Day 40 Pratt, Kansas

There will be a couple of days that I will never forget form this trip, those that stick out above and beyond the rest of the days.  Today will be one of those days.  The ride was hot just like it has been the past week or two with this nation wide heat wave.  It was a relatively short day compared to the past couple of days with it being seventy-five miles.  Once we got to the high school gymnasium that we were staying at for the night, we had to hurry and shower and change to get to our friendship visit lunch we had.  When we get to the city park to where we were directed, we walked up to the shelter to yet another big welcome.  We went through a food line to get sandwiches and chips and watermelon.  I cannot explain how much I love watermelon (funny story coming up in a bit).  I started eating and visiting with a man who absolutely loves the Harry Potter movies, so we had a lot to talk about while we ate. 

After we ate, the woman in charge of the organization explained the day’s activities.  Just wait until I explain what all we did.  The first was a game called Water Balloon baseball.  It is exactly what you think it is judging by the name.  One person was the pitcher and would throw a water balloon to the hitter who was holding a metal bat.  If the hitter made the balloon explode with water, he would run to first base where a person was waiting for them with a bucket full of water balloons.  The person at first had two opportunities to throw a water balloon at the runner, and if the runner caught it, they were allowed to throw it back at the guy.  If the water balloon exploded, the runner was out, and if they missed or the runner reached first base before getting hit, they were safe.  It was a blast and everyone got soaked.  After pretty much every got a turn hitting, it pretty much turned into a straight up water balloon fight with the remaining water balloons. 

So here is the funny story I warned you about earlier.  So the next event they had planned for us was a watermelon-eating contest. Of course I entered myself to represent the great state of Indiana.  The contest was who could eat the most watermelon slices in a three minute time span. We had to eat them all the way down to the white part of it. I ate as fast as I could, but because the watermelons had the black seeds in them, biting into those seeds were unexpected obstacles every time and slowed me up. I had to fight through it! In the end, a guy from Virginia Tech had eaten 3 ½ watermelon slices to my 3. I gladly accepted my second place finish.  We were extremely sticky but it was so worth it.  After a quick session of karaoke that included “I Believe I Can Fly” and many Queen songs, we headed back to the high school to rest up before another sponsored dinner.

 This trip has incorporated many things that I have never experienced in my life.  Tonight was yet another one of those experiences.  Tonight I was able to shoot archery at a local field with an organization that focuses solely on archery and teaching how to shoot a bow and arrow.  The first one I picked up was a compound bow, where once you pulled it back a certain distance, it locked and all you had to do was pull a little trigger to make it release the arrow.  There was a scope to look through to make sure you were shooting completely accurate.  Once I pressed that trigger, I did not even see the arrow in the air before it hit the target bulls-eye.  The man explained to me that with the compound bow, the arrow was being release at 340 feet per second.  It was a really cool feeling to pull that trigger and see you hit the exact target at which you were aiming.  Later, we used traditional bow and arrows and tried to shoot a moving target they had set up for us.  They had a deer manikin on a line that they would release and “run” across the field.  There were three of us at a time that would try and release the arrow at the right time to hit the moving target.  It took my six times before I finally put an arrow into the side of that deer.  It was a great feeling, nothing like I had ever felt in my life.  It is really cool to partake in many activities that I would never think I would do in my life, and for that I am greatly thankful for this opportunity.  Kansas has been amazing to us, and I really look forward to the rest of the stops in this state.