Marathon Don is Back! (Or at least coming back.)

It was the Last Chance for Boston Marathon--a 26 one-mile-loop course around an office park in Dublin, Ohio.  Some would call it boring.  That's only if you haven't run it.

The day was beautiful.  Around freezing, a little breezy, sunny at the start.  I was there to get in an inexpensive marathon for February to keep my marathon-a-month streak alive.  Chuck Engle was there--it's his hometown, and he couldn't find anything else to run that day, I guess.  I always love seeing this guy--he's fast, but not snobby about it.  Everyone likes him.  

The first loop is a little long--we make up the .2 miles at the beginning.  As I crossed the timing line for the first time, Chuck breezed by me, already two miles into the race.  I made it my goal to get at least half-way done before he finished.  

Halfway through mile 10, my best friend Paul met me and ran a mile with me.  He's working a big job in Ohio so he came over on Saturday night to hang out.  The three breweries we checked out the night before didn't seem to have any bad effect on my running, fortunately.  

After 11 miles I caught up with Lois Berkowicz.  She was running her 296th marathon that day.   I was a mile ahead of her at that point, and we ran together for the next 3 or 4 miles before she stopped for a bit.  We caught up with Larry Macon, the guy who set the world record last year for running 105 marathons in a year.  He was running with another guy named Gary.  Soon I had finished my 13th mile and was in the middle of mile 14 when Chuck flew by me for the final time, finishing in 2:35.  And I was past halfway!  Made it!

Soon, it was 16 miles.  I still didn't feel like I needed to walk.  A little more and I was in single digits.  Still feeling good.  My endurance is coming back!  

I caught up with Bernie Finn and his daughter Jennifer.  Bernie was doing the half, and Jenn was having a rough day, so she had stopped to walk with him.  Bernie has the distinction of finishing DFL in Grand Rapids last year, and was proudly wearing his Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon jacket.  After Bernie finished his half, I caught up with Jenn again, running back and forth with her for her last couple of miles.  When I finished mile 22 Jenn had just finished and I stopped to give her a hug and shake hands with Bernie.

At 2 1/2 miles to go I came upon a young guy who was struggling.  He was walking slowly, arms tucked inside his sweatshirt.  "I'm going to drop out," he told me.  He was only 3 miles behind me.  He wasn't trained for this.  "No, you're not!" I told him.  He ran with me for a little bit, and I told him how he'd be second guessing himself on Monday if he dropped out.  He dropped back, and I wondered if I had gotten through.  About a minute later, he came running by me.  "Thanks."  I caught him as he started his next mile, and told him that in an hour he could call his mom and tell her that he had just finished a marathon.  It seemed like I had just been through the line -- like the miles were getting shorter.  Nice.  My legs still felt OK, I had no desire to walk, no questioning my abilities like I've had for the last couple marathons.  I crossed the line for the 25th time and raised my arms.  The guys thought I was finishing.  "Nope.  I'm just practicing for my next time around."  Mile 26.  Party time!

I finished in 5:22.  Not a big deal, for sure, but it was my best post-knee-surgery time, and I was running strong all day.  Guess I need to do a little speed play and get myself back to 4:30 shape before too long.  Should be fun.

After my shower I went back to the course.  My young friend was nowhere to be found.  He was done!  I went into the post-race food area to congratulate him and hang out with the few people I had been running with who were still there.  Nice time.  

I have now run at least one marathon in each of the last 72 months.  Bragging a little, maybe, but I'm pretty proud of that.  I gave myself permission to end the streak at 100 months.  Just need to stay healthy between now and then.

and the adventure continues....

This is a test

I'm trying to enable podcasts on blogger.  Here's my first attempt.  It's one of my Marathon Minutes from September.  It's about my life list.  Click on the title above to listen!

I was kinda hoping for a little "player" icon or something, but it seems to work like this.  I haven't stopped experimenting yet though.

25 Things

I wrote this on Facebook yesterday.  It was a fun little exercise.  25 Things.

1. My nickname is Marathon Don. I got it around 1998, after I had run marathons for 19 months in a row.
2. I've run marathons on all seven continents three times.
3. I'm 52 and I still have a grandmother. And grandchildren. One time I took my grandmother and granddaughter to the Ionia Fair and got a picture of both of them together on the merry-go-round.
4. Granddaddy (Claud Washington Fults, my great grandfather) is my favorite ancestor. He used to raise fighting cocks. He also invested in some cemetery plots in Indiana, which we still own but are pretty much worthless.
5. I had asthma when I was a kid.
6. I was on the high school debate team. We went to the state finals once, where we really got our clocks cleaned.
7. I hate living with cats. Or dogs. Or most any other animal. I don't think one animal should own another one. 
8. I hope our new president does a good job.
9. I can't find a religion I like, that's why I'm a Third Reformed Antagonist. It's really hard to be a hypocrite when you make up your beliefs as you go along.
10. I have a list of over 100 things that I'm going to do in my lifetime. I keep checking things off and adding more.
11. Don't worry, your sister isn't on the list. No. Wait.
12. I have my own website, www.cooladventures.net. Every once in a while someone writes to me and complains that they just wasted half the morning reading my stuff. It makes me feel good.
13. I hang out at the YMCA in downtown Grand Rapids.
14. I like beer. I'm collecting a glass from a brewery in every state. 
15. I don't drink a lot, but I do drink frequently. I figure that if I pace myself I can keep drinking my whole life.
16. With the help of a lot of other people, I put on the Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon. This year it's on October 18th.
17. My favorite movie quote is, "If you had a face like mine, you'd punch me right in the nose. And I'm just the person who can do it." It's from an old Laurel and Hardy movie.
18. I have about six people who I refer to as my best friend. Depends on the context, I suppose.
19. I drink yuppie coffee. I live in a yuppie area. I like it.
20. My coffee maker grinds the beans automatically. Pretty freakin' cool.
21. I'm heterosexual. Actually, I come from a long line of heterosexuals. 
22. In high school, I played chess every day. My junior year I kept track of every game I played. I still have the tally sheets. I beat one guy in study hall 104 straight games. He wasn't very good.
23. The last game of chess I played was in Antarctica in December 2007. I lost.
24. I run with a bunch of really cool people. I think the average IQ of the group is around 130.
25. I saw at least three eagles yesterday.

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up

My old friend Dan Houts called me today and told me about a Bible study he went to lately.  The discussion started with "What did you want to be when you grew up?"  

It was a pretty inspirational story that Dan told me after that.  I told him that he needed to write it down and send it to me.  Knowing that he reads my blog, I figured maybe he'd write it and publish it a comment at the end of this entry.  How 'bout it, Dan???

Stay tuned to be inspired everybody....

2008 In Review

Every year I have only one New Year's Resolution -- to have at least as much fun this year as I had last year.  2008 proved to be the year that ended a very long streak.

Now, it wasn't because it was a bad year.  It just wasn't as fun as 2007, when I ran marathons on seven continents TWICE.  (I'm the only person who's ever done that twice in a year).

It was a great year though.  In January I started off with a trip to Florida with the lovely Francine for the Goofy Challenge--running a half-marathon on Saturday and a marathon on Sunday at Disney World.  We also threw in the 5K on Friday with Carly.  My biggest running weekend of the year, it turned out.

Somewhere around the end of that month, I must have twisted my left knee on some slippery roads and I tore my meniscus.  

Running was painful in February.  In fact, it was my lowest mileage month in several years.  I still managed a marathon that month, but it was pretty slow.

Sometime in March, I found a house for sale--a great deal on a 5 bedroom house in Forest Hills.  I knew it was right when I saw it, and the end of April we closed the deal.  So now I'm living in a cool house in a great neighborhood with a beautiful woman.  Life is good.

I managed to keep up my marathon-a-month streak, but after running the Bayshore Marathon in May and doing some hills a few days later, my left knee--which I thought was on the mend--returned to painfulness every time I ran.  After our climbing Mt. Marcy and running a marathon in Lake Placid in June, I decided it was time to have my good friends at Metro Health get involved.  A little physical therapy, an xray and an MRI, and they referred me to Dr Theut for a little arthroscopic surgery in July.  

My marathon streak was at 64 consecutive months at the time.  July would be 66.  I told the Doc that I was going to try and keep the streak alive.  I was willing to drop out if I needed to.  But 17 days after the knee surgery, I ran the Carrollton Marathon the last weekend of July.  SLOW.  But FINISHED!

On the way up some stairs to do hill repeats one lunch hour, Francine slipped and broke a bone in the back of her hand.  She had a plate and screws put in it, then the next day we flew to Montana for a vacation in August.  We did a very hot, slow, and hilly marathon (They even gave us a pin at mile 19 when we got to the top of a particularly difficult hill!) .  Francine got lots of attention for being all taped up from the surgery--but she finished with flying colors anyway.  We also took Carly to Glacier National Park.  

The Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon (my biggest project of the year) was fantastic.  Over 3000 runners, plus a kids marathon that involved nearly 1000 kids.  It was great.  

Two days later, on October 21, I had my right knee done as well--just to clean out a bunch of the stuff that was floating around in there.  What the heck, I had met my deductible for the year anyway.  

Mike Schwartz, my old college buddy, wanted to get away for an adventure.  So, in November, we drove about 3000 miles, climbed to the highest point in 6 different states, visited about 8 microbreweries, and spent one night at my friend Brent's house in Cheyenne Wyoming.    (read November blog entries for the whole story)  

Then, on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, I did the Flying Monkey Marathon in Nashville and kept my streak alive for another month.  Month #69.

My beautiful granddaughters spent two nights with us at Thanksgiving.  Aunt Carly had a great time, and Thanksgiving night I went upstairs to find Carly, Ashley, and Amber in their bathing suits in the shower.  The shower curtain as outside the bathtub, of course, so there was water everywhere.  Oh well.  Still, I have LOTS to be thankful for.

Also, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Aunt Mary, both my kids and Katie's three girls came for Thanksgiving dinner at our new house.  We took five generation pictures.  We ate turkey.  

After totally missing the Christmas season in 2007, I got through the whole thing this year feeling like I still wanted more.  I suppose that's good.  And on 28 December, the lovely Francine and I ran a marathon in Springfield, Missouri.  Two more months and I'll have 6 years in a row of at least one-a-month marathons.  And Francine will have two years of a marathon every month.

14 Marathons.  Seven new state high points.  Only one night spent outside the US (when we didn't get back to Montreal in time for our flight and spent the night there).  A new house.  A successful GR Marathon.  Not a bad year.  

What's ahead for 2009?  Who knows?  I'm starting a new streak though--to have more fun this year than I had last year.  

and the adventure continues....

The New President

Tuesday I got ahold of Dan Manning and invited him over to watch the inauguration.  It was fun having someone there to discuss things with as they happened.  We drank a couple beers, ate some munchies, and watched the first Black guy get sworn in as President of the United States.  

This won't solve all the racism in the world, but it certainly won't hurt.  We've cleared another big hurdle.  

Now, I hope he can be effective, help pull us out of our economic problems, end as many wars as need to be ended, and whatever else he needs to do to be successful. 

So, we watched the whole thing.  We stood up when they sang the National Anthem.  And we're hoping for the best.

Windows and stuff

About a year ago, I bought a new notebook computer.  It works good, but a few small issues.  For example, the screen saver never worked.  The screen just stayed on all the time.  Also, every time I'd go to a client site, I'd have to put in a password to get to their systems, even though I had checked the box to say "Save the password" the next time you sign in.  They were only minor inconveniences, so I said the heck with it.

Then about a week ago, my screen saver just started working.  And today, when I signed in at Michigan Chief Sales, it didn't make me enter a password.  I don't understand it.  Usually Windows gets worse over time.  This time it got better.  I'm kinda happy about that.

On the way to Missouri

Actually, we're in Missouri now. Icy roads as we approached Chicago kept us from stopping to see Paul on the way through, so we just continued on to St. Louis last night.

Dinner at the Morgan Street Brewery. Before I got back to the table, Carly was already working on her first beer. Root beer, that is. Fisk, made here in St. Louis. Meanwhile, I settled for one of Morgan Street's Red Lagers. Nice.

After dinner we drove a few more miles and checked into a Drury Inn. When we got to the room, Carly went to the window. "We've got a great view! Steak and Shake, Bob Evans, Taco Bell..."

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Christmas day was nice. Christmas eve with Francine's family--tons of kids, grand kids....

Christmas morning. Francine got me a great coffee maker that grinds the beans and then brews the coffee. It makes really great coffee. :-) At 8:00 we ran with the Grand Rapids Running Club, and then went to Marge's Donut Den. A great start to the day. When we got home I thought about a nap, but found the movie, The Bucket List, on On-Demand. I've been wanting to see it for a long time, and I wasn't disappointed. Go see it if you get a chance.

I cooked a small turkey and a gigantic squash and called Chris to invite him for supper. A nice, low-key holiday.

Stuff from Misc Notes I Should Have Recorded Already (yet again)

22 November - Five years ago tomorrow I ran a marathon in my 50th state. It was my 87th marathon. It was a very special day that I shared with a very special woman.



Five years later--my whole life is different. Different house. Different wife. Different business. Better? Big time!



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Marathons, Mountains, and Microbrews--where it all began:

Marathons--15 October, 1995 in Chicago

Mountains--1993 in Tasmania, I hiked up a mountain with Robert, Adrian Moll, and Steve Pullen near Hobart. Great day. More recently, probably inspired by Knox White while on a trip to Antarctica in 1997. About a year later I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Microbrews--Sometime around 1999, hanging out with Shawn Sweet at Founders Alehouse. Yes! There's more to life than Bud Lite!

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Great weekend - but no running.

Snowbound! The weekend was a little longer than I had planned on--with all the snow Friday I spent quite a bit of time shoveling out. In fact, living on a street that's low-priority for the snow plows, I'm thinking it might be a long winter.

Friend Don showed up and helped push my car into some other tire tracks so that I could at least get back into my driveway. THANK YOU!!!

On dry roads, my tires would have been good for another 10000 or so. With the current conditions, it was time for some new tires. So after a few phone calls, I ended up at Belle Tire Friday afternoon for some new rubber. Much better!

Saturday morning--It was Santa Claus Girls delivery day. Over 13000 kids got presents Saturday as a result of their efforts. AMAZING. Our YMCA Service Club helps plan the routes and organize packages for them. We also help by directing traffic in the parking lot and by carrying packages to cars. Each delivery route has 14 stops, and we had around 350 routes! Very inspiring!!

I got home to find Francine shoveling. The road trucks had finally been down our street and piled about three feet of it into a wall in front of our driveway. I hate to think how many cubic feet of snow we had to move just to get our mailbox accessible again, as well as to get our cars in and out of the drive. After a bunch of shoveling, our neighbor DJ came over. "Can I help?" He went home and got his lawn tractor--with a blade on the back and a scoop on the front! WOW! It's amazing what you can do with the right equipment. THANKS!!

My girls came over Saturday afternoon. Ashley had to be in a wedding the next day--she's 7, and was the flower girl. Amber, 4, and Alexis, born Wednesday of Labor Day week, spent the night. Amber and Carly get along famously, so there was lots playing and dancing and singing going on. Lex is smiling all the time and sticking her tongue out, and has learned to burp without puking on me, which is a vast improvement since Thanksgiving weekend, when I went through quite a few shirts!

The big event was Sunday. My son-in-law Shawn along with the National Guard 125 Charlie Company returned from Iraq. We went to the ceremony at the Delta Plex to welcome them home. In spite of the nasty weather, extra plows were deployed at the airport and along the route to make sure our boys came home. Katie heads the Family Resource Group for the National Guard here, and so was key in planning the event. So I had lots of cause to be VERY PROUD of both of them.

We stopped and picked up a couple presents that Francine had ordered for her bosses, and then took Carly to the Mexican Telephone Company for lunch. (Taco Bell) Then came home and enjoyed a nice nap, snuggled on a sheepskin in front of the fireplace with the lovely Francine.

Not bad for a cold, wintry weekend in Michigan. Today, however--I'm buying a snowblower.

Interesting Quote

In light of the present financial crisis, it's interesting to read what Thomas Jefferson said in 1802 :

'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.'

Car Companies

OK, I'm going to say something about the car company bailouts.

First, I'm disgusted with the car companies in general. Probably with most publicly traded companies, in fact. No one seems to look at the long term. If the Big 3 AND the unions had looked ahead, they may have realized that sooner or later we need to develop alternate fuel vehicles, concentrate on economy, and maybe not commit to continuing to pay people from current revenue streams long after they're retired and not contributing anything to the company any more.

Now, with so much debt that it can never be serviced, they're asking for $34 billion worth of LOANS (more debt) to get them out of the current situation. How exactly is that going to help in the long term? My opinion is that it won't. It'll just prolong the problems for a while.

We have some pretty good bankruptcy laws in this country that would allow GM to restructure, get rid of a lot of debt, etc. Would it hurt? Sure. The shareholders would lose all their money. But they've lost most of it already, so that's just going to finish it off.

Meanwhile, our governor is busy lobbying for the bailout. Of course she is. She's governor of a state that hosts the automotive industry. She keeps asking who would buy a car from a company that's in bankruptcy? Remember United Airlines? Who would fly on an airline that's going bankrupt? Silly question, right? United went through the process, the shareholders got wiped out, but the company is still in business and moving in good directions.

I expect the Congress will bail out the car companies. Oh well. I hope it works if they do.

Meanwhile, let me talk about something cool the car companies do. They all have agreed on how far apart to space the holes so that we can screw our license plates to them. Then all the states agreed to make license plates with holes the same corresponding distance. Pretty good, eh? The whole freakin' country agrees on something. How often does that happen?

Imagine a state like Wyoming deciding to make their license plates with holes a different distance apart. That could be an effective way to keep people from moving there.

Stuff from Misc Notes I Should Have Recorded Already

I went to Aunt Erna's funeral about a month ago. She's my mom's aunt, the wife of my Grandpa Lloyd's brother Lawrence. Last summer we went to her 90th birthday party.

Everyone had nice things to say about her, like at everyone's funeral. No one ever says bad things about the dead at their funerals. In her case, I doubt that there IS anything bad to say. She was one of the nicest people in the world. You can tell that if you meet any of her kids (my mom's first cousins) or grandkids. They're ALL nice.

The funeral was almost joyous. Her suffering was over. Whatever would happen to her next would be better. What a nice person.

I hope people will have nice things to say about me like that. I also hope it isn't for about 50 years or so.

(I really don't like the song, "How Great Thou Art." Might be because I've heard so many people slaughter it in my lifetime.)
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Regarding the Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon, of which I'm the race director:
"If you aren't having the best marathon experience ever, we aren't doing something right."

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I need to do a "viral video" that catches on all over the country because it's clever, funny, or just plain wierd.

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Jacques Cousteau said this: When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself.

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When I was at Ben Burk's place in Rapid City, I had a pint of Brown Cow Ale at the Firehouse Brewing Company. Then I had a pint of Firehouse Red.

Elections, Races, and other random thoughts

Granted, it's not until January 20th that President Obama takes office, but it still looks like he's moving in good directions. At least I hope so.

Of course, there's the usual racist BS going on. I hate that. Yeah, we elected a Black guy president. I think that's good. Not because he's Black. Because the American people took that out of their decision making process.

I know--some people say he's only half-Black. So what. He looks Black. That's cool. I like that we have a whole bunch of races in this country. It makes life more interesting. Richer. Me? I'm just a plain White guy. Mostly WASP. But then, one of my great-great grandmothers was an American Indian. Another one was Dutch. I think there were a few Germans in there somewhere.

I don't like the term "Native American" when it's used to refer to American Indians. I have to go back five generations before I can even find one ancestor who wasn't born in this country. I figure that makes me as "native" as anybody. I also don't especially like any Hyphenated-American designations. I'm not suggesting giving up our ancestors, but once we're Americans maybe we should keep our eyes on making the future better. (Call yourself whatever you want though.)

After travelling to about 30 countries, I'm always thankful for the richness that the world has to offer. Every country, every race, every sub-culture has something interesting to add to the mix. Even travelling to other parts of the U.S. we find a whole lot of differences. Driving through the "Bible Belt" a couple weeks ago, I cruised the radio stations and was able to find either religious music or country music. Rarely a rock and roll station to be found. The waitresses around there all call me "Honey" or "Sugar" even though they just met me. It's a friendly part of the country.

Coming home from a trip to all seven continents for marathons last year, I was connecting through an airport in Tokyo and for the first time in about a month I heard some Americans talking. It reminded me of how much I missed home. Good old American Black and White people, talking in accents I could understand. It was nice. Made me homesick.

I like that our government is moving in directions where people are no longer "tokens." It's getting so that people are chosen more for their abilities and merits and less because they belong to a particular race or gender.

Our country is getting better. I'm not blind to the faults we might still have, but comparing 2008 to the 1960s it's amazingly different. We're moving in good directions. Let's keep moving.

Marathons, Mountains, and Microbrews

Yes, you know those are my three "hobbies" by this time. So now, all I need is a marathon to make the month complete.

It would happen on November 23 in a park in the southwest corner of Nashville. The Flying Monkey Marathon! It was just a little affair--only a couple hundred runners allowed, and a race director who (believe it or not) may just be crazier than I am. I had to contact RD Trent Rosenbloom to get in, since registration had closed a long time before, but he welcomed me.

Also, I ran into old friends GW and Linda from Colorado--my former shipmates aboard the Ioffe in last year's first trip to Antarctica.

Race morning was COLD -- around 27 degrees. But a nice day and not too windy, so after the race started it was comfortable. The course--ALL HILLS for 26.2 miles. There's an 11.2 mile loop that we ran both forward and backward, with a little more thrown in along the way. Since I wasn't familiar with the area, I never really knew which direction we were going. It was only up and down.

Somewhere around 12 miles I caught up with a guy named Max, and we spent the rest of the race getting to know each other and solving the world's problems. Finally, with only two people still behind us, we finished around 6 hours 37 minutes.

Slow day. Yes. However, only 4 weeks earlier, I had my second knee surgery of the year. And, in spite of that, I kept my marathon-a-month streak alive at 69 months in a row. Now I'm working on getting back up to speed, strengthening my legs, and getting my marathon times back to around 4:30 before another six months goes by.

So there you go. Month of November held seven state high points, about 9 or 10 breweries, and a marathon. Not bad.

And next November? I'm thinking of going back and giving the Monkey another try.

and the adventure continues....

Route 66

The final leg of the journey would start the afternoon of November 18th as we headed south to Amarillo and then to Route 66.

After stopping in Tulsa for the night, we hit the road fairly early, with the intention to get back home before the day was done. LOTS OF DRIVING. We got off the freeway again as we approached Kansas, and went back onto the two-lane version of the old Route 66. There are only 13.2 miles of it, cutting across the southeast corner of the state, so I wanted to travel the whole thing.

It was also a scouting mission, of sorts. Perhaps at sometime we could do a marathon, starting in Missouri, following Route 66 through Kansas, turning around at the Oklahoma boarder and heading back for just-slightly-long marathon. I think it would work well.

Back to the freeway and across Missouri, and I was getting tired of travelling and determined to be home for the night. Our only stops were at an outlet store along the freeway near Lebanon, MO, and then in St. Louis, where we had lunch at the Morgan Street Brewery along with a pint of their seasonal Pumpkin Ale. The brewery is practically in the shadow of the St. Louis Arch, so I got to see that as well.

Around 8:00 Chicago time I dropped Mike off at his place in Skokie, and headed for home as fast as I could get away with. Well, actually I didn't quite get away with it, but the Indiana state cop let me off with a warning.

Did I say that the final high point was a couple days earlier? Well, probably the best high point of the whole trip was the welcome home I got from the lovely Francine. But, that's a whole 'nother story. :-)

and the adventure continues....

The Final High Point

After a not-all-that-comfortable sleep, we got up and headed back to Black Mesa, elevation 4973. While it was about a 4.2 mile hike up, the climbing portion was real short. Being on a mesa (table top) we followed a nearly flat trail for about two miles before starting up. Then about 20 minutes of decent up-hill to another flat for a couple miles. At the highest point, we had now done six high points in the last 5 days. The stone obilisk at the top had on its sides what was in each direction. On the west, it said New Mexico is only 1299 feet away. We looked to the west and realized that we'd still be on top of the mesa at that point, so we walked to New Mexico.

We headed down and went into Kenton to The Mercantile to get something to eat. We asked for a menu, but they nearly laughed at us. The menu is basically either a hamburger or a cheeseburger. Hmm.... Since Mike keeps kosher, it's pretty hard to eat there. We picked up some ice cream bars instead. They gave us a certificate for climbing Black Mesa.

The next leg of our journey would be travelling Route 66 back to Chicago. We headed to Amarillo to pick it up there.

Route 66--America's Mainstreet, stretches from Chicago to Los Angeles. I always thought it would be great to travel it. Now-days a lot of it doesn't exist in its old form. We did pick up the old road a little after leaving Amarillo, and traveled the two-lane old road pretty much alongside the freeway for the rest of Texas. In Oklahoma, as it got darker, we reverted to the highway. We stopped in Oklahoma City at Bricktown Brewery for a beer and some dinner, and then continued to Tulsa to spend the night.

Back to the trip -- Nebraska and Kansas

Sunday night with Brent was nice, but Monday morning was back on the road. Fortunately, the price of gas is pretty consistently under two bucks now!

About an hour after leaving Brent's, we arrived at a little box where we could put three bucks apiece and then head down a drive to Panorama Point, elevation 5424. Even though we were over a mile high, it isn't what you'd call a mountain. It's just the highest thing they have in Nebraska. The best part of this one was the field of buffalos we had to drive through to get there. MASSIVE animals. Beautiful. Back to the road and we headed south via Colorado to Mount Sunflower in Kansas.

Mount Sunflower is another nice little drive-up highpoint. At 4039 feet, also not a mountain. Very nice little display of iron-art at the high point and very welcoming signage by the property owners. One more to go.

The trip into Oklahoma was perhaps the biggest adventure of the trip. After hours on the road, we wondered how it would take us as long to get there as my GPS said it was going to. We found out. About 20 miles or so from the Oklahoma boarder while still in Colorado, we turned onto gravel roads. We drove and drove until the road started curving around. The road narrowed. And narrowed. And narrowed. Before we knew it, we were on a two-track with grass growing up in the middle of it. So we're 800 miles from home, in the dark in the middle of nowhere with NO lights in the distance in any direction. We drove for about 10 minutes on the two-track before crossing the unmarked boarder into Oklahoma. A house appeared. The road turned back to gravel. And soon we were on paved roads again. We saw three HUGE raccoons on the road in front of us and stopped to watch them until they got bored with us and wandered off.

And five minutes later we were at the trailhead to Black Mesa, the highest point in Oklahoma. Now we just needed a place to spend the night.

We drove into the small town of Kenton, about 5 miles away. Small town. It was around 9:30 pm, but the streets had been rolled up a couple hours earlier. The next nearest towns were 30-40 miles away, so we drove around and found a state park with an open bathroom and camped in the van for the night.

Personal Record

This month I set a personal for number of states visited in any month--

1 Michigan

2 Ohio

3 Florida

4 Alabama

5 Tennessee

6 Kentucky

7 Indiana

8 Illinois

9 Wisconsin

10 Minnesota

11 North Dakota

12 South Dakota

13 Wyoming

14 Nebraska

15 Colorado

16 Kansas

17 Oklahoma

18 New Mexico

19 Texas

20 Missouri

Still to follow--3 more high points!

South Dakota

The extra rest after an early evening was nice--we've done a lot of mile so far. This morning the high point is only about 10 miles away.

We arrived at Sylvan Lake for our climb up Harney Peak, elev 7242. The conditions were perfect, temperatures in the high 30s, partly cloudy, not much wind. Officially, the park didn't open until 8:00, but at 7:30 we were ready to go. Mike's "nervous energy" had kept him talking non-stop (even more than usual) as he bundled up in 5 layers. He reminded me of Calvin bundled up to go outside. We stopped about 200 yards in and I took off my jacket and Mike took off his top 3 layers. The hiking weather was actually pretty comfortable.

Snow! We were in 5 or 6 inches of it much of the way, but the trail was never hard to find, and several people had summited on Saturday so we always had footprints to follow. The hike up is a little over 3 1/2 miles, and in a little under two hours we reached the lookout tower on the summit. We were the first to the top for the day.

The view from the top is an amazing panorama of the Black Hills. We hung out for a few minutes, ate a few Oreos, and headed back down.

On the way down we ran into a couple guys from New Jersey who were doing the climb on the spur-of-the-moment. They asked if we had any water bottles they could buy. We gave them the two full bottles we had left. As we approached the parking lot, we found a cell phone on the ground which was probably theirs (there were only 4 of us on the mountain so far) so I set it on the hood of their car.

That's 26 state high points.


Next stop was Mt. Rushmore. As we pulled up to the gate, a herd of mountain goats was guarding the entrance. Mt. Rushmore is one of the most inspirational places I've been--the vastness of the artwork, and the symbolism of the images really makes me proud to be American.

I noticed that the Nebraska high point is only about a half-hour from Cheyenne, Wyoming. I called Brent Weigner, my bi-polar friend. Brent and I met on a trip to the South Pole, and we've been to the North Pole together as well. We arrived at Brent's and he took us out to CB & Potts brewery for a meal. Butt-Face Amber and Disorder Porter were the beers of the night. We spent awhile catching up on the latest adventures, and then headed back to his place for some rest.