camp tx4k day 4

SHOPPING! that's what i got to do all day. we canceled the ride this morning because people have been tired and had a lot of stuff to get done before we leave. this morning was a much needed day to sleep in...so its a good thing i got a text message at 6:40a, which scared me so much i almost fell out of my bed. after that i was awake. fortunately, 6.5 hours of sleep still feels like a lot to me so it wasn't a problem. i went for a quick run and then commenced packing. actually, that's a lie, it was more like i experimented with packing. i had never used a stuff sack before and decided that since i'd recently bought one i should probably figure out how it worked. i stuff all my clothes in it, tightened the straps and tossed it into my duffel bag (we are limited to a 1'x1'x2' bag for the summer). i then proceeded to sit and stare at my duffel bag in awe for a good 5 minutes. stuff sacks are amazing...two-thirds of my bag was still empty. that felt pretty good.

a couple of us then went to costco to start the first of several shopping trips which needed to happen before we leave. we loaded up on everything from trash bags and laundry detergent to pasta sauce and black beans. the picture to the right shows some of the goods being unloaded from the mini van into the crates in which the food will be stored in the trailers. it was an impressive shopping trip. after unloading everything i went home to do some things before the evening meeting. i arrived at my house around 3p and was sitting down to lunch at 3:30p when i got a phone call saying i needed to be at walmart with a credit card stat. awesome. i threw away half my salad and headed to walmart. it took a good hour for me to get in an out of there, but this was mostly because i had to fill out all sorts of paperwork to enable us to get a tax exemption at the store. the evening meeting went well. some of the folks from the pr firm that is working with us were there to talk to us about dealing with the media. we have gotten a lot of press coverage here in austin lately, which has been great. a lot of people are hearing about the organization and hopefully at least some of them will join us for the ATLAS ride on saturday (the first official day of our ride). after the meeting it was off to fiesta for some more food shopping. its already 11p and i still have to pack my bag for the summer...everyone is required to drop off their stuff tomorrow morning at 10a. we're so close to leaving!