Day two began at around 5:15 as I heard Cindy and Carla stirring the tent next to me. After a wash of the face and a hearty breakfast, we put on our walking gear, repacked our things and started off on a new day. I think we left camp somewhere around 7:15 or 7:30. Carla's hip was really hurting after sleeping on the ground, so we started off at a pretty slow pace that just got slower. The morning was nice and cool, and we continued to walk through the scenic, wooded areas of the hike/bike trails, enjoying lots of shade, but also lots of hills. I started to feel a hot spot (future blister) on my pinky toe, so I stopped at the next pit stop (pit stops contained snacks, a "hydration station" and potties) and pulled out my Body Glide (an anti-friction agent that looks like deoderant), and applied it liberally between my toes. My toe didn't bother me the rest of the weekend--yea Body Glide!! We were back on the road soon after, but the slow pace was killing my back, not to mention that my competitive nature was very frustrated by the fact that we were being passed by elderly women and very unathletic people. I was also anxious to get to the first cheering station, where I knew Chad would be waiting for me. At the 7 mile pit stop, I started walking without my team, and it felt so good to finally start walking fast! For several miles, I walked with a 25-year-old college student who had forked over $1500 of her own to reach the $2200 minimum so that she could participate. She knew no one with breast cancer, but had been in a near fatal accident a year and a half before, and she just felt like she needed to give back, since so many people had given so much to her when she was relearning how to walk and talk during her recovery. It was amazing to me that 12 months ago she couldn't walk at all, and here she was paying money to walk 60 miles!
Anyway, soon after meeting up with my new walking buddy, I made it to the first cheering station, where Chad was waiting with our nephews Miles and Quinton and his mom Joan. The cheering stations along the route were absolutely wonderful, where sometimes hundreds of people would be standing around clapping and thanking the walkers as we went by. They handed out popscicles and kids gave us candy, and it was really quite touching. Often there were people just sitting along the route cheering us on even where there wasn't an official cheering station. One mom sat in her yard with her kids and gave them squirt bottles to spray all the walkers, which was great since it got into the 90s on Saturday!
The rest of the day was a bit grueling, as the temperature rose and we walked on city streets with no shade. After a few more pit stops and another cheering station, we finally saw the sign telling us there was just one more mile to camp. As it turns out, there was just under a mile to the Shawnee Mission Park entrance, but then at least a half mile walk around the park to get our camp entrance! I'm not sure who was measuring this course, but they certainly didn't make it very accurate! I lost my walking partner in the last half mile of hills, but I felt great as I walked into camp about 3:15. I soaked my feet in the ice tub and used the electric foot massagers before enjoying a nice dinner and a long hot shower in the mobile shower units. When Cindy arrived at camp, her GPS again read over 24 miles!
That night, a severe thunderstorm was supposed to hit KC, so we all put on our PJs and grabbed just our sleeping gear for a bus ride to a nearby warehouse. Thank goodness for our camping pads, since we were sleeping on concrete. Again, we were asleep way before 10 p.m., but since buses were supposed to send us back to camp at 5 a.m., this was none too early!Tune in tomorrow for the final installment of my 3-Day adventure!
