Thank you

I just wanted to start with a very big thank you to everyone who supported Kelly and I on the walk.  Thanks to all of you we were were able to reach our $4600 goal!!  and I believe we even exceeded it.  That is just awesome. 

Now this is where I was going to post a bunch of pictures and tell you all about the walk but as we all know the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry (I sound so smart, don't I???).  This was the case last weekend.  I landed at JFK on time (no thanks to my brother-in-law who I believe just didn't want to see me leave the island and did everything he could to make me try to miss my flight) and when I turned my phone one found I had a bunch of messages from Kelly.  I called to find out that her brother-in-law had suffered a brain aneurysm and was on his way by ambulance to Albany Med. I am very saddened to say that he did not survive.  Kelly and I made the decision together that it would be best to forgo the walk and spend time with our families.  Kelly headed to Albany and I headed to VA to my sisters.  As it turned out that was the weekend that my family heads to the Outer Banks, NC for a week every year.  So I made a quick trip to Target since I had packed for walking and not vacationing and rode 9 hour with my dad and his GF to Williamsburg, VA.  Upon arriving there and seeing my nephews for the first time in 6 months I realized that they are starting to look more like adults (at ages 9 and 7) then kids! 



Ryan



James



  The next day it was back in the car for a 4 hour drive to our home away from home in OBX.....

I was able to spend a very relaxing (and alcohol filled) 4 days with my family and 17 of our vacation buddies.  In total we had 10 adults and 14 kids ranging in age from 9 down to 7 months.  We spent the days alternating between the beach and the pool and beer and tequila punch.  While I was there I was tracking the walk that was still taking place in Boston and due to the extreme heat it was cancelled both Friday and Saturday.  They were experiencing heat index's of up to 115 degrees.  Knowing that no one was walking made me feel a less guilty about not being there. 

I was excited to be able to spend James' half birthday with him which is celebrated every year.  The little girl next to him is Madison and it is almost her half birthday as well.  There is a cake and hats every year!

Although I was sad to miss the walk, I was beyond ecstatic to be able to unexpectedly see my family who I have not seen since Christmas last year and did not expect to see again until Christmas this year.  It breaks my heart still to think about Kelly and her family and what they are going through.  And it makes me really appreciate the extra days I got to spend with mine.  Who wouldn't want to hang out with them....

ok, I know Krys is going to kick my a** if I don't post the nice one too.....

So thank you again to everyone who supported us and Kelly and I look forward to start begging for money for next years walk very soon!  In the meantime, please keep she and her family in you thoughts, they need that support the most right now. 

Training for a 60 mile walk on a 22 mile long island (the math does not add up!)

Being that the 3 Day Walk is next week I thought it might be fun to share what a typical training walk looks like here in BDA.  (Also, I am catching a lot of flack from a certain someone at work who has nothing better to than to to look at my blog updates ;) !!!!)

I have been trying to be good about doing as many walks as I can to get ready for the big 60 miles that awaits Kelly and I next week, but I am not going to lie....I have not done a very good job.  There are a number of reasons why (some are pictured below).  If you have not been to the island then you do not know that it is made up of a lot of very narrow winding roads, most of which do not have sidewalks, but are instead all sand.  With the amount of miles I have walked in sand I should have the most amazing calves by now!  Sadly this is not the case and I am blaming that on the ice cream truck parked outside my bedroom window (see previous blog post!)

So lets get walking!  These two pics below are my street, as you can see very narrow with big ol' rocks on either side of me. 

From there we take a left onto....

feel free to look at the map I have posted in the previous blog to follow along if you like!

As you can see below, last Sunday was not a very nice day.  I only got 5 miles in before it started to rain.  You can see the clouds there in the background.  See the big white thing that looks like a ski slope...that is where we get all of our water from.  In Bermuda the rain water is what we use to bathe, drink, cook, wash, etc....  That white thing is a big, bumpy hill where the water slides down and goes into a storage container.  This year we have been experiencing a draught and the water tanks are very low.  It is amazing to think an island completely surrounded by water and we are almost all out of drinking water!

The lighthouse there is Gibb's Lighthouse.  There is a really cool effect that it creates at night where it looks like the light is reflecting off the ocean.  Its hard to explain, but the first time I saw it I asked Philip what it was and he told me it was a UFO.  I should have known then what I was getting myself into.

As we continue down the road we pass my first real challenge in the walk...not stopping at Henry's for a Dark n Stormy!

Right across the street from Henrys is a very sad piece of property.  Its where the hotel that Philip and I first met used to stand, now it is just an empty lot :(  The good news is that its for sale.  anyone wanna by a 33 acre piece of land? Its oceanfront!

When I am on my way home, I have what I like to think of as the Holy Trinity because they are very close together and it means I am almost home.  Herny's is the middle of the Trinity.  The 3rd part of it is the Fairmont Hotel which is huge and makes me happy to see because I know I have entered the homestretch. 

The next challenge is when I pass Horseshoe Beach and can see all of the tourist down there on the beach and in the water, who wants to be walking when you can be beaching ????

Even when it is about to rain, the beach packed!  They all look like little ants running around.  But lets keep walking....

This is the Southampton Rangers Sports Club.  They play cricket and football (aka soccer) there.  The questions I keep asking and have yet to get an answer to is why is there an American Flag when neither of those sports are played in America????

As mentioned earlier, it is a lot tougher training here than it was in Boston.  One of the reasons is this.....

they are big, they come out of nowhere and they do not like to share the road!  Basically they scare the shit out of me! Here you can see the kind of surface I have been walking on....

not exactly solid or stable!

But not all of the training is bad.....the scenery can not be beat!  Between the views of the ocean and beaches, the colors and smells of the flowers and the cool trees like below, it keeps me going.

I am not sure what type of trees they are, but they blow my mind everyday when I see them. 

 Some of you will recognize where I am walking to.  The funny thing is, when I walked in Boston I knew I was close when I could see the Pru, here I know I am just about half way when I see....

Not sure what that big yellow building on the hill is???? 

There it is!  Thankfully they let me use them for a potty breaks and water refills.  Its way better then the port-o-pottys on the walk, that for sure.  Its also always nice to see a familiar face as many of the people I used to work with are still there.  So usually I take about 10 mins to cool down and stretch before I turn around and head back to the Holy Trinity!