Day 106 – 20 miles – 1,410 total

We hated to say goodbye but we had to continue. We hugged Aline and Kitty and thanked them for their amazing hospitality. We drove our car back to the state capitol building where we left off the other day. Our plan was to quickly unload everything and then Stick would stay there with our stuff as I would drive our car out to a safe place to park and then Uber back. As we were unloading, the capitol police were harassing us. One guy was a total dick and we just ignored him and kept unloading. The other was respectful so we engaged with him. We told him what we were doing and he realized that we weren’t doing anything wrong. He had lost a sister-in-law to an overdose so he was thankful for the work we were doing. Things calmed down and then we got back to the task at hand. I drove a few miles out and left the car where it should be safe for a few days until I can figure out how to get it up to wherever we’ll be later on. I got a Lyft ride back and thankfully Stick hadn’t been arrested.

The first few people that we had interactions with all gave extra effort to avoid eye contact as they thought we were homeless and must want something. I don’t know. This is something that I remember from big cities in my last walk. Anytime we are in an area with a high homeless population, we get to experience the way that they get treated on a daily basis. It’s no bueno people. Be nice ok. Just speak to them. Say no if they ask for something. It’s better than ignoring them. When I was living in Atlanta I would always tell the people who asked me for money that I don’t give out money to people I don’t know but I would offer to give them resources to a homeless outreach that my stepfather ran. Anyway…

That stuff didn’t last long as Richmond is a small city. As we were getting to the outskirts of town, people became more engaging. The first was a very pretty young woman who stopped in her tracks when she read the signs on our carts. I saw her pain without her having to say a word. Sure enough, she lost her dad and her brother to drugs. We didn’t know what to do or say. It was a very powerful conversation hidden behind the words that we said to each other. She gave us a hug and we gave one back. It was a good turn around for the morning. Everything was good from there.

Richmond is beautiful. I actually love this city. Like a lot. I would live here. A very art friendly place. We passed one amazing mural after another as we got farther and farther out of town. Next thing we knew, we were passing the McShin Foundation building where we spoke the other day. It was cool how our trail took us right by and we wouldn’t have known if we hadn’t had gone there.

In that same area, we were going into a CVS and a car stopped and waved us down. The driver had a sister who walked across the country in 2012 and had heard about us and told them we would be passing through. They couldn’t believe they saw us. Neither could we. How cool!?

The next encounter happened on a backroad. We were passing a high school and a woman pulled over and asked what we were doing and we told her the quick elevator pitch as she was in the road still. She told us she was going to pick up her daughter and she would be back to find us and talk more. We kept walking and it wasn’t 10 minutes until we saw her and her daughter waiting for us in a pull off up ahead.

We get up and pull off the road to talk to them. Domino jumped out of the car and ran to them as she knew there was some love to receive from them. The girl was about 11 years old and with a smile she handed us a grocery bag full of water, gatorade, and dog treats. She also gave us a $20 bill. She led the conversation as her mother stood next to her. She asked us what we were doing…

I told her that my sister died and because of the pain and sadness that I have I decided to try something crazy to spread the love that I have for her. Then I told her that she died from using drugs. She started to talk to us about how much she knows about drugs. We were extremely impressed. This beautiful 11 year old girl in a very prominent neighborhood had been thoroughly educated on the drug crisis. She even said that she understands that most people start using drugs to deal with pain. She has seen videos about what to look out for and knew all about peer pressure and that it is ok to say no. I wanted to give her mom the biggest high five ever. I did it with my eyes as her daughter was talking and she caught the gesture. This is what we need. This 11 year old knew more about heroin than I did 5 years ago before it killed my sister. Not only all of this, but her mother was teaching her to be kind to travelers. I held it together while we hugged and said goodbye but freaking lost it as they drove away. I melted down like I was an 11 year old girl. Some of it came from how happy I was to spontaneously have an educational conversation with a young girl through my sister’s love. She was all over this one. I was also crying from so much hope. This mother and daughter gave me hope for a solution. Also, the kindness they showed. It never ceases to amaze me and fill me with gratitude when people stop to help and offer things like snacks and money. It truly is the only way that I am able to keep going when things get tough. Amazing.

A few miles up the road we hit our 1,400 mile mark. We were writing in chalk and the nieghbor who lived there was outside and was curious so they asked what was up. We told them and they thought it was awesome. The whole family came out for a picture. It was fun. People sure were coming around after a crazy morning at the capitol.

Another example happened later on. It was getting hot. We were drenching in sweat. A man pulled over and offered us a cold water. We gladly accepted. We stopped and talked to him while we cooled down in the shade under a tree in his yard. Just a nice person who wanted to help. This is the real world.

We started to get out into the country again. Crazy how it happened over the course of the day. A young farmer pulled up in his truck and hopped out. He thought what we were doing was awesome and took a picture with us to tell his friends cuz he thought they wouldn’t believe him haha. He was so nice. He said he was going to share the photo and our cause with the locals and try to get us any help that we needed. He offered all of this and more to us out of the kindness in his heart. Again, this is the world we live in.

We approached and then entered the lovely town of Ashland, VA. A historic downtown area with modern shops and restaurants. Very cool. We got a lot of fun looks as we passed through town but we kept going quickly as we were tired and hot and close to our end point and just wanted to get there. We stopped in a hotel that we got a good rate at and let the A/C cool us down as we checked in.

What a great day!