Day 25

I had a late start this morning after walking 25 miles yesterday. It was hard to get out of bed but I had to. Not only was this the day with the best weather in 2 weeks but I was supposed to meet up with a news reporter and a woman from United We CAN.

Domino got lots of love from the hotel staff as were leaving and we took off down the road. There were a lot of hills that I knew I had to climb today but the elevation is getting lower and lower now that I’m on the other side of the Appalachians.

At the top of Phillipi I went through a college campus thinking it was a shortcut but got lost. I asked a few guys that worked there for directions and was able to spread the message about my walk also. They were impacted and all came together to throw in some money for me and Domino. I wanted to hang out with these guys longer but we all had work to do so I went on..

I finally got to the long road that I’d be traveling on for the rest of the day. It was a gravel road that not too many people know about. I love roads like this because they are so much safer. I was able to let Domino off the leash and relax my mind a little. Dodging traffic really takes a toll on you after a while. It’s nice to hit the small roads and take the alertness that it requires out of the equation.

Domino was being funny today. I’d turn around and she was playing with horses and cows and having a great time. I didn’t mind because she was having fun and would always come running back. I got nervous when she got behind the horse but I hollered and she moved quickly. One kick would end it right there for her. I had to be the strict parent for that one…

The news reporter found me and we got the footage we needed and hung out for a while. We could’ve chatted all day but we both had places to go.. more hills to climb..

I made it about 9 miles from the hotel that I had arranged for tonight and Regina, her daughter Jessie, and her two dogs Ava and Bailey finally found me. They had gotten lost trying to find this backroad that no one knew of. At that point in the day I asked them for a ride to the hotel and we got there and hung out there for a while and I was able to watch the news story as it aired on TV.

Regina does a lot of great work in the recovery community and United We CAN wants to help me when they can along my walk. It was nice to be able to ask her some questions that I had about recovery and get some good answers to help me understand.

Now I get to relax for a while. I’ll work out a ride for tomorrow to take me back to the point I left off at and walk back to this same hotel for another night. So a pretty easy day tomorrow although it will be in the rain. But I’ll finally be able to say that I made it to Clarksburg!  I’ve been trying to get here for a long time now.

I am hoping to get some more media done while I am in a city. And hopefully I can catch up on some of these comments on my blog. It’s hard to keep up on my cell phone. There is a computer at the hotel so I’m going to do my best!!!

Thanks for reading 🙂