Day 48

Woke up and walked to CAT House. Center for Addiction Treatment. They are the oldest and biggest chemical addiction treatment facility in Cincinnati. They are trying to expand so that they can hold 1,000 more patients. They asked me to speak at a breakfast that they were having and I was honored to do so. The timing of it let me know that it was meant to happen.

 

I got there and ate a lot of carbs. I didn’t know anyone but I was still getting nervous about speaking. I always do. I listened to the list of people in attendance and got even more nervous. State Representatives were there, the Sheriff, judges, and many more impactful people in Cincinnati. I was so thankful that I was about to be able to share my sister’s story in front of them.

 

My turn came up and I walked up to the podium and was so nervous but I was prepared. I stumbled through the first part of my speech but started to get into a groove. I got to a point to where I got emotional as I began to speak from my heart. I wrapped up with a punchline and was met with a standing ovation. I felt happy and I was proud of myself. It was worth every step that it took to get to that podium.

 

When the event wrapped up, people came to me and snuck some donations my way and hand shakes of respect. The sheriff gave me a cool Hamilton County Sheriff lapel pin in the shape of their badge. I wanted to stay there forever but I got offered a ride back to my hotel and decided to take the opportunity. I couldn’t believe that had just happened.

 

I get back to the hotel and grab Domino and Lt. Dan and checked out. Back to the walk! I had to swing by FedEx to send that box out. After that, it was just walk as much as I wanted to. The weather was great and I wanted to make at least 18 miles. An easy feat at the rate that I had been going.

 

I chose to stick to the American Discovery Trail on the way out of Cincinnati. It was a longer and hillier route but offered some highlights that I didn’t want to skip out on. The first one being the small community called MainStrasse. A beautiful German village on the other side of the Ohio River from Cincinnati. From there I climbed a mountain to a park that had a stunning view of the city’s skyline. I wished I had some Skyline to eat while I looked at the skyline. It was beef jerky and trail mix instead. I thought to myself that if I ever wanted to become a millionaire that I could open a small Skyline chili stand at the top of that mountain. Who would ever want to become a millionaire though? Gross.

 

A man came up to check out our gear. He had walked the Appalachian Trail and we sat and swapped stories for a while as Domino ran around and bothered everyone else who was having a picnic up there. They all said they didn’t mind but I didn’t believe them. Domino was having fun though so I didn’t stop her.

 

I held on tight as we rolled downhill and out of the park. I took a long, lonesome road along the river until I got to Anderson’s Ferry. A private operation that people use all of the time to cross the river. I bet they’ve made enough money to have built 30 bridges but what good would that do for them right?…

 

I had fun though. I talked to the lady in her car next to me because it would’ve been awkward not to. I asked her about the roads ahead because I was unsure of which one to take. She helped me pick the right one. I walked on through small roads and cool houses along the river. I was approaching the town of Sayler Park. A woman was walking towards me and I thought she was just someone who was walking somewhere and I was getting ready to say my friendly hello as I do to most people that I pass by, but she stopped me and asked if I was Brett.

 

Why yes. That’s me. She had been following along on my journey and had close relations to people struggling with substance abuse. We talked and I posed for a picture and she warned me about the area that I was about to enter and said the drugs were bad there. I was very thankful that she had stopped because I was upset from dodging traffic a few minutes before she showed up.

 

As I went through town, I couldn’t see the obvious signs of a drug area. It was a nice town with beautiful homes. That’s the way it is working guys. These drugs are everywhere. I saw a used needle on the sidewalk and shook my head in sorrow. I went a little out of my way to go to a gas station that I had seen on my map. I desperately needed to charge my phone and I figured that I could do it there and then backtrack to get back to my route.

 

I see the gas station and there were a group of guys there that were super shady. I didn’t want to deal with that so I kept going and figured I’d U-turn somewhere else and try to avoid them with or without a dead cell phone. I moved on a little farther and needed to look at my map. As I was doing so, I started to hear the loud rap music getting closer. One guy had a small boom box playing music and he thought that he was being the “hype man” for whoever was rapping as he was getting closer.

 

There were 3 of them. 2 white kids and a black guy. The ringleader was in his early 20s and on a bicycle that I assumed was stolen. He had already lost more than half of his teeth. There was a younger skinnier white kid wearing a white tank top and gym shorts and a hat cocked to the side. He was covered from the neck down in homemade (prison) tattoos. The black guy was the one holding the radio. He actually looked like a decent guy that was just hanging around the wrong crowd.

 

They come up and they are definitely interested in what I have. I tell them that I am walking across America and they thought it was cool. The ringleader was leaning in close taking inventory of my gear. I made sure that he saw my knife and my can of bear mace that I could grab quickly. He saw it. He also saw the sheriff pin that I had gotten earlier that morning. I saw the wheels slowly spinning inside his head and I noticed when he realized that he wasn’t going to mess with me any further. The young one with tattoos actually helped me out a lot as he told me that I could keep going straight and it would take me where I wanted to go.

 

I was thinking that it could’ve been a trap but figured he wasn’t that advanced yet so I rolled the dice and sped up so that I didn’t have to walk alongside them any further. Once I had created far enough distance to breathe again, I realized that Domino had not been in her usual character of jumping all over people in hopes of getting some loving. I wondered if she was ready to pounce on these guys as I was if they chose to make a move. I know that she must’ve had a bad feeling about them also.

 

I walked on through the lovely community of Sayler Park. I saw a McDonalds. Boom. Charged my phone and grabbed dinner. I sat there for a long time and realized that I’d hit my 18 mile goal already. I chose to walk on until I found my first opportunity of a place to set up my tent. I found a spot literally across the street from a police station but out of site. I should have probably just gone into the police station and asking them if they knew of a place where I could set up my tent legally. But I didn’t. Whatever. This place would do…

I was excited about my new tent. It was 10 times as nice as my old one. It was 10 times more expensive also. I put it together and checked the weather one more time before putting my phone in airplane mode for the night. I originally thought that the rain was supposed to hold off but it looked like it was going to hit me a little that night and in the morning. I am glad I checked because I was going to sleep without my rain-fly on. I put the rain-fly up over my tent and wrapped Lt. Dan in a tarp. I laid in my new home and read a book on my kindle with the backlight on as low as it would go so as to not glow and blow my cover of sleeping 100 feet away from a police station. I read as much as I could until I fell asleep.