For 2014 my team had decided to minimize travel and return to a City that some of us could travel to without flying. Part of our team had walked the Twin Cities before and had enjoyed it. We saw it as an opportunity for the rest of the team to experience it. As typical, my 3-Day weekend started on Thursday with my travel day. I was driving and picked up one teammate in Waukesha and then went on to pick up another teammate and her daughter outside of Madison. We made pretty good time and we were in the Twin Cities a little after noon. We met our last teammate at the Hotel and went out for lunch because it was so early and we needed to be back to get back for the team meeting that afternoon for our teammate that was on Youth Corps. It was another early night as the bus to opening comes way to early.
The rest of the weekend did not go quite as I had planned. I was still getting over a sinus infection that was irritating my lungs and the weather was not cooperating. At the start of Day 1 the humidity was about 98%. I could feel the humidity as soon as we started walking. It was aggravating my asthma within a mile or two. I took my inhaler and that helped for awhile but by mile 8 or so it was getting difficult to breathe again. I decided to take a sweep van to lunch and see if the rest would help. After lunch the humidity went down a little and I was able to walk from lunch to the end of the day.
The beginning of Day 2 was not a good one for me. The humidity had been high all night and spending a humid night in a tent was not a good night. I had gotten very little sleep and my lungs were still bothering me. I had intended to sweep right to lunch but since that was not an option I walked a couple miles and then got on a sweep van and went to lunch. I was there very early so I got to watch walkers come in and leave. I got to sit and talk to several other walkers that had come in early in sweep vans also. One woman that I tWalked to had walked six miles on Day 1 and was hoping to do that on Day 2 and 3. That's all she was capable of walking because her Cancer had come back. She had been fighting off and on for mor than 10 years and she walked the 3 Day each year. It didn't matter to her how many miles she walked. She raised the money and was there to walk what she could. After lunch I decided to go back to camp and check out to go to a hotel for the night. I was not going to spend another sleepless night in a humid tent taking my inhaler every 4-6 hours. Finding a hotel was not an easy task since this was the opening weekend of the Minnesota State Fair. I did manage to find a room and spent the night with air conditioning and that helped me quite a bit.
On Sunday morning I was up early because that's what my body expects for Day 3. I decided that since I couldn't walk I was going to be a walker stalker for the day. I made it to the first cheering station about the time the first walkers were coming through and stayed until my teammates came through. I managed to meet my team at lunch before I headed to holding. Holding and Closing were much the same as I remembered from my previous walk here. Once we were done with closing it was time to say goodbye to Kathy as she was the only teammate that was not driving back to Wisconsin with us. We had an uneventful ride back and I was home before midnight.
The weekend was not what I had planned but was still a great experience. I got to see old friends and meet some interesting new people who once again reminded me why I have to keep walking. Thank you all for your continued support. Next year will be my ninth year walking and it will be in a new city for me. I have heard good things about Philadelphia and look forward to walking there.
God Bless
Greg
