"Toto, there's no place like home." I felt that way today. We are all very tired, a combination of the heat and humidity and from participating in more events and ignitings since we hit the U.S. We all have our ups and downs in moods and biorhythms, like the tides. The countervailing tugs hopefully result in a balance of spirit. The ups and downs are growth. Without it we would live a mundane life. Here I am at age 57, once again asking myself, what do I want to be when I grow up? It's an eternal question and quest.

Our exchange event in Kansas City, Missouri was exhilarating. KC is the city of fountains. The event took place at the Crown Centre around a large fountain which was more like water plumes in a small courtyard. Kids were frolicking in the waters and before our runner exchange there was a water show set to classical music. The kids were just wonderful and came on stage with me to put on a show. We took a vote on whether Simon and his guest runners would run through the fountain or around it. The vote was 2/3 through, the rest around. And of course Simon, the kid spirit that he is, ran right through the middle with his guest runners. It was an awesome sight and a Kodak moment which hopefully will appear on our website. Before Simon's arrival the kids sang "water" songs into the microphone, exclaimed together "Water is Life" in loud unison, and chanted "water!, water!, water!" as the runners came in.

We spent a late but great night before in Lawrence, Kansas along the banks of the Kansas River. In the morning Laura and I walked the town and combed the local farmer's market. One woman selling odd meats like goat and rabbit meat, as well as bones, is coming to my hometown market in Montpelier, Vermont at the end of September while attending a conference at Goddard College. I was entranced by the Kansas vegetables, the beautiful okra and eggplants, the bee products and the homemade walking sticks. Given that Team Green was on its way to ignite at a retirement home in Kansas City, I thought perhaps a fancy walking stick might be in order, no disrespect meant there. But they were pricey, each a uniquely carved one of a kind. We did visit the Villa Ventura Assisted Living Home and chatted with all the residents, staging the hand off of the baton inside their community room. Before we left I pulled up our website on all their computers leaving them with lots to entertain them for the remainder of the day. I think they loved us and certainly had a gazillion questions like "how on earth do you do your laundry?"

It was "cooler" today, vacillating between the high 80's and into the mid 90's but much more humid. I've noticed that I am really cutting the tangents now when I run. For non-runners that means taking the most direct route, if traffic and other features allow, cutting the corners whenever you can, and sometimes taking diagonals across parking lots or lawns instead of the exact street corner. Of course tangents don't help when you are running straight, straight, straight as we do more often than not, but it's another game to play. Regarding that, our GPS pretty much tracks as the crow flies. But we have zigged and zagged on our journey, travelling 15,200 miles on foot total when we arrive in New York City. If we had taken the direct around the globe route, we could have circumnavigated the world in a shorter time. The circumference of the earth at its waist is about 25,000 miles. I tried to figure out the distance we would have traveled in a direct line in order to determine just how much extra mileage we did zigzagging. But my brain is too fried and there are too many variables to consider such as the fact that our journey was primarily in the northern hemisphere which is not as far around. If one of my readers wants to figure this out, I'd sure love to know. Thanks by the way to Captain Fred for answering my last question put to my readers and identifying the Colorado snake as a "The Blue Pelted Dot Rattler." When I asked him, "what if it had been purple?," he of course had an answer, "Purple like a bruise means the strike would have been more redundantly deadly."

Today's run between Kansas City and out through Blue Hills towards Marshall, Missouri was truly ugly with lots of household garbage tossed along the road shoulders. It smelled vile, from dirty diapers to sour milk to other ghastly odors. Early on I had to run alot of unforgiving uneven concrete sidewalks with many curbs up and down. It was a hilly run and when I finally moved into prettier suburbs, the roadway became tight. The cicadas were humming away by the millions creating a din. There were sewer issues in some places which astounded me being so close to such a large city. I was shocked to see what appeared to be sewage discharge in a small brook, and sure smelled like it. There were hundreds of tent caterpillars in the trees. These are things we can address and fix in the U.S. unlike the current inability of millions in other countries to obtain safe drinking water. Lastly, the roadways were full of road kill. Drivers in these parts are pretty speedy.

BPR is publishing a book about the run which will be released for Christmas. The foreword is by Robert Redford. Along the way freelance photographers have been showing up to "capture us" behind and between the scenes. For two days around Lawrence and into Kansas City a really great man named Eli tracked us. I think most of his photos of me behind the scenes show me stuffing my face, flustering over the computer or hugging my surrogate Smoochie. Oh well, what can one expect of the "crazy old lady from Vermont." Laura keeps getting photographed from behind because she has a cute butt and a great stride with a swinging ponytail. We all have our niches.

We love our drivers and crew, some especially add to the joys of being together and we look forward to seeing them. The night pilot and crew work especially hard. Both pilot crews have 12 hour shifts plus the time to and from the start and finish exchanges and all else that must be done in preparation for the time on the road. some of our very favorites are Fast Eddie, Janelle, Alessandro and Edo, and of course our super Team Green driver Rob Dunn. I think they like us too. We greet each other as if it's been a coon's age when no separation can be more than 12 short hours.

We're spending the night in nowhere, a Super 8 in Marshall, Missouri. Tomorrow Team Green is off. We will attend an event in Jefferson City, Missouri, and then head further up the road on our way to Chicago. The weather is changing, light rain drops which are forecasted to become "Dean" rains. Rain is good even to a fair weather personality like myself.

Water is life. Pass it on!