Coming out of Denver we ran into a thunderstorm and being the music major I am, it. reminided me of the ending to the 1812 Overture with cannons blasting, blazing fireworks and the big crescendo. I guess the Rockies appreciated our efforts and wanted to send us onward in style!

It didn't take long to leave the Rocky Mountain Highs behind us as we descended from 8,000 feet to 5,000 feet and now running on a relatively straight road with flashes of heat lightning way off to our left after the rain subsided. We were joined again by Denver locale runners, each running one leg with BPR runners. They caught up with us after I ran the first leg of our 9 pm - 3 am leg. Each ran a steady pace and provided us with welcome chat and later a pizza slice after the run. My Orange teammates, Brynn and Sunil reported seeing much roadkill, a live skunk, and a rabbit or two scurrying hurriedly across the road.

As we approached the exchange point to begin our run we noticed THA BUS and smelled hamburgers cooking and heard music blaring. THA BUS is owned by Dill, our effervescent guru with BPR who is an inspiration to us all. He can be a task master at times ( " this is a job, not a vacation, you are in the Army, no whining", he halfway jokes but means well ) but is dedicated to making sure each of us is safe. He. as we all do, deeply believes in the cause for this run.

THA BUS provides home to him and his staff while we are running the U.S. and Canada. Usually it is the 3 pm to 9 pm team that benefits from THA BUS and tha food. Just imagine these big buses that carry celebrities or pro football announcer John Madden all over the country. That is what THA BUS looks like. A home away from home and I mean a big, plush home.. You will also see people that owns these buses tailgating at football, soccer, or baseball games. This is what Dill has setup for the runners who can't find food at night after their late running stage. It also has the BPR logo printed on both sides so that needed visibility when we arrive in towns and cities is provided.

In the middle of nowhere, THA BUS just pulls over, pulls out the tables, fires up the grill and there you go! Of course it is a big tease for us who have to take the baton and begin running our stage as happened to me last night. Oh, I did manage to grab one potato chip.

We head into Kansas today with hot temps again, long straight roads, and thoughts of Dorothy and Toto. I also remember thinking many times while running across Europe and especially across Russia that, " we are not in Kansas anymore"!!!

Well we are there and we have only 17 more days until we reach the end of our long run. Actually for me, it will only be the beginning. The run has opened my eyes to much and has changed me somewhat. I will have time to ingest and digest all of this later. But for now, we still have miles to go, people to meet to talk about the urgent crisis of over 1.1 billion people having no access to safe drinking water and the impact that has not only on them but on all of us. Think about it..... Water is LIFE! Pass it on!!

Peace and blessing daily to you and yours and remember our sons, daughters, moms and dads who are serving somewhere in the military and stop and give thanks for them.

"We're going to Kansas City, Kansas City here we come"!! hey, isn't that in Missouri? oh well.
Lansing