My weekend

This weekend was (is) the Michigan 3-Day for the Cure event. I have jokingly referred to this as my "middle-child" event. (Sorry middle kids) But in my experience, middle-kids tend to be more mellow than the oldest and youngest, so they might get a little ignored sometimes or forgotten about.

Although Michigan is my first event, it has been pushed to the back of my to-do list...it's easy, it's low-key (up until it needed serious attention two weeks out). But in the interim, I missed the loveliness that the Michigan event offers. The route was beautiful-- quaint downtowns, a mix of trails and neighborhood. Good stuff.

And then add the AMAZING community spirit--for real. It is was insane! Downtown Plymouth looked like it does during an art fair. But it was all for the walkers. No art, just walkers. Smiles and cheers everywhere. Incredible!

Friday began with the makings of a perfect event- low humidity, low temps, bue skies with some clouds. We were looking forward to a nice weekened with the "low-key" kid.

But Mother Nature had a different plan.

The command staff watched a radar like it was an overtime sporting event. All eyes glued on the streak of red, yellow and green. Slowly asessing the situation and the elements we could control and calculating risk-- do we keep people outside? do we move them into the school? how bad is this thing going to get? If it's just a bit of rain, they can hang out. It'll be fine.

The sun was shining and we started to tell participants about the weather- to redcue panic in the slight chance for .

As we were telling them about a slight chnce for a thunderstorm, the scary black cloud was creeping up behind the trees, bringing its menacing lightening and loud thunder claps. And a deluge of rain.

The team burst into action to get participants to safety and out of the elements. It was a sea of orange jackets. we called in the buses, opened the school and sent the team in to prep for an overnight stay. And then it was over.

The rain was gone, the lightening and thunder with it. In it's wake, was a soaking wet staff, soaked and annoyed walkers, and a soggy campsite. But with all that wet, came a sigh of relief.

And a little celebration with McDonald's.....

and good friends.