Day 2- Suburbia (10.24.09)

Day 2 did not start well, but fortunately, it would end very well. I woke up at about 1.30am,feeling terrible- apparently the rain and stress of Day 1 brought back whatever I had earlier that week. BLAH. I briefly considered seeing medical, but I knew they would withdraw me and I didn’t want that, so I prayed for a while and managed to fall back asleep for an hour or two. Once it reached 5am, I felt well enough- although not perfect- to continue. The nice thing about staying indoors is that we didn’t have to pack up our tent or bags, so all I had to do was dress and eat breakfast before the start. The 3Day breakfast is a huuuuge breakfast consisting of eggs, bacon, potatoes, cereal, yogurt, fruit and more. I didn’t eat much for breakfast, but it was great to have all this delicious food available for consumption :)

I hate morning bus rides, so being corralled onto a bus at 7am wasn't very fun. However, it was a quick ride to the drop-off point (the parking lot of a shopping center). Even though we took one of the late buses, we still made it there before the walk had begun. As we made our way through the first few miles, I woke up, and some of the energy sapped by my cold returned.

Weather-wise, day 2 wasn't very pleasant. It was cold, windy, and very dreary outside. The only sunlight we had occurred during the first 10 miles, and it did not last long. However, we still had a lot of fun! We were walking through the suburbs, so we had stretches of quiet roads broken up by the occassional shopping center. We also had a little secret to look forward to: unknown to Kim, her family had driven down from Ohio and were waiting at the first cheering station to suprise her. The whole team knew, but Kim had NO idea. We purposely kept a brisk pace the first few miles because we knew we would have a long rest at the cheering station! It was the perfect surprise- about halfway through the huge crowd, Kim saw her family. She was shocked to see them and ran over to hug them all. We spent a lot of time there, but it was well worth it. Plus, there was a DD there, so in honor of my sisters, I visited there while Kim was catching up with the family :)

After about half an hour, we hit the course again. Though the weather forecast called for more sun and higher temperatures, Mother Nature was not ready to reward us quite yet and we endured very rough wind with cool temperatures. By the time we reached lunch, we were freezing; it did not help that we had dressed according to the 3Day’s weather forecast and therefore did not have as much protection as needed. We did spend more time at this lunch, though, because the 3Day provided Mylar blankets for us while we ate. We also stretched our muscles while listening to the 60s music. The theme for the lunch stop was Woodstock, and the volunteers (and some participants) started dancing around and singing with the music. The themes of each station really added energy to the walk; besides Woodstock, other themes included candyland, teddy bears, and sleepover. Once we started up again, we did not stop for long until we reached the final cheering station, near a Gwinnett elementary school. There, we were treated to a special treat- the school graciously opened their doors and allowed 3Day participants to use their restrooms. Ahh, the joys of a real bathroom! We spent a long time talking with friends and family. I love Dooley’s family for giving me a blanket while we hung out- I didn’t wear pants that day (because it was supposed to be 60 degrees) and that blanket made me feel better than anything else so far that day. Finally, as it became darker, we decided to see if we could skip out on camp and eat with our family and friends that evening. We walked to the bus loading area and discovered that we could leave with our family as long as we were back by 9pm and got our credentials scanned upon return to camp. Thus, we headed off to Dave and Buster’s, where we ate a big meal and bonded (and caught up on college football scores). Rejuvenated, we returned to camp with full stomachs, high spirits, and sleepy eyes.