I just completed an amazing 3 day journey! I am feeling great and even though several of my walking buddies have blisters and banged up knees (there were LOTS of uneven sidewalks!), we all thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Day 1 started out early and cold! We met at Collin Creek Mall for the opening ceremonies.
We were able to write all of the names of those who have lost their battle with breast cancer on the white ribbons of remembrance. I only brought a disposable camera with me, and unfortunately, it didn’t get the picture of the ribbons that I took, but this is where they raised all of those ribbons during the opening ceremonies.
We walked from Plano to Farmers Branch. Our camp site was at Brookhaven College – 635 and Midway. There were several people who came to cheer us on after school let out. Jennifer brought all 4 of her kids down to Dallas to see us!
I also ran into my friend Brendy at a pit stop along day 1. Yes, those are lovely port-a-potties in the background!
When we arrived at our campsite, we had to put up our tents, get some food and get a shower! We were all pretty tired, but we managed to get everything done and do a little shopping at the 3-day tents :) It was COLD on Friday night – 38 degrees! That is my big complaint, the cold. I had 2 pairs of socks and still my feet were freezing. I learned that if you put hand warmers in your socks, it helps ALOT!
Day 2 was a big loop through Addison, Farmers Branch and Dallas.
Our team Captain, Gayla, drove a sweeps van this year. Here we are in front of the TaTa Towing van!
Patrick and the girls came out in the morning with Fritz and his girls to see Ashley and I (and the rest of the TaTa Towing team). The girls made me signs!
My mom and sister also came out on Day 2, they were just a little bit ahead of me! Jenny called to say they were right up front at the Valley View Mall cheering station. I looked at my mileage card and figured it would be about 3 hours until I made it there! So they climbed in the car and followed the walkers backwards until they found our lunch stop at Hockaday. They found me there and stayed for awhile and I got some lunch!
The pit stops along the way had themes and here is part of our team at a Dr. Seuss themed stop.
Picked up a little diet coke before finishing up Day 2!
Day 3 – We packed up our gear and took down our tents the morning of day 3 and boarded busses to our starting point of the day. We were walking to Fair Park for closing ceremonies, so we needed to get just a little bit closer! We walked through the Park Cities and down through Turtle Creek before going through the West End, Downtown and Deep Ellum. We stopped for a final private cheering station at Monica’s, had a drink to celebrate our great team, our sponsor, James at Innovations Salon (he bought us all the shirts we wore each day!), and to thank our family and friends for their support.
Arriving at Fair Park for the closing ceremonies was wonderful. We got our ‘victory’ shirts – white for walkers and pink for survivors. It was amazing to see the number of survivor shirts and to see how young and old the survivors are. It really hit home at that point why any of us participated in this walk.
Our team linked arms to complete our final lap and to gather for the closing ceremonies. It was an emotional end to a emotional weekend. I don’t know if I will walk again, but I am so glad I did it this year, and I had an amazing experience!
I thank each of my contributors, my family and all my friends for making this an unforgettable weekend.
2 comments:
Great pics! I especially like that we chose to have the porta potty's in the background for our picture. They were an integral part of the weekend.
I honestly don't think the weekend would have been complete if I didn't have several pictures with the porta potties in them! It is funny how we saw them all the time and I didnt think twice about posing in front of them :)
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