We woke up and said goodbye to our amazing hosts. It truly was a special time visiting with their family. We had to continue our walk though.
We drove down to the place where we ended our walk the other day and unloaded all of our stuff. It was very foggy and even a bit chilly. Stick stayed with our stuff while I drove our car up ahead about 30 miles. We were going to leave the car there and walk to it in a day and half. I’ll explain all that tomorrow. Anyway, we had someone who offered to help us waiting for me there to drive me back to our stuff so we could start walking.
I won’t use their names for anonymity sake but these guys were awesome. It was a powerful car ride. Too much for me to process so early in the morning. One guy had just overdosed yesterday and was saved with Narcan. The other guy was driving him to go to a treatment center for help. They both suffer with addiction and have had a very challenging time trying to recover. Right now they were both doing great though. We got to talking and we all came to realize that we all have lost a sibling. We shared that horrible pain. I don’t even know what to say about all this. It was just amazing knowing that something bigger connected us all that morning.
We started walking after they dropped me off and said goodbye. I was extremely sad. While there was so much hope and so much to be grateful for, it was a very emotional morning. I was also frustrated about the way I am perceiving things are going with the film that is being made but I don’t want to talk about that. It was heavy on my mind though. I didn’t want to be in such a depressed state but it was there and I was doing the best I could.
After about 6 miles we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts and a man was standing there waiting for us. Mike offered to pay for our order and wanted to know more about what we were doing. We had a few donuts and told him all about it. He was such a nice guy. He even went back in and got us a gift card for future use. His kindness reminded me that this mission is so much bigger than me and that I needed to continue on and be grateful and happy that I am able to do it. I started to perk up a little from there.
Hills and a gray day made it difficult to be super happy but I was definitely getting better with every step. Another person pulled over and talked to us from his rolled down window. He handed us a $20 and told us to keep going. Amazing.
12 miles into the day we came to a Wendy’s and decided to stop for lunch. I walked in with my cart with Domino inside of it and caused a scene. Everyone was staring. Oh well. I smiled and waved and went up to order like what I did was totally normal.
When we got our food and sat down, we had a family with two young children come over to talk to us/play with Domino. They were extremely nice and non-judgemental of us. Our kind conversation was overheard by the rest of the patrons and they all came over to wish us good luck on our walk as they were leaving. It was fun and that definitely put me in a better mood. I was good after that. Done with the blues. Ready to rock and roll.
We pushed on and came across a crab stand with a hilarious sign out front that said “hot cheap females”. They were referring to female crabs of course. But we had to stop for a picture of that one. We always appreciate something funny to break up the day filled with noisy cars zooming by.
Around 21 miles in, we saw a McDonald’s and a walmart across the street and stopped in the McDonald’s to grab some food and brainstorm a little. We were trying to decide whether to stop at the walmart and camp there or keep pushing. We could make it to our car in 6 miles and then drive anywhere to camp. 6 miles was just not worth it to us. We were beat. The hills took their toll on us. 21 miles was plenty.
We went over and found a good spot where we wouldn’t bother anyone and set up camp. Then we took advantage of having the walmart and grabbed snacks and used the restroom. Everyone wins. Great day.
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