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