bingo game. Apparently this is quite a large event, with a jackpot of $1500!!!! With the motto of "go big or go home", the guys went big, and bought the admission pack for $22, which has 18 boards. They guys have a conflict of interest concerning the event. On one hand, they want to meet tons of people. On the other, they want the crowd to be small, and in turn up their chances at victory. Ken and Durkin have already decided what they will do with their share of the winnings. A seven hour mule ride through the Grand Canyon that will cost $150 is at the top of their list. Andy wants no part of it. Either way, they guys are confident they will come out on top. Best of luck!
As I was talking to them, the guys were enjoying a nice meal at Denny's, getting ready for the Bingo fiasco ahead. The 28 mile day was an easy, enjoyable day for the team. The expect many more days like today as they continue their push westward. Keep it up guys!!
-Travy
Additional Points:
-Happy Birthday Lauren Fennessy
-The Mets are losing in the 5th inning
-I hope my spelling and grammar was better than my roommate's
-Ken, Durkin, and Andy are my heroes
-My roommates/teammates all enjoy the various educational videos the guys have been sending us
The guys woke up around 7 am today and enjoyed a nice continental breakfast. Soon after, they would head out for their last day in New Mexico. After leaving the town of Gallup, the guys endured some pretty heavy traffic for the first several miles. Once they got onto Route 264 the traffic cleared and they had plenty of open road to run on. They guys said they all felt absolutely great today. After taking the much needed rest day, the guys are ready for what lies ahead. The past few weeks had been especially difficult, and they are excited to have some easy weeks for a change.
Today marked a big day as the team crossed yet another state line. As usual, the guys made up another game, this time seeing who crosses the state line first. Before today, the score was Ken 2, Andy 2, and Durkin a mere 1. Durkin isn't too upset however, because he is confident he will be the first one into the ocean. As the guys were a few miles from entering Arizona, Durkin thought he would take a picture of the scenery. In the short time it took him to reach into his bag for his camera, Andy and Ken had abruptly dropped him, as they increased the pace towards the state line! With no intent of engaging in a footrace, Durkin wisely let them go. As they put distance between themselves and Durkin, they randomly stopped. Unaware of the reason behind this, Durkin caught back up to where the guys were standing. What had made them stop? A massive stampede like a scene from Jumanji!! Actually that was a lie. But there were four cows walking aimlessly through the streets of a small town! These cows, apparently on their own, were just walking around town, blocking traffic and creating a scene. Durkin described them as, "cows just walking the Earth". While some people were bothered by this natural traffic block, the guys loved every bit of it. Maybe it reminded them of college when cows would be walking all throughout campus! Either way, it was the high point of the day.
After being held up by the cows, the guys made their way to the state line. Filled with determination, Ken took off sprinting for the line. Ken was so caught in the moment that he kept up his sprint even after he had crossed the barrier. Good job Kenny, you now have 3 points, and are guaranteed at least a tie for first! As the guys made it inside Arizona, they headed to a really cool town called Window Rock. Durkin said the town was visually amazing, with numerous natural rock formations. As they made their way into town, the guys looked for a place to stay for the night. They first headed to the police station, where they met some supportive and enthusiastic officers. However, the setup wasn't ideal and there was no food nearby so they decided to search elsewhere. A little further down the road, they decided to enjoy a nutritious and delicious meal at Taco Bell. Ken and Durkin got the "Big Bell Value Box", also known as the Pampers special. This bountiful feast included: a chicken club chalupa, hard taco, bean burrito, cinnamin twist, and a large drink for just $4.99! Other notable events at the Bell included Andy and Ken enjoying a Mountain Dew Baja Blast, which they said is only available at Taco Bell.
After the meal, the team headed a little further down the road into a town called St. Michaels. Here they found a church and asked if they could spend the night. The folks here were more than generous in offering them a place to stay as well as shower! However, they warned it might be a little crowded because tonight was Bingo night. Upon hearing this, the guys became super excited to join in on the Bingo game. Apparently this is quite a large event, with a jackpot of $1500!!!! With the motto of "go big or go home", the guys went big, and bought the admission pack for $22, which has 18 boards. They guys have a conflict of interest concerning the event. On one hand, they want to meet tons of people. On the other, they want the crowd to be small, and in turn up their chances at victory. Ken and Durkin have already decided what they will do with their share of the winnings. A seven hour mule ride through the Grand Canyon that will cost $150 is at the top of their list. Andy wants no part of it. Either way, they guys are confident they will come out on top. Best of luck!
As I was talking to them, the guys were enjoying a nice meal at Denny's, getting ready for the Bingo fiasco ahead. The 28 mile day was an easy, enjoyable day for the team. The expect many more days like today as they continue their push westward. Keep it up guys!!
-Travy
Additional Points:
-Happy Birthday Lauren Fennessy
-The Mets are losing in the 5th inning
-I hope my spelling and grammar was better than my roommate's
-Ken, Durkin, and Andy are my heroes
-My roommates/teammates all enjoy the various educational videos the guys have been sending us
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Day 79
So tomorrow we enter into our 7th state out of 8. That's right, New Mexico is done-zo. I'm pretty excited to know that we are finished with another state! Entering into Arizona also marks the end of our most difficult state. We averaged about 30 miles per day throughout this state...many times going much higher than that! Only a handful of times did we run in the low 20's...and Arizona, I believe, will prove to be much easier as we will average 25 miles per day in the 23 days it will take us to get through it.
I also want to appologize quickly for the blog tonight being so late! I came down about an hour and a half ago and there were 2 girls on the only computer in the hotel. Since then I have been on the phone with Claire...and I have periodically come down to check to see if they were gone...and they haven't been, until now! So here i sit at 9:30 Rocky mountain time typing the blog.
Speaking of Rocky Mountain time...tomorrow we don't "officially" cross into pacific Time, but since Arizona does not follow Daylight Savings Time...our clocks will be running on Pacific Time.
Today was a day off from running!! So today we woke up at about 8:30 and made our way to the continental breakfast. Durkin and I heated up a glazed donut in the microwave and ate some warm donuts...they were delicious! We finished our breakfast and we went back to the room...where we proceeded to do NOTHING for the rest of the day except lay on our beds and watch movies all day! We first watched The Truman Show starring Jim Carrey. In this movie Jim plays Truman Burbank is a man whose life is a nonstop TV show. Truman doesn't realize that his quaint hometown is a giant studio set run by a visionary producer/director/creator, that folks living and working there are Hollywood actors, that even his incessantly bubbly wife is a contract player. Gradually, Truman gets wise. And what he does about his discovery will have you laughing, crying and cheering.
We also watched Blank Check!!! This movie was a children's movie...and one movie I vividly remember watching as a kid years ago! The movie is about a kid who by accident, the 12-year-old Preston is given a blank check and when he fills in $1,000,000 - he is able to get it! He is having fun spending the money, but the gangsters who owned it want it back... We had a lot of fun watching this movie. By the time we watched these 2 movies we were hungry and it was almost 4 o clock. We went over and did some laundry next door and got some dinner at Sonic. We brought it back to the hotel and from there...I took a nap and watched a really interesting show on the history Channel about the Earth and its history from 4.5 billion years ago. i love programs like that...so I was really interested. So..really we didn't do anything today except lounge around and watch television and we didn't even think about running today!
So tomorrow we will get on the road at about 8am. We will be heading to Window Rock. i am excited to enter into Arizona. I cannot wait. all in all, this day off was very needed after our difficult days in New Mexico. I think all 3 of us will feel good as we hit the road tomorrow morning. I'm sorry this blog wasn't more interesting...because we really didn't do much today. I'm sure tomorrow we will have more stories to tell you. Thanks for reading...37 days left. i can't believe it. GOODNIGHT!!
Ken
I also want to appologize quickly for the blog tonight being so late! I came down about an hour and a half ago and there were 2 girls on the only computer in the hotel. Since then I have been on the phone with Claire...and I have periodically come down to check to see if they were gone...and they haven't been, until now! So here i sit at 9:30 Rocky mountain time typing the blog.
Speaking of Rocky Mountain time...tomorrow we don't "officially" cross into pacific Time, but since Arizona does not follow Daylight Savings Time...our clocks will be running on Pacific Time.
Today was a day off from running!! So today we woke up at about 8:30 and made our way to the continental breakfast. Durkin and I heated up a glazed donut in the microwave and ate some warm donuts...they were delicious! We finished our breakfast and we went back to the room...where we proceeded to do NOTHING for the rest of the day except lay on our beds and watch movies all day! We first watched The Truman Show starring Jim Carrey. In this movie Jim plays Truman Burbank is a man whose life is a nonstop TV show. Truman doesn't realize that his quaint hometown is a giant studio set run by a visionary producer/director/creator, that folks living and working there are Hollywood actors, that even his incessantly bubbly wife is a contract player. Gradually, Truman gets wise. And what he does about his discovery will have you laughing, crying and cheering.
We also watched Blank Check!!! This movie was a children's movie...and one movie I vividly remember watching as a kid years ago! The movie is about a kid who by accident, the 12-year-old Preston is given a blank check and when he fills in $1,000,000 - he is able to get it! He is having fun spending the money, but the gangsters who owned it want it back... We had a lot of fun watching this movie. By the time we watched these 2 movies we were hungry and it was almost 4 o clock. We went over and did some laundry next door and got some dinner at Sonic. We brought it back to the hotel and from there...I took a nap and watched a really interesting show on the history Channel about the Earth and its history from 4.5 billion years ago. i love programs like that...so I was really interested. So..really we didn't do anything today except lounge around and watch television and we didn't even think about running today!
So tomorrow we will get on the road at about 8am. We will be heading to Window Rock. i am excited to enter into Arizona. I cannot wait. all in all, this day off was very needed after our difficult days in New Mexico. I think all 3 of us will feel good as we hit the road tomorrow morning. I'm sorry this blog wasn't more interesting...because we really didn't do much today. I'm sure tomorrow we will have more stories to tell you. Thanks for reading...37 days left. i can't believe it. GOODNIGHT!!
Ken
Friday, April 18, 2008
Day 78
Yo dawg, this is Matt Durkin, AKA Durkin coming at you LIVE from Gallup, New Mexico! This post marks my triumphant return to "The Blogosphere", so sit down, get comfortable, grab some milk & Oreos (milk's favorite cookie) and enjoy!
Today marked our LAST full day in New Mexico! NM has proved to be one of the toughest, and most beautiful states on our journey. We'll never forget the hospitality, the mountains, the wind, the wildlife or the wind. The days have been long and the elevation has been high, but as Andy wrote yesterday we feel the worst is behind us, and it should be smooth sailing all the way to San Diego (and beyond).
We got up a little earlier than usual today since The Wahilias had a plane ride to catch. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast of cheerios and doughnuts and made our way back to where we left off yesterday. It felt good knowing today was the last day before a day off which made it easy to knock out the 28 miler. No one really had any problems physically or mentally today. I had a weird shooting pain in my shin for a bit but it went away and now I couldn't even tell you which leg it was in. There was far less uphill today than the past few days. In Pie Town we were at about 7,900 feet, and now in Gallup we're at about 6,500 feet. You don't have to be a topographist to guess that we've enjoyed some nice downhills.
We moved quicker and quicker with each mile, and finished up around 2pm which is the earliest we've finished in recent memory. We explored Gallup a little bit, and decided to eat at Garcia's. Andy got some chicken-fried steak, Ken got a burrito, and I enjoyed the buffet. We also threw back some old fashion Mexican soda. Ken had the most unique drink choice out of all of us, Apple Soda. I didn't get a chance to try it, but he assured us it was the best pick.
After lunch we made our way back to the hotel we've been staying at the last couple of days. Andy's parents have been nice enough to take care of our room for tonight and tomorrow. I plan on doing as little as possible the next couple days in an effort to recover from the last two weeks.
Sunday marks the beginning of our penultimate state as Papa D put it. We will make our way into Arizona, yet another state none of us have ever been to, nor do we know anything about it. I'm sure we'll see more unforgettable scenery and meet more unforgettable people. New Mexico has been real good for us, but we're all ready to make our way one state closer to California!
Ken has some birthday shout outs to make right about now, so I will relinquish the computer to him.
Have a Nation day!
-Durkin
Today marked our LAST full day in New Mexico! NM has proved to be one of the toughest, and most beautiful states on our journey. We'll never forget the hospitality, the mountains, the wind, the wildlife or the wind. The days have been long and the elevation has been high, but as Andy wrote yesterday we feel the worst is behind us, and it should be smooth sailing all the way to San Diego (and beyond).
We got up a little earlier than usual today since The Wahilias had a plane ride to catch. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast of cheerios and doughnuts and made our way back to where we left off yesterday. It felt good knowing today was the last day before a day off which made it easy to knock out the 28 miler. No one really had any problems physically or mentally today. I had a weird shooting pain in my shin for a bit but it went away and now I couldn't even tell you which leg it was in. There was far less uphill today than the past few days. In Pie Town we were at about 7,900 feet, and now in Gallup we're at about 6,500 feet. You don't have to be a topographist to guess that we've enjoyed some nice downhills.
We moved quicker and quicker with each mile, and finished up around 2pm which is the earliest we've finished in recent memory. We explored Gallup a little bit, and decided to eat at Garcia's. Andy got some chicken-fried steak, Ken got a burrito, and I enjoyed the buffet. We also threw back some old fashion Mexican soda. Ken had the most unique drink choice out of all of us, Apple Soda. I didn't get a chance to try it, but he assured us it was the best pick.
After lunch we made our way back to the hotel we've been staying at the last couple of days. Andy's parents have been nice enough to take care of our room for tonight and tomorrow. I plan on doing as little as possible the next couple days in an effort to recover from the last two weeks.
Sunday marks the beginning of our penultimate state as Papa D put it. We will make our way into Arizona, yet another state none of us have ever been to, nor do we know anything about it. I'm sure we'll see more unforgettable scenery and meet more unforgettable people. New Mexico has been real good for us, but we're all ready to make our way one state closer to California!
Ken has some birthday shout outs to make right about now, so I will relinquish the computer to him.
Have a Nation day!
-Durkin
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Day 77
Another day in the books and another day closer to San Diego. With 11 weeks (real world weeks) officially behind us and less than six remaining it is safe to say we will be touching the Pacific Ocean with our bare feet, or fully cloth for that matter, on May 26th. For a long time we debated and discussed when we thought we would be finishing this journey. At first I was skeptical that we would remain on schedule and finish each day as planned but after spending close to three months on the road and encountering almost everything imaginable I can safely say that you will see us crossing the finish line Monday May 26th. Buy your plane tickets tonight or if you are John and Reynold, start stepping up your daily mileage cause you'll never catch us!
Before I start talking about today I want to take a few minutes to discuss last nights festivities as well as the rest of the week my parents were here. If you take a minute and look at our schedule on The Route page of our website it is easy to see that this last week was by far the hardest of the entire trip. Not only in total mileage or daily mileage but also the number of days we would be running before a day off. We often joked that once we made it though this week the nation was over because to a certain extent it is. From here on out we will be running a lot less and with a number of scheduled days off to recover. It should be, as we have been calling it, "a joke".
Before my parents knew the exact date of their visit we all kind of dreaded this week. We knew we would be able to get through it but how much fun would it really be trying to finish 35, 38, and 40 miles on consecutive days? Odds are not very. However, having my parents here has made this week one of the most enjoyable of the trip so far. We love when people come out and visit us even if it is for a short amount of time. It really breaks up the days and gives us something to look forward to. I know the three of us were really looking forward to having them visit. It was nice seeing them and for them to be a part of this entire journey. It's not every day that your son runs across the country and I could tell they were proud of us for even attempting such a feat. Having them here only made this trip more memorable. I don't know if we stressed it enough but we can't thank you guys enough for everything you have done while out here and from home. Thanks again and we all love you.
Tomorrow they will drop us off at mile marker 3 on Route 602 for the last time and try to make their flight on time. I am sad to say goodbye to them but at the same time I am ready to get adventurous again and meet new and exciting people. We cross into Arizona on Sunday, our 7th state, and I am looking forward to where we will set up camp.
On to today - Day 77 - End of week 11.
We woke up around 7, as usual and headed downstairs for the continental breakfast. It was your typical breakfast in the lobby of a hotel and consisted of bagels, muffins, toast, donuts and cereal. We ate as much as possible along with a few muffins from Walmart that my mom picked up and packed up the car. With an hour ride ahead of us we wanted to get on the road as soon as possible. Just after 7:30 the five of us made the long drive down 602 and the remainder of 36 to a small driveway near mile marker 45. Ken took a quick nap as Durkin and I tried our hands with some arts and crafts (more on that in the future) before we arrived at our starting point.
For those of you that are not familiar with my father he is a huge NASCAR fan, particularly Jimmie Johnson. Jimmie drives the number 48 Chevy Lowe's car for Hendrick Motorsports and is the current two-time defending Champ. Yeah I know NASCAR. Anyways, it wasn't until this trip that I realized and discovered the true driver in my father. He never speeds or drives reckless but the last few days he has opened up that rental car to see what she has to offer. He was passing people left and right every chance he got. A few of them he passed from way down town at the displeasure of my mother. We all loved his aggressive driving and I think deep down so did he.
Speaking of driving. In the week that my parents were in New Mexico they have put over 2,000 miles on their car either dropping us off/picking us up or site seeing. It was kind of neat to know that just as we are approaching 2,000 miles for our own trip they too were doing the same thing. It was also discouraging to know that after 77 days of running my parents did the same distance in 1/11th of the time. No matter how you look at it, it's impressive.
As we exited the car and started reassembling the jogger my father yelled out to us that the current temperature was 29 degree. "Don't worry, he said, it will be 60 before you get over that hill". It wasn't. In fact, the temperature didn't get that enjoyable until around 2pm with less than 5 miles left in our day. For the rest of the time we all ran in winter hats, gloves and rain coats to block the wind. The wind was not as bad as yesterday but her presence was still felt.
The true test today were the hills. I don't think we had a flat section all day. It was either up or down and for a majority of the day it was up. We would climb and climb only to run downhill for a few short minutes. At times I thought they would never end as we could see far into the horizon.
Probably halfway into our day Durkin found a cell phone on the side of the road. He is usually pretty good at finding things since he runs in front of Ken and I and this was no different. He spotted it, yelled Chocolate and picked it up. It was a Verizon Chocolate cell phone the exact model of his current phone, only in better condition. This seemed funny to me that a phone we found on the side of the road was in better condition than the phone he carries with him on a daily basis. When we got back to the hotel he charged it to see if it still worked. It does and we still don't know what we are going to do with it. Perhaps drop it off in Arizona or wait til we get to San Diego to try and hunt down the owner. I bet they would be surprised if we told them we found there phone in California.
A few miles later we stumbled upon a decaying body of a coyote. This sort of thing is very typical to see on the road but this one was extra special. I know some of you might be grossed out at this point so please skip this paragraph if you don't think you can handle reading on. For those of you with the stomach, here's what happen. Ever since day 21 when we ran passed a Shark Pond I have wanted to get a tooth on this trip. That particular day it was raining and we were soaking wet so we didn't stop to investigate. I feel as if that moment will haunt me for the remainder of the trip. I may have passed up my only opportunity to get a wild animals tooth. However, since then I have been keeping my eye out for such gold. How great would it be to tell people you got a coyote's tooth or a bears tooth while running across the country? Oh you bought it at the store Andy? No, I saw it by the side of the road as I was running one day and pried it out of the animals mouth. That's what I am after.
This coyote was in excellent condition - nothing but remaining bone. It was not rotting or anything gross like that. Ken and Durkin saw it first and stopped running. They turned and smiled at me and knew this was my chance. I couldn't believe my luck and looked for the biggest rock I could find. After several attempts of knocking it out of its mouth I gave up and chalked one up to the road. It may have won this battle but in the end I know I will come out on top.
Further down the road we ran into some construction. There were 3 or 4 guys working on a bridge and waved to us as we passed. As we climbed the next hill and faded away from the construction we came across a giant flashing CAUTION sign by the side of the road. Matt asked me if I thought a keyboard was inside that controlled the writing on the sign. He was thinking about changing the CAUTION to what else "Durkin Is The Greatest" or Nationrun.com. Something along those lines. We figured the guys working wouldn't have that hard of a time catching us as we don't move incredibly fast and opted not to play with the sign.
Finally, with about 4 more left in the day we came across a giant gravel pile. I know you have seen pictures and the video of us racing across longer-shorter piles of gravel, but this pile was a monster. It probably rose 20 feet or more gradually before dropping off suddenly at the other end. We had seen it as we were driving out to start the day and I challenged Durkin to a race. All day I was looking forward to a little bit of revenge since he beat me twice in our other head to head match ups. Just before we arrived he said he didn't feel up to it and would forfeit the win to me. I don't like winning that way but as they say a win is a win. I was busy celebrating when Ken turned around, not knowing Matt would not be racing, and said "I can't wait to see this" with a huge smile on his face. That's all it took for Durkin to fold under peer pressure or the fact that he didn't want to let Ken down and decided he would indeed race me.
Overall, the race build up was a lot better than the actual race as Matt ran away with it. His overall short track speed is just to much for my distance legs and he moves to 3-0 on the year as I fall to 0-3. I guess 0-3 is better than not stepping up to race at all, right Ken?
We finished the day around 3pm and 30 miles of pavement under us before my parents arrived at mile marker 3 on Route 602. This road is unlike any other road we have been traveling on for the last 76 days because up until yesterday we have been traveling West. However, today and tomorrow's run will take us North up to Gallup. We will be doing this to make our way towards the Grand Canyon. I don't think it is a big deal but Ken feels strongly against it and calls this "wasted miles". He has been insisting that there had to be a quicker way to get up to the Canyon and back down again. He also claims we wasted a mile as we climbed in elevation (5,260 feet is a mile above sea level and we are currently at 6,5000). The next time we run across the country Ken is in charge of the route.
We packed the jogger up and headed back to Gallup to get showers and something to eat. The five of us had our last meal together at Applebee's. The food was great and nothing was left to take home, just the way we like it. I hope my parents had a good time visiting and got to see as much as they wanted. I know driving all day can't be that much fun but they were glad to see me, especially on my birthday.
Tomorrow we will once again be on our own after being dropped off in the morning. I know with a rest day coming and the finish just around the corner we will all be well rested and ready to hammer home another 1,000 miles.
I will leave you with a quote that Kaitlyn sent me the other day. It seems fitting, especially for us.
The Perfect Run - The wind at your back (not our case), the sun in front of you (to our left since we are running West all the time), and your friends by your side (almost, except Durkin is ALWAYS in front).
-Andy
Before I start talking about today I want to take a few minutes to discuss last nights festivities as well as the rest of the week my parents were here. If you take a minute and look at our schedule on The Route page of our website it is easy to see that this last week was by far the hardest of the entire trip. Not only in total mileage or daily mileage but also the number of days we would be running before a day off. We often joked that once we made it though this week the nation was over because to a certain extent it is. From here on out we will be running a lot less and with a number of scheduled days off to recover. It should be, as we have been calling it, "a joke".
Before my parents knew the exact date of their visit we all kind of dreaded this week. We knew we would be able to get through it but how much fun would it really be trying to finish 35, 38, and 40 miles on consecutive days? Odds are not very. However, having my parents here has made this week one of the most enjoyable of the trip so far. We love when people come out and visit us even if it is for a short amount of time. It really breaks up the days and gives us something to look forward to. I know the three of us were really looking forward to having them visit. It was nice seeing them and for them to be a part of this entire journey. It's not every day that your son runs across the country and I could tell they were proud of us for even attempting such a feat. Having them here only made this trip more memorable. I don't know if we stressed it enough but we can't thank you guys enough for everything you have done while out here and from home. Thanks again and we all love you.
Tomorrow they will drop us off at mile marker 3 on Route 602 for the last time and try to make their flight on time. I am sad to say goodbye to them but at the same time I am ready to get adventurous again and meet new and exciting people. We cross into Arizona on Sunday, our 7th state, and I am looking forward to where we will set up camp.
On to today - Day 77 - End of week 11.
We woke up around 7, as usual and headed downstairs for the continental breakfast. It was your typical breakfast in the lobby of a hotel and consisted of bagels, muffins, toast, donuts and cereal. We ate as much as possible along with a few muffins from Walmart that my mom picked up and packed up the car. With an hour ride ahead of us we wanted to get on the road as soon as possible. Just after 7:30 the five of us made the long drive down 602 and the remainder of 36 to a small driveway near mile marker 45. Ken took a quick nap as Durkin and I tried our hands with some arts and crafts (more on that in the future) before we arrived at our starting point.
For those of you that are not familiar with my father he is a huge NASCAR fan, particularly Jimmie Johnson. Jimmie drives the number 48 Chevy Lowe's car for Hendrick Motorsports and is the current two-time defending Champ. Yeah I know NASCAR. Anyways, it wasn't until this trip that I realized and discovered the true driver in my father. He never speeds or drives reckless but the last few days he has opened up that rental car to see what she has to offer. He was passing people left and right every chance he got. A few of them he passed from way down town at the displeasure of my mother. We all loved his aggressive driving and I think deep down so did he.
Speaking of driving. In the week that my parents were in New Mexico they have put over 2,000 miles on their car either dropping us off/picking us up or site seeing. It was kind of neat to know that just as we are approaching 2,000 miles for our own trip they too were doing the same thing. It was also discouraging to know that after 77 days of running my parents did the same distance in 1/11th of the time. No matter how you look at it, it's impressive.
As we exited the car and started reassembling the jogger my father yelled out to us that the current temperature was 29 degree. "Don't worry, he said, it will be 60 before you get over that hill". It wasn't. In fact, the temperature didn't get that enjoyable until around 2pm with less than 5 miles left in our day. For the rest of the time we all ran in winter hats, gloves and rain coats to block the wind. The wind was not as bad as yesterday but her presence was still felt.
The true test today were the hills. I don't think we had a flat section all day. It was either up or down and for a majority of the day it was up. We would climb and climb only to run downhill for a few short minutes. At times I thought they would never end as we could see far into the horizon.
Probably halfway into our day Durkin found a cell phone on the side of the road. He is usually pretty good at finding things since he runs in front of Ken and I and this was no different. He spotted it, yelled Chocolate and picked it up. It was a Verizon Chocolate cell phone the exact model of his current phone, only in better condition. This seemed funny to me that a phone we found on the side of the road was in better condition than the phone he carries with him on a daily basis. When we got back to the hotel he charged it to see if it still worked. It does and we still don't know what we are going to do with it. Perhaps drop it off in Arizona or wait til we get to San Diego to try and hunt down the owner. I bet they would be surprised if we told them we found there phone in California.
A few miles later we stumbled upon a decaying body of a coyote. This sort of thing is very typical to see on the road but this one was extra special. I know some of you might be grossed out at this point so please skip this paragraph if you don't think you can handle reading on. For those of you with the stomach, here's what happen. Ever since day 21 when we ran passed a Shark Pond I have wanted to get a tooth on this trip. That particular day it was raining and we were soaking wet so we didn't stop to investigate. I feel as if that moment will haunt me for the remainder of the trip. I may have passed up my only opportunity to get a wild animals tooth. However, since then I have been keeping my eye out for such gold. How great would it be to tell people you got a coyote's tooth or a bears tooth while running across the country? Oh you bought it at the store Andy? No, I saw it by the side of the road as I was running one day and pried it out of the animals mouth. That's what I am after.
This coyote was in excellent condition - nothing but remaining bone. It was not rotting or anything gross like that. Ken and Durkin saw it first and stopped running. They turned and smiled at me and knew this was my chance. I couldn't believe my luck and looked for the biggest rock I could find. After several attempts of knocking it out of its mouth I gave up and chalked one up to the road. It may have won this battle but in the end I know I will come out on top.
Further down the road we ran into some construction. There were 3 or 4 guys working on a bridge and waved to us as we passed. As we climbed the next hill and faded away from the construction we came across a giant flashing CAUTION sign by the side of the road. Matt asked me if I thought a keyboard was inside that controlled the writing on the sign. He was thinking about changing the CAUTION to what else "Durkin Is The Greatest" or Nationrun.com. Something along those lines. We figured the guys working wouldn't have that hard of a time catching us as we don't move incredibly fast and opted not to play with the sign.
Finally, with about 4 more left in the day we came across a giant gravel pile. I know you have seen pictures and the video of us racing across longer-shorter piles of gravel, but this pile was a monster. It probably rose 20 feet or more gradually before dropping off suddenly at the other end. We had seen it as we were driving out to start the day and I challenged Durkin to a race. All day I was looking forward to a little bit of revenge since he beat me twice in our other head to head match ups. Just before we arrived he said he didn't feel up to it and would forfeit the win to me. I don't like winning that way but as they say a win is a win. I was busy celebrating when Ken turned around, not knowing Matt would not be racing, and said "I can't wait to see this" with a huge smile on his face. That's all it took for Durkin to fold under peer pressure or the fact that he didn't want to let Ken down and decided he would indeed race me.
Overall, the race build up was a lot better than the actual race as Matt ran away with it. His overall short track speed is just to much for my distance legs and he moves to 3-0 on the year as I fall to 0-3. I guess 0-3 is better than not stepping up to race at all, right Ken?
We finished the day around 3pm and 30 miles of pavement under us before my parents arrived at mile marker 3 on Route 602. This road is unlike any other road we have been traveling on for the last 76 days because up until yesterday we have been traveling West. However, today and tomorrow's run will take us North up to Gallup. We will be doing this to make our way towards the Grand Canyon. I don't think it is a big deal but Ken feels strongly against it and calls this "wasted miles". He has been insisting that there had to be a quicker way to get up to the Canyon and back down again. He also claims we wasted a mile as we climbed in elevation (5,260 feet is a mile above sea level and we are currently at 6,5000). The next time we run across the country Ken is in charge of the route.
We packed the jogger up and headed back to Gallup to get showers and something to eat. The five of us had our last meal together at Applebee's. The food was great and nothing was left to take home, just the way we like it. I hope my parents had a good time visiting and got to see as much as they wanted. I know driving all day can't be that much fun but they were glad to see me, especially on my birthday.
Tomorrow we will once again be on our own after being dropped off in the morning. I know with a rest day coming and the finish just around the corner we will all be well rested and ready to hammer home another 1,000 miles.
I will leave you with a quote that Kaitlyn sent me the other day. It seems fitting, especially for us.
The Perfect Run - The wind at your back (not our case), the sun in front of you (to our left since we are running West all the time), and your friends by your side (almost, except Durkin is ALWAYS in front).
-Andy
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Day 76
It seems like a lifetime since one of us "blogged." But once again, we are finally at a computer with the World Wide Web or so they call it. It has been so long since I did things like check my email, or we added photos to our webshots, or I even got to check in with the outside world in just about every way! I just want to start the blog with a couple "real" statements:
1) Wind sucks
2) Pampers, you need to learn to spell!
3) I love Pampers!
4) Durkin is doing really well.
5) We're almost out of New Mexico.
6) It's Andy's BIRTHDAY!
So, today we ran about 30 miles. We had no real starting point that was in a town or ending point that was in a town either. We ran from mile marker 16 to a little ways past mile marker 45. As I stated above, Durkin was feeling much better, so we moved at a pretty nice pace the entire day..
I must say, that I am kind of disappointed that now, whenever anyone asks us the question, "How old are you guys?" We cannot respond simply anymore with "We're all 23." Since today marks the 24th year since Andy's birth, we must now say "Matt and Ken are 23, and Andy is the old guy at a remarkable 24 years." But, with that said...I am happy for Andy that he got to spend his birthday with his family. We just sang him the birthday song and ate cupcakes and he opened a bunch of cards that had money falling out of them...so I think he had a good day.
As we ran today, we ran through a very small town called "Fence Lake." It didn't seem like there was anything there, or anyone there...but as we rounded the corner of town, we saw one, almost dominating plaque with some words about Fence Lake. We thought it was funny...and kind of weird. Here is what it said:
There is a mysterious force that drives people to new lands and new frontiers. there is an abiding love for the land and newly turned soil, for young livestock and for the freedom of ownership, for the independence of spirit. This marker will remain to honor those people who first came, those who left, those who stayed, and those who returned. Fence lake, you will someday fade away. until then, this serves as a remembrance of the heart, soul, and spirit of those who passed this way.
It's almost like this community is calling it a future ghost town! It was still kind of cool to see this thing in the middle of this town that was in the middle of nowhere!
The weather today was pretty good for most of the day. There was not a cloud in the sky. Around 1pm, however, the wind came in once again. It wasn't as bad as it has been in the past...but it was pretty forceful in our faces until at one point we hopped on a northerly road, and the last couple miles, the wind was actually at our side, and sometimes it was at our backs so our run ended quite nice!
Throughout our trip, since the beginning, we have seen huge trucks carrying giant pieces of machinery...many times the trucks have the sign "oversize load." Yeah, we've all seen those trucks. We have seen countless trucks carrying the most dangerous, sharp, intimidating looking things. We always laugh because it seems like every time we see another truck come by, its always something crazier than we've seen before. We have joked that we think the trucks are carrying these pieces to one location somewhere east of where we are, and they are building a super machine called the "Crushinator." One earlier this week, one such truck carried a GIANT tube looking thing with sharp metal teeth in the middle...and in response to seeing this truck go by, Andy affirmed to us that "Yeah, that's the Crushinator's toe." So, who knows...maybe one day the crushinator will wreak havoc across the land. Until then, enjoy your life!
One other thing that needs to be said about today is the grasshoppers! They were out in full force today. I don't know what it is about them that makes them think they can just hop whenever their little hearts desire, but they seem to hop into the wind at the most inopportune times. Today was the worst, it was like one of the plagues! As I ran, they would just hop into the wind, and since the wind was in my face they would just whack right into me. One of the grasshoppers smacked me right in the eyeball. I was down for the count for a couple seconds, but luckily I escaped without even the slightest corneal damage. All day though, these suckers would just hop into the gusts of wind. They would land on the pavement of the road many times and they would just "tuck and roll" when they landed! It was kind of funny to see hundreds of these things floating through the air. Some of them traveled quite a long distance as they were carried by the wind. Today, my arch enemy was the Grasshopper, or Orthoptera Caelifera. Hopefully, tomorrow, they decide to rest while we can happily run without the fear of a sudden grasshopper impaling my eye!
So we ended around 3:00 when Andy's parents picked us up. It was an hour drive to Gallup, NM, where we will stay tonight and tomorrow night with the Wahila's before they head back to New York! We checked into our hotel room, and we all took showers and got did up. I called Claire, because cell phone reception has not been my friend out on the road lately, and it was nice to hear her voice for the first time today. Apparently, she has a group project due tomorrow, and one of her partners emailed her her "part" of the paper, and it was much less than desirable. So tonight, it is my girlfriend's job to pick up that other girl's slack and finish the paper. Don't stay up too late :(
As I said before, we sang the birthday song in Andy's parent's room before we headed out for his birthday dinner. We ate at a local Pub and Grill. It was awesome! The place had sports memorabilia all over the place...it was like a museum! I looked around and there was everything from Lebron James' signed high school basketball jersey to Pete Rose's signed baseball that he wrote on it "I'm sorry I bet on baseball." It was cool to look around...the food was pretty good too! if I ever come back, I'm definitely hitting that place up again!
Now we just headed back to the hotel and were doing some laundry and other stuff. We only have 2 more days until our day off! We're starting to feel better after this little funk we went through, especially Durkin. hope you all enjoyed the blog, the first from one of us in a while! Keep doing your thing, wherever that may be. We miss you all and you are all in our thoughts as we start coming into the final stretch of this Nation. Only 40 days left. WOW. San Diego, here we come.
-Ken
1) Wind sucks
2) Pampers, you need to learn to spell!
3) I love Pampers!
4) Durkin is doing really well.
5) We're almost out of New Mexico.
6) It's Andy's BIRTHDAY!
So, today we ran about 30 miles. We had no real starting point that was in a town or ending point that was in a town either. We ran from mile marker 16 to a little ways past mile marker 45. As I stated above, Durkin was feeling much better, so we moved at a pretty nice pace the entire day..
I must say, that I am kind of disappointed that now, whenever anyone asks us the question, "How old are you guys?" We cannot respond simply anymore with "We're all 23." Since today marks the 24th year since Andy's birth, we must now say "Matt and Ken are 23, and Andy is the old guy at a remarkable 24 years." But, with that said...I am happy for Andy that he got to spend his birthday with his family. We just sang him the birthday song and ate cupcakes and he opened a bunch of cards that had money falling out of them...so I think he had a good day.
As we ran today, we ran through a very small town called "Fence Lake." It didn't seem like there was anything there, or anyone there...but as we rounded the corner of town, we saw one, almost dominating plaque with some words about Fence Lake. We thought it was funny...and kind of weird. Here is what it said:
There is a mysterious force that drives people to new lands and new frontiers. there is an abiding love for the land and newly turned soil, for young livestock and for the freedom of ownership, for the independence of spirit. This marker will remain to honor those people who first came, those who left, those who stayed, and those who returned. Fence lake, you will someday fade away. until then, this serves as a remembrance of the heart, soul, and spirit of those who passed this way.
It's almost like this community is calling it a future ghost town! It was still kind of cool to see this thing in the middle of this town that was in the middle of nowhere!
The weather today was pretty good for most of the day. There was not a cloud in the sky. Around 1pm, however, the wind came in once again. It wasn't as bad as it has been in the past...but it was pretty forceful in our faces until at one point we hopped on a northerly road, and the last couple miles, the wind was actually at our side, and sometimes it was at our backs so our run ended quite nice!
Throughout our trip, since the beginning, we have seen huge trucks carrying giant pieces of machinery...many times the trucks have the sign "oversize load." Yeah, we've all seen those trucks. We have seen countless trucks carrying the most dangerous, sharp, intimidating looking things. We always laugh because it seems like every time we see another truck come by, its always something crazier than we've seen before. We have joked that we think the trucks are carrying these pieces to one location somewhere east of where we are, and they are building a super machine called the "Crushinator." One earlier this week, one such truck carried a GIANT tube looking thing with sharp metal teeth in the middle...and in response to seeing this truck go by, Andy affirmed to us that "Yeah, that's the Crushinator's toe." So, who knows...maybe one day the crushinator will wreak havoc across the land. Until then, enjoy your life!
One other thing that needs to be said about today is the grasshoppers! They were out in full force today. I don't know what it is about them that makes them think they can just hop whenever their little hearts desire, but they seem to hop into the wind at the most inopportune times. Today was the worst, it was like one of the plagues! As I ran, they would just hop into the wind, and since the wind was in my face they would just whack right into me. One of the grasshoppers smacked me right in the eyeball. I was down for the count for a couple seconds, but luckily I escaped without even the slightest corneal damage. All day though, these suckers would just hop into the gusts of wind. They would land on the pavement of the road many times and they would just "tuck and roll" when they landed! It was kind of funny to see hundreds of these things floating through the air. Some of them traveled quite a long distance as they were carried by the wind. Today, my arch enemy was the Grasshopper, or Orthoptera Caelifera. Hopefully, tomorrow, they decide to rest while we can happily run without the fear of a sudden grasshopper impaling my eye!
So we ended around 3:00 when Andy's parents picked us up. It was an hour drive to Gallup, NM, where we will stay tonight and tomorrow night with the Wahila's before they head back to New York! We checked into our hotel room, and we all took showers and got did up. I called Claire, because cell phone reception has not been my friend out on the road lately, and it was nice to hear her voice for the first time today. Apparently, she has a group project due tomorrow, and one of her partners emailed her her "part" of the paper, and it was much less than desirable. So tonight, it is my girlfriend's job to pick up that other girl's slack and finish the paper. Don't stay up too late :(
As I said before, we sang the birthday song in Andy's parent's room before we headed out for his birthday dinner. We ate at a local Pub and Grill. It was awesome! The place had sports memorabilia all over the place...it was like a museum! I looked around and there was everything from Lebron James' signed high school basketball jersey to Pete Rose's signed baseball that he wrote on it "I'm sorry I bet on baseball." It was cool to look around...the food was pretty good too! if I ever come back, I'm definitely hitting that place up again!
Now we just headed back to the hotel and were doing some laundry and other stuff. We only have 2 more days until our day off! We're starting to feel better after this little funk we went through, especially Durkin. hope you all enjoyed the blog, the first from one of us in a while! Keep doing your thing, wherever that may be. We miss you all and you are all in our thoughts as we start coming into the final stretch of this Nation. Only 40 days left. WOW. San Diego, here we come.
-Ken
Day 75
It is never fun to report tough news to everyone who reads this blog, but today would be another tough day for the team - especially for Matt. They all woke up around the same time they do every morning, and went to get breakfast with the Wahilas. Matt and Andy had french toast, and Ken had a waffle. Now anyone who knows Ken knows he loves waffles. Andy saw it on the menu and knew Ken was going to get it before Ken even ordered. Ken was not very hungry, and did not finish the waffle. (This may be a first!) Matt was not feeling well, and barely ate any of his breakfast. He attempted to close his eyes and rest until it was time to go.
Andy's parents drove them back to Pie Town, to get one last look and to pick up where they left off. Following the GPS's directions, it took them to a road that would prove to cut off 15 miles of their trip - RT 603. It was an unpaved dirt road, and that meant it was an adventure waiting to happen. Matt started to feel a little better and the crew got moving at a decent clip. Andy was doing double the pushing as a result of his bet with Ken on the previous day. This only lasted about 8 miles, and then Ken insisted that he help out with pushing the jogger. Andy happily obliged, and they kept moving down the road. By mile 12, Matt went back to feeling not so hot, and asked the guys to take a break. He was feeling tired and weak, probably from his inability to eat this morning since he was feeling sick. He told the guys to go on ahead, but they were not going to leave their companion behind. The fellas walked the last 12 miles to where they would finish. The 24 miles on the day was about 4 short of the goal, but Matt was feeling terrible and the decision to stop was made. While waiting for Andy's parents to pick them up, Matt passed out in the grass. It was clear Matt needed some serious R&R. He spent the remainder of the afternoon trying to eat and resting so that he can be good to go for tomorrow.
Now for the fun part of the journey! Andy said it was a tough travel day because of all the walking, and because they felt bad Matt was struggling. But Andy did say that they saw a fella, on this dirt road in the middle of nowhere, waiting with a backpack against a cattle guard. He was hitchiking! Andy said he didn't know what he was waiting for, but he was sure he was going to wait a while! The GPS also took them on to this small ATV type road that seemed like it was going to be a huge shortcut. After climbing over 2 barbed wire fences with the jogger, going up and down hills, through deep loose dirt and sand - it cut off less than a half of a mile! Andy and Ken could only laugh thinking of this part of the trip. I am sure it is one they will never forget! Andy also told me that the scenery was awesome today. No traffic on this road, wide open on either side with mountains in the distance, and just a nice sunny day. Can't get better than that!
The Wahilas picked the guys up and took them into town. The went to grab some food, and again Matt had a tough time eating. After dinner, Matt headed up to the hotel to get some rest. Andy and Ken headed over to the local high school to see if they could grab some computer time. They were able to and spent 2.5 hours uploading all the ballin photos they have been waiting to show everyone. Make sure to take a look at Day 61-65 because Andy and Ken added more to that album, as well as Day 66-71 and Day 72-75. Lots of adventures to catch up on. Check them out!
After the computer time, the guys went to the hotel and showered. They then drove a few miles outside of town in order to get cell phone service to call up me and a few others to let them know how the day went. They planned on heading back and getting some rest for the remainder of the night. They plan on waking up at 7, and seeing how Matt feels. If he is good to go, they will move right along. If he is still feeling ill, they will be taking the day off.
Keep Matt in your thoughts, hopefully he gets better soon! Thanks for all the support! Keep truckin!
- Rick
Andy's parents drove them back to Pie Town, to get one last look and to pick up where they left off. Following the GPS's directions, it took them to a road that would prove to cut off 15 miles of their trip - RT 603. It was an unpaved dirt road, and that meant it was an adventure waiting to happen. Matt started to feel a little better and the crew got moving at a decent clip. Andy was doing double the pushing as a result of his bet with Ken on the previous day. This only lasted about 8 miles, and then Ken insisted that he help out with pushing the jogger. Andy happily obliged, and they kept moving down the road. By mile 12, Matt went back to feeling not so hot, and asked the guys to take a break. He was feeling tired and weak, probably from his inability to eat this morning since he was feeling sick. He told the guys to go on ahead, but they were not going to leave their companion behind. The fellas walked the last 12 miles to where they would finish. The 24 miles on the day was about 4 short of the goal, but Matt was feeling terrible and the decision to stop was made. While waiting for Andy's parents to pick them up, Matt passed out in the grass. It was clear Matt needed some serious R&R. He spent the remainder of the afternoon trying to eat and resting so that he can be good to go for tomorrow.
Now for the fun part of the journey! Andy said it was a tough travel day because of all the walking, and because they felt bad Matt was struggling. But Andy did say that they saw a fella, on this dirt road in the middle of nowhere, waiting with a backpack against a cattle guard. He was hitchiking! Andy said he didn't know what he was waiting for, but he was sure he was going to wait a while! The GPS also took them on to this small ATV type road that seemed like it was going to be a huge shortcut. After climbing over 2 barbed wire fences with the jogger, going up and down hills, through deep loose dirt and sand - it cut off less than a half of a mile! Andy and Ken could only laugh thinking of this part of the trip. I am sure it is one they will never forget! Andy also told me that the scenery was awesome today. No traffic on this road, wide open on either side with mountains in the distance, and just a nice sunny day. Can't get better than that!
The Wahilas picked the guys up and took them into town. The went to grab some food, and again Matt had a tough time eating. After dinner, Matt headed up to the hotel to get some rest. Andy and Ken headed over to the local high school to see if they could grab some computer time. They were able to and spent 2.5 hours uploading all the ballin photos they have been waiting to show everyone. Make sure to take a look at Day 61-65 because Andy and Ken added more to that album, as well as Day 66-71 and Day 72-75. Lots of adventures to catch up on. Check them out!
After the computer time, the guys went to the hotel and showered. They then drove a few miles outside of town in order to get cell phone service to call up me and a few others to let them know how the day went. They planned on heading back and getting some rest for the remainder of the night. They plan on waking up at 7, and seeing how Matt feels. If he is good to go, they will move right along. If he is still feeling ill, they will be taking the day off.
Keep Matt in your thoughts, hopefully he gets better soon! Thanks for all the support! Keep truckin!
- Rick
Monday, April 14, 2008
Day 74
Today was the day that they had all been waiting for - the arrival into PIE TOWN! But before we get to that part of the adventure, let's start from the top! The team awoke, and got breakfast at the Largo. After a quick bite to eat, they loaded up the only jogger they would need today into Andy's parents' rental car, and drove the 45 minutes to where they left off on Sunday. As they drove through Pie Town, Matt closed his eyes once again. At about 8:30, they began the 28 mile journey to one of the most anticipated stops on the Nation Run route.
It was a tough travel day for the trio with the elevation at most likely its highest point. They began the day at 7,000 feet, and finished at about 7,800 feet. No drastic climbs like previous days, but just a gradual incline for the guys to tackle. Andy said it was tough to catch his breath, and Ken and Matt were a little fatigued. The elevation may have had a role in these feelings, but they all pushed through. Matt found their first motorcycle license plate from Arizona, and there was an elk or moose crossing sign as well! The guys followed the winding roads, keeping an eye on the mountains looking for elk and bears. Andy really wants to spot a bear! Besides keeping an eye on the scenery, the day was spent counting down the miles to Pie Town. Matt has been excited for this day more than any other since the day that Andy sent out the route to all the guys. He told me he could remember a training run with Andy where he looked at Andy and said, "Hey, 87 days until PIE TOWN!" Matt could not have been more excited to finish the day's travel. He even planned on saying, "3.14 miles until Pie Town!" However, Matt forgot! It is too bad that he forgot, as it would have been a great reference to close friend Alex Lipsky and his love for the mathematical term pi. They also spent time joking around about how Pie Town was really Pi Town, and a bunch of math nerds lived there trying to figure out the equation for pi!
With 2 miles to go until they rolled into Pie Town, the guys reached one huge landmark in the United States - the Continental Divide! The elevation here is 7,796 feet. This is a huge accomplishment for the guys, as they were never sure how far they would get when they started. Today by crossing the Continental Divide and rolling into Pie Town it finally started to hit the trio.
Finally, the moment had arrived. The trio ran right into the town that had 3 buildings and a population of 8 people - Pie Town, NM. The guys met Andy's parents and went to the Pie-O-Neer to get a piece of pie! Kathy, who owned the place, told them that John Wallace III (seejohnrun.com) had arranged to pay for pie and ice cream for the guys! Thanks John for all your support, and the pie! Ken had a nice piece of apple pie, Andy had a piece of chocolate cream pie, and Matt rounded it out with a slice of triple cherry pie! All were excellent! They also had some spinach quesadilla, which Kathy said was on the house. Thanks Kathy! There was also a wager on how far the team has traveled. Andy said it was 1,771 miles. Ken was convinced he was wrong saying they had traveled 1,792 miles. They argued over it for a few minutes before Andy bet all of his jogger pushes for the next day on him being right. They shook hands and Andy fetched the maps. It turns out that the map reflected that Ken was correct! Andy will be pushing the jogger for both him and Ken tomorrow! Matt said that this was a foolish bet, because Ken looks at the map for a half hour at a time most days! It was a fun bet, but Ken was the victor in a big way.
Now this is where the saying, "It's a small world," comes into play. A waitress at the Pie-O-Neer was from Ronkonkoma, NY. To many readers, this may only be another reference to New York where the trio is from. However, their friend and my girlfriend Lauren is from Lake Ronkonkoma, NY which is right next to Ronkonkoma! Think that is cool? They overheard a couple that came in for pie say they were from Buffalo, NY. When they told the couple they were from Albany, the couple said they had lived there as well in EAST GREENBUSH! Matt and Ken are BOTH from East Greenbush! And just to make one more connection with this couple, the gentleman said he went to Siena College, which is where Andy's girlfriend Kaitlyn is the Assistant Field Hockey Coach! In the small restaurant, there were 10 people that day. Out of the 10, 8 were from New York! Matt was blown away and so excited that Pie Town brought people together today!
The rest of Pie Town consisted of a Post Office and another small cafe. Pie Town's slogan is, "It's all downhill from here!" because they are on top of a large hill and it is a downhill on either side of the town. Matt also wanted everyone to see what was written on a sign in Pie Town. It reads:
"Due to the strategic location of our town, folks have always found it a pleasant place to stop, rest, and refresh. The first merchant in town had such a demand for pie and they were made of such quality that it became justly famous. Local folks as well as travelers began to refer to the community as "Pie Town." And that's how we got our name!"
Along with this sign, there was another that said "PIE X-ING"! The day closed with a purchase of Pie Town t-shirts that read, "Pie Town - A little slice of heaven!" They loaded up the rental car once again, and drove back to the hotel. Showers and dinner consumed the rest of the night, so that they are ready for tomorrow's travel. For those of you who have been waiting patiently to see pictures of the adventures over the past week, the team sends their apologies. They have not had great luck with finding a computer to load them up on to, because Ken's died a few weeks ago. As soon as they have a computer with internet connection, they will put them right up for all to see.
Thank you to all for the endless support, and just keep movin'!
- Rick
It was a tough travel day for the trio with the elevation at most likely its highest point. They began the day at 7,000 feet, and finished at about 7,800 feet. No drastic climbs like previous days, but just a gradual incline for the guys to tackle. Andy said it was tough to catch his breath, and Ken and Matt were a little fatigued. The elevation may have had a role in these feelings, but they all pushed through. Matt found their first motorcycle license plate from Arizona, and there was an elk or moose crossing sign as well! The guys followed the winding roads, keeping an eye on the mountains looking for elk and bears. Andy really wants to spot a bear! Besides keeping an eye on the scenery, the day was spent counting down the miles to Pie Town. Matt has been excited for this day more than any other since the day that Andy sent out the route to all the guys. He told me he could remember a training run with Andy where he looked at Andy and said, "Hey, 87 days until PIE TOWN!" Matt could not have been more excited to finish the day's travel. He even planned on saying, "3.14 miles until Pie Town!" However, Matt forgot! It is too bad that he forgot, as it would have been a great reference to close friend Alex Lipsky and his love for the mathematical term pi. They also spent time joking around about how Pie Town was really Pi Town, and a bunch of math nerds lived there trying to figure out the equation for pi!
With 2 miles to go until they rolled into Pie Town, the guys reached one huge landmark in the United States - the Continental Divide! The elevation here is 7,796 feet. This is a huge accomplishment for the guys, as they were never sure how far they would get when they started. Today by crossing the Continental Divide and rolling into Pie Town it finally started to hit the trio.
Finally, the moment had arrived. The trio ran right into the town that had 3 buildings and a population of 8 people - Pie Town, NM. The guys met Andy's parents and went to the Pie-O-Neer to get a piece of pie! Kathy, who owned the place, told them that John Wallace III (seejohnrun.com) had arranged to pay for pie and ice cream for the guys! Thanks John for all your support, and the pie! Ken had a nice piece of apple pie, Andy had a piece of chocolate cream pie, and Matt rounded it out with a slice of triple cherry pie! All were excellent! They also had some spinach quesadilla, which Kathy said was on the house. Thanks Kathy! There was also a wager on how far the team has traveled. Andy said it was 1,771 miles. Ken was convinced he was wrong saying they had traveled 1,792 miles. They argued over it for a few minutes before Andy bet all of his jogger pushes for the next day on him being right. They shook hands and Andy fetched the maps. It turns out that the map reflected that Ken was correct! Andy will be pushing the jogger for both him and Ken tomorrow! Matt said that this was a foolish bet, because Ken looks at the map for a half hour at a time most days! It was a fun bet, but Ken was the victor in a big way.
Now this is where the saying, "It's a small world," comes into play. A waitress at the Pie-O-Neer was from Ronkonkoma, NY. To many readers, this may only be another reference to New York where the trio is from. However, their friend and my girlfriend Lauren is from Lake Ronkonkoma, NY which is right next to Ronkonkoma! Think that is cool? They overheard a couple that came in for pie say they were from Buffalo, NY. When they told the couple they were from Albany, the couple said they had lived there as well in EAST GREENBUSH! Matt and Ken are BOTH from East Greenbush! And just to make one more connection with this couple, the gentleman said he went to Siena College, which is where Andy's girlfriend Kaitlyn is the Assistant Field Hockey Coach! In the small restaurant, there were 10 people that day. Out of the 10, 8 were from New York! Matt was blown away and so excited that Pie Town brought people together today!
The rest of Pie Town consisted of a Post Office and another small cafe. Pie Town's slogan is, "It's all downhill from here!" because they are on top of a large hill and it is a downhill on either side of the town. Matt also wanted everyone to see what was written on a sign in Pie Town. It reads:
"Due to the strategic location of our town, folks have always found it a pleasant place to stop, rest, and refresh. The first merchant in town had such a demand for pie and they were made of such quality that it became justly famous. Local folks as well as travelers began to refer to the community as "Pie Town." And that's how we got our name!"
Along with this sign, there was another that said "PIE X-ING"! The day closed with a purchase of Pie Town t-shirts that read, "Pie Town - A little slice of heaven!" They loaded up the rental car once again, and drove back to the hotel. Showers and dinner consumed the rest of the night, so that they are ready for tomorrow's travel. For those of you who have been waiting patiently to see pictures of the adventures over the past week, the team sends their apologies. They have not had great luck with finding a computer to load them up on to, because Ken's died a few weeks ago. As soon as they have a computer with internet connection, they will put them right up for all to see.
Thank you to all for the endless support, and just keep movin'!
- Rick
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Day 73
Yo dawg, This is Nick Pampena, aka PAMPERS, writing to you all the way from my computer on the SUNY Oneonta, NY, campus. Matt is giving me the amazing privilege of doing tonight's write up as Rick and Dan were not available.
The team started out their day around 7am in Magdalena, New Mexico. They woke up, packed their joggers, and went on the prowl for some breakfast. They couldn't find any large establishments, so they ended up at a gas station. There they loaded up on sausage egg and cheese croissants(french accent optional), pop tarts, and blueberry pastries. After filling up they headed out on the days trek, making their way through town and out on the open road. The beginning of the day was filled with some hill running on Route 60 which was welcomed by the guys, because as they would soon find out the rest of the day would be flat. After the hills, Matt described Route 60 as being, "the absolute straightest" road he has ever been on, and that he could see for miles and miles in any direction. On this road they saw a sign for the Very Large Array, VLA, which is a radio astronomy observatory consisting of multiple radio antennae that resemble satellites, 19 miles ahead of them.
They thought the Array could not actually be 19 miles away because it seemed visually much closer. However their eyes deceived them, and they turned out to be exactly 19 miles away. On their way there Matt described the scenery as never changing and the flatness and straightness offered no new obstacles. To combat this they had an Ipod Jam Out Session (one of the greatest things ever) where they put the Ipod on shuffle and rock out to the randomness of the music. The highlight of this was when they went from a Notorious B.I.G. song, which they described as the "Hardest song" to a Phil Collins song, which could only than be described as the "second Hardest song." Upon arrival at the Large Array, they found out their was actually 27 antennae all with a diameter of 25 meters that constantly broadcast signals into outer space. They sometimes work together to try and receive signals from space or scan the cosmos.
After they kept moving on the beautiful day, which was 65, sunny, with no wind, and after a while an unfamiliar white Impala pulled up behind them. To their surprise it was Andy's parents! They packed up one of the joggers in their car and chilled while eating an enormous sub that Andy's parents graciously brought. After eating they finished up the rest of the miles, making a 28 mile day, with Andy's parents running the last 1/4 mile with them, getting them on the Official Cameo Appearance list. They then packed up the car and drove 40 miles to the hotel where they would be spending the night. This journey brought them through Pie Town, New Mexico and as you know Matt wants it to be a complete surprise when they enter it tomorrow, Yes tomorrow! In order to keep it completely secret to him, he closed his eyes as they passed through and will do so tomorrow on the drive back to there end point.
At the hotel Andy's parents generously gave them snickers, protein bars, and shoes. On the topic of shoes, Andy says he is feeling much better as of recent and he is very grateful to have new shoes as his old ones were completely worn. They then got lunch where they dominated cheeseburgers as usual. Matt had a western cheeseburger which he said was excellent. After they went back to the hotel and watched the movie Gridiron Gang, starring superstars such as the Rock and gangster beats master, Xzibit. The movie is based around a correctional facilities football team. It is an inspiring tale of overcoming adversity and helping others...while in prison. Needless to say the Rock's superb acting skills, and Xzibits sheer on screen confidence touched the trio's heart, inspiring them to finish the nation in Gridiron fashion.
After they decided to drive around to find cell service. A little boy on a bike gave them the hook up, and they drove over to a dump 4 miles away where the service was exceptional. It was there that Matt and I had our conversation and he wants me to let you know how grateful they all are for your support and how well they are doing. They are all stronger than ever and feeling confident that the nation will be theirs. They want to say thank you to people like Kenny, Laurie, and Vance, who offer to put them up and donate to the cause out of the kindness of their heart. Without people like them this trip wouldn't be what it is and they are amazed and appreciative of their generosity.
With Andy's parents around, the guys have chosen to have the next 5 days be 28 milers, and veer off course on a 15 mile short cut. This will bring them across the continental divide. Soon they will be passing through the Grand Canyon and into California, and they are looking forward to the adventure that awaits them. Tomorrow is officially Pie Day for the guys, as they will be entering Pie Town, New Mexico, and you can only imagine the suspense they are feeling, especially Matt. They are also finally acclimated to the 7000 ft elevation and are feeling much stronger in the thinner air. Their going to spend the rest of the night watching the Yankees vs. Red Sox game and they want to let you know they have tons of amazing pictures they need to update so be on the look out!
Thank You to all, and keep supporting these guys and their dream!
1 day till Pie DAY!
-Real, Raw, Stoop Life-
Sincerely yours,
Pampers
The team started out their day around 7am in Magdalena, New Mexico. They woke up, packed their joggers, and went on the prowl for some breakfast. They couldn't find any large establishments, so they ended up at a gas station. There they loaded up on sausage egg and cheese croissants(french accent optional), pop tarts, and blueberry pastries. After filling up they headed out on the days trek, making their way through town and out on the open road. The beginning of the day was filled with some hill running on Route 60 which was welcomed by the guys, because as they would soon find out the rest of the day would be flat. After the hills, Matt described Route 60 as being, "the absolute straightest" road he has ever been on, and that he could see for miles and miles in any direction. On this road they saw a sign for the Very Large Array, VLA, which is a radio astronomy observatory consisting of multiple radio antennae that resemble satellites, 19 miles ahead of them.
They thought the Array could not actually be 19 miles away because it seemed visually much closer. However their eyes deceived them, and they turned out to be exactly 19 miles away. On their way there Matt described the scenery as never changing and the flatness and straightness offered no new obstacles. To combat this they had an Ipod Jam Out Session (one of the greatest things ever) where they put the Ipod on shuffle and rock out to the randomness of the music. The highlight of this was when they went from a Notorious B.I.G. song, which they described as the "Hardest song" to a Phil Collins song, which could only than be described as the "second Hardest song." Upon arrival at the Large Array, they found out their was actually 27 antennae all with a diameter of 25 meters that constantly broadcast signals into outer space. They sometimes work together to try and receive signals from space or scan the cosmos.
After they kept moving on the beautiful day, which was 65, sunny, with no wind, and after a while an unfamiliar white Impala pulled up behind them. To their surprise it was Andy's parents! They packed up one of the joggers in their car and chilled while eating an enormous sub that Andy's parents graciously brought. After eating they finished up the rest of the miles, making a 28 mile day, with Andy's parents running the last 1/4 mile with them, getting them on the Official Cameo Appearance list. They then packed up the car and drove 40 miles to the hotel where they would be spending the night. This journey brought them through Pie Town, New Mexico and as you know Matt wants it to be a complete surprise when they enter it tomorrow, Yes tomorrow! In order to keep it completely secret to him, he closed his eyes as they passed through and will do so tomorrow on the drive back to there end point.
At the hotel Andy's parents generously gave them snickers, protein bars, and shoes. On the topic of shoes, Andy says he is feeling much better as of recent and he is very grateful to have new shoes as his old ones were completely worn. They then got lunch where they dominated cheeseburgers as usual. Matt had a western cheeseburger which he said was excellent. After they went back to the hotel and watched the movie Gridiron Gang, starring superstars such as the Rock and gangster beats master, Xzibit. The movie is based around a correctional facilities football team. It is an inspiring tale of overcoming adversity and helping others...while in prison. Needless to say the Rock's superb acting skills, and Xzibits sheer on screen confidence touched the trio's heart, inspiring them to finish the nation in Gridiron fashion.
After they decided to drive around to find cell service. A little boy on a bike gave them the hook up, and they drove over to a dump 4 miles away where the service was exceptional. It was there that Matt and I had our conversation and he wants me to let you know how grateful they all are for your support and how well they are doing. They are all stronger than ever and feeling confident that the nation will be theirs. They want to say thank you to people like Kenny, Laurie, and Vance, who offer to put them up and donate to the cause out of the kindness of their heart. Without people like them this trip wouldn't be what it is and they are amazed and appreciative of their generosity.
With Andy's parents around, the guys have chosen to have the next 5 days be 28 milers, and veer off course on a 15 mile short cut. This will bring them across the continental divide. Soon they will be passing through the Grand Canyon and into California, and they are looking forward to the adventure that awaits them. Tomorrow is officially Pie Day for the guys, as they will be entering Pie Town, New Mexico, and you can only imagine the suspense they are feeling, especially Matt. They are also finally acclimated to the 7000 ft elevation and are feeling much stronger in the thinner air. Their going to spend the rest of the night watching the Yankees vs. Red Sox game and they want to let you know they have tons of amazing pictures they need to update so be on the look out!
Thank You to all, and keep supporting these guys and their dream!
1 day till Pie DAY!
-Real, Raw, Stoop Life-
Sincerely yours,
Pampers
Day 72
Another great day for the Nation Run team! They woke up and gathered their things for the day's mileage, only to discover that the yellow jogger had 2 flat tires! Andy had attempted to fix these yesterday, but it was not effective. He decided that they would just blow up the tires, and keep filling them periodically throughout the day because the tires only had small leaks. The guys then got some breakfast, and headed to the Post Office to meet up with Carlos.
The guys thanked Carlos for all the help he gave them yesterday. The guys really liked meeting Carlos, and they were sad to have to go. The travel as a whole was pretty slow today. The first 12 miles were on unnamed roads from the GPS. There was two ways to go today; one on definite roads, and the other on the unnamed roads. The trio chose the adventurous route with the unnamed roads. This route probably had not been traveled in many years. Rocks, sand, 3 foot wide pot holes, and more sand covered this roadway. The joggers to not move easily through this type of terrain, so they only covered the first 12 miles in about 2 hours. It was tough travel, but they made jokes about it all morning long and had fun regardless.
At about 11:00 am, the fellas made it back on to solid asphalt. This is where Andy had enough of stopping every hour to fill the tires and decided it was time to change out the tire tubes. After removing the tires and tubes, Andy reached in to the bag of supplies only to find that they had no more tubes left. He went to get a patch to fix the whole, and found their last one. Luckily, Andy's parents are arriving tomorrow with a fresh supply of tubes, patches, and other fixing supplies. They found the hole, patched it, and got back on the road.
The rest of the day was filled with meeting up with a news reporter from Socorro, and a huge elevation climb. The team went up about 2,000 feet in elevation today! There has been a lot of elevation change over the past couple weeks, but they have been told that today was probably the largest they will have the rest of the trip! The road flattened out after the climb. The rest of the day was spent in minimal wind and 60 degrees! What a nice day!
Just outside of town, the guys encountered a bush that was completely decked out in Christmas decor! Kind of strange to see in the middle of New Mexico in April, but it made the guys chuckle and keep movin' on to their final destination. They had a contact with a couple 3 or 4 miles outside of town, Luther and Toni. Andy's parents had offered to pay for a hotel in town, so they obliged. They called up Luther and Toni and thanked them for their generous offer, but told them they would be staying in town. The guys asked if Luther and Toni would meet them for lunch because they still wanted to meet them. The couple met them at a little cafe in town around 5 for a late lunch. They talked a lot about the journey, and Luther is a bit of a runner himself! The town has a mile race that involves a huge elevation change. Luther ran it and finished it! He was very proud of his accomplishment, and the guys were impressed. They also met a gentleman who walked across the United States in 1986 with a large group of people! It took about 9 months to complete his journey. It was a good day of meeting interesting people. Toni and Luther picked up the lunch tab for the guys as well! Thank you!
After the meal, they all headed over to the hotel for the night. After they checked in, they took showers and got laundry going for the first time in about 4 days. Durkin had run out of socks, so it was perfect timing. What was not perfect timing was dinner. They had pretty much all of their clothes in the laundry when they wanted to go eat. Matt had just enough clothes, and Andy said he borrowed Ken's basketball shorts because he had nothing. Ken had one pair of shorts, and Andy described them to be "the shortest shorts in the world." Ken also was wearing Matt's Carlos Delgado Mets t-shirt, which was small on Matt and "painted on Ken" as Andy described it. To top it all off, Ken was wearing his hat backward. It was quite a sight! After dinner, they retired to the hotel for the rest of the night.
To close out the entry tonight, I want to thank all who donated to the team's travel and Phil's scholarship. A gentleman named Pierre donated a very generous sum of money to Phil' scholarship. Thank you Pierre! Another gentleman by the name of Ed donated to the team's travel fund. Ed was from Long Island, New York! Matt was very pumped to meet someone from back home on the trip. Thank you Ed!
A long day, but a good one. Thanks for checkin' in, and keep truckin'!
- Rick
The guys thanked Carlos for all the help he gave them yesterday. The guys really liked meeting Carlos, and they were sad to have to go. The travel as a whole was pretty slow today. The first 12 miles were on unnamed roads from the GPS. There was two ways to go today; one on definite roads, and the other on the unnamed roads. The trio chose the adventurous route with the unnamed roads. This route probably had not been traveled in many years. Rocks, sand, 3 foot wide pot holes, and more sand covered this roadway. The joggers to not move easily through this type of terrain, so they only covered the first 12 miles in about 2 hours. It was tough travel, but they made jokes about it all morning long and had fun regardless.
At about 11:00 am, the fellas made it back on to solid asphalt. This is where Andy had enough of stopping every hour to fill the tires and decided it was time to change out the tire tubes. After removing the tires and tubes, Andy reached in to the bag of supplies only to find that they had no more tubes left. He went to get a patch to fix the whole, and found their last one. Luckily, Andy's parents are arriving tomorrow with a fresh supply of tubes, patches, and other fixing supplies. They found the hole, patched it, and got back on the road.
The rest of the day was filled with meeting up with a news reporter from Socorro, and a huge elevation climb. The team went up about 2,000 feet in elevation today! There has been a lot of elevation change over the past couple weeks, but they have been told that today was probably the largest they will have the rest of the trip! The road flattened out after the climb. The rest of the day was spent in minimal wind and 60 degrees! What a nice day!
Just outside of town, the guys encountered a bush that was completely decked out in Christmas decor! Kind of strange to see in the middle of New Mexico in April, but it made the guys chuckle and keep movin' on to their final destination. They had a contact with a couple 3 or 4 miles outside of town, Luther and Toni. Andy's parents had offered to pay for a hotel in town, so they obliged. They called up Luther and Toni and thanked them for their generous offer, but told them they would be staying in town. The guys asked if Luther and Toni would meet them for lunch because they still wanted to meet them. The couple met them at a little cafe in town around 5 for a late lunch. They talked a lot about the journey, and Luther is a bit of a runner himself! The town has a mile race that involves a huge elevation change. Luther ran it and finished it! He was very proud of his accomplishment, and the guys were impressed. They also met a gentleman who walked across the United States in 1986 with a large group of people! It took about 9 months to complete his journey. It was a good day of meeting interesting people. Toni and Luther picked up the lunch tab for the guys as well! Thank you!
After the meal, they all headed over to the hotel for the night. After they checked in, they took showers and got laundry going for the first time in about 4 days. Durkin had run out of socks, so it was perfect timing. What was not perfect timing was dinner. They had pretty much all of their clothes in the laundry when they wanted to go eat. Matt had just enough clothes, and Andy said he borrowed Ken's basketball shorts because he had nothing. Ken had one pair of shorts, and Andy described them to be "the shortest shorts in the world." Ken also was wearing Matt's Carlos Delgado Mets t-shirt, which was small on Matt and "painted on Ken" as Andy described it. To top it all off, Ken was wearing his hat backward. It was quite a sight! After dinner, they retired to the hotel for the rest of the night.
To close out the entry tonight, I want to thank all who donated to the team's travel and Phil's scholarship. A gentleman named Pierre donated a very generous sum of money to Phil' scholarship. Thank you Pierre! Another gentleman by the name of Ed donated to the team's travel fund. Ed was from Long Island, New York! Matt was very pumped to meet someone from back home on the trip. Thank you Ed!
A long day, but a good one. Thanks for checkin' in, and keep truckin'!
- Rick
Friday, April 11, 2008
Day 71
Last night was definitely a tough one for the guys. Ken and Matt had a hard time getting sleep and settling down to rest. Andy apparently slept fairly well, but still did not feel very rested at the 4:30 am wakeup call. The trio slipped some long pants on, found their headlamps and flashlights, and headed out into the dark morning around 5 am. Matt said it was awesome to be running this early in the morning for a couple reasons. The first was that there was no wind! It was very calm for the start of the run, which was a welcomed break from the previous day's travel. Secondly, every star in sight was out and shining this morning. Matt said it was definitely something he would remember.
The sun eventually came up, and the sights were even more spectacular. The sunrise cast shadows and silhouettes on the mountains in the distance. Matt kept saying what an awesome morning it was! The crew got 20 miles in before the wind picked up, but even when it did, the wind was no where near as gusty as it was the previous day. (Yesterday, the wind gusts were up to about 60-65 miles per hour!) Traveling down RT 380, the guys saw a couple people and a vehicle in the distance. Getting closer, they became curious as to what the people were doing. When the two groups crossed paths, the gentleman on the other side of the road took their picture, and the crew went to say hello. It turns out that this gentleman, Matt Reynolds, and his wife, Susan, were walking from one end of New Mexico to the other! The new friends talked for a while, and Matt and Susan ended up donating $20 to the scholarship fund in Phil's name! Thank you! If you want to track Matt and Susan's progress, you can go to www.journeyheretothere.com or susantalksthewalk.blogspot.com.
A little while later, the guys met Dewey Brown. Dewey is a friend of Welda's (from Carizozo, NM). When Welda found out that they team went without dinner and breakfast yesterday, she called every person and rancher long RT 380 that she knew to see where the team was. When she finally found a person who they had not passed, Dewey Brown, she quickly asked him to get some water and food out to the guys. Thank you again Welda! Dewey brought the guys some much needed water and food, and the guys carried on. Thank you Dewey!
The team finished up in San Antonio at an early 11:30 am, due to the early start. Matt said it was nice to finish early and get some extra rest time. The guys had lunch at the Owl Bar. This place seemed to be pretty famous to the people in town, and was home to the Green Chili Cheese Burger! James Grider, Welda's husband, arranged for the lunch to be taken care of on his tab. Thank you!
With some time to spare, Matt said that the guys ventured over to the Post Office. Ken's parents were sending him some new running shoes, but they were not supposed to arrive until tomorrow. They figured they might check it out anyway. It turns out that Ken's stepmom had called the Post Office a few days prior just to make sure she had all the information correct, and got to talking with one of the employees at the Post Office about the cross-country run. Carlos Gonzalez and Ken's stepmom became instant friends, and he became very excited to meet the team. He told them he would offer his home for them to stay, but he had some family gatherings to prepare for and attend. Carlos did not leave the team hanging, and set them up in the Acosta Bed and Breakfast. The guys spent some time relaxing and resting before dinner. Matt said that Andy worked on getting the new tire tubes on the joggers while he played and blew the old ones up as big as he could. It was a nice afternoon.
After fixing up the joggers, the team headed over to Walmart. They stocked up on Gatorade because it is much, much cheaper at Walmart than at the small gas stations they encounter along the way. A little while later, the guys met up with Barbara who was going to take them out to dinner. They all went to Socorro, a small Mexican restaurant, and enjoyed a nice big meal. Matt said they plan on taking advantage of the breakfast portion of the Acosta Bed and Breakfast in the morning, and then get back out on the old dusty trail.
A much better day for the trio! Keep movin!
- Rick
The sun eventually came up, and the sights were even more spectacular. The sunrise cast shadows and silhouettes on the mountains in the distance. Matt kept saying what an awesome morning it was! The crew got 20 miles in before the wind picked up, but even when it did, the wind was no where near as gusty as it was the previous day. (Yesterday, the wind gusts were up to about 60-65 miles per hour!) Traveling down RT 380, the guys saw a couple people and a vehicle in the distance. Getting closer, they became curious as to what the people were doing. When the two groups crossed paths, the gentleman on the other side of the road took their picture, and the crew went to say hello. It turns out that this gentleman, Matt Reynolds, and his wife, Susan, were walking from one end of New Mexico to the other! The new friends talked for a while, and Matt and Susan ended up donating $20 to the scholarship fund in Phil's name! Thank you! If you want to track Matt and Susan's progress, you can go to www.journeyheretothere.com or susantalksthewalk.blogspot.com.
A little while later, the guys met Dewey Brown. Dewey is a friend of Welda's (from Carizozo, NM). When Welda found out that they team went without dinner and breakfast yesterday, she called every person and rancher long RT 380 that she knew to see where the team was. When she finally found a person who they had not passed, Dewey Brown, she quickly asked him to get some water and food out to the guys. Thank you again Welda! Dewey brought the guys some much needed water and food, and the guys carried on. Thank you Dewey!
The team finished up in San Antonio at an early 11:30 am, due to the early start. Matt said it was nice to finish early and get some extra rest time. The guys had lunch at the Owl Bar. This place seemed to be pretty famous to the people in town, and was home to the Green Chili Cheese Burger! James Grider, Welda's husband, arranged for the lunch to be taken care of on his tab. Thank you!
With some time to spare, Matt said that the guys ventured over to the Post Office. Ken's parents were sending him some new running shoes, but they were not supposed to arrive until tomorrow. They figured they might check it out anyway. It turns out that Ken's stepmom had called the Post Office a few days prior just to make sure she had all the information correct, and got to talking with one of the employees at the Post Office about the cross-country run. Carlos Gonzalez and Ken's stepmom became instant friends, and he became very excited to meet the team. He told them he would offer his home for them to stay, but he had some family gatherings to prepare for and attend. Carlos did not leave the team hanging, and set them up in the Acosta Bed and Breakfast. The guys spent some time relaxing and resting before dinner. Matt said that Andy worked on getting the new tire tubes on the joggers while he played and blew the old ones up as big as he could. It was a nice afternoon.
After fixing up the joggers, the team headed over to Walmart. They stocked up on Gatorade because it is much, much cheaper at Walmart than at the small gas stations they encounter along the way. A little while later, the guys met up with Barbara who was going to take them out to dinner. They all went to Socorro, a small Mexican restaurant, and enjoyed a nice big meal. Matt said they plan on taking advantage of the breakfast portion of the Acosta Bed and Breakfast in the morning, and then get back out on the old dusty trail.
A much better day for the trio! Keep movin!
- Rick
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