Friday, July 18, 2008

slow morning...long afternoon...longer night



After all the excitement of our walk into D.C. it was truly wonderful to wake up slowly and without too much of an agenda in front of us. And...for the first time in 5 months, there were no drums to wake us up...that's when it really hit me that the walk was officially over.

We still hadn't been able to find camp fuel, amazingly enough. We had tried the night before, making a run after dinner to a Walmart outside of Greenbelt, but had no luck.

We were lucky, however, that Susannah has skills equal that of her sister to make up a homey little cafe right there at the truck. She used the hood instead of the tailgate, and had a few more accoutrement's coming off the plane...it was a lovely thing.



Jen's mom, Peggy also provided coffee from the nearby hotel so we were all set towards getting good and caffeinated for the day. Here's a sweet photo of her and Jen.



After our morning drinks we hung around for a bit, showering at our leisure and making a game plan for the day. We were going to be heading into D.C. in the afternoon to attend the final concert and closing ceremonies of the walk. I was most excited about the show because Kid would be playing, and Jen would be singing back-up with him. We'd been listening to them practice together for about a month now and were excited to get a chance to see all their hard work pay off in front of an audience.

But until then, it was mostly just lounging about. Here's a photo of Jen, Kathleen and Ray checking out some photographs.



Peggy also brought us our daily allotment of dollar burgers...so we were all set there as well and we sat around munching happily on them, drinking our beverages and getting ready to head into D.C. Here's a photo of the gang, Kathleen is holding up the hat of Amy, so imagine that she's sitting there too with us. She was still MIA from an evening of carousing in D.C. the night before. Tsk, tsk, Amy...



Somewhere in the course of the morning, Larry came over and gifted Theresa with a beautiful Pendleton blanket.



The blanket obviously meant a lot to him, and he had lovely words say so as he handed it to her. Here it is on display. You could tell Theresa was very touched by the gift, it was a sweet gesture.



The time finally came for us to head out of our relaxed little party and into town for the concert.

It was quite the scene when we got there; the first order of business was to find out when Kid would be playing...5:30pm...very good...that gave us some time to go and check out the American Indian Museum directly across the street and make it back in time for the show. We got over there and got a phone call..pretty much immediately from Jen saying we needed to come back right away...they were going to be handing out our "All The Way" walker badges to the folks who had completed the entire distance.

I had actually forgot about the whole patch thing; or dismissed it as something that really wasn't going to happen. But...apparently I was wrong...which was a good thing.

Dennis started out by distributing the runner patches. Kid approached me right before he took the stage and let me know that he put me on the list to receive a runner patch. I was stunned. I hadn't started running until Louisiana, but he felt I deserved to get that honor. It was very generous of him, and means a lot to me. The runner patch actually means more to me than the walker patch. It was such a gift to be able to run during this event, and I'll cherish the memory of...I also plan to continue running well on down the line.

Here's Kid and Dennis on stage...



Here I am receiving my runner patch...the other folks up there with me are Marek and Maggie. Joining me would be Shun and Ray. I was grateful to be sharing the stage with all of them...



After the runner patches, Kid and Jen took the stage and played their four songs. They sounded so beautiful together! I could've listened to them play all night...the crowd wanted them to do an encore, but there were many people slated to play, so we didn't get that opportunity sadly. I know a bunch of folks took video, and I hope I can post that here at some point in the near future.





We had to wait some time for the walker patches to get distributed...they did them in little bunches. In between we spent some time hanging out and waiting, enjoying each other's company. I love this picture of Kathleen and Jen.



Here's Little Booger, being his cute self...and quickly becoming not so little anymore!



Finally Jen and Kathleen got their walker patches. Ray and I had gotten them along with our runner badges. My camera doesn't do so well with long shots...wish I had better photos of this.



After all the patches had been distributed, we all got together for one last group shot...



Several folks took the stage to sing songs while all the walkers and supporters made a huge circle and danced together. It was a truly moving sight.



Here's Masa on the left, singing his little heart out...he's such a ham, but I love him...



Kathleen and I both jumped up on the stage to get some better photos. She was taking a lot of video.



And you know...that was that. The dancing continued for just a little while longer and then everyone broke into a huge group hug. I didn't get a shot of it, cause we were already on our way out; but it was quite the sight, there in the shadow of the capitol. It was truly over. All of it.



Except of course, for a couple of things.

One was that I really wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial and I hadn't gotten down there yet.
Two...we still had to get home.

I had ridden with Kathleen and Larry, so I asked her if I could hoof it down to the memorial and they could pick me up. No problem. So I made my way down...took this shot of the monument from up close. See the moon? Yeah, it's night, dark is closing fast...it's about 8:00 or so at this point, maybe a little later.



As I'm making my way down to the Lincoln, I get a phone call from Kathleen, who was going to try and park down near the memorial and meet me up there.

"Dude, there is no parking down here. None. Your just gonna have to get up there and take your pictures for us and then we'll have to find some way to get you from the street."

Bummer. I was hoping she and Larry could experience the monument with me, not get stuck circling the park at night. But this was how it was...so I started moving faster. The Lincoln memorial is much farther from the Washington Monument than I thought, so I was pretty much jogging at this point. I had my runner patch with me for motivation, which was good 'cause I sure didn't feel like running. But I got there and got these two shots.






I called her once I got down onto Independance avenue.

"We're still circling...I'm near the monument, it's on my left...we're gonna head to the WWII Memorial. Try to meet us there."

I start running again. At this point I'm all warmed up, so the jogging comes easier. It's actually a pretty nice night for running, since it's cooled off considerably. But it's dark now and I remember passing the WWII site...but I don't see it at this point so I just keep going.

I get another phone call.

"Okay...we're parked at the Memorial...super illegally...where are you?"

"Closing in, I just passed the sign, I just need to get through the park now...(I'm still running while I'm talking with her)...I can see the fountains, are you near the fountains?"

"There are fountains all over the place, I don't see you"

"I'm really close...really close...okay...I gotcha, I'm here."

I see the White Pearl, with the passenger side door open. I'm sweating.

"Larry went to take some pictures for my mom...but he just came back and all he had were pictures of feet...can you try to take some pictures. Kind of fast?"



Larry was having issues with the time delay and the flash, but he got it worked out and we were both out there, running around this memorial taking photographs as quickly as possible before somebody noticed just how illegally parked the Pearl was.
Between the two of us, we did a pretty good job...it was for Theresa, so the motivation was pretty high.



We got all the pictures we were going to get there, and we started heading out. Kathleen wasn't done taking photos though, so we spent about twenty minutes circling the monument and driving at a snail's pace through the mall so she could get some shots. I actually thought the night shots were pretty cool, the way things were lit up.

We finally...finally...found our way back to Route 50 East, heading for Greenbelt and home. I think we got home at...what time was it? Oh yeah...12:30. It's the vortex of that truck, I tell ya.

We tucked ourselves in...tomorrow was it...we would pack up for the last time.

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