Day 114–4th of July
Got a late start this morning. It was actually cold and foggy when I woke up. I had an inspiring idea and decided to go with it. I created the Overdose Happens group on Facebook. I was glad to see that people responded well to it. I was touched actually. I have a lot of ideas on how to continue this work even after the walk. I’m excited about it.
I got started walking and everything went really well. Basically just hours of great walking. At times I felt like I was walking across America in the frontier days and I imagined buffalo roaming the hills instead of all the cattle that I saw. I was on paved roads all day and that was great. No issues with the tires.
I was about 20 miles or so into my day and I came across a sign that said there was a wildlife refuge with a lake that had camping. It was 2 miles on gravel roads and then another mile to get to the campgrounds. It wasn’t my plan for the day but it sounded too good to pass up. Supposedly it is 2000 acres of land with buffalo on it.
I turned onto the gravel road and within half a mile my innertube popped. Ugh. There were some wicked hills and I didn’t feel like patching it when I was so close to “home”. I just fought through it. I didn’t see one dang buffalo. It was hot. I was starting to think I made the wrong choice.
I finally got to the campground and damn near passed out when I sat down. There was a large Hispanic family at the campsite next to me and a few other people fishing around the lake. I sat down and cooled off and caught my breath.
While I was setting my tent up, a guy came over and asked if I wanted food. I couldn’t refuse. It smelled so good. They all sorts of Mexican awesomeness. I pigged out and talked to them in Spanglish about my walk.
Once everyone left, the sun started to set and it was just me out here. There are some people in a cabin about a mile or so away that have some serious fireworks. They’ve been shooting them off for hours. A man and his dog pulled up and he got out and came over to talk. He had mental health issues. Real nice guy just hard to talk to when your patience is slim. All I wanted to do was lay down and go to sleep. I was nice though and actually ended up highly enjoying our conversation.
He had just come out to walk his dog so when I said that I needed to turn in he wished me well and left. I have a great spot all to myself right by a pretty lake. The fireworks should stop soon I assume. Or not. I don’t really care. I grew up with 5000 kids in my house. I can tune out anything.
The next 3 days are supposed to be in the 100s. Shit is going to get interesting. I have to force myself to get started early tomorrow.
So it looks as if you found the last payphone left in America !!! Stay safe………