Today marked the first official run in Arizona, and somebody turned on the heater, haha. It was much warmer today than it has been this entire trip. But I welcomed the heat, because I much prefer warm running to running in a toboggan and long john shirts. Of course, ask me about that in about a month when I've been running in the desert heat for a while.
Today's run was not bad at all though. I was running in honor of one of my best friends, Mike Snyder today. Mike has always felt like a younger brother to me I guess. Mike has done a tour in Iraq, a tour in Afghanistan, been to South Korea, and Africa all on duty in the Army. Always hated to see him deployed, because sometimes it was hard for him to contact home and let us know how he was doing. He's back now, and just recently discharged from the military. Mike and I have always had the ability to make each other laugh uncontrollably, usually because of some less than tasteful jokes. But Mike is also a very loyal friend to me, and I am very fortunate to have met him.
Back to the run, did I mention it was hot. Well, it was hot. Still, my body felt pretty good most of the day. Nothing really bothered me too badly, other than the occasional fly, or tractor-trailor. The heat didn't bother me much either. Let's just see how I feel after about 2 months straight of it, haha.
Got another newspaper to pick up the story. The Lake Havasu paper interviewed me yesterday on my day off, and got some pics this morning as I was beginning my run. Hopefully I'll have a link to post when the story is done.
The best part of the day today actually occured as I had just finished my 20 miles for the day. I had just gotten into the van, and mom and I were heading down the road to an RV park nearby, when we passed a man on the road, heading westward, pushing a 3-wheeler carriage loaded full. We had read about other people running across the country, an a couple were supposedly toting their belongings in front of them. We immediately turned the van around to see if it could be possible that this guy was one of those people. Unbelievably, it was!! His name is Milton Miller, coincedence on the last name I think not, and he is going from Miami, FL where he lives, to Los Angeles, CA. I couldn't believe we actually saw someone on the same road, crossing the country. His run is called 100 days of Madness. He is camping on his own all the way out, now that is bold!! But he is so close to the finish line. He is actually traveling basically the same route to LA that I just covered. He's on to Parker, AZ, then 29 Palms Highway to Riverside, then on to LA. Milton had some great advice for me as well as encouraging words as I am still basically at the beginning of this journey. I am still in awe that I met him. His story is much like mine in that, neither of us were elite athletes really, and in fact we were both kind of couch potatoes before we decided to embark on these journeys. He informed me that we were in a club of 2, just me and him that were not elite athletes before we started these trips. Awesome, just awesome. As you can tell, I was really happy to meet him, and just so cool that we were traveling the same road.
Anyway, we stopped in Bouse, AZ at an RV park for the night, which is where I am writing this. Under the stars, on a beautiful Arizona night. What a good day today. Hopefully there are many more like this. Tomorrow, I inch closer to Phoenix. Goodnight all.
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