Holding Pattern

Don't have a lot of time to write today. I'm in Durham, NC - spent the night in town while the rest of the group is in a field somewhere outside of Mebane. I wanted to come in and...well, write to all y'all and show you some pictures. But I also wanted to do laundry and make some calls.

I have free minutes on the weekends and where camp was we weren't getting any signal. So...it's hard enough right now, being so close to the finish line. I am - we are - chomping at the bit. Do you know that we are about 4 hours away from D.C. by car at this point?

It'll take us two weeks to get there 'cause we just can't get there any earlier than the 7th. So....lots of patience. Patience. Patience.



We seem to be holding up okay though. We're tired for sure - anxious to be with our family and friends again - ready to stop moving, stop not knowing where we are spending the next night - stop seeing each other every day....kinda sorta. I was writing to Carrie today and telling her that I have hit the point of nostalgia in the present when I realized that I will never be around all these people at the same time again. I might see folks one on one; but the dynamic of my little family will be lost. It doesn't feel sad right now, just a little wistful at times...mostly it just makes me happy that I've gotten to know all of these beautiful people and have had the opportunity to spend time with them.

Lots of time with them.

I know I've featured a lot of Jen and Kathleen pics - Carrie too - it's 'cause I'm around them a lot and...their mothers ask me to. But - there are other people in camp that I see pretty much every day and I figure you might want to see just who I'm talking about.

This was taken back at camp. This is Addie and Kid - Addie joined us in New Orleans and is the primary parent of Little Booger. She's looking devilish here because she just challenged Kid to a vitamin eating contest. I'll report here that Kid successfully swallowed 33 vitamins at one time. Don't worry - we checked the maximum dosage of all of them. He was fine. And he won.



Patrick. Patrick is so irked by this whole thing, but he's actually walked more miles than just about anyone else on this journey. He started on Alcatraz and he'll finish. "You're miserable life will never look so good." That's his motto for the Longest Walk. He makes me laugh.



Ah, Sunshine. It's really hard to describe Sunshine - he just is who he is. I need to upload some video at some point because it's hard to capture the essence of this guy in a photo. He is motion. Yesterday we were at a Flying J just waiting for the caravan and he just started doing these quasi yoga-kung fu-spastic moves, watching himself in the glass of the store. And it was so...Sunshine. Love him. We found this t-shirt for him at a thrift store. It was him.



Here's our guy Ray and Yuri, we love Ray so much. Such a great guy, eh? Yuri is very sweet as well and has been with us pretty much the whole time save for a couple of weeks. She's really quiet so I don't know her very well -- but she's always smiley and lovely.



Anyway, the computer I'm using at this library is really slow to upload images, so I'm gonna have to cut this short and hope that the next place I'm in I can give you a little bit more. I've got more...trust me. Man I miss my computer you guys. But just think of how many libraries I've gotten to visit. Just think.

We're heading towards Roxbury tonight I think. I'll talk to you again soonly.