Today we got a pretty late start on the day. After packing up, getting breakfast, chatting with some locals and grabbing some supplies we got moving around 9:30. Fortunately it was a cool day, starting off in the high 30s and topping out in the mid 60s. This weather is a welcome change for us since we've been having trouble dealing with the heat. We've been vowing to get up earlier in an effort to stay out of the brunt of the sun, but like running across the country, its easier said than done. In other fortunate weather news, the wind was surprisingly at our back today. We had to check with the GPS to make sure we were going west since its very unusual that we get a favorable wind. We moved very quickly today, as our effort was much less, and our speed was much quicker than yesterday.
Andy and Ken have been lagging behind the last few days, and with about 7 miles to go I was about a half mile ahead of them. I sat down and waited for about 15-20 minutes before they caught back up. A little after that a man in a red pick-up truck pulled up and offered us a ride. As usual I went to tell him no, but before I knew it Andy and Ken were loading up the joggers into the truck. I wasn't really sure why they were doing it since we vowed to make it the entire way on foot, but today the two of them didn't seem too concerned. I went on for the next 6 miles or so until I made it to town.
Actually I just made that whole last paragraph up. If you believed any word of it you are an absolute April Fool, we would never cut our day short.
Andy, Ken and I are feeling the best we've felt the whole trip. Today we covered 28.5 in just under 5 hours, which is pretty good for us. It was a beautiful day and we were all in top notch spirits.
We made it just to the outside of town when a police car pulled up to us with their lights on. He informed us we had a police escort for the rest of the way into Brownfield! This was very exciting for us since its our first escort of the trip. There were 3 cars that surrounded Andy and Ken as they ran the last mile and a half or so into town. I was busy getting video of the extravaganza so I didn't get to enjoy the full effect. It was pretty amazing, traffic was backed up pretty bad all because of us! The police brought us to the Chamber of Commerce where we had planned on finishing the day. We talked to the officers about our trip and thanked them for the escort. We met up with a bunch of city officials including Justin the Executive Director of The Chamber. Justin introduced us to some city officials and told us about some local hot spots in Brownfield. He also told us there was a room for us at The Best Western in town, and gave us $100 worth of "Brownfield Bucks". Our new friend Mary Jo showed us around town and we put our "Brownfield Bucks" to work. We got a big lunch and loaded up on some of the essentials (Vitamin Water, Gatorade and Oatmeal Squares).
After that we went back to The Chamber and met up with The Mayor. The Mayor, along with all the other city officials we've met are very interested and very supportive of our run. We've had an amazing last week or so out here in West Texas. It seems someone in every town knows someone in the next town. We met up with these folks today through people we met back in Tahoka yesterday, who we met through our friends back in Post. If all goes well we should have a roof over our heads tomorrow night, which would mean we would make it through all of Texas without having to camp out! Hopefully I don't jinx us with those last few sentences, but I'm pretty confidant we'll figure something out.
I can't believe we're so close to being done with Texas, this state has been awfully good to us. Although Texas will be missed, we're all really looking forward to New Mexico. I don't think a day goes by where we don't talk about how excited we are to see new types of landscapes.
That’s all for tonight, Mets game and Rob & Big tonight, boo yah!
Do work,
Durkin
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