Chapter 8: The Second Day.

That night was anything but peaceful. I awoke to tap, tap, tap in the middle of the night... rain! I said something to my tent mate half-asleepedly, and she hopped out of the tent and put the rain cover on. We had been avoiding putting it on because it was so stinking hot and muggy. The very tip of my sleeping bag and pillow got damp, but that was about it. After she laid back down, it rained for a while, and then the loud thunder and lightning started. I was kind of scared, in a way; we're out here in the middle of an open field in a thunderstorm; but so are thousands of others, I guess I thought, and I fought with sleep. At one point I woke up long enough to take an allergy night-time pill because my nose was all stuffed up, and that knocked me right the heck out.

In the morning, I woke up and headed down to breakfast. This time I didn't wear my slippers; I just braved it in my bare feet. While in line, I noticed that they had music playing--my favorite band--the police! I stopped, closed my eyes for a moment, and sang along. It was like a little "mental refuel" and made me feel really good. In line, I got a plate of scrambled eggs, a piece of bacon, some hash browns, and a bowl of rice crispies. I kind of picked my way through everything, and the only thing I really ate was the hash browns--with a little bit of ketchup, of course. :) After breakfast, I headed back to my tent to change my clothes and grab my toothbrush and stuff. My tent-mate had left to go to breakfast, apparently, so I changed in the tent, then headed down to the shower trailer in my bare feet to brush my teeth and put my hair up. I had put on deodorant the night before after showering, but it wasn't until a few hours later on the morning of the second day that I realized I didn't put on deodorant in the morning. ew. It didn't really seem to make a difference, though.

After cleaning up, my tent-mate was back at the tent packing things up, so we folded the tent up together and brought our stuff to the gear trucks. After that, we kind of went our separate ways, and that would be the last time I ever saw her. I don't even know what her name was.

Walkers are allowed to start walking at about 6:30am, and it was sometime shortly thereafter that I began walking for the day. I turned around and snapped this picture while I was leaving. We left camp at the opposite end of the field from where we entered it. The sun had begun to rise, and on Saturday it was unrelenting.

After walking for half an hour or so, I saw Las Colinas off in the distance. I wonder if we're going to walk by the horses, I thought to myself.

At the first pit stop, there was lots of people lining up at the medical tent, and it was already early. People's blisters were beginning to take a toll on them, from what I could see. I'm sure the heat had a huge part to play in this.

A mile down the road, I wasn't disappointed, we got to walk right by the horses! I don't remember what the significance of these mustangs in the water was, but it's a spectacular sight. I had someone take a picture for me...

...then I took a picture of other walkers taking pictures of other walkers.

Next we started walking towards this beautiful walking trail that led into a park. I had to stop and take a picture of this beautiful sign, though now I wish I had been a little bit closer. It's hard when you're walking; you don't want to stop and get in other people's way taking pictures, and you also don't want to stop if you have a good momentum built up.

The walk down that trail was beautiful. The path was wide, and the trees provided us with lots of shade.

Soon the shade ended, and so did the paved road. This was when our trouble began on the second day.

It was hot--very hot. Without shade, we were all having a hard time staying hydrated. I don't know many of the roads we walked down, but none of them had shades on the sides anymore. They also didn't have sidewalks. One road, that I had heard of before called "Harry Hines," had gravel on the side of the road, and it was on a slope. Gravel is very, very hard to walk on--never mind for people who have already been walking for a day and a half. I made it halfway to the last pit stop before lunch, and I could feel my heart beating really hard in my chest. Finally, when a sweep van came by, I flashed them a thumb-down, and they pulled over to pick me up.