After a magnificent sunset over Sumner Lake last night, we woke up to the beautiful sunrise a few hours later. Then to go for an early morning swim in the cool, clear water was a new experience for me on this particular relay run. We have not been camping out too much and usually we are not near water at night since leaving the Florida Gulf Coast a few weeks ago. An occasional hotel swimming pool is just about the extent of the swimming I usually like to do for recovery and cross-training; a wonderfully therapeutic exercise. Swimming in a big lake in the middle of ‘nowhere’ is so refreshing, invigorating and healthy. It also relaxes some of the tension built up from days and weeks ‘on the road’.

As usual, we can never get too much of a good thing as we are always on the move and need to leave things behind, no matter how nice and relaxing they may be. But there are always new adventures and surprises ahead. Today was no exception. Before leaving the town of Fort Sumner, Morris and I stopped at the local Super 8 Motel who let us use their wireless modem service to send our website material for yesterday’s updated report. We are very grateful to them for that wonderful offering. It was there we met Roy, a pilot for N.A.S.A who was staying at that hotel. It turns out that he was going out for a short run earlier in the morning and was spotted by some of our women’s team who were running through the town with the Torch at that time. They asked him if he wanted to run with the torch and he gladly accepted. Then hours later he ran into us in the hotel lobby which thrilled him even further. We wish Roy the best in his work with Weather balloons which are sent very close to the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere for experiments. We meet such interesting people on this adventure, many times by accident.

It was generally a quiet day of running as we kept climbing gradually up the plateau that was still very arid and desert-like. It was just miles and miles and miles of pastures which eventually turned into sparse desert plants like sage and cactus. The highway was narrow but only had an occasional car or truck passing by. We could hear or see a car approaching for at least a mile, giving us time to cross over to the other side of the road. Otherwise it was incredibly peaceful and quiet while running on highway 60 towards Santa Fe. The sounds of grasshoppers, snakes, the wind and the torch flame were like lullabies to keep us relaxed and refreshed as we struggled with the increasing elevations and the hot sun.

On our somewhat desolate 20 mile run later today, Morris and I did not come across any people until we entered into the small town of Vaughn. There we met a local man, Ruben, who was walking down the street and stopped to talk to Morris. Holding the torch with Morris, he told us that he is from this area and he is Cherokee Indian. He was taking care of his father, I believe, and was very happy to have stopped to talk to us about our adventure. Again, we meet at least a few very nice and interesting people everywhere we go, even if it is in the vastness and desolation of the desert.

We finally made our way to this evening’s campground, Zia R.V. Park. Bob and Trixie Satterly have been allowing us to stay there every year we pass through since 1995. Although we have not seen them in four years, they were still so kind and willing to give us a nice campsite. We are very grateful to them both for such friendship, harmony and oneness.

At the campsite we were greeted by Leota Harriman, a reporter from a local newspaper called The Independent. She stayed for hours meeting everyone as they pulled into the campsite and doing interviews for her newspaper. She even had some dinner with us and stayed until dark, displaying her sense of harmony and oneness, even with complete strangers. We are grateful to Leota for her sincere interest in what we are trying to do as we simply carry a flaming torch from town to town.

Tomorrow is a big day as we run through the lovely city of Santa Fe and then up towards the Rocky Mountains in southern Colorado.

Arpan and Team Harmony

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