581. My work here is done.

Why did I volunteer to give Luke a lift from Ashland, Oregon to San Francisco?

Good question. (Thank you, Mike! I love questions.)

One, I love Ashland. It's a charming town just above the Oregon border. I've been several times, but not recently. Since I'll be moving soon, the idea of driving up my home state (perhaps for the last time?) appealed to me.

Next, I have vain and shallow fantasies. I'm hoping that Ze Frank will spotlight me on his show. I donned myself "Sports Racer Extraordinaire" for no other reason than it sounded cool. (You can call yourself one, too. I don't mind sharing the spotlight. It's large enough for everybody.)

Third, the idea of a network of people, whose common bond is the fabulous Ze Frank Show, coming together and helping one young man from Eugene, Oregon, realize his adventure, touched me. I wanted to be a part of it. It resonated with my deep belief that alone, as individuals, we can climb mountains (small ones, at least), but together we can build rockets that go to and land on the moon.

Last, but not least: I could, and it sounded like fun!

This trip didn't disappoint. Thank you, Luke and fellow Sports Racers!

Below: a successful "Running Fool" aka "Human Baton" aka Luke hand-off in San Francisco sometime around 11 pm at Mel's Diner on Van Ness in San Francisco!

Me--christened LavaDuckie (because I'm a hot duckie?)
by fellow Sports Racers-- handing off Luke to Zoe (aka Cherish Hellfire)

The above hand-off would not have happened were it not for Sports Racer Holly (aka NotWearingAWire) driving our hero down from Eugene, Oregon (where Luke's journey began) to Ashland.

LavaDuckie (that's me!) on the left, Luke, and Holly!

I'm proud to call myself a Sports Racer!
Left to right: Sports Racers Morae, Holly, and Luke.

A little secret I'm going to share with you...

First, promise not to tell! Ok?

Everybody is a Sports Racer!

If that doesn't give you the warm fuzzies, then I don't know what will.

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Calling all Madison blog friends! You know who you are:

Are you planning to drive from Chicago, IL to Madison, WI on New Year's Eve? Luke needs a volunteer to drive him that leg of his long journey, and I promised him that I would let my blog buddies know. I can vouch for Luke. He is an excellent companion to have on long trips. We especially had fun playing 20 questions, and when we had nothing to say, it wasn't uncomfortable. Leave a comment or email me if you are interested, and I'll put you in touch with Luke.

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Interesting fact about Ashland, as found at Wikipedia:

"Ashland is also remarkable for being very politically liberal. It gave the hypermajority of its vote to Democrat John F. Kerry in the 2004 Presidential election. This potentially makes it more Democratic than Portland, and more Democratic than any other city in Oregon and neighbouring Washington outside of Seattle, Washington, which cast 80.61% for Kerry compared to Ashland's 80.60%."

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Have a wonderful week!