A train passing nearby woke me up around 5 am. I went over to the Dunkin Donuts and used their bathroom to freshen up. Then grabbed some breakfast. I headed back across the street to my tent and started to pack up. Stick was waking up at this point too. We packed up and left without leaving a trace.
We started walking right at the sun was rising. It was beautiful. We had a small road that ran parallel to U.S. 1 that we took for the first 6 miles. It was awesome. It was quiet and peaceful. Didn’t have to stay on high alert as there was hardly any traffic at all.
Before getting back on the mainroad we took a break and I called the city hall and police department of the city ahead of us. I told them what we were doing and asked if they would consider supporting us by getting together to briefly discuss how they are addressing the opioid crisis and to see if we could offer suggestions for improvement. They were very interested. All we had to do was walk there and they would be waiting for us. Not bad for my first attempt at that for this walk…
Back on the road and at about our 10 mile mark we were coming up on a gas station and we both agreed that we should stop for a break. There was a little latin food stand and the couple inside gave us free food when they saw what we were doing. It was so tasty! We sat and talked for quite a while.
Back to U.S. 1. It was a small shoulder with very fast traffic. One of our most dangerous stretches yet. We had to stay on full alert as some drivers were on their phones. A female was walking the opposite direction and as she was passing she asked about what we were doing.
We pulled over to a safe distance off the road to talk and we laid it out for her. She thought it was awesome. She hadn’t used in 18 months. She looked happy and healthy and was struggling with boredom. I gave her some ideas for idle hands as I have had that same problem before. She gave us $20 and some hugs and we walked back in different directions.
I don’t know why it happened but as soon as I turned around I started crying. I think something about her reminded me of my sister. I really don’t know. Stick walked ahead to let me have my moment and said he’d wait for me ahead and to take all the time I needed. I appreciated that but I kept going. I think better when I’m walking anyways.
Shortly after, a young man pulled over and got out of his car with snacks a drinks for us and gave us hugs and got back into his car quickly. We could tell that he was on his way to work but saw us then stopped at the store to get stuff for us, then brought it to us, then went back on his way. Stick broke down this time. The kindness literally moved him to tears. I pulled ahead this time and gave Stick some space to process everything. What a day. And it wasn’t even noon yet.
Miles later we finally made it to Melbourne, Florida and we had sidewalks again. We headed directly to the City Hall. The mayor and the Community Liason for the Police Department were there waiting for us, along with others who worked for the city. It was fun but also important. I was able to give them a lot of tips for what I have seen work in other communities on ways to combat the drug overdose epidemic. They were listening but I could tell that their heads were all still in the school shooting issues since that happened close to here less than a week ago.
We took some photos and they said they would share our story on their city’s social media pages. The mayor gave us some recommendations for food and the police officer gave us recommendations for safe travel in the miles to come. Great people, great town.
Then a person who lives in Melbourne but grew up in my hometown came out to meet us. We have a lot of mutual friends. She is going to be able to help us pick up our car tomorrow.
We then walked to our hotel room that was paid for by our friend Donna. Then ordered pizza from a gift card that our friend Kitti gave us. We really enjoyed the comforts as we would’ve had to find a place to stealth camp and probably would’ve ate ramen. Domino appreciated the room too.
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