Day One of the 3-Day - Friday, November 5, 2010

I'll pick up where I left off last time.  We left the hotel and arrived at Collin Creek Mall for the Opening Ceremony at around 5:45am, it was really cold but we did not know the cold that was coming!

The first thing we did was load our bags on the "F" truck...no I'm not cussing!  Our tent address was F-21 so we had to load our gear on the truck labeled for rows F and G.  I'm really glad I didn't have to lug my bag very far.  There was a crew member right there and took my bag to load on the truck before I had gotten close enough to the truck to even think about hoisting it up there!!

Loading our gear in the right truck!

We had lots of time to kill so we started walking around and looking at everything.  We was the 3-day store but I didn't buy anything, I didn't want to have to carry it with me all day.  We also wrote our goals for the weekend and put them up for all to see.  I had forgotten to look for the white ribbons to write mom's name on so her name was left out of the opening ceremony but I knew she was supposed to be there and that's all that matters.

My Goal for the weekend!

The Front Yard Flamingos Team!

Me and Doris waiting around for the Opening Ceremony to begin...

The Opening Ceremony was emotional to say the least.  We honored the ones who lost there battle with cancer first with the white ribbon being raised on a flag pole.  It was an very sobering sight.  Next our flags for the weekend were carried out and then the survivors came out carrying flags as well.  They put their flags in a circle and then held hands in a circle.  My words can never do this justice, just know that it was an awe inspiring start to our weekend.

And the Ceremony has begun!

Honoring the ones who have lost their lives to breast cancer!

The circle of Survivors

Then we were off, scanned and hitting the route with great enthusiasm.  It was amazing to look ahead of me and see the hundreds of people walking ahead of me and then turn and look back at the hundreds more I could see coming up behind me.  It was a sea of pink craziness and was contagious!

On the route...

Doris and I fell behind Kitty, Susan and Andrea right away but we knew that was going to happen and it was ok.  We actually met up with another girl named Amanda and walked with her for most of the day.  She is a school teacher in Ft. Worth and it was really cool to hear her story and get to know her along the way.

Amanda, Me and Doris at Pit 1

My feet started bothering me around lunch time and I knew it was going to be a long weekend!  I got separated from Doris and Amanda after lunch sometime and I was walking by myself for quit a while.  The first cheering station was coming up and I didn't know if anyone would be there for me.  The first thing I heard before I ever saw anyone was "here comes Grammie Tammie" and then I saw Vivian, Candice, Bradley, Gracie, Sophia and Deon.  (Wow, I just broke down in tears writing this) The cheering stations were really what kept me going at times.  Deon took lots of pictures and then I was back on the route!

Lunch!

Gracie waiting for Grammie Tammie

Bradley waiting for Grammie Tammie

I made it to the cheering station!

Me and Viv

Back on the route again!

Deon and everyone had been at the very beginning of the cheering station and before I got to the end of the cheering station I heard my name being called.  I turned around and there was Doris.  I was so shocked that she was behind me.  She had stopped at pit 4 so medical could take care of her little toe, she was trying to get a blister on it.  By this time my feet were just about gone so when we got to pit 5 Doris and I both decided to take the SAG bus back to camp.  We still had 3 miles left to go and we both knew we just couldn't make it.

The SAG bus taking us back to camp.

While we were sitting on the SAG bus waiting for it to fill up I texted Vivian to thank her for being at the cheering station and discovered that they were at the next cheering station too!  I felt so bad that I had gotten on the bus and would miss them.  She told me not to worry about it because they were having a great time cheering everyone on and Deon was pulling self imposed safety duty!  That's my guy!  Doris and I waved at them as we drove by.

Back in camp we had help setting up our tent.  Well actually I left Doris with the tent and went to the porta potty and when I got back our tent was up.  Some of the college guys were out helping with the tents.  Then we went to eat like good little walkers and then went to take our showers.  I have to say that taking a shower in the back of a semi trailer was an experience but it was the most wonderful shower I had ever taken!  We walked around for a bit and then we went back to our tent.  Doris headed up to the main tent for the evenings festivities while I stayed in the tent to read my cards and write in my journal.  I think I actually crawled into my sleeping bag at 8:30pm and went to sleep!  I was so tired I didn't even take any pictures of camp!  So you will just have to wait until next time...

Day One ended with me going to bed very early, getting up 2 times in the very, very cold night to go to the bathroom!  I am pretty sure it got colder than the forcasted 39 degrees!