“Home, Home On the Range”

Another very hot day forecasted sent our morning women’s team out early, around 5:00 a.m., to try and beat the heat for the most part. By 10:00 am it was already almost 90 F and half of our team was finished running. But in Amarillo, there were two television news crews waiting for us, so we had to stay the course. Another news camera came to interview some of our runners at the Holiday Inn in Canyon where most of us were to stay tonight.

From the women’s team, Maria writes,

“After a marvelous start at 5 a.m., fresh with the Harmony Torch lighting our way in the dark, passing shades of cows and horses, above a sleepy and misty ground, we headed down the road leaving the beautiful and green Bar H Dude Ranch behind us and the memories of the dusty cowboy boots hanging on the wall and the old piano in the Saloon. Ms Pearly /Anja from Germany/ played a masterful piece, while Sheriff Bacon /Linda from Hungary/ and the gambler Sausage /Maria from Bulgaria/ danced jumpingly together for a while. That’s it-old cowboy blood.

“To complete this childhood dream, we even rode a horse. My horse was quite lazy, grazing grass most of the time and disobeying my commands for speed. Suddenly at the end, he decided to gallop, which almost threw me out of the saddle.

“I have never seen a ranch before, spread across a land of 2000 acres; it was a place for many rare bird species, buffalos, rattlesnakes, coyotes and turkeys. A real home of harmony.

At noon we met a reporter from Channel 10 in Amarillo, Texas. She was so friendly that we did not feel we were in front of a camera. Setting for each girl of the team a different background, she asked me to sit on the grass under a tree, exactly as I imagined a moment ago. Her questions were very much in the spirit of the run and at the same time in real oneness with our own personalities. So much that each one of us revealed his own dream, vision and experiences of the run in a unique way. She touched every aspect of our global relay for harmony—from the mileage, fuel, schedule to our offering of good will and friendship along the road.

Standing on the busy sidewalk of Highway 27 west with honking cars passing and filming cameraman in front, Amanda (the reporter) was surrounded by the women’s team , “It does not matter what you do for harmony, every one can do something—honk, wave or run…—here she dropped her microphone on the grass, grabbed the torch from my hand and headed down the road with us, smiling.”

My team, which consisted of Morris, Goran and me, had to drive the motor home, which is our kitchen on wheels, about 70 miles to the hotel. Before doing this, we actually had some free time, which is usually quite scarce lately due to a slight shortage of runners. We wisely used this time to ride horseback at the Bar H Dude Ranch where we stayed the night before.

It was Morris’ first time on a horse and he was a bit scared, but with our friendly guides and cowboys helping us, we managed to stay the course without any casualties. Goran looked the part more than any of us with his jeans and cowboy hat, borrowed from a local cowboy. It was like a classic scene out of ‘City Slickers’, to the delight of all the local ranchers. We are very grateful to Drew and Evan, Carolina, Wenda and Kiran, as well as owners Frank and Terry for making this morning a very memorable and harmonious one. Spending time with horses to me is an experience in harmony with the wonderful and powerful animal kingdom.

Damon’s experience at the ranch the day before was similar. He writes, “The last time I rode a horse I was about six years old and quite terrified. Riding across the Bar H Dude Ranch today was much more rewarding. A small group of buffalo was a definite highlight as was a sighting of a rattlesnake. ‘Don’t mess with Texas’: this felt like the real Wild West and the vastness of the Great Plains quite apparent as we rode on only a small section of this 2,000 acre ranch. We sadly had to bid our steeds farewell to get some rest before an early start the next day to beat the heat.”

Moving on to the road and our duties as harmony runners versus harmony cowboys or cowgirls, we had to face another unseasonably hot day. The locals said that 18 days ago they had 6 inches of snow here, but now it felt like the middle of the summer already. Being very careful not to run too fast or overheat, we slowly made our way to our goal, Hereford, which gave us 105 miles for the day, with only 10 runners.

On the way to Hereford from Canyon, my three man team encountered unexpected visitors who really uplifted our spirits in the scorching heat of the day. One family we will call the ‘M’ family because everyone’s name began with ‘M’ including their last name, stopped a number of times to take photos with us and to talk to us. I took a photo of Morris with them, fitting in that he is also part of the ‘M’ nomenclature.

We also had a visit from the NBC-TV cameraman who interviewed our runners at the hotel and was now coming out to video us pounding out the miles on highway 60 towards Hereford. In Hereford, at the end of our long and hot run, our spirits were again renewed by a reporter from the Hereford Brand, a local newspaper. Don Cooper, who recently wrote an article for the newspaper last week about us coming, was out there on this hot Sunday afternoon taking photos and offering his goodwill. He even made a special trip back to his office to get us a copy of the newspaper with the article he wrote about the World Harmony Run. His presence and enthusiasm for what we are doing and his understanding of the nature of harmony and how it works on the personal level really made the heat of the day dissipate into the vastness of the Texan heart and soul.

Tomorrow we leave Texas for New Mexico. We are so grateful to the wonderful Texans who have been so kind to us and demonstrated that everything in this huge state of Texas is truly big, including their hearts.

We are grateful to Daniel Sharp and Lora Hunter of the Holiday Inn of Canyon for accepted us so readily and offering us three rooms to cool off and rest up for the next hot day in the southwest. Elizabeth of NBC and Amanda from Channel 10 News and others who came out to cover our run through this area also deserve our hearts of gratitude.

We are extremely grateful to our good friend and teammate Jeromy, who unfortunately has to leave us now to go back to work. He has worked and run so hard to make our harmony journey through Oklahoma and Texas a fruitful and memorable one. For the last few days we really did feel at home on the ‘range’.

Arpan and Team Harmony in Texas

Tomorrow’s Sun

As the torch connects different people the same way our route embraces the various landscapes as well. In the last five weeks we have experienced the natural diversity of this vast beautiful country. We had blooming spring with a soft breeze in New England, the blossoming nature in the south east and pouring rain sometimes, the early summer air and occasionally some mosquitoes along the Mississippi and the cleaving heavy wind.

Now we are in Texas, which is 40 times bigger than my home country, Hungary. I believe that it has a lot of diverse faces. But for me the most characteristic feature of this land is the vast prairie and the scorching sun. Running across the panhandle in the heat has been our latest challenge just like running against the headwind in Oklahoma a few days ago (which was similar to swimming upstream sometimes). Doing our miles in the sun also gives us the joy of victory after each day that we survived.

It is a unique experience running on a desolate road, concentrating on our car which is waiting two miles ahead. The mirage makes you feel it is so close, but still it seems to take an eternity to reach it.

I feel our latest experience is an indispensable part of the whole picture. We have gotten a taste of all the four elements: running on the most various parts of the earth, getting soaking wet in the pouring rain, marching and fighting against the cleaving wind and burning in the scorching sun.

But after all, our survival of these extreme conditions gives us real satisfaction and strength to carry on with the torch of harmony and the flame of aspiration in our hearts.

Linda (Hungary)

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