Chapter 4: Pit Stops and Scenery.

Every two or three miles, there is a pit stop on the walk. We were encouraged to observe the three R's at each one-- "Refuel, Rehydrate, and Relieve." To many pit stop volunteers, this translated into them shouting, "Drink and pee, avoid the IV!" Pit stops are one of the fun things about the walk. You never know what new world you are going to walk into. Some pit stops were dressed up to look like a Texas farm, complete with hay bales and cow hats; some, like this one, were set up to look like beach getaways.

After porta-pottying, we stepped up to the table with a box of handi-wipes to germ-free ourselves. Oh hey, look! Just to the right of the table, in the blue baseball cap, that's the lady I was standing next to in the opening ceremonies.

A little later on, we passed over a highway bridge...

...and whoa, was it high up!

Along the route, black circle arrow signs pointed us in which direction to go. We had to pay attention, because if there was too much of a "break in the line" (remember Bug's Life? That was us...) we didn't know which way to go; and if you got into the "walker's trance," it would be very easy to miss a turn and go in the wrong direction.

Also, orange signs told both us walkers and the traffic around us what was going on. These pink signs had cute sayings on them, and put smiles on our faces. They were posted by one of the teams, apparently, because they each said "California" something or rather at the top of them.

There was lots of beautiful scenery along the way.

Though I didn't want to stop for long when I was on a roll walking (which is why you will see fewer and fewer pictures as the days go on), I did pause to take a few pictures of the scenery.

At one point while we were walking, we approached a orange t-shirted safety guy, standing by some train tracks. The bells started dinging, and the gate started coming down. "I'm sorry, ladies," he said to a group of us, but you're going to have to wait for a moment." I was expecting it to be a long freight train, and I pulled out my camera.

What I got instead was actually a really good picture of the TRE train. It brings people from Fort Worth to Dallas, mostly business commuters.

At points where you have to stop, like for this train, or for a red light, it can be one of two ways. Either you're like "aww, darn it" because you were on a roll walking and didn't want to stop, or you're like "thank goodness" because you were sore and tired and had to stretch. At one red light, I remember even sitting down for ten seconds. Sometimes ten seconds with your butt on the ground can do you a world of good.