Chapter 1: Arriving.

I woke up to a silent house at about 4am on Friday. The kids had been visiting Grammy and Papaw for two weeks. Scott would be picking him up this weekend, and hopefully I would get to see them at the end of the walk. I couldn't wait to give them hugs again.

After checking what I had packed in my big old military bag, I got dressed and started getting my feet ready. I used my stick of Body Glide to completely lube up my feet--the top, the bottom, the sides, my toes, everywhere--until they were very slippy. This would hopefully prevent me from getting any blisters. I pulled on my special walking socks (ten bucks a pair!) and then my new sneakers, and I was ready to head out.

Scott drove me to Arlington in the van. He had it packed from ceiling to floor with stuff; while he was down at his parents' house for the weekend, he was going to sell a bunch of stuff in their yard sale. After he dropped me off, he was going to work, then leaving from work to Kerrville.

The drive to Arlington was dark, and traffic was light. We made our way to the home of the Texas Rangers, then drove around looking for the 3-Day festivities.

Finally we rounded a corner of the stadium and saw the gear trucks. I was to be in tent H-1 (like the hummer! I joked), so we found the H truck. As we drove up to it, we passed by a couple of volunteer ladies, wearing their 3-Day t-shirts and shaking pom-poms and cheering. "Oh, I'm starting to get so excited!" I told Scott.

He pulled up behind the gear truck and got out of the van. There were hundreds of people there, pulling their gear like little ants and tossing the bags up into the trucks. The trucks were basically Ryder yellow moving vans that the 3-Day had rented for the event weekend. I handed my bag up to the loading ramp of the truck, and the guy up there checked my tag and said thank you. "Need a water bottle?" he asked. I looked down into the box next to him, and there were orange-capped water bottles in there--promotional items from Motrin, with the 3-Day logo on them. Sure, I smiled, and took one. That right there was one of the smartest things I did all weekend; you'll understand that better later.

The crowd was flowing across the dark street with the help of orange t-shirted, 3-Day safety staff, and I followed along with everyone to where the opening ceremonies stage was set up. I already had my event credential, a badge that I would wear around my neck during the whole event, since I had signed in online a few weeks ago and had them mail it to me. That was one less line I had to stand in that morning. It had a little barcode on it, and as I approached the stage a lady scanned it BOOP with a little price-gun looking thing with buttons and an antenna. It was 5:30am, and at least 1/2 hour before the opening ceremonies would begin.