Day 189
Back to the walk. With Domino!
We stopped at a McDonald’s on the way out of town because I knew it would be a very long time that I ate a meal that wasn’t a clif bar or ramen noodles lol. People were very nice to me there. Got a lot of attention and someone even bought my breakfast. I was able to tell one couple about the drug epidemic who was completely shocked by the numbers. They had no idea. Now they do.
Domino didn’t miss a beat. She remembered where to walk and all of the commands. There was quite a bit of traffic until we got out of town. It slowed down a little then. Domino was having some feet issues. I was thinking that it was all that climbing on the sharp rocks yesterday. I put her shoes on her and hoped that would help. Her feet were built for anything before she went back to Georgia. But she got soft in the few weeks that she was there being loved on and spoiled by my aunt and cousins. I had no choice but to keep pushing her as I was on limited supplies with a very long stretch to the next resting place. It’s Domino! She is a warrior. She can handle it! That’s what I thought anyways…
We came upon a shoe tree. Yes, a tree with shoes all on it. I didn’t have a pair that I could spare for it and was bummed because I wanted to. I left a note on the tree though saying that I owed it a pair. Domino didn’t care about the tree. She just used it for shade haha. Poor thing. She isn’t conditioned for this at all anymore. I knew I’d have to make sure to not push her too hard but still make good time.
Well, I miscalculated her toughness. I looked down and could tell she needed a break. I stopped and set up my tarp to provide shade for her. She vomited. Poor thing. I eased her and made sure she was well rested, cooled-down, and hydrated before continuing on. That took a long time but it was life or death. During this time, a group of antelope hunters pulled over and gave us some cold water which was awesome. That perked DOmino up. She loves the cold stuff! They were really nice and one of them had 31 years sober. They knew all about my cause and were thankful that I was out there doing this walk.
We went on a little farther and found a solar power panel which had a shady spot. I decided to break there for a while and let domino cool down again. She was doing ok now but definitely needed to come to an end soon. I needed to go a little farther so we pushed on until we made it to the 20 mileish spot. It was imperative that we did a minimum of 20 miles per day in order to make it to safety without running out of supplies. There was a power house nearby and I walked to it so that I could use the building as shade for Domino while I set everything up. It wasn’t even that hot out. Not for me anyways. But for Domino, who was now used to A/C and is a black furball, it was a scorcher. She laid in the sand and when I took her shoes off, I could tell that her pads were sensitive and needed some healing. fuck. I hoped that between her shoes and riding in the stroller that I could at least get her to the hotel that is on the Nevada state line. We still had 70 miles to go.
As I was sitting out there, enjoying the beautiful sunset, I realized that I was in total silence. I could actually hear the desert. It was beautiful. The silence was loud. I can’t describe that but it was. I could actually HEAR silence. A weird experience. I liked it. I gave Domino a big hearty meal with all kinds of goodies in it. She ate like a champ and I was glad. She needs the protein to help get her through this. We cuddled up and went right to sleep.