Happy Independence Day!

And a BIG THANK YOU to all the men and women who are currently serving and have served in our nations military, so that we can enjoy our freedoms. Hint hint, DCM, DA, CA, KS, MA, just to name a few.

As I mentioned yesterday, CKM and I have volunteered for the Peachtree Roadrace for the last 3 years, this being our 4th, next year, we get a hat and a special 5 year pin! The alarm went off at 3:45am…what? DCM had just gotten home about an hour earlier! (I did snooze for about 10 minutes, it was glorious! Ever notice that the few minutes of snoozing are sometimes more enjoyable than the entire night of sleep!)

Up, dressed and out the door by 4:08, go me! Off to Phipps Plaza to park and check in. We checked in by 5am, got our volunteer T-shirts, (we like them best this year) our pin, clearance badges and Waffle House discount card.

Pack everything we can in our plastic bags inside our bags inside our rain jackets…did I mention it’s been raining in Atlanta all week and there were flash flood warnings until tomorrow? Then we walk to Dante’s Down the Hatch to do our jobs. This consisted of telling the elite runners go this way and everyone else, no entry. Not very exiting or incredibly organized, but since when do CKM and I need something to do when there’s an opportunity to talk!

Next year…new assignment!

After the wheelchair racers went, wicked cooks by the way! Then the elite women, then the elite men, then…the elite volunteers, well, us! We went out after the A group, after finding out that you don’t have to cross the start line to get your time clocked at the end, so off we went! We’d already walked the .2 miles (as that tshirt says…it’s that darn .1/.2 that gets you ever time!) so we were in good company!

All I wanted was to finish before my official corral, P came by! We were hoofing it, getting our groove on! We went by the Moe’s and got tshirts there! (We walked a 10 Queso!) all of a sudden we’re at mile marker 2, then 3, were we faster than last year? I do know that the rain helped, not as hot as past years, but all in all, it felt almost anticlimactic when we got to the finish because we were finishing so early and it felt like no time had passed. We finished the run before our normal start time, how cool!

We held hands and ran across the finish line, got our coveted Tshirts, then went in search of snacks: bagels, bananas, cookies, all the good stuff.

When we left Piedmont Park, we must have walked another 2-3 miles to the MARTA station and instead of taking the train, hopped on a shuttle headed for the train, then…jumped in a cab back to or cars. Two reasons we took a cab… First, it was less hassle than the train and second, CKM had never ridden in a taxi, cross that one off your bucket list!

Got the cars, headed home and took a long hot shower, what a mechia!

Two of DCM’s daughters came over and brought new baby M, to meet his grandpa for the first time. What a doll baby! What a great to see them together, it was love at first site! After what seemed to be a very long time, DCM relinquished the baby to JJ! So soft and sweet!

KAT, DCM, DCM, Baby A and I all hung out and played, chatted and got caught up. I left to go meet CKM AND A for dinner and let DCM have some alone time with his kids.

We met at a Turkish restaurant, shared seem great food, great stories, lots of laughs and then went to see The Heat and we all know how much I liked that!

Now I am home writing to you, dear readers, ready to catch up on some much needs sleep!