We woke up and went to get breakfast at the gas station and also to use the bathroom to clean up a bit. We all felt gross. 3 days of walking in extreme humidity had us feeling like we would never get the grossness out of our hair. On my last walk I had one stretch where I went 8 days without a shower and I didn’t feel half as gross then as I did this morning. Thankfully, we would be in a hotel tonight. Motivation to keep going.
Before we left the gas station parking lot, we talked to a couple who was interested in what we were doing. Sure enough, the wife had 23 years in recovery and their son overdosed 4 times last year but is alive and well today. Thank goodness for recovery and thank goodness for Narcan. We were thankful for the hope they gave us so early in the morning.
We walked along route 1 and hills were constant. Up and down and some were pretty big. Jess was doing great. I was very proud of her for fighting through it when she could very easily quit and get picked up by family. We stopped to break often and I tried to keep a motivational attitude to keep the team’s spirit up. I love the hills. A struggle makes me go harder. I learned to appreciate the challenges on my last walk knowing that it only makes for a better reward in the end. I was trying to express this but I think Jess and Stick both thought that I was nuts. They hung in there with me though haha.
We passed some weird stuff. Maine is cooky. It is also the blueberry capitol of the country. We saw thousands of wild blueberries alongside the road. Perfectly good for picking and eating. We weren’t really all that into them raw though. It was just cool to see them. Every store around here sells them and pies and pancakes and all that. There was even a weird amusement park called wild blueberry land. It looked like something out of Willy Wonka.
Hills and a few roadside stops from people were the story most of the day. We stopped for a break in front of a lobster market and the owner came out to talk to us. She was in recovery from a crystal meth addiction and was inspiring us to stay strong and keep up the fight. Pretty awesome. A minivan pulled over and the couple offered us a huge birthday cake. We didn’t know what to do with it. We couldn’t eat it all and had no way of carrying it so we politely refused. They gave us some fig bars instead. They were so nice. Another woman pulled up while we were in the same spot and gave us some homemade cookies. We defiinitely took those and ate them on the spot. The kindness of people out here was great. They all don’t seem to be very educated on the overdose epidemic outside of how they are personally affected. Maine is so far behind in the fight against this crisis that I fear it may last longer here than other places. We are doing our part though.
We finally made it into town. It was brutal. We were pushing hard simply because we knew that we could get a real meal and a shower tonight. Thankfully that happened but it was hard fought for. We ate and then went to check in to the hotel that our friend Barbara had booked for us. Life was good. We needed this bad.
Leave A Comment