Our morning started very early. We had to be at opening ceremonies between 5:30 and 6:30 am. Javier and I met Lynne and her mom at a half way mark and then Javier drove us to opening ceremonies. Saying goodbye to Javier wasn't easy, but at the same time I was very excited to be doing this. Opening ceremonies were at Freestone Park which was great, since it is in Gilbert and not far from where we both live! We wandered around the place and took pictures. There was a board called the goal board. They had music playing and people were dancing and having a great time. It was really cold though! When it came time for opening ceremonies we all gathered next to the stage. Opening ceremonies was really amazing and very inspiring. I posted some videos on my MYSPACE page. Be sure to stop by and watch them!
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=155462876&albumId=2079191
After the very moving ceremony, we all started walking. What an amazing sight! There were over 2,100 people walking. We walked through neighborhoods in Gilbert first. Along the way we passed a lot of people from the neighborhood that would come out just to support the walkers. That was one thing that amazed me throughout the whole walk. All the support from people coming out of their homes and sitting in their driveways for hours just so they could greet every single walker. They were just as cheerful and happy with the last walker as they were with the first one. People would drive down the road and honk and wave at all the walkers and yell thank you out the window. There were cheering stations everyday set up so that family can come and cheer their walkers on.
The crew members were amazing! They dressed up in funny outfits and cheered us all on! It was great motivation and it really helped us to keep going. The first day the stops were about 2 miles apart. They was always a line for the potty! The mantra they were alway yelling at every stop was "eat, drink, stretch and pee!."
We were pretty happy to get to lunch so we could eat, take our shoes off and change our socks. Lunchtime is when we are suppose to check on our feet and see how they were doing. I was doing fine, but Lynne was already getting blisters.
Soon we hit the road again. The first day we walked through Gilbert, Chandler, Mesa and Tempe. Camp was at Guadalupe and I think the cross street was Kyrene. It was a school I think and we were in the football and baseball fields. What a relief it was to make it to camp! We saw all those pink tents and it was so amazing to be cheered and high fived again for making it to camp.
We were really luck, because one of the crew had a tent set up already and gave it to us. We were all prepared to set it up. Who know how much trouble we would have had. Then we went to eat. We were told to eat first and then shower cuz they didn't want us to pass out in the shower. Speaking of eating, they fed us really well along the whole walk. We had food at every stop to keep up our energy. They also had water and gatorade at every stop. I ate a lot of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches along the way!!! After we ate, we headed to the showers. The showers were in semi truck trailers. They were just shower stalls with curtains and a open dressing area. They were very clean and compact. But absolutely no privacy. That's all I will say about that! The medical tents were very busy. Some walkers had pretty bad blisters on Their toes and feet. They had try out kareoke Friday night, for the Rockstar contest on Saturday night. Lynne and I didn't make it to either. We just wanted to rest and sleep. If we could have gotten away without eating dinner, we probably would have.
It was lights out at 9:00. End of the first day was pretty amazing. I was sore and tired, but I was doing ok.
I'm not sure if the photos will come out in the email, so if they don't please click on the link to take you to my page.
No comments:
Post a Comment