A Trip to Remember
Deciding to go on a twenty-six hour van ride should really involve a lot of thought and some amount of deep deliberation, but all it took was a conversation between the three of us that mostly involved making sure our calendars were clear. After a countless texts, dropouts, van arrangements and Airbnb debates, it looked like it was going to happen. Fifteen human beings making up a cross section of the tribe met for the Friday bounce and got hyped to sit in a van for the next thirteen hours.
Highlights and observations
The first leg of the ride had a clear MVP, Ann drove the entire way from Baltimore to Madison all by her lonesome. We discovered how much of a lead foot she had, but the highway patrol disagreed with her and gave a lovely card/ticket to hold on to. Valencia let us know we had a cop behind us when she yelled “Better report in, the motherfucker is behind us.” Thanks Valencia
Riding across an entire state never felt so long as when we drove across the state of Ohio. It seemed to stretch into eternity and we were seriously tempted to run across all those corn fields. More on that later.
Jess Lewis can monologue with the best of them and she brought some gems with her. I’ll let your imagination figure out the context of these comments.
“What about your face in the mirror, that scare you too?” Jess to Emily
“Mark is a man of few emotions, hunger and sleepy” general family observation
“I need just a little piece of chocolate, sorry Kay, you’re not doing it for me.”
I could write an entire blog about the musings of Jess Lewis, but I’d suggest it’s more fun to jump in a van with her or just do a set of stairs.
Riding in a van is not the ideal way to get to know your co-leaders and it probably should become NP policy from now on. How else can you catch a cold from Nick and get this gem about his first time outside the country
“It was my first time of getting consistently shitfaced for a week straight.”
I’m just going to park that there and let you imagine a young Nick staggering back to his hostel .
Julie really doesn’t like the great state of Ohio. It doesn’t help when we had to drive across the entire state, but Julie instantly fell in love with Pennsylvania to an almost obscene level. We really had to drag her across the Maryland state line kicking and screaming.
The real MVP goes to everyone who made the van trip, since there wasn’t a single fart the entire twenty-three hours. I know you guys ate a lot and that is physically impossible, so all of you guys were holding a lot of stuff in, I know I was. Just saying.
Race Day
I can’t imagine an Endurance challenge looks like without the multiple tribes of November Project getting together and supporting each other. Coming into the parking lot and spotting those different tags always brings a warm buzz to my heart. It gets even better when you begin to recognize people who you met at Summit and their eyes light up when they see you. It quickly becomes a hugfest that spreads across the field of people. All those smiles get even wider as you recognize people who have traverbaled to your tribe or that you have traveled to. The connections are real and they get even more solidified with the endurance challenges.
Of course an endurance challenge is not complete without a selfie and hug from the original OGs, Brogan and Bojan. It gets even better when they tell us they really want to get our awesome van tag, I’d say it’s obvious we won the tag game.
Nothing makes me prouder than seeing tribe mates doing well, especially when your co leader leads all the gathered tribes in a very Bawltimore bounce and hypes up the entire race. Nick was as crisp as ever and that final oooooooooh yeaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh really came from the soul. Great job Nick Rod!
Despite the unexpected humidity, race day was fun. I was really proud of how hard the tribe teams went. Several people went to the course competing in two legs. Marie is on a quest to run a half marathon in all fifty states, so she ran two legs and Julie matched her with her two legs, despite a leg injury. Jana, who was set for a single leg, stepped up to the plate to take on a second leg after the heat got the better of her teammate. I won the the 20 yard dash, beating Bojan in the battle of the early starters…let’s not worry about how that leg was finished. Bryson stepped up to the plate and crushed a final leg with Nick to end our team’s day on a tough day.
Even better was the way everyone showed up for each other. I never get tired of seeing my tribe mates run with their friends through the finish line.
Wisconsin and the travel was not only a journey to a different part of the country or to a state most of us had never visited before. It was a chance to see a different tribe and make new friends. A discovery of new snacks, who knew cheese curds were such a big thing; new beers, apparently spotted cow rules in Wisconsin. But then it was also a journey into our tribe. When we put out the call for a van of 15 people we didn’t know who would want to come on this crazy adventure with us. What we ended up with a cross-section of the tribe, a selection of different people that don’t usually hang around together. We found out more about each other in the many laughs, quiet conversations, while jumping into lakes and pools or even in the silences as we journeyed together. I can’t imagine having a better time than spending all that time together.
I’m really happy you guys came!
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