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What are the few things that you must always have in your bag or on you at all times?

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

Recent Adventures

We also took a road trip west to Marianna, FL to tour the caverns there.  Coincidentally, that weekend the caverns were hosting a Fall Festival, so we got to listen to bluegrass music and eat funnel cake.  Plus, we met some Confederate reinactors, and I learned how to fire a Civil War cannon.  Lucky for you, Jason was camera-happy! 

The Cleveland Breast Cancer 3 Day is Complete!

Last weekend I walked almost 60 miles over 3 days to raise money for breast cancer research, treatment, and awareness programs.  It was an amazing experience (in spite of the constant rain during Day 3 ), and I am so lucky to have been able to participate. 

Our team raised $10,475 for Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Breast Cancer Trust, while the entire Cleveland event generated $2.8 million!

Here are some pictures of my team, and the area where we camped each night.

Me with my cousins Jenny, Becky, and Katie during opening ceremonies on August 17.

After lunch on Day 1... beautiful weather for being outside.

Here's a look at the sea of pink 2-person tents, with our shower trucks in the background.  You can even make out the line for the showers.  I guess you can't ever escape that, even when you're "camping".

I'll leave you with one of my favorite moments during the 3 Day.  We were in the middle of our walk on Day 2, still with beautiful weather but starting to get a little tired.  As we made our way down the sidewalk a little girl (no more than 8 years old) came up to us, handed Katie five pennies, and said "I want to make a donation.".   I'm sure she had no idea just how much she lifted our spirits with that small gesture.

Thanks again to everyone who made it possible for me to participate!

EDIT:  Our team ended up in a couple of the pictures taken by the 3 Day staff.  The first one was taken at the beginning of Day 1: Opening Ceremonies.  The second one shows what a soggy mess we were by the end of Day 3.    I'll leave it to you to find us in each picture.

Rant: When did trail courtesy die?

I started training this week for The 3 Day, and this weekend was my first back-to-back set of  "long" walks.  I put "long" in quotes since at this early stage my long walks are only 5-6 miles, but in any case that is really not the point.  To do my 5 mile walk today Jason and I went to the St. Mark's Trail which is a long (16 miles, hence no quotes ), very flat, paved trail for walkers, runners, horse-back riders, bikers, rollerbladers, etc. And this is where I get irritated.

The trail is set up so that it's wide enough that if you stick to the right side of the trail (which is standard practice) then it is easy to pass others doing whatever activity in the opposite direction.  There is also a standard protocol if you are traveling in the same direction, but moving faster than the people in front of you and you want to pass them. 

The courteous thing to do in this instance is to announce your presence to the person/people ahead of you.  To use a somewhat tired phrase, they don't have eyes in the back of their heads so they can't see your approach, and no matter how long you've been outside in the Florida heat, they probably won't smell your approach either.  So give them a heads up... this isn't hard.  Just yell out "Behind you!" or something to that effect... if you want to be even nicer, you could throw in some information about what side you're passing on so you don't give the person a heart attack when flying by on your road bike and they can also help you out by moving out of your way.  How about a little "On your left!".  Would it kill you?  I can only assume based upon my miserable experience today on the trail, that it would.  

People here either don't know trail courtesy or dangerously choose not to use it.  In the hour and a half that we were out today we were passed by at least 30 bikers, and only one gave us any indication that he was coming up behind us and about to pass.  I'm trying to decide if these people don't know what their supposed to do when meeting others on the trail or if they think that just because the trail is in a relatively urban setting and that it's not difficult or dangerous that they don't need to warn others about their prescence.  Either way it certainly drove me crazy!    Thanks for letting me rant!