Daily Archives: November 13, 2009

The trip to Arizona went smooth enough-about 7 hours, with a stop for lunch and one gas stop and one rest area stop. Oh yeah, and the most pleasant and expedited speeding ticket ever. I was outside of El Centro, CA and doing 93 in a 70. It took less than 10 minutes for him to write me up for 90 in a 70. Needless to say, Mary actually did most the driving after that.

We got to Mesa, AZ and checked into our hotel after hitting rush hour traffic (not too bad) and my step-mom, Diane took us out to eat, along with my step-brother, Ryan, who I hadn’t seen in a couple years at least.

Unfortunately, between a combination of my school boy excitedness and Devin not wanting to sleep in his playpen and screaming half the night, my dream for a decent nights’ sleep was not to be had.

We all look awesome (I’ll attach pics here later in a revision) and were ready to rock n roll. We got to the opening ceremony and I was on my way.

The first thing I noticed was that there were nowhere near the amount of people here as there were last year in San Diego. We had close to 4500 last year; I’m hearing estimates of 1800 here (with less than 200 guys). This has actually been both a pro and a con: on the pro side, the route just seemed to flow that much quicker; on the con side, there was not the energy that I saw in S.D.

People did like my outfit, however, particularly my fedora and my painted nails. The see that when I go out, I go all out!

The weather was the main thing that worried me, but it was fairly cool today and is supposed to be moreso tomorrow and Sunday. Score.

The route itself? Boring, or maybe I’m just incredibly spoiled with the majesty that is my city of San Diego. This one is mostly residential and we spent the day on mostly the same few streets, with a few turns for extra miles, then back to the main streets.

Coolest thing today, number one: the entire Gilbert Elementary School was out cheering us on.

Coolest thing today, number two: I met and got my picture taken with Barry, a 60-Mile Man from last year’s calendar, who has done all the walks for the past few year, he walked 13 this year and crewed 2. Pure inspiration.

Coolest thing today, number three: Matt (creator of the calendar) is right-we’re freakin’ rock stars on the walks with those sashes on. We’re rock stars enough just for being guys who do the walk (but, like I put it-I’m a guy, why wouldn’t I walk and take my opportunity to walk with, and talk with thousands of women about boobs for 3 days and not get slapped? Lol), but when you’re “mr. December”, you’re a superstar. I cannot tell you how many pictures I’ve posed for today.

Camp seems TINY compared to San Diego. Both in size and the “sea of pink tents”. This is more of a “pond of pink tents”. LOTS LESS WALKING, just to use the shower or porta-potty and eat though, so there’s a bonus.

Last, and certainly not least, it has meant the world to me to have my soulmate Mary, my step-mom Diane, my daughter Colbi and my little guy, Devin, out here cheering me on at every cheering station. I had no idea what I was truly missing last year. Support from your loved ones as you’re out here makes an unbelievable difference. I can’t thank them enough.

Ok, well, i’m tired and sore, covered in Ben Gay, blisters drained, hopped up on ibuprofen, which means it’s time to go to bed. Here’s to hoping tomorrow goes as well, and as painless, as today.