Day 6: Running to the Yucca Valley

Hey everyone. Today was my first day back to running off of my first rest day. The rest day seemed to do exactly the job for me, because my body felt very good during the run today. I was running in honor and memory of my grandparents, Glyde and Edith Miller, my dad's parents. They were such wonderful people. Down to earth, good, simple, country people. My grandmother was such a fantastic cook, which I think must be some prerequisite for being a country grandma. I will never forget the Thanksgiving and Christmas meals she prepared, not to mention just the random meals she felt my sister and I needed everytime we stayed with them. My grandpa was more of the silent type, unless the Oakland Raiders were on TV, or WVU was on the radio. I know exactly where my father gets his habit for yelling at objects, such as the TV during WVU games or reruns of 1961 Yankee playoff games that they won already (this actually happened, I swear to you all). My grandpa worked at, and retired from Union Carbide in South Charleston, where he gave many years of service, and part of his lung, to provide for his family. Dad used to tell me stories of Grandpa getting up to leave for work at 4am, driving over an hour to South Charleston (used to be harder to get there), and come home after dark, smelling of the plant, have just enough energy to grab dinner (the way he ate his meals was legendary by the way) and get to sleep for a couple hours before doing it all again the next morning. I guess he just came from that different generation that didn't know the current meaning of the term "weekend". I know I got my love for the country from both of my dad's parents, and it still shocks some people to learn that I actually much prefer being in a country environment. Both my grandparents on dad's side passed away when I was in high school, which was way too early. I just hope I gave them as much quality time with me as I know I had with them.
The run today was pretty nice, especially the first 4 miles through the Morongo Indian Reservation. We got permission to run through, and we even had a patrolman escort us parade style all the way to the end of the reservation. What a great human being Lt. Chris Hinton is. He served as my escort thhrough the reservation. After speaking with him for just a few minutes, I found out that he actually volunteered to be my escort after hearing of my run. Lt. Hinton, you see, is a veteran of the Marine Corps. and served this country in Beirut, Lebanon in the early 1980's, served in the first Gulf War, and also served in Somalia. Just an amazing human being. Once again, I was very humbled as he thanked me, and even stopped to take pictures of me running before I left the reservation. I'm glad we got to get a picture with him, which mom posted earlier, and I hope he happens upon this blog so I can thank him again.
I felt good today, the body was strong, the mind was still focused, and the wind was at my back all day. Not bad for day 6. Time to rest up for day 7 now. I'll holler at you all tomorrow night.