Day 109

Woke up in a tent between a police station and a gas station. I went into the gas station bathroom to change my shirt, socks, and undies. I grabbed a breakfast sandwich and a protein shake and took off to walk through town to get back onto the trail. 

On googlemaps I saw that there was a place called “Tightwad Bank.” I really wanted to get a picture of the sign so I walked a couple of blocks out of the way to get there. When I got there, there was no sign of anything ever being there under such a name. Funny thing is that I noticed a town called “Tightwad” back in Missouri and I think it’s a paper town. Google paper town of you haven’t heard of it. Anyways, I’m on the hunt for a real Tightwad Bank if there is one. If not, then it’s pretty cool that I stumbled upon someone’s creation of a place called “Tightwad”. Hahaha

I got on the trail and only made it a couple of miles before saying screw it and I went to highway 56. It was actually way better. There weren’t that many cars and it was still early enough to not be blazing hot yet. There were some pretty big hills though. I’m entering the Flint Hills area and I was warned about it. Highway 56 is actually part of the American Discovery Trail. I’m assuming that they will make the Flint Hills trail a part of it when it is finished but right now there is a lot of work to be done to make this trail walkable. 
On the highway it was smooth sailing and up and down hills. I let Domino ride down the hills and made her walk up them. I got sad when she was taking her last steps. We came upon a bridge that I decided to stay under for shade. This is where Mark would be meeting me to pick up Domino. Domino needs a vacation. She is going to go back home and be normal for a few weeks or more until it cools down some. 
I didn’t want her to go and I know that I could’ve gotten her all the way across. She just wasn’t enjoying it though. She doesn’t do well in the heat at all. There’s no glory in this for her. She’s only doing it because I am and all she knows is to follow me if she wants to eat and be loved on every now and again. She did great. I am so proud of her and can’t wait to get her back out here. 

I am also glad to not have to worry about her for a while. Every single decision that I made, I had to factor her into the equation. She limited where I could go and she added a lot of weight for all her supplies. There are a lot of good things about going solo for a while. I’ll still miss her though! 

Mark arrived and his daughter was just waking up after a long road trip to come out to get Dom. It was so nice of them to come out to help me. They were taking Domino back to meet with Amber, who would be taking Domino down to Georgia to my Aunt’s house. 

I said my goodbyes to Domino and the whole scene was surreal. Mark had a natural business man sense of urgency and seemed to be rushing things although that’s not what he was doing. I wanted to talk to his daughter some but she was just waking up. And I was crying on the inside about domino. Just chaos inside my head. I also had to make sure that Mark and Amber were able to sort things out. 
Everything was fine when he drove away. I took a moment to shake the chaos away and breathe. I shifted things around in my stroller and got ready to do what I do… walk. 

I had a pretty big hill to climb and then another that was even higher. When I got to the top of the highest one I turned around to look back. There have been a few moments like this on my walk. I turn around and see way beyond the landscape. I see where I came from. I see memories from miles away. I saw domino riding off to Georgia. I turned back around and walked farther and farther away from everything  I know.

It took a few moments to feel again, but once my emotions came back I felt relieved actually. Don’t tell domino. It was nice to only have to worry about me. I’m easy to take care of. Very low maintenance. I was happy. I needed this change of pace. I feel like I just started again. 

I passed by some horses and they wanted to play. I stopped and walked over to the fence and they came right up to me. I pet them and thanked them for letting me know that everything is going to be alright. 

I came into the town of Allen. There was a restaurant on map and I figured I’d grab dinner and scope out a place to camp. Well the restaurant was only opened 10-2. The town had that restaurant, a post office the size of a snickers bar, an old hotel turned into a private residence, and maybe 3 or 4 other buildings. It was an old railroad town. When they took the railroad away, the town went down with it. 

The map showed that they had a ballpark though. I can usually find a pavillion or at least somewhere to charge my phone. I was thinking that I may even be able to camp in one of the dugouts or something if they had some cover. 
I walked over and some kids were playing on the playground and a woman was watching them from the picnic area. I wanted that spot but wasn’t to just go crashing their party. I walked around them and they said hello and I cut across the lawn when I saw a water fountain. The woman asked if I needed some amenities and I told her that I needed water and a place to charge my phone. I also asked if she knew if I could camp on the park property or not. 

She didn’t know but she said that she lives next door and that I could camp in her yard. Awesome! That may not sound like much but it’s a huge huge favor to someone like me. I talked to the kids for a while about not taking medicine unless their parents give it to them because they could take too much and get sick or even die. The woman appreciated that I used the word medicine instead of drugs. 

They asked all sorts of fun questions about the walk. I loved talking to them. They all had to go though. The woman, Melissa, told me to hang out for a while and she’d be back to come show me where I could set up. When she came back, she offered a shower and to take me to dinner. I was reluctant to accept at first because I didn’t want to seem to want too much. I was honestly happy as hell to just have permission to camp somewhere. 

It didn’t take much arm twisting for me to finally accept the offer and I showered and then we rode to Emporia for BBQ! Emporia was awesome. It is the founding city of Veterans Day. They started that holiday. They had an amazing Veteran’s Memorial and one of the best Main Streets in America. This was a lot better than sleeping in a dugout.

We ate some amazing food and Melissa got the check. We went back and I said goodbye and thanked her because I knew I would be crashing soon. I laid down and started this very blog post and only made it a few paragraphs in before falling alseep. It’s now the next night and I had to catch up.. 

So now to post tonight’s blog….