Day Two

Day two was a much different day! It was sunny, and we could handle anything as long as the sun was out! I threw my luggage on the truck to go with crew stuff, and went to camp in DRY shoes. I had to go by the Command Center and get a new battery for my piece of crap communication device. I went and got a FANTASTIC breakfast, served in part by one my ex GT colleagues. I picked up my lunch and my driver's lunch and met with the Bus Liaison folks. I thankfully got a different driver day two -- a fellow that knew the area. It was awful trying to figure out where to go the day before, because my driver was not at all familiar with the area, and I sure wasn't. Day two was nice. We were dispatched to pitstop 3, I believe. The theme of the day was "The Blue's Brothers." The pit stop folks really got into it and were fun. Folks getting on the bus this day were much more upbeat. People even watched movies, did some puzzles and didn't even growl once. At one subdivison, a young boy band was out playing music to cheer the walkers on. At pit 3, we had a whole bunch of cheerleaders come and cheer the walkers on. It was very festive and happy and sunny. A complete about-face from the previous day!

Here is the pit crew all dressed up!

Cheerleaders! They stayed for hours and cheered for hours until all the walkers had come through this pitstop.

It was inspiring to drive down the route and see hundreds, and thousands of people walking. The commitment to the process was truly inspirational.

Saturday I was finished earlier and I went and got my luggage, and god bless him, Eric came and picked me up. I was not going to have to spend the night in a tent on a COLD night in the mud!

While waiting for Eric I spoke to a lady who just came up and asked me, "Is that part of that cancer walk thing?" Well yeah. With great suspicion in her voice she said, "My neighbor came to me about that. She claimed she was going to walk 60 miles. How do you do that?" Well, I said, "She walked 20 miles yesterday, 20 today and she'll walk 20 tomorrow." "Well, that just seems impossible to me." "Look around you" I said, "There were 3,700 people who left yesterday morning to do the 60 mile walk." "So," she said, "Are you a survivor?" I told her I hoped so. "Well have you had a FULL mastectomy?" Stunned, I replied, "Well I think they were pretty full mastectomies. You want to see?" And I put my hands down to my shirt and made like I'd pull it up upon request. She turned around to go to dinner with her husband, and clearly was startled. So was I. How do you look at my flat chest and wonder such a rude thing, and then give voice to it? I can't figure that out.

I got to spend the night in a nice hotel room and it was fabulous to take a warm shower and eat something and even get some Biofreeze to put on sore muscles.

The only catch was that I had to get up early and so did Eric. He had to drive me back to camp.

The alarm clocks at the hotel were automatically fixed to roll back an hour for the daylight savings hour, but as of last years' Presidential order, it would be this weekend! By the grace of god, I woke up in time, and got ready. Eric's body woke him in time but he was confused by the clock. I was going by my watch, so we made it in time to the camp after I knocked softly on their door and we ZOOMED to camp. He had my luggage and at the end of day three, I'd be able to just get on the shuttle to my hotel in Alpharetta, and go.