The 15 That Followed

As I mentioned yesterday, I was a bit worried about doing our 15 miles on Sunday after Saturday's 18, since Mom had been too tired for back-to-back long walks the previous weekend. When she got up Sunday morning, however, she didn't have too many aches and pains and was eager to get started. We decided to start with just a 5 mile loop, but about 4 miles in, Mom decided that she wanted to go for coffee. We went a couple of miles out of the way to McDonalds, where we enjoyed coffee and a fruit and yogurt cup! It was a very nice break!

McDonalds is only a couple of miles from home, so once we got home we had already knocked off about 7 miles of our day, which was great! After a short reload of fluids and snacks, we headed back out onto the walking trail, this time with a particular destination in mind! Chad was on his way to watch the Steelers game at Set'em Up Jack's, which is all the way across town--but in reality that's only about 6 miles! We decided that Jack's would be the perfect motivation, since as soon as we arrived we could finally eat lunch!

Since the restaurant was only 6 miles away and we needed to do 8 miles, we took our first detour up to campus, where we walked past the new football facility and up Campanile Hill. We stopped off at the Union to fill up on drinks, and the nice girl working at the gift shop there even inquired about our walk! It's really nice when people ask what we're doing instead of just staring/laughing at our fanny packs and water bottles!

We walked around campus a little and took in the fall beauty while I showed Mom all the new facilities that had been built since Eric and I had been in school. After our little tour we headed east towards Jack's, stopping once for a pit stop and more water at Kwik Shop. At that point we were only about 2 miles away, and we needed closer to 3 miles to be finished, so we took a slight detour to the Lawrence Humane Society, where I knew my friend JoAnna would be volunteering. I'd originally thought that I might be able to come join her after our lunch/walk was complete, but when I realized I wouldn't have time before they closed at 4, I thought it would be good to stop by and tell her hi anyway.

After chatting for a few minutes with JoAnna we headed off to Jack's, but since it was less than a mile away and we needed 2 miles, we sort of took the long way. We walked through some neighborhoods, past an elementary school where I volunteered in college, past a preschool where I subbed in college, and then back around to the restaurant. When we arrived we'd walked just over 15 miles on the day and Mom hadn't had any problems at all! I was so proud of her, and we enjoyed a huge, yummy meal at Jack's to celebrate!!