Day 210
Slept great after walking a marathon distance yesterday. The hole that I patched held up just fine. I ate a big breakfast and amped up. Kind of like an athlete before a competition, I had to get my game face on. The first big climb went pretty easy. Imagine the McDonalds arches. Then picture the second arch a little higher than the first. That’s what I had to walk over today. The first one was long and then downhill again before a steep climb to the next and then all downhill into Austin, the next town on my route.
I freaking nailed it. I only stopped once to break and that was at the bottom between the two inclines. It was a beautiful walk too. On the way down the other side of the mountain, you could look out and see the town of Austin and a valley and another mountain range beyond that. It was amazing. A van drove by and then pulled over quickly. A pretty girl hopped out and she said that she figured she’d say hello to a guy that’s walking across America. She was doing a van-life trip from Texas to California to visit a sister she hasn’t seen in a very long time. She has also known loss from an overdose. She was very happy that she stopped to talk to me. I was happy that she stopped to talk to me. If she didn’t have cats with her I probably would’ve asked for a tour of the van (wink, wink). She gave me some water and I continued my walk downhill into Austin.
Austin is a WEIRD town. I am surprised that people still live here. I heard someone say that there are only 180 people living in town. I was suprised that there were that many. They had a cafe though and that’s where I headed first. A nice man named Tim saw my cart and came over to tell me that when I get to Fallon, to call the pastor of his church and get in touch with the treatment program they have there. I gladly accepted the phone number and continued waiting on a server to acknowledge me. The cafe was very busy.
Before the server ever came, a woman sat across the table from me and said hello. I knew who it was right away. I was expecting a visit from Jeanine, a woman whom I met her family members back in Utah. She had gone on a 1600 mile hike in Utah a few years ago and works in animal rescue. She came bearing many gifts. Lots of Hiking food which are expensive. It was a very generous gift. Also some water and a lot of good conversation. She said that she would be riding back in a few days and I was looking forward to seeing her again.