Day 23 – 20 miles – 292 total

Woke up early and started packing my things up. Stick did the same thing and we were loaded up and ready to go well before the sun came up. We were camped out across the street from a Wal-Mart so we went inside to do use toilets and sinks. We bought some drinks for good measure and then headed to our carts so we could finally get back to walking.

We stopped at a gas station first, to fill up on water and get some snacks to fuel our little 20 mile stroll. While we were in the parking lot, people were coming up to us and asking about what we were doing. We told them and we all talked about the things that needed to be talked about. They were all affected by this epidemic of course. They were all supportive of our walk. It was a nice way to start off!

Then we finally started walking. It was still not even 7 am yet, so we had a few hours of cool temperatures before the sun came up. We made great time. Easy walking on sidewalks while Stick and I listened to music. We have a good walking system going. We never pull too far ahead or get too far behind one another, but we aren’t up each others butts all day either. It’s a good system that will be a nice foundation for the rest of the walk.

About 14 miles in, we stopped at a Burger King for lunch. Before we could even get inside, a nice older man came out and gave me $10 for us both to have lunch. He said that he could tell that we were on a positive mission by our appearance. Wow.

After eating we headed back for the sidewalk and passed a big pickup truck with a huge drug awareness banner on the tailgait. I grabbed a flyer and went over to place one on the window but the window was opened.

I saw the driver at this point and said “hello, i like your banner on the back. we are walking….”

He was big in the addiction treatment industry and knew a lot of the same people that I know. Kind of a crazy random thing but he was very supportive and wants to help us get the word out about Freedom to Grow. He has a large following and it should be very helpful to us. A fun connection. I hope that we are able to keep in touch.

We got back to walking and about an hour later we had a lovely visit from the Noah’s March family. Noah is an 11 year old who has type 1 diabetes and decided that he wanted to walk across America to try to support research for a cure. His entire family of 5 geared up and Noah and his father walked from southernmost point in Key West to the northwesternmost point in Washington state. His mother and 2 siblings as his support crew.

I met them last year when they came through Atlanta. There is a unique clique of people who have traveled across countries on foot and they are called “crossers”. Crossers always help each other out when possible. Usually just for moral support as we all understand the struggles and the emotions that come with the territory of a quest like this.

They stopped and we talked for well over an hour as they gave us advice on how to reach more people and to find support from restaurants and hotels. They also gave us some gear that they didn’t need anymore. Stick got Noah and his father’s autograph. Most importantly, they gave us a morale boost as we are adapting to a new change after the team break up.

It was great to see them and Stick and I really enjoyed spending time with them. We continued to walk for another hour or so until we hit our 20 mile mark and then we found a place to chain up Lieutenant Dan and Rick Shaw (our pushcarts) for the night.

We sat around for a second and decompressed. I then signed up for a Lyft account. I have never used Lyft so I was able to use a promo code to help save money on a ride back to our support car.

We are most likely going to have to get rid of the car and all of our extra comforts and size down to only things that fit into our carts. We have both done walks with no support so we know what needs to be done. It would be awesome to find someone who can drive for us for a while but it’s unlikely that anyone can just stop what they are doing to come and drive a car for months at a time.

We didn’t worry about it yet. We still have the car for now and we are going to use it while we have it. We drove to a Wal-Mart and found a good place to set up camp for the night. We went in to buy some dinner and then ate it while we waited for the sun to go down. We did some rearranging in the car and trailer also. Then we set up our tents and that was that. Awesome day.