The 3 Day Recap

String cheese today, because that's one thing we had each day! I apologize for the lack of pics. My camera was burried in my pack and I didn' t have the energy to take it out during the walking part.

Thursday

I was packed and ready by noon, and was super antsy. I didn't have to pick Boo up at O'Hare until 6:00 and it was a three hour drive there. I decided to leave early and avoid rush hour traffic. So I loaded up the car and headed to our hotel for check in. After realizing I forgot a few things and locating a Walgreens near the hotel, I went to grab Boo Boo. I was pacing around the baggage claim area and saw a Cheesehead from the back. I knew it was her! We hugged and laughed at her silliness. Turns out the cheesehead had to be her pillow on the plane, as she'd forgotten her pillow at home. LOL!

We hit the hotel to drop off stuff and headed to the Olive Garden, as that is one of Boo's favorites that she rarely gets to enjoy. And, we needed to carb load. Let's not talk about how far we had to drive to find an Olive Garden, mmmkay? It's ok, though, we had tiramisu, so all was well with the world. We also hit Sears (next to OG) to find her a real pillow. Did you know it's hard to find a pillowcase for under $25 at Sears? We finally found one for $5: Dora the Explorer. How cool did Boo look? :-)

We got back to the hotel later than planned and showered, then hit the hay around 10, so we could get up at 4 a.m. Gulp.

Friday

Rise and shine! We got our gear on...and realized my Camelback hose had a leak (that's a hydration backpack for those that don't know). Thanks, Bartleby (the cat). A little tape fixed it up and we headed to the shuttle and to opening ceremonies. It was still dark as we arrived and wandered around. It was so fun to check out all the crazy outfits people were wearing and chatting with other walkers and crew. Finally, a few hours later, we had group stretch with some zen yoga chick. Luckily, and Owen Wilson look-alike was also leading the crowd. :-) Then opening ceremonies began. We'd already been on our feet for over an hour. Sigh. But opening ceremonies were very cool. Lots of survivors and widows marched through the crowd and onto the stage with banners displaying messages of hope and survival. Lots of tears were shed (by me, anyway). Then, as U2's Beautiful Day blared through the park, we left on our walk. Lots of cheers and high fives everywhere, to the crowd of over 2,000 walkers. Ooooh, and we got 3 Day buffs. How appropriate!

Gus at opening ceremonies & general pic while waiting:

The first half of the day sucked, because everyone was bunched up. We enjoyed the snack stations, where we discovered the best graham cracker pb & j sammiches. There was Gatorade, cold water, "dunk stations" for wetting your buffs with ice water, bathrooms and snacks at each station. Hooters sponsored one station.

Us, new Hooters girls:

We had lots of hot men in uniforms ushering us through crosswalks and cheering us as we walked along. Woohoooo! The crowds of cheering peeps were amazing. There were entire fire departments out cheering, residents in their lawns saying "thank you for walking," and big organized stations of supporters handing out things like popsicles (Boo's favorite) and cheering like mad. Again, I got misty eyed.

Enter: Mile 18 of 23 on Day 1. We hit a low point. Boo's feet were swelling and super sore. I didn't catch my blisters soon enough to mole skin them, and they were bulging. We doctored up, rested and soldiered on. The afternoon terrain was terrible. We were off city streets and onto park bike paths, construction areas where there really were no paths, and rocky paths. We weren't talking much by that point. The pain was intense. Boo found drugs, luckily, and we managed to cross the finish line that day.

THEN IT WAS TIME TO SET UP CAMP! Good cod, that was the last thing we wanted to do. We got our gear and a tent and marched over to the campsite. I got to be the "Boss of (our)Camp" due to Boo's lack of camping experience and she got to be the "Camp Decorator." :-)

We then hit the camp post office for our mail and headed to dinner. Holy Batman! We had lots of mail! Thank you to everyone who wrote to us. After such a hard day, it was so uplifting to have those letters and cards. We gushed to the girls next to us about our friends in the box. :-)

After that, it was shower time (they didn't want us to shower before eating due to peeps passing out). The showers were basically semi trailers. In the trailers there were 8 shower stalls and benches, very specialized kind of thing, not at all makeshift. Kind of weird, but they were warm and had decent pressure.

Then? It was almost bedtime. We were exhausted. I took a pic of my blisters, but I'm guessing you don't want to see them. :-)

Here's a pic of tent city (over 1000 pink tents!). This? Is why the cheesehead and furniture came in very handy:

Saturday

Oh for cods sake. How would our shoes go on? Well, they did. We rolled out of bed at 5 am and had a hearty breakfast. We literally limped through the morning walk. Our moods were a little less light. :-) Still, the cheering sections were even better, since it was Saturday and peeps were free to come and cheer! The pain, however, was excrutiating. There was a cute cheerleader group cheering "We, We want, a cure for your boobies!" at one point. At least that made us laugh.

When we got back to camp, we immediately pulled our sleeping mats from the tent, found some shade and napped. Pure pain and exhaustion had set in. We managed to hang out and read our books and some magazines in the "cafe" area before bed. We also used some great foot massagers that La Croix had set up on site. Yay for foot massages!

Oh, I forgot to mention my hot medic. My heel blisters on Day Two were really, really ugly. They needed to be lanced, so I went to the medic tent. Boo had gone to get an ice pack for her swollen feet and thought she'd meet me outside in a bit. Well, it was taking longer, so she came in the medic tent to find me on a cot, with a hot medic at my feet. :-) She happily sat and chatted while he worked on my blisters. What a good friend that Boo is. *giggle*

We found some time to play with sidewalk chalk at camp!

Then we hit the rememberance tent, a tribute to walkers lost and to others we all have lost. We were invited to sign the official tent of Chicago in rememberance, and to fill in the "memory books." It was an emotional visit. There were several women signed up to walk in this event that passed away before the weekend arrived. Their pictures were displayed. I spent time thinking about my loved ones, and all the loved ones of people that donated and otherwise supported me on this walk.

We went to bed around 9:00, after listening to a horrid "3 Day Idol" contest. Poor girl that was in the final three. "I hope you dance" is not an easy song to sing. It hurt our ears.

2:00 a.m....it starts to rain. I made sure my gear was all waterproofed and zipped the front of our rainfly (it was so hot, we left the screen door open and rainfly door tied back for sleeping). The zipper broke on the rainfly. Oh well. At about 2:30, the crew came around camp, yelling for us to grab our flashlights and evacuate our tents immediately, as there was lightening (stupid policies). By then it was pouring. We found our ponchos and flashlights. Then, I had to put on shoes. I almost cried. Mommy Boo helped me loosen up my laces and get into my poncho. :-) We headed to the college campus's building (we were at Oakton Community College grounds) quite a jaunt away, where we sat for about an hour. Then we could go back to our tents. It was just sprinkling at that point. Our tent was dry, so we thought we'd catch an hour of sleep before having to wake up again. Well, some people decided to start breaking down their tents and getting on the road instead. Bastards! We couldn't sleep, but we laid there til about 4:45, when we got up and broke down camp.

Sunday
Okay, so we didn't make it to the big finish on Day 3. We could barely walk. Period. We took an early exit from the event and headed home, feet in utter disrepair.

It was such an honor to do this walk with Boo. She's a fabulous person with a wonderful heart. I loved to hear her stories of her family. I can't wait to meet them some day. I love that Boo.

Next year, we are thinking of crewing or going somewhere to set up a kick aras cheering station. We'll be inviting you....just wait.

Thank you again for all your support for this event. It means a ton to us.