3Day2006 ~ Day Two Memories

I hear voices from the other tents but it still seems really early to me, so I don't get up. I figure Penny (my tentmate) isn't up yet, then I think, well, maybe I better check the cell phone and see what time it is. Well, there's no Penny, I turn on the cell, it's 7 am, and there's a message from Penny saying they're all eating breakfast! I slept 11 hours! The rest of my team was upset because it got down to 30 degrees overnight (I learned later); they were cold. I'm a true northerner!

Today we start walking from our home base(camp). I forgot to tell you that each day you are scanned out to start walking and scanned back into home base. The credential you wear around your neck is your ID, etc. The ladies sing you out and dance you in that volunteer at check in. The music is incredible.

Our lunch stop today has all the crew dressed like Pirates of the Caribbean: we have Jack Sparrow welcoming us into the stop, and we eat our lunches of chicken wrap, pasta salad, fruit cup, and cookies. They were peanut butter so I turned down the cookies! And the route markers have written Johnny Depp Loves 3Day Walkers in chalk over by the potties. They are so good to us.

The first day the lunch crew was dressed as the 4077th MASH complete with a Colonel Klinger! The same crew dresses up each day of the walk in different costumes. It's incredible.

By lunch, my left foot is pretty bad, so I go get some self-med stuff and tape up my left heel with moleskin. It feels good for the first few miles after lunch, but because of where the spur is, the moleskin starts moving, and after awhile I'm in agony. I stop, tell my team to go ahead, and pull off the moleskin, wind up reversing it (the moleskin), walk slowly, and my team is waiting for me at the next pit stop. I'm afraid to stop walking at the pit stop so I just keep putting one foot in front of the other - I just keep on walking. And I made it. Not easily, but I made it. We walk back into camp, and I manage to smile and even to dance my way home - but only with my arms!

Off to the medical tent, the triage nurse looks at it, but says the blister may reabsorb, wait until morning. Then we hear about the weather - 60% chance of rain. A group of walkers start heading to their homes in the area, and will head back in the morning.

We head off to a dinner of chicken marsala, wild rice, salad, broccoli, and cheesecake. Yum. Inspiring stories of people among us, and then a disco band of four guys and lots of walkers are up dancing. Not me, but I'm happy to be there, and know that I've walked. The guys in the band wear huge 70's afro wigs. It's a riot. We stay up late tonight. We didn't go to bed until 8:35!

The rain starts around 2 a.m. Karyn has her alarm set in the next tent, and she's going to wake me at 6 so I can get right to the medical tent as it opens. Penny and I hear her alarm go off before she even says anything. Penny says she'll pack her duffel, then as soon as I get back from medical, I can pack mine, and she'll take down the tent so we can both get breakfast. I hobble over to medical after changing to my clothes for the day and putting my jammies back on over top for warmth from the drizzly rain. The medical tent is dark. Hmmmm...head back to our tent, Penny is waiting for me, I tell her something's wrong - medical isn't open. She says no, nothing's wrong, after I packed I turned on my cell, it's only 5:20 a.m.! Ay Yi Yi! I say let's lay down anyhow. She doesn't want to unpack so she goes to breakfast. But we all know how much I love to sleep, so I lay back down.