Day 108

I woke up and could see out my tent and the sun was rising over the lake. It was so beautiful that I couldn’t close my eyes even though I wanted to sleep more. I sat up and just watched the free show.

I checked the weather and I’m glad I did. It looked like some serious rain was coming very soon. I rolled everything up and moved over to a covered picnic pavillion nearby. I waited out the storm there. I organized my stuff a little and ate breakfast. It was 930 when I left.

Once the storm passed, it was getting hot quickly. I was doing ok but domino hated every second. She was running from shady spot to shady spot and freaking out about it. I could tell she was miserable but I knew she was going to go home and recover so I kept going. I made sure we both had enough water of course but I kept moving at my pace instead of domino’s.

I couldn’t push her either because this trail effing sucks. It was rocky and overgrown. Tick heaven. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I probably pulled 40 ticks off of both me and Domino today.

After pushing through this bullshit trail, that I went out of my way to get to, for a while I found a good spot to rest. I was sitting in the shade in Lieutenant Dan and looked down and noticed that the tire was flat. Well no wonder it had been so hard to push all day.

I repaired the innertube and it seemed to be holding up so I put the wheel on and let it sit for a few minutes. I called the Osage City Police Department to let them know that I was coming through and to see if they had a place or me to set up my tent. The woman who answered was very nice and extremely helpful. That lifted my spirits a lot.

I tried pushing through the trail for another couple of hours before finally saying eff it. I walked half a mile south to get onto a busy road with no shoulder. I had about 3 miles left to go. It was going to be an interesting hour.

It was pretty hectic but most people were being nice as they passed. There are always a couple of a holes and a couple of idiots and that’s just part of it I guess… it was still better than that stupid trail.

It was blazing hot at this point. Domino was in the stroller under a makeshift canopy for shade. I was rocking my straw hat and that was it. No sunscreen, no nothing. I didn’t care. I just wanted to get to my destination asap. I walked quickly and had no choice but to keep a constant eye on traffic.

Some of the scenery was beautiful but I had no time to take pictures. I passed a couple of fireworks stores that I wished I would’ve gone into. It would be fun to have a few for the 4th. I’m sure I’ll find somewhere else though.

I made it into town and went to the police station to say hello and thank them for helping out. The officer that I spoke with was very nice. I set up my tent in the shade and walked across the street with Domino to Sonic. We both had a good last meal together and I had enough ice cream for the two of us.

We just laid around after that. I was doing phone stuff and planning out tomorrow. I am right next to a convenient store so I popped in there a few times for snacks and drinks and facilities. I had to move my tent twice to keep under the shade. I was just laying there with the windows opened to lay in the shade with a nice breeze.

I was laying there and I get a fb message saying that they stopped using a very powerful and dangerous drug all because of what I was doing for my sister. I don’t want to say the persons name or the drug that he was using out of respect for privacy.

I was so happy to hear that though. He said that he heard about my walk somehow and he thought, “if he can do that for his sister than I can do this for myself.”

Wow! This is exactly what I hoped that someone would do. He said that I saved his life. I gave all credit to Brittany. This made my day, my week, my month, my year! I can’t wait to go visit this person when I’m done walking. Maybe his story will help someone else and so on and so on. That’s what it’s all about right there!!!! Not a bad way to end the day..

I’ll talk more about how I feel about Domino leaving in tomorrow’s post…