RunAcrossTheUSA.com

[Brandon]

Today was going great--a good night's sleep in a comfortable bed, the satisfaction of completing 100 miles straight, a great interview with FB & HW--and then I ate breakfast. First I went and enjoyed some Continental breakfast in the hotel lounge and came back to the room, where Matt had gone back to sleep, so the room was still dark. As I was doing a few things on my laptop I grabbed a piece of pizza from the night before and started munching on it (I'm in college, so this is a pretty regular thing.) It wasn't until I felt something crawling on my leg that I turned the light on and realized the pizza was entirely covered with ants!!! This was after I had eaten two pieces of it. Oh well, I'll gladly accept the extra protein.

Anyway, I'm sure everyone is waiting to hear how exciting it was to walk all day, all night, then all day again. Let me tell you, it was one of the most monotonous things ever. Step after step after step multiplied by thousands and the scenery doesn't change. We went a stretch from Burlington to Cody (yesterday afternoon) where we didn't see any kind of building for 20 miles.

The walking at night wasn't bad for me at all. At the start it was pitch black because the moon hadn't risen yet, so I was a little bit worried about some coyotes or a bear or a rattlesnake who had come to warm himself on the road, or some googly eyed monster with yellow feet, big fangs, and a cowboy hat who you used to live in my closet, or even a serial killer who preyed on tall, skinny, tan boys. We had one guy stop his truck ahead of us, make a u-turn, pass us again, make another u-turn, and then finally stop on his way back. We thought maybe he was scoping on the territory so we wouldn't be able to call for help. We also had two teenage girls stop and talk to us for a while. We couldn't really see their faces but I'm sure they were models who were attracted by my ridiculously good looks.

Throughout the night only about 20 cars passed us, so we were on our own most of the time. It was great to just stare up at the stars for hours and see a shooting star once in a while. I listened to a the only local radio station that wasn't Country music for about half the night. Matt said he kept falling asleep on the road, but I didn't have too much trouble staying awake. The huge temperature fluctuation wasn't very gradual, so we got to a point where it was like walking from outside into an air-conditioned building. Our fingers were numb at times because we didn't have any gloves and it's hard to push the stroller with your hands in your sleeves.

A little after daybreak, we were just coming to the town of Burlington, which we knew was the last town we would see before Cody, another 30 miles down the road. Our plans weren't set in stone, so we would have been very ready and willing to stop if there was a hotel in town. If not, it would have been great to get breakfast in a local restaurant and then be on our way. As it turned out, nothing was open (there was a bar and another store, but neither was open by 8 a.m.) so we sat on the sidewalk and at oatmeal and peanut butter and jelly. That's what we ate periodically throughout the day.

By the end of the day I was pretty weak from hunger and my legs felt like jello. The last ten miles felt like an eternity and the only thing that kept us going was the promise of a comfortable bed and a chance to finally stop.

We'll be in Yellowstone tomorrow night, so everyone can be jealous of all the cool things we'll be seeing.

Brandon