Once a Runner

Tuesday, May 31, 2022.  Hagerstown, Maryland 7:30 a.m. EST I’m lying here in bed, in a Sleep Inn in Hagerstown, Maryland asking myself, “What the hell am I doing here?”  I know the short answer is trying to get my last seven states and when I think about it during the day the answer makes sense. But when I wake up in the middle of the night and allergies seem to be kicking my ass the bigger question is, “Why”? It’s now Tuesday morning the last day of May and actual races start tomorrow morning. Then I race three days in a row. Im hoping once the actual races start I can be a little more sure that it’s worth it. Right now after my second day driving and second night in a motel I seem to have more doubts than answers.  Oh well enough pontificating. Time to go get breakfast and see what the day brings.  Tuesday, June 7,  2022. Grover, Missouri 10:17 a.m. CST Well it’s been a week since that last post and to say a lot happened since then would be an understatement....

Getting back to St. Louis was getting back to more kids sports. On the weekend we had field hockey for Haley and hockey for Chase and two lacrosse games for Chase. Haley’s volleyball had ended last week and I think that was her last field hockey game.  Then Haley had one more event. She anchored the 5th grade 4 x 100 at the District Track Meet.  I had my treatment that day at the VA but was able to get to the meet in time to watch her race. And then I stopped and got a pizza from IMOs on the way home. It’s a St. Louis tradition.  Charlie became a real nature dog while we’ve been in Wildwood. One night he found a baby doe trying to hide under the trampoline. Then he found a nest of baby rabbits in the yard. And finally he had a close encounter with the mama deer. I didn’t get a picture of the robin’s nest with broken eggs that he found right after a fierce storm blew through.  Chase received a bunch of academic awards at his graduation and was also named student of th...

When we got to Cocoa Beach we checked in at Motel 6 and I called Jeff, he was making dinner for us so we had time to kill. Decided to walk to The Sand Bar and get a taco and a Bud Light. We sat out front under a canopy so it was windy as hell and that’s about the time Clarence decided he was going to bitch, moan and critique everything while we were in Cocoa Beach. Traveling with a dog can be difficult but traveling with a dog and a perpetual whiner was almost overwhelming at times. Despite that there were still more good times than bad.  When we got to Jeff’s later he spent time showing us around. They’ve continued to make improvements and are obviously pleased with their luck growing vegetables as they should be. Jeff made a Mexican stew and used some of his homegrown peppers and it was delicious. His Border Beans were good but not as good as the last ones he made. I think because they were part of a really big batch he had made for Rochelle’s work and they had been frozen. ...

I got back to St. Louis on Saturday evening. I was hoping to make it to Chase’s hockey game but it didn’t work out. The good news is they won 3-0. On Sunday I got to watch Haley play field hockey and Chase play two lacrosse games.  Spent Monday repacking and binging the final shows of Ozark before heading out Tuesday morning for Joe and Judy Palmer’s in Lebanon, Tennessee.  Playoff hockey started Monday night! The Blues started with a 4-0 shut out! 👏🏻 When I got to Joe’s they both fell in love with Charlie and he quickly made himself at home picking out a safe place.  It was a fun night of catching up and plans were made to stop back through on the return trip when Smitty and Denise were going to be there. Joe cooked an outstanding dinner. Hard to believe I didn’t take a picture of it because meals with friends and family were a really big part of this trip.  Speaking of meals the first thing I wanted was when I got to Athens was a pizza from Ted’s. It’s kind of a ...