Thanks Aunt Mimi and Uncle Dick drive to the rescue.

I started running at 5am yesterday. The pack was driving me nuts and instead of a relaxed run, I felt like I was in the marines. My pace was super slow like I was running in sand,  I had my first blisters in 2000 miles, my left arch was voicing its displeasure, and I was limping while I walked. The pack really was a whole new game, one I was unprepared for and I could see an injury forcing me to quit. Meanwhile, the shoulders were looking more and more lovely for running with a jogger. I managed 20-25 miles and then threw in the towel. I am not James Shapiro but hats off to him. I called a nearby car rental place which was 8 miles off my route and actually the only car rental place for miles and miles. Another call to a convenience store near that junction led me to a local guy named Jerry who happily shuttled me to the rental place for a small fee. I was soon zooming in my red Kia to Ohio, my first time driving in almost three months. By then, it was around 86 degrees with 50% humidity – It would have been stupid to continue running anyway and I was happy to crank the AC and watch the country side roll by at a very legal speed. Much thanks to Aunt Mimi and Uncle Dick who helped me save time by driving west with the jogger and 50lbs of gear in their car – all shipped last week from Chicago. We met up at a nameless intersection, hugged for the first time in 20 (?) years and had a quick meal together and loaded the gear into my car. I ‘ll see them, and my in transit laptop,  in ~6 more days when I arrive in Cleveland. By midnight, I had ~350 miles under my belt from driving and I was back at the convenience store with the jogger thanks to another shuttle from Jerry who refused payment (thanks!). By 1:30am everything was assembled, I thought I would run a few miles and find a corn field but instead I ran 31m to this town. It felt so good to run with the jogger and not to be burdened with essentially a weight vest. It also felt good to have all of my creature comforts including lots of water and food. I did sleep for an hour or two under a tree around mile 15. It was so quite running at night and watching the sun rise was a treat. I rolled into Kendalville around 11am after ~~55m of running, ~350m of driving, and being up for 31 hours. The Best Western was an obvious choice over the local flea bag when they gave me a great rate only $10 more. Getting bumped up to a nice room with a jetted tub was great but it was way too hard to get out of that thing. The disparity between napping under a tree at 3am in the industrial area of a small town (thankfully not Moville, IA) and being in a jetted tub ~9 hours later was pretty profound. Much thanks to the staff and also for the puppy love (wish I could get that pic to upload!)