Been hit with a few shells, now I walk with a limp... -Fitty Cent

I was almost slugged by David last night when I began singing this with a chuckle....I will explain. You see, my mom e-mailed yesterday telling me that she and my dad set out at NINE PM to walk to our house on Tuesday night. They made it almost halfway and then decided to turn and head home. The thing is, there is not a "great" route. One of the major streets you have to walk on is PITCH black, and for a good portion of the way, there is little to no shoulder on the aforementioned pitch black street. Has the makings of a successful walk, huh?

So my bright idea was that David and I would just leave a little bit earlier and accomplish this feat. It is approximately 5 miles from doorstep to doorstep. We hurried through dinner (which was good by the way! Go me!) and started our walk at 7:50pm. *Let me interject...Dave had a small blister on his heel from our 45 minute walk the day before, and we had no band-aids, so he started the walk knowing it was a potential problem. So we start the walk and we are talking and enjoying the BEAUTIFUL night. The weather was just perfect. We get about 20 minutes into the walk and we pass a street called Fern Bluff, at which point David says, "FERN BLUFF! Geez! On the map that looks like it's right around the corner! We have a LONG way to go!" Sign #1 we were in for it...

We continued walking, and walking, and walking, and we turned onto Hairy Man... which is the portion of the program with NO STREET LIGHTS. Good thing we had the foresight to bring the mini-MAGlight! Dave turns on our light and about 5 minutes down that street our little light starts to go dim. Goodie! So we turn it off and use the occasional passing car as our guide light. Low and behold, I hear a MAJOR rustling to the right of me in the woods....don't worry, I handled it very well, I screamed very low and only jumped about 2 feet in the air as opposed to 5. Well, when I did, Dave kind of jumped too. It was pretty funny. It was Bambi on steroids staring strait at us! I'm sure it was wondering what in the heck we were doing out there in the pitch black at 8:45.....so were we at this point!

On we go....another 10 minutes pass and we come to a sign that says, "Trail ends 100 feet". Fan-freaking-tastic. So now, not only are we past the point of no-return, walking in pitch black with a dead MAGlight, but now our trail ends. This is where we begin walking on the road (with no shoulder) and getting very weird looks (I'm sure) from passing cars. Dave is now limping because his blisters (yes, it's blisterS because now there is one on each foot...) are the size of Texas and completely rubbed raw and we have to sprint across a BRIDGE because, again, no shoulder. Not the smartest thing we have ever done. Dave begins to wonder why I had this bright idea before driving our route.....I don't know.

We FINALLY make it off the scary road and are in a housing addition....I was never so happy to see street lights and sidewalks in my life! At this point though, there is a major wrinkle in the plan because Dave is walking with a full limp....it wasn't funny, but it really kind of was. I love you friend!

So, he is being a really good sport because, after all, it was my bright idea. I'm trying to get his mind off the pain and make him laugh and I start singing a little Fitty Cent.... "I'm a player a pimp, I've been hit with a few shells and now I walk wit' a limp..." I start laughing and he didn't think I was as funny as I did! Oh well....

We make it to my parents and honestly, it only took us one hour and 18 minutes! Pretty good since we were nursing a cripple the last 2 miles! Mom gave us water and me a new pair of shoes before taking us home. See, the trip WAS worth it! No mountain is too high when it comes to a new pair of shoes!

We decided we actually felt really good and weren't really tired outside of the blister issue. We might even try it again! But next time, in complete daylight! Thanks Dave, you were a great sport!! XOXO

PS...i tried to Mapquest our route, but couldn't get it to work. I'll leave it to your imagination. :)