We woke up at 630 and felt refreshed after a comfortable night’s sleep. We went to Bojangles for breakfast and talked to some locals about our mission. One of the guys had a daughter who suffers with addiction and he appreciated what we were doing. He gave us $10 which paid for our breakfast.
Back on the road. We started off with a stretch of sidewalk as we went through town and then we had to get on some backroads that took us to a hwy. Hwy 45 would be our main thoroughfare for the day. It was only traveled on by locals and big trucks so most of them got over for us. It was more traffic than we like but we’ve had way worse.
We came up on a huge bridge that we didn’t even know about. It was under construction and only one lane was opened. They had a temporary traffic light signal on each end of the bridge to direct traffic. This actually ended up saving our lives. We wouldn’t have been able to make it across this bridge without the lane closure. It was over a mile long and had no shoulder.
We walked and timed things with the waves of traffic from the light turning green on each end. It helped so much. I can’t really describe it but it was awesome.
On the other end of the bridge some of the construction workers flagged us down to offer us cold water. We gladly accepted on this really hot day.
They were awesome. Ted, Lindsay, and another guy who I didn’t get his name. We talked for a good 10 minutes. We went through 2 water bottles each while we talked. They were very interested in the walk and very aware of the cause. We both really enjoyed that stop.
Back to the road. We ducked and dodged cars and made it to a back road that we could use which paralleled Hwy 45 and came back into it about 3.4 miles ahead.
When we turned on that road we made it to our halfway point in the trip. According to Googlemaps we think it’ll be 2,446 miles total for us. We obviously don’t know if that will be accurate but all of our predictions have been spot on so far. We decided to celebrate our halfway point at 1,223 miles. It was a great moment. The hard half is over, now we just have to keep going like we’ve been doing and we’ll make it successfully and on time.
After that it got really hot. We walked and walked and put miles behind us. We came up on an intersection and saw a dollar general. This was brand new and wasn’t on google yet so we weren’t expecting any services at all. It was like an oasis in the desert.
We went in and bought snacks and cold drinks and ICE CREAM! It was so good! It helped cool us down and fuel us up for more miles.
We kept on going. We were in the middle of nowhere and every now and then we’d pass someone sitting on their porch or out walking to their mailbox. We’d wave at each other then they’d give a second look haha. Some of them had seen us on the news. They all wished us safety and good luck.
We came to a fork in the road. We had walked 19.5 miles at this point. The sun was blazing. Our options were to go on a back road and walk another 4.3 miles to a church where we could camp or to stay on Hwy 45 and camp at a church that was only .5 miles ahead. The back road tied back into Hwy 45 way ahead but didn’t add or subtract any miles. It was the same distance either way.
I wanted to go the back road route and push the extra miles but I was ok with going the other way and just stopping at our usual 20 mile mark. I gave it to Stick. He thought on it and chose to call it a day. We headed to the closer church and set our carts in the shade.
We walked over to a house next door and knocked to see if they were or if they knew the pastor. We were going to ask for permission to camp. The guy who answered the door was weary and didn’t want to give us any info. He didn’t understand the situation. Oh well.
We went over and surveyed the area. We wouldn’t be bothering anyone. We decided to set up camp where no one could see us. We made dinner and rested our feet. We’ll leave in the morning and no one will ever know we were here. It’s kind of fun doing it this way. I always sleep better when I have permission but the adventurer in me loves stealth camping.
The weather is calling for a beautiful night so I left my rainfly off and should be able to see the stars all night. Looking forward to it!
Congratulations on your half way point! You all are doing a great work! Keep on keeping on!