7/19/02, Friday
Day One - North Rockland, NY
see route map
Keith, Sydney and I woke up in the dark hours –
4am. I ate a quick breakfast and dressed my feet with Vaseline and
moleskin. We were out the door to pick up Phyllis at 4:30am. Whoops! We
were five blocks away when I realized I forgot my name badge which was my
credentials. Basically, it was my ticket to the whole event. So we drove
back to the house for this precious article. We got Phyllis at around
4:45am and headed to Eti’s. We arrived at Eti’s at around 5am and
piled our things into Amanda’s van. Phyllis managed to get one of these
neat-o duffle bags with wheels. So she could easily transport her bag. Eti
had a standard duffle bag with her pad and sleeping bag affixed to the
outside of the bag. I had a camping backpack that housed everything
inside. I made sure to tie a yellow bandana onto my black backpack to help
distinguish it from others. It so happened that most people’s bags were
black or dark blue. That yellow bandana surely came in handy.
As of yesterday, Amanda agreed to take us up to the
Day One’s starting point – North Rockland, NY. Amanda is Eti’s fellow nanny
buddy. A BIG THANKS to AMANDA!
I kissed Keith and Sydney goodbye and we were off.
We arrived at North Rockland High School at around
6am and loaded our gear into our designated truck. Wow! We were finally
here! Exciting!
We visited the loo for the last time. Phyllis took
her Bextra to avoid feeling pains in the hip area. Since there was a light
breakfast offering, we purchased last minute snacks.
We waited around for the Opening Ceremony and the
official start of the walk, which began at around 7am. A small group of
people gathered for the event. The crowd was mostly walkers with sprinkles
of family and friends. Later we found out that 535 walkers participated on
Day One. The estimated count for this event was about 3,000 walkers. In
June, we were notified of poor turn out and the count was 1,100 who
pre-registered for the event.
While waiting we met a fellow walker -- Julia -- her
site link is on our Inspiration page.
Before the ceremony a Palotta Staff Member led us in
some stretching exercises.
The ceremony was short and motivating. We learned
that we were making AIDS history as this 3-day AIDS walk was going to be
the first and last of its kind due to poor sponsorship
And we were off...
We walked behind the school gym and found our first
stop of many stops to come. Portable potties lined the walk (aka Mr. John)
and a tent that housed water and gatorade were set up to start off our
journey.
.
We arrived at Pit Stop One which had the theme of GREASE. It was fun to
go into Mr. John and find lyrics to some of the
Grease tunes. Walking into the stop we got lei'd and heard the sounds of
music from the Grease soundtrack. Each stop found us visiting Mr. John,
stretching our limbs and stocking up on water or gatorade and snacks.
Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate was the mantra of the day as it was quite hot.
At a certain point Phyllis experienced the makings of
a blister. When we stopped a kind fellow walker gave Phyllis a foot massage
and some soothing words. I discovered that I had a bout of heat rash on my
legs. Other walkers were struck with the same at varying degrees. It
didn't hurt or itch, but was a bit unsightly. I didn't care. As long as my
legs kept moving I felt fine.
At lunch break the crew members entertained us with
the infamous -- shark dance. What a treat!
The lunch tent was a welcome sight. I met Tracy whom
I was going to tent mate with earlier. Sweet person! We exchanged our
memory items. I got a cartouche of my name and she received one of my
dragonfly hairpins.
We took of our shoes during this longer resting
period. I definitely found the makings of blisters in four spots. Two on
each foot. Yuck! I dressed them up nicely before heading out for the
second half of the walk.
As we were a small crowd, we arrived at the Night
Camp site -- Rockland Lake State Park, Congers, NY -- to find our tents made-up. It was about 3pm. Kind souls had set
them up as we were on the trail. We retrieved our packs and started to
unpack some gear.
Before taking our showers we decided to take a rest
before moving around. Eti got the idea of pressing ice onto the bottoms of
our feet. ooooh, soothing.
A rumor was started of an oncoming thunderstorm.
Looking up at the sky and watching the heavy clouds approach we headed
back to the tent to put tarps over the tent.
And down came the rain...
And crash-bam-boom came the thunder and lightening!
Everyone had to jump into the Palotta rented Ryder
trucks or buses to get our of harm's way. We were in the back of a Ryder
truck looking out at the tents. We watched the wind blow some tents off
the ground. Some tents were totally flattened. It went on for a good 45
minutes. Some of us were hungry as we had not had any dinner yet. Some of
us were getting claustrophobic. Luckily, the three of us were situated at
the end of the truck next to the open hatch. We were able to see things to
get our minds off being stuck in a dark truck.
Towards the end of the storm it was getting chilly
and mylar blankets were being distributed. Someone mentioned that they
felt like a Baked Potato with it wrapped around them. This caused some
giggles all-around.
When the rain died down, we were given the OK to
leave the truck. Guess what we found in our tents. Puddles! Two to three
inches of water! Wet stuff! Wet sleeping bags! Some wet clothes! Something
to cry about if you're the crying type.
The instructions for the evening was that we were
going to evacuate camp and sleep at the high school from which we started
the walk from. We were to eat dinner, grab our gear and hop on a bus to
take us back to the school. This is exactly what I did. Other people
grabbed gear first and wanted to leave as soon as possible as they were
feeling pretty miserable.
I still wanted food and a shower before leaving as
who knew what was available at the school. Turns out this was a good
choice on my part. As once you got to school the only thing to do there
was to eat leftover snacks and then sleep.
Dinner was reeeeally good! Spaghetti! My favorite
next to hamburgers & fries.
After dinner, we had showers. I pulled out my rain
jacket. We found a rain poncho for Phyllis. Eti fashioned a rain poncho
with one of the clear plastic tarps. And we waited for the bus.
Phyllis, Eti & I took the second to the last bus
to the school. When we arrived we laid out some of our gear to dry in the
cafeteria and found a classroom to sleep in. I went to the designated
Medical area and obtained pillows and blankets. Lights were out at around
9:30pm.
The classroom was a good choice for us to sleep in. I
heard that the gym housed a heavy snorer which made for difficult
sleeping. Some people were so exhausted they camped in the hallways of the
school.
Of course the mantra throughout this ordeal was: Be
kind. Don't whine.
All in all it was a great day. The first leg of the
journey done.
Total miles: 16.02
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Day Zero entry read Day Two
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