Carrie & Jason's Crusade

Saturday, May 24, 2008 - Cup Crusaders teammate Sharyn Eaton organized a
great team fundraiser for Memorial Day weekend, and Carrie & Jason headed
up to Hampton, NH on Saturday to help out! We arrived at the New Hampshire
State Liquor Store on Interstate 95 shortly before noon, and spent the
afternoon canning for donations outside the northbound store. At 4 o'clock,
Carrie & Jason switched sides of the highway (holy cow, is that complicated -
it's like a 15-minute drive to go 200 yards from one rest area to another!) and
canned at the southbound liquor store until about 8:30.

Since it was Memorial Day weekend, the stores were very very busy and
we're proud to say we handled it well. People were very generous and lots of
people thanked us for walking. Because we were near the ocean, however, it
was VERY windy - making for an entertaining day while we tried to keep
money from flying out of the buckets and spreading all over the parking lot!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - It's not training related, or even 3-Day related, but we
thought you might be interested to know that Jason started back at college
today. After taking 12 years off from his education, he's decided to complete
his degree. He's taking the first step by finishing off his Associates at Mount
Wachusett Community College, with a goal of pursuing a Bachelors degree
starting in 2009. Isn't that cool? Homework, however, does interfere with
training time!

Thursday, May 29, 2008 - Our first split training walk! Most of our training
walks, Carrie & Jason have walked together. Yes, there have been a couple
of walks that Carrie took by herself, and a couple walks that Jason took by
himself, too. But today marked our first split training walk - that being, the
same route, the same mileage, but at different times of day!

Carrie started it out this morning while Jason was at work, picking out the
route to take. She walked a section of bicycle trail in Gardner. She picked a
great section - tree-lined so it was shaded, and near the lake so the wind
drove away any black flies. She set the pace, and the distance. This
afternoon, Jason took our niece Maggie (with her Girl Power bicycle) down to
the trail, and while Maggie rode her bike back and forth, Jason did his part for
training for the 3-Day, too.

So, our first split training walk, walking the same route the same distance
but at different times of day. Pretty cool. I have the feeling with our schedules
we'll certainly be doing more of this.

Friday, May 30, 2008 - Tonight was the Cup Crusaders' annual fundraising
party at the Knights of Columbus in Leominster. A great time was had by all!
Carrie & Jason manned the balloon raffle table - what a unique type of raffle
that was amazingly popular with the people at the fundraiser. Check out
some great pictures of the party!

Thursday, June 5, 2008 - This afternoon, Jason took niece Maggie out to the
bike trail in Winchendon. The Winchendon bike path is a 3.5-mile path that
starts in Winchendon and ends in Gardner. The plan was for Maggie to ride
her Girl Power bicycle, with Jason walking with her, end-to-end and then back
again to make a 7 mile round trip. Unfortunately, the mosquitos and black flies
were fierce and biting, and even the speed of bike riding wasn't enough to
keep the pesky critters from eating Maggie alive. The training walk was cut
short. No estimate on how long Jason actually walked (there are no distance
markers on the path) but it probably was about 3 miles. Not a very satisfying
training walk, but cutting it short was essential.