Startin' to gag on each bite of the elephant

For everyone who has been following our efforts and posts to date, i had one early on about the proverbial '...eating an elephant one bite at a time'. Well, guess what, i think that kirk, brad and i are starting to get tired of continually 'eating elephant', and we're starting to have the reflex gag that everyone knows all-to-well, when you are forced to eat or drink so much more than you can handle, or if you are not feeling well. As we expected, this long process of raising $ for the trip and the lengthy training is tedious and at-times stressful. I know i am starting to get a bit sluggish, and i think we as a group are not 'firing on all cylinders' lately. I know we had the 'flying high' attitude when we first started, and had a nice, consistent rise in donations until recently. Now, it seems we are down a bit from our initial 'high' and many of the 'quick kills' of the planning are over... which means we have to 'buckle-down', 'roll-up our sleeves', and work harder at it. Most of our friends and families have responded to support us with donations, but we need to dig deeper and find the others' out there that are willing and able to support a worthy cause such as ours. That most likely means face-to-face meetings with businesses, optomotrists, civic organizations, etc. This is much easier written than done, since we all have full time jobs, and training and our normal lives to live. This also goes for our training. I'm going to be traveling out to Brad's once or twice a month to do some serious training with him. It shouldn't be a suprise to anyone that it is harder for him to train for several reasons. First, he can't drive to reach a nice training facility, whether it is a gym, tall building or mountain. Second, he has never trained for an event such as this, so he needs some additional guidance. I know Kirk is really starting to crank up his training just in his everyday work duties. He's been trompin' around in snow up to his knees and waist in snow when out tending to his cattle; climbing hills with a full pack on, and climbing the bluffs of crazy-woman canyon with regularity. However, soon enough, his busy season will begin and i'm sure training will be tougher to squeeze in. All i'm saying is that i think we're in a lull right now, and we need encouragement from all of our friends and family, as well as each other to 'keep on keepin' on'. There is no doubt that we will all keep 'eatin that darn elephant' as long as we need to, but it's a bit easier to swallow when we hear faint chants in the distance. Thanks to everyone who has supported our cause financially and emotionally with positive words of encouragement. You all keep us going when times are tough, and we certainly don't want to let you down. keep watchin'... it's only gonna get better!