Day 96

I left the hotel at 12:30 am and got ready to walk at night for the first time. I put a flash light on the front of Lieutenant Dan as the “headlight” and I put a bright red light on the back as a “tail light.” I also had on a headlamp and an orange reflector vest for me and for Domino. I planned on staying on a service road that runs parallel to I-70. Very little traffic but right next to the interstate so I had all of the resources available at every exit just in case. Seemed safe enough to me…

So I leave and it was interesting. I couldn’t see the hills coming up ahead so one minute I’d be walking downhill and the next I’d be pushing everything uphill. I was making sure to stay on guard for any animals. I saw a possum and 2 raccoons the whole night. They all left me alone. No big deal. Domino wasn’t phased by them either.

I took a break at a lumber yard and while I was sitting there I was actually cold and thought about grabbing my jacket. Funny to think that in just a few hours life-threatening temperatures would be blazing through the area.

I kept going into the night and felt a little more relaxed now that I’d been out for a few hours. I turned the radio on and was listening to some music. A sheriff pulls up and asks me what I was up to. I told him everything that I was doing and he was understanding and helpful. He gave me tips on where to go ahead when the road turned to gravel for a while.

The sun started to rise around 5:30. I took a break at the top of a hill to watch it. Just beautiful. It was weird watching the sun rise and feeling so close to the end of a long walk. When the sun came up a felt a new burst of energy and felt like I could’ve gone all day. I could have too if the temperatures weren’t so high.

I was getting close to the area that I planned on stopping at and it was already warming up. It wasn’t even 8 am yet and it was in the 80s. A small boy about 9 or 10 years old ran me down in his camo pajamas and gave me a bottle of water. I have no idea where he came from. I talked to him about the walk. I left the drug stuff out. He seemed a little too young to handle all of that but I gave him a card and assumed that he’d give it to his parents.

I had planned on making it to an RV campground that I called and had said that they would let me set my tent up there. But when I got to the area I noticed a couple of cheap motels and opted for air conditioning. Today they had a heat advisory issued for the area and even in the shade, it would’ve been hard to sleep all day. So I checked in and that was that.

Now to sleep the day away haha. It feels so weird. I’m hoping that I won’t have to do this for a long time. Just a few days to see if this heat wave passes. I’ll be I Kansas City soon and I’ll be able to take some time off there and plan how I’m going to get through the next segment. I’m still highly considering sending Domino home. I’d love to keep her here but I’m just worried about my abilities to keep her healthy through the summer.

We’ll see..