Hopkins 4K for Cancer

June 23, 2006

Red Cloud, NE
Today was short in terms of mileage, but in terms of events, it certainly was not short. We loved staying with the host in Fairbury. They cooked us a splendid breakfast this morning. It was kind of sad to have to say goodbye to them. I will always remember Sheila, who is a breast cancer survivor in the community. She asked me if I would wear her wrist band, which says, “HOPE,” and represents all types of cancer. I am going to wear that band all the way to San Francisco and probably longer.

When my group was about 15 miles out of Red Cloud, we got information that Clare got stung by a bee, which is pretty bad news since she is extremely allergic to bee stings. Luckily the sting was on her ankle, so the reaction was eventually able to subside a little bit, although it did leave an attractive kankle for her to show off the next few days. I thought it was attractive.

In Red Cloud, we stayed at a city park, which had a swimming pool, and picnic tables. The first thing when we got there was buy some refreshments from a local store, and cool down in the shade. I happened to come across an empty Bud Light case, and cut it apart with Katie Young’s big red scissors. Everyone knows that alcohol is bad for the liver, and can increase your risk of cancer. The group ate dinner at a restaurant in town. We probably gave them more business than they saw that whole week. Although it wasn’t a community dinner, it was nice to share dinner with my comrades nonetheless.

Later on, somehow, we ran into the principal of the school, who let us into the gym to sleep. That was nice of him, but I decided to sleep in the tent that we had already pitched. In the middle of the night, we almost blew away, but I tried to sleep through it. Then I woke up to someone banging on the outside of the tent door with a flashlight. It was the police waking us up to tell us that there is a severe tornado warning in effect, and that we should get inside as soon as possible. We barely got all our belongings inside the gym before the skies opened up on us. It is a really good thing we ran into the principal that day otherwise it would have been a disaster!

-David