RunAcrossTheUSA.com

[Brandon]

This is Brandon--in the flesh

Right now I we are in Piqua, OH and the people we are staying with were gracious enough to offer their internet access, so I've been reading up on all the comments and stuff. We get really excited by all the feedback, so keep sending us emails and posting comments because we really appreciate it. As soon as we get frequent internet access we may actually be able to respond to some of the comments.

There's something I want to say as a personal note to my parents. Thank you so much for your support. I really love you guys and would not be able to do this without you.

Ok, that's the sappy part of my post; now onto business. We are camped out in the front yard of a great lady and her sister. They have been so kind to us--offering showers, internet access, and even feeding us. Right now Matt's asleep in the tent--he needs his 9 hours of beauty rest. His leg felt a lot better today and we were able to hammer out 35 miles today even though we stopped for church and lunch.

We started out this morning from Jacob and Megan Fay's house after a great breakfast. Last night they gave us all the spaghetti we could eat and a much appreciated shower. They were some of the first people close to our age that we have met and we enjoyed talking to them for a while. They were very generous and made us feel right at home. We reluctantly left their house at 7:45 and planned to make it to Urbana and find a church in time for the morning service.

That brings me to the daily miracle of sorts. I'm amazed at how much we have been so blessed thus far on the trip. On our way to Urbana we noticed one of the tires was getting a little soft and we found a pin sticking into the tire. We didn't want to stop right then and patch it, so we kept going, hoping it wouldn't damage the tire anymore. We got to Urbana and turned into the Urbana Free Will Baptist Church parking lot around 10:15, so we had plenty of time to patch the tire before the 11 o'clock church service. I used my super-sweet tire patching skills and dominated the pinhole and we didn't have anymore trouble with the tire.

We went into the service about 5 minutes late during the first song and everyone in the church turned to look at the two sweaty, goony, dirty looking guys walking up and sitting down in a pew. When the time for shaking hands came around we were bombarded by a multitude of friendly faces of people introducing themselves and asking about what we were doing. It didn't take long for our story to leak out and the song leader announced our plans to the congregation. After the service the song leader and another man offered to take us out lunch, so we gladly accepted. We gorged ourselves at the Pizza Hut buffet, got to know them a little better, and were speechless when we were given a substantial amount of money from the church. I think our new friend put it best when he said there was a reason we got a flat tire that morning and ended up in that parking lot. We were encouraged by the genuine kindness of the people and will definitely never forget it. They were even nice enough to give us peppermints to rub on our bodies and ward off the stench that accumulates when we don't shower enough.

The rest of the day went by pretty quickly and now we're settled down and I better get out to the tent because I can hear the thunder and lightning. Tonight should be an adventurous night.

We'll be meeting Matt's parents tomorrow, which we're both really excited about. On top of getting to spend time with his parents, we'll also get the ogo and laptop, which means internet access and possibly more frequent posts. So, keep checking, posting comments, and sending emails, because we can't express how much encouragement we get from the support you're all giving.

Brandon