Today started for me at 1 AM when a guard came in to tell the outgoing "chain" to get ready. We were called out of the dorm at 1:30, strip searched and placed in the same cage as when we arrived at this unit, only this time there were 26 of us instead of 11 - very cramped. We had to stay in that cage until the bus arrived at 4:30.

Once on the bus - again cramped due to being handcuffed to someone else and having to sit on a hump over the wheel - we began a ten-hour tour of Texas prisons. First we went across the street to pick up a few more passengers from a neighboring prison. Next we stopped in Gatesville to drop a couple guys off and pick up more. Then we dropped off a few more at a medical unit outside Huntsville before finally ending up at our final destination: an old red-brick prison where inmates are reclassified after their transfer time is up.

It didn't hit as hard today, but it was still kind of unsettling to ride in a moving vehicle that goes at speeds far faster than I have run for the past 18 months. The curves and bumps were even worse. I got used to it after a while, though.

The cool part of the trip was taking Highways 84 and 6 through part of my high school stomping grounds of Lorena, Woodway, and Waco. Highway 84 was part of my route to many church events, and the contractor I worked for after graduating has an office at the junction of 84 and 6. It hurt to see everything so close and not be able to stick around.