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Bryan and I made the Lubbock News! Check it out
Click on The Earth Expedition after you click this link:
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Daren’s Blog:
 Too tired to write… Sorry.. I will write tomorrow about tonight!
Bryan’s Blog
We set another record high for mileage today. We did 52.4 miles from Brownfield to Post. Because we were the same exact distance away from
Lubbock in Post as we were in Brownfield, we went back and stayed at Julie’s one more night. Unfortunately, the piece on the earth expedition was not aired on the news today so it will be shown tomorrow night. They had another story pop up. I guess that’s what happens in news. But it was overall a good walking day. I came across a few horses and they let me pet them but one of the horses was missing an eye. It made me sad so I pet him a little more than the others. But it totally creeped me out. It looks like the horse from Sleepy Hollow. I wondered for at least an hour how that could have happened. Poor guy.
When we got back into
Lubbock a new friend I met at the Starbucks a few nights ago, Bryan Simpson, took us out dinner! We went to On the Border. We had a good conversation and he happens to be getting his masters degree in athletic training so maybe he will want to help with Active Water. That would be really cool.
It’s our last night with Julie so we stayed up a little late and watched a bunch of YouTube videos…what a waste of time, hahaha. But we had fun and I’m going to miss her. She has been so nice to us. She bought us some food for the road because she overheard us talking about stuff we needed. She is so great. And she let two smelly men stay at her place for three nights. I hope to pay it forward someday. Thank you Julie! Anyway, it’s already late. Good night.
Album of the Day – “Talkie Walkie” by AIR
Friday, February 06, 2009
Daren’s Blog:
 Ehausted!: Wow… I am super exhausted… today was the second day that I did over 27 miles. I am trying to run a little of the day to break up the monotony. I decided that I didn’t want to take anymore Ibuprofen as well… we will see how long that last … right now I am at two days…we will see what tomorrow brings.
Last two days: walking wise there is not much to write home about. When the highlight of your day are 3 dogs chasing you then you didn’t have a fun filled day. But I do have to say that after walking was fun. Julie Muskgrave who has let us stay at her apartment for the past 3 days has been really good to us. She is also the reporter for the local news station who did the interview for us. It is actually airing tonight but we are here in Aspermont, TX. and won’t be able to see it.
Bryan Simpson: The day that we got to Lubbock Bryan and I went to starbucks (They keep giving us free drinks!) and Bryan struck up a conversation (I was on the phone) with a guy at the next table over. He told us that he had to leave at the moment but he believed in what we were doing and wanted to take us out to eat on Thurs. We never turn down calories so we were in! Last night is when we met… he was a pretty awesome person….he was finishing up his masters in physical training which was awesome! I told him about the new Non-profit we are starting called Active:Water! He was interested! It is awesome how everything works together!
Jayton, TX: We ended today at a town called Jayton.. there is no reason why anyone should ever go to Jayton. There was nothing there so Bryan and I drove to the next town 20 miles away called Aspermont… there was actually a dairy queen there which is where I sit right now. We are hoping to strike up conversation with some town folk and hopefully score a place to stay tonight! Right now there is a basketball game in town so there is absolutely no one here right now. I think the game gets out at 10:00 and then the people will roll in.. maybe something will happen then…hoping!
3 hours later: Score! We have a Motel room… I am not sure how it all worked out other than it was a God thing but this is how it came to be! Bryan had been chatting it up with the guy behind the counter trying to see if there was a church in town or anything that would lead to a place to stay. He said that he had a friend that would be coming in after the game. I was like sweet we are going to have a place.. then he arrived and it was High School senior. Through a little small talk he shared with us all of what was wrong with the government and then shared with us the solution all within about 5 minutes. It was incredible. I mean… the national debt was cleared and taxes were lowered, and the oil business was booming and everyone had a job! It was incredible…. He told us that as soon as he got his computer back he was going to write a “bill” outlining the plan and send it to Obama. Well…. My best wishes to him. Next he called his mother and told her about what we were doing and asked if there was something that the church could do. She told him to take us to the Sherriff. MMM… I am not going to like.. I was a little skeptical. I guess the churches got together and have a funds for people who need help but you need to go to the sheriff’s office to make it happen so we all hop in the car and head down Main street and arrive. We walk into the Sherriff’s office and it is a scene straight out of the movies. We walk around the corner to hear a dog running around and then it hops on the back of the secretary’s chair. We make a comment and she says the dogs name is “chigger”. After looking at the dog… that is the name I would have given it as well. We explain to her what we are doing and she says we need to talk to “Rusty” . Rusty is the man in charge… we walk into his office and Rusty is a cowboy looking feller with a blonde mustache, cowboy boots and hat and smoking a cigarette and ashing on the carpet like he has been doing it for years! Cracking me up! He proceeds to do a background check on Bryan…”We don’t want to be helping out criminals” he says. Cracking me up… He was super nice to us and he called up the only motel in town and got us a room. Simple as that! Which was awesome because we were planning to stay in the car tonight!
“Life to the Fullest” Daren@theearthexpedition.com
Bryan’s Blog:
 Ah the
Texas plains…a slow medium from death to life, from desert to deciduous. I can almost feel trees coming at us any day now. We’re almost there. We are starting to see more and more life now. I’m so glad I’m out of the desert. There was no scenery, no life, no consistent weather, and no hope, hahaha. Okay it wasn’t that bad, but I am glad I’m out of it. The wind was blowing on the tall grass today as I walked. It looked there were 1,000 invisible horses stampeding across the fields. It was good to see something different. We finished 52.4 miles again today. We got all the way to Jayton! I know, no one knows where that is. But we still got there, nonetheless.
We’re camping out in the Dairy Queen in a neighboring town called Aspermont, hoping to find someone that might want to take us in for the night. We sat at the table right in the middle of the restaurant so there is no way people could avoid us. Its funny listening to the people that come in though. It’s such a small town that everyone knows everyone. One of the Dairy Queen employees’ mother comes in and just walks right into the back looking for her daughter and she doesn’t even work here. And then she sees someone at the drive thru and calls them by name and just starts talking to them. It’s so funny. Small towns…gotta love ‘em.
But I definitely love this town because the CRAZIEST thing happened. It is my intent every night to find a place to stay either with someone or find help to get a place for free. It gives a chance to talk to more people about the expedition but also to not have to sleep in the Blazer. Well tonight, without shame, I went up to the cashier at Dairy Queen, Aaron, and asked if we could stay at a church nearby. Well he then called a friend, Tod Krausse, who just got done with his high school basketball game and came to talk with us. Before getting to the point that we needed a place to stay, we talked for twenty minutes about traveling, taxes, and secret politics. It was good small town talk. So he then called his mom and she said to go to the sheriff’s office to get help. So we had no clue what was going on but went to the sheriff anyway. We get there and the office is a replica of any western movie sheriff’s office. The secretary had her dog sitting behind her in the chair, the sheriff named Rusty was flicking his cigarette ashes directly on the ground, and everything was wood paneling with old topography maps on the wall that are completely out of date. It was priceless. But I still had no clue what was going on. So Rusty then proceeded to give me a background check but then shortly after unraveled what he was doing. The town church has a fund for people who come in and need help. They have money set aside to put up people in their town motel that need a place to stay. Well they gave us a room and now we are clean and sleeping in beds in a free motel! Praise God! I can’t believe this happened! I love this town hahaha.
Album of the Day – “The Timeline Post” by The Timeline Post
Saturday, February 06, 2009
Daren’s Blog:
 Fiery one: Wow, It was pushing 80 today… If you were sitting next to me right now I would show you my ridiculous tan lines. I do have the typical raccoon eyes from my Optic Nerve Glasses but other than that I am tanned more on my right side of my body than my left. The sun rises and sets on my right which makes for a great uneven tan…. Oh well….
Record day!: The past three days have been records for Bryan and I . 52.4, 52.4, and then today we rocked out a 54 miler. I actually ran the last 3.3 miles in the dark. I felt like forest Gump!
New Wildlife: Today was a good day for me when it comes to wildlife…. I saw two animals that I have never seen in my life. Earlier today I saw a Armadillo! I have never seen them before…alive… but my personal favorite of the day was right at dusk right outside of Haskell, TX when I looked about 30 yards away and thought I was looking at a baby black bear…but I was like… I am in Texas… not New Jersey and then I realized what I was looking at was a Javelina! Let’s just say that I quickly stopped in my tracks… I really didn’t know what to do.. I have never seen one before… so I kind of just stared. I knew that they will charge you in a second and I really wasn’t looking forward to a tusk in my leg tonight…. So I just stood still… he hadn’t seen me yet but there was a couple of cars coming and he was getting closer to the road. I think he spotted me as the cars rolled past and then quickly retreated back into the brush. I wanted to investigate but wisdom told me to keep walking. ..I kept walking
Jesse and Krista Benson: Tonight my friends from college are taking good care of us. We got here late and they took Bryan and I out to eat at an Italian restaurant. It was sooooo good! The night was filled with trail stories and catching up with people we all have in common.We are looking forward to spending tomorrow with them. But for now I am going to bed. Day off tomorrow!
“Life to the Fullest” Daren@theearthexpedition.com
Bryan’s Blog:
 Its crazy how one day you could feel great walking 25 miles and then the very next day you feel like road kill. Today was one of the bad days. Yesterday I felt great…I didn’t have any pain all day, the land wasn’t too rough, and I even ran three miles at the very end of the day. But then today, I felt like I weighed 400 pounds and was out of shape. But the crazy thing is out here, such little things can alter your physical condition dramatically. I ran three of the 25 miles yesterday, I didn’t go to bed until midnight last night, the ground was even most of the day today, it was hotter today, and I didn’t take any ibuprofen (which I am trying to get off of anyway). But those things could play a small part in how bad I feel today. So you never know. It could be a good day or a bad day. One little tiny thing could change your whole day. But the cool thing was that we hit another record day…54 miles! We are unstoppable!
We are going to be taking a day off tomorrow because the weather is supposed to be windy and rainy. We were planning on taking Monday off in Graham, TX with the friend we met in El Paso at the Starbucks but sometimes weather changes your plans. But still, we definitely needed another day off. The temperature every day has been in the 80’s and we’ve been walking over 50 miles every day. We’re pretty much dead. So we drove down to
Abilene to stay with Daren’s friends from college, Jesse and Krista. They are really awesome people. They took us out to dinner and then we just sat and watched soccer all night. They have the Fox Soccer Channel! Yes!!! I don’t care if they have a bed, I’m sleeping on the couch and falling asleep to soccer! Anyway, the day is over and so now I must say…Another day, another dog biscuit. Good night.
Album of the Day – “Aquemini” by Outkast
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