the big day started early with bagel and egg sandwhiches and coffee with jamin. he filmed it all.

we went to morris and showered while listening to vroom. he didnt film that.

we ran to walmart for the cake. the iwu girl was there and she was excited to give us the cake. she was wearing the big red button i gave her...loud and proud. there was an older man who was working the bakery and he was very excited for us. he asked if big red was still running well. i told him he was. "that's really great! that's somethin else!"

we drove through marion for a little footage and took the loooong way home to rack up some miles. we stopped in matthews for gas and filled him up with oil (which was long long long overdue.) we stopped at the apartment to pick up the donations jar, the big red chewing gum, and the camera.

and then, around 12:00, it started.

the adrenaline was pumping during the first couple of laps. we were honking the horn and yelling and waving and getting everybody excited. amy barnett showed up, i talked to steve mortland (director of admissions) on the phone, called the fam, picked up noah and ben and joey and lots of other people. the jazz band was leaving during the first couple of laps. i was excited to see nathan ricke cheering me on. when their van pulled out and passed me, everyone was cheering.

the whole process started off at a good time, because everyone was walking to and from the DC for lunch. they all cheered as we passed them.

it didnt take long for campus safety to catch on. they love to rain on people's parades. first he sat in the reade parking lot, watching me carefully and making sure i made complete stops. i was nervous. then he suddenly moved to the nussbaum parking lot in hopes to catch me speeding. but i remained above reproach. eventually i had people calling my cell phone cluing me in on his whereabouts. he was pretty sneaky, but he never caught us.

the rides continued and i let people off and on at samuel morris hall. it was frigid but the fans were troopers and braved the cold. guest appearances were made by jared cheek and crazy and hannah heth and rod and lola yoder. the yoders were good to me, they put $5.75 in the donation jar, and that was all i received during the day.

eventually we started throwing the big red gum at people, and they were loving it.

there was a little bit of a lull in the excitement around lap 16, 17, and 18, but it picked back up eventually.

chalupa caught the action just in time. he arrived for the final 7 laps and rode along for every single one.

the final laps were very very exciting. jamin got a screen shot of each mile in the 990's. near the last lap i stopped at morris and said something that yoder didnt like, and he kicked my car. it dented the fender and now the door wont open all the way, like what happened after i hit the deer. you can kinda see it in the pictures i posted.

we realized i was going to cross 200,000 around olson, which we wanted to prevent at all costs. i set the little odometer to be in sync with the big odometer so that i was able to count down the tenths of miles. we made the final lap (number 35) and took long-cuts in the chapel and odle parking lots. when we got to the reade parking lot, i circled around just enough times and pulled out in order to cross 200,000 right in front of morris.

it was so very exciting!

heather and mark called during the last lap, so i left the phone on so they could hear the ruckus. when i got out, i gave hugs, then put mark on speaker phone so that he could give a speech to everyone. then i gave a speech too. i quoted sand-trap george: "take care of your equipment, and your equipment will take care of you."

then we ate cake and i got really tired and it was all a memory of the past.

wish you were here!