9/18/2014

The evening of the 22nd ended with some good Thai food and some great company. My friend Z picked up Crystal and me from the Honey House bed and breakfast and took us to a restaurant called Thaiger. A few years had passed since I last saw any of my Arizona friends. Where did the time go? I guess I decided to plan this trip to connect with old faces and meet many new ones. Sometimes old friends are the only link to your past. Nostalgia is a way of looking at ones evolution. It is replaying the chain of events that have molded and shaped our being. It is funny the people, places and things that linger in our memory.

As for new friends I have no doubt Jeanette Irwin, the proprietor of the Honey House, will be a person we see again...

9/16/2014

Yesterday I ran from Buckeye to Avondale but I had expected to run from Buckeye to Phoenix. That would have made it a thirty mile run. Crystal and my mom had convinced me to call the day short though. They figured I should ease back into my routine after the series of unfortunate events. I really wanted to push through but I’m glad I didn’t. We drove from the Garage to the Renaissance Hotel in Downtown Phoenix. I guess I was the clueless one in the group.

We pulled into the valet as the hotel had instructed. There we were greeted by Marty. She was enthused to meet us. What I walked into was completely unexpected. Two rows of staff with shiny gold pom poms were waiting to greet me. There was even music playing. I was floored by the reception...

9/14/2014

After a futile attempt to find help, there came a point when the smartest course of action was to turn back. A drop of a couple degrees in temperature signaled the impending night. With the memories of the howling packs of coyotes fresh in my mind I sped towards the trailer. I hadn’t realized the distance I had travelled to find help. The road back felt bumpier, the sand felt softer, and my legs felt heavier. To top it all off I began to really feel my thirst. I had somehow lost my water along the way. With more than two marathons on my legs, my conversation with god began. This wasn’t the conversation where one bargains to be good if he promises to take away the pain. It was a very internal type of dialogue. The main message from it all was that I needed to be patient...