I slept great last night. It was hard to wake up. My alarm went off at 6:25 am and I laid back down for a second with every intention of getting up but it was 7:00 when I looked at my phone again to check the time. I overslept and I knew it was going to cost us as today was scheduled to be hot.
We packed up and headed to our start spot. It was 8:30 am and already got before we started. Dang. Time to toughen up a little. Gonna be a hard day physically. We had a lot to look forward to though. We were scheduled to walk through the city of Baltimore later.
The first part of the day was on a nice bike trail that went around BWI Airport. There were a lot of cyclists out and a few of them would stop to talk to us. Some of them expressed genuine interest and it made it fun for us to talk about it. It was very hot in the sun though so our conversations didn’t last long before we all wanted to keep moving.
We hopped on and off of bike paths and sidewalks leading into the city of Baltimore. We came in from the south so we passed the football stadium and then the baseball stadium. As a person who travels a lot, I have found an interest in attending different baseball stadiums when the circumstances allow. I have been to over 15 baseball stadiums. I have always wanted to go to Camden Yards in Baltimore. I was so excited when we walked up to it and realized that we could walk through a part of the park.
We went in and walked around and took photos. It was so cool. I wish we could’ve gone to a game but the Orioles were out of town. I got to touch the green wall in the outfield. So now every time I see it on TV I can say that I touched that wall. I like doing weird stuff like that lol.
We stopped for lunch in the city and then headed over to the Inner Harbor. It’s a touristy spot where with street performers and shops. It was fun strolling through there with our crazy looking carts. The street performers were giving us the look though. They weren’t sure if we were trying to steal their thunder or not. It was all good though. We just kept on rolling through.
Once we got to the outskirts of the downtown area, the scenery changed dramatically. Everything got a little more real. We were out of the pretty and upkept tourist spot and into the areas where people actually live. It wasn’t a bad section of town but you could tell that you still needed to be aware or your surroundings. We saw a few people high on heroin. Just standing on the sidewalk nodding out. People were walking by as if this was the norm. This is what it has come to in Baltimore. A beautiful city overtaken by heroin. My heart was hurting. I can only hope that everyone lives through it.
On the outer edge of town there was a row of rundown townhomes that were being renovated. A few of the construction workers saw us coming by and took extreme interest in what we were up to. We told them about the walk and about why we are doing it. They all handed us a few bucks and gave us handshakes. They wanted to give support. I couldn’t believe it. I can’t describe it properly because I am not a true writer but it was an incredible moment of kindness and it came when I least expected it.
The next few miles were rough. It was really hot and we had a lot of hills. It seemed as if we climbed one hill for over an hour. It just never seemed to end. We finally made it to the top and dang near passed out. We were taking a little cool down break and it started raining. So we jogged over to a nearby gas station and took shelter under the roof thing. We made it just in time before the bottom fell out. It rained hard as hell for about 20 minutes and then moved on through. It was now even more humid out. We only had a mile to go though.
The last stretch was downhill and we decided to finish at a walmart. There was a young homeless couple who were panhandling outside who came over and talked to us when they saw our carts. They gave us hugs and support as they knew about the overdose crisis all too well. They talked about a friend who just died by suicide the other day. He got high on heroin and then he jumped in front of a train. This is the kind of stuff that we hear all day. They had to live it all day. We gave them hugs back and continued on.
We looked at our options and our needs. We had to get the car and then drive to Pennsylvania to get to a family who offered to put us up for two nights so we could stay out of some weather. I looked up public transportation options and there weren’t any that didn’t take over 2 hours. I settled for a Lyft ride. It ended up being $40 plus the $9 to park our car for the day. A $4 toll on the way back to pick up Stick and our stuff, and then all the gas money that we were using. I was done.
I told Stick that I was thinking about having our car moved up to Maine and being done with it until we finish. He didn’t like the idea at all. I am tired of dealing with finding people to move it and paying for the movement of it. It just isn’t worth it to me. But he really wanted to have it and I don’t want to make things harder on both of us if we don’t have to. So we weighed out our options. We need to figure out how to get the var moved up 3 to 5 days at a time and just walk to it from there. This is really hard to do but I figured we could try that for now. So I’ll have to sort all that out later on.
We made it up to the Schuelke’s house and were welcomed in with open arms. We had dinner and then sat on the porch talking all night. It was so awesome and I felt connected to them instantly. Laura, the wife and mother, helps run a page on Facebook called Covered With Love. It is amazing and the women there really care about others. They helped me out a lot on my last walk, specifically with Domino. It was so nice to meet another person from this page.
We stayed up late and I was the first to tap out. I went into the room that they designated for me and I was out like a light.
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