Day 123, August 4, 2012

 I woke up at about 9am. I was on the concrete floor of a baseball dugout in Santa Rosa NM. My knees were more sore today than they have been yet. I was really worried again.
       I was just about to pack my things when a black SUV pulled up behind me. My first instinct was that it was a cop. So I was getting my things together. Then when I looked back a family got out of the car and looked at me. Then they said "we have been following your journey". I was really surprised. I couldn't believe they had tracked me down. They were coming from Albuquerque and going back to Texas and wanted to stop and see me. I was so relieved and happy.
       They had figured out where the baseball field was by driving around near the McDonald they knew I was at the day before. They had brought me a pack of supplies. It had snacks and toiletries also. That was really cool that they stopped and made such an effort to come help me. We talked a little while and then they headed out.
        I packed my stuff up and headed out. There was a truck stop about 3 miles ahead at the edge of town. So I figured I would walk there and see how I felt, then make a decision on whether to keep going or to take another rest day for my knees.
         So when I was at the edge of town, the truck stop that my gps showed was not there. In fact, nothing was there and it was the end of town with nothing ahead. My knees did not feel great but there was no way I was turning around to add mileage. So I walked very slow and carefully ahead.
      Right out of town there was a long hill that I tenderly and slowly climbed. Once I reached the top, the interstate leveled out for a while. I saw a sign that showed a gas station about 6 miles up. So I wanted to make it there before stopping.
      I walked there at a slow pace but finally made it. It was about 10 miles total from town. I stopped there and went inside. It was just one gas station there with nothing else around. Inside there was a small grill and some booth seats. So I sat there next to an outlet and relaxed. I had a vibe from the people looking at me that I wasn't allowed there unless I was a customer. So I bought a fountain drink and a hot dog for about $3 total.
        I got there at about 1:30. At around 2:30 I noticed two guys out front broken down. They were looking under their hood and seemed to be having bad luck. I saw one of them come in and say his cell phone had no service and asked to use the phone there. They said they weren't allowed to let costumers use the phone. That was pretty dumb. I felt bad for the guy.
        So I approached him and said I had a call app he could use but I wasn't sure how good it would work. He was really thankful and he called a friend. I guess they were driving from Minnesota to Arizona and had about $500 for the trip. But their car kept having problems along the way and they spent more than they expected. He was talking to his friend asking if he might be able to send him money.
       After he was off he was so nervous and shaking. He said he didn't have a family and was moving to Arizona for a job. I gave him $10 even though I only have about $40 left. He was really thankful and needed to buy an alternator. He went back outside and I got a hold of a church in Santa rosa. I told them the situation and asked if they could help or had any ideas? They gave me the police dispatcher number and the cops had said they could give them a ride to town if they needed to go get a part or whatever. I let the guys know and they were really thankful.
        I sat there until about 6:30 when I decided to try and get down the road a little more and see how my knees felt. Before I left I saw that there was a guy looking at the dudes car. I went up and the man was helping them get to town and was gonna pitch in whatever the guys didn't have so they could get an alternator and get back on the road. That was cool and made me happy.
       I left walking and still went very slow and easy. My knees still felt sore but weren't in as much pain as before. I ended up walking about 8 more miles when the sunset. After It was down and starting to get dark, I pulled off an exit with nothing at all. There was a gate over a cattle guard where I snuck under. I went to a clear sand spot and made my bed. It wasn't hidden but there was nothing there and no cars getting off, so I felt it was an ok spot. I fell asleep around 10 that night. I slept pretty comfortably even though I woke up a lot. It was a full moon and the brightness actually woke me up often. It was weird.

     

Day 122, August 3, 2012

 I woke up around 9. I had decided the day before I was going to take the day off and rest, so I pretty much slept as long as I could. When I woke up I took my sweet time getting up.
       Once I was up and packed I went into McDonald's and ordered a breakfast burrito for a dollar. I sat near an outlet where I could keep an eye on my cart outside.
        My knees were actually hurting more today than they were the night before. I was a little worried about that and really was hoping the next morning they would feel better from resting them all day.
        I stayed at McDonald's and wrote my journals. I also called a few friends and family members off a free phone call app I had. It works when I have good wifi, and the McDonald's wifi is pretty good.
        It was nice talking with them. Since I started day 1 of this walk, I havnt seen anyone I knew when I started the whole way. I really miss my family and friends back at home. I talked to my mom for almost 2 hours too and it was really cool. It's amazing how the Internet can give you free tools like that to make phone calls and text.
         At about 3 I glanced outside and noticed it was sprinkling. I went out and threw my tarp over my cart. When I came back in it was suddenly high gusting winds and pouring rain. I watched as the wind ripped my tarp off. I ran outside and had to really wrap my tarp around my cart and bungee it nice and tight to keep it on. Glad I picked up those bungees I found along side the highway.
        I sat there through the storm and figured it was a good thing I took the day off. It could have been ugly if I was in the middle of nowhere in the storm. After a while lightening was striking down nearby and it was really an intense storm. I looked at the weather and it said it was going to rain through the night. I was worried about finding cover. So I looked on my gps satellite to see what was around. I found a baseball field down the street and decided I could try to camp out in the dugout.
       So I left the McDonald's around 7:30 so I had a little sunlight to find a spot to sleep. I walked about a half mile down the hill and got to the baseball field. I was not too happy with how bad my knees were hurting just on that short walk. But the good news was that the dugout at the baseball field was covered and it was pretty dead around the area so it was a good spot. The only thing I worried about was if the wind picked up I would still get soaked as there was just a chain link fence all around the sides of it.
        I made my bed there and my knees still hurt bad. They just felt awkward like they were not lined up right or something. I took some Advil and put my legs up on the bench to somewhat elevate them. They felt relieved at least for the moment. I laid there a while until I was really tired. Then I put my legs down and slept on the concrete there on the dugout floor.
       I slept ok. There were two centipede type bugs that got into my sleeping bag and were crawling on my legs that woke me up. And then the rain poured around 3am that also woke me up. Luckily there was no wind and the rain fell straight down. So I stayed dry all night.

   
     

Day 121, August 2, 2012

  I woke up at about sunrise. I laid there a little while and it was really pretty. By the time I finally got up the sun was out and it was warm. I packed my stuff and was feeling ready and rested. I hit the road around 7:30am.
       I had about 20 miles to go to get to Santa Rosa NM. I headed west on the frontage road and it was very peaceful. About a mile up there was a little town that I didn't know was there. It was Cuervo NM. I passed through there and it was pretty much a ghost town. At the west end of town the frontage ended and it forced you to get onto the 40. So I crossed over and hopped onto the shoulder against traffic.
         I was ready to get to a town and rest my body for a day. My knees were hurting and my body needed a break. So I got onto a roll and was really walking a fast pace. I was on a roll and knocked out the first ten miles no problem. The second half of the day was where things got tough.
       My knees starting feeling a little more pain around miles 13-14. I could feel a very deep and on and off sharp pain. It felt like my knee would twist a little each step because it was tired, and in the slight twist or shift, it would strain something. Possibly a tendon.

        I got about 6 miles east of Santa rosa when the little pain starting feeling worse. It was becoming a steep uphill slope also, and I wanted to get to town so I could rest them. Finally the last few miles were downhill. I thought that was gonna be easier, but because I have to pull my cart back from rolling down fast, it put an even more akward pressure on my knees.
        I walked the last miles or so very slowly. I was really not happy about this pain and it worried me quite a bit. I was hoping a day off would help them out. So I finally got to a McDonald's there in town and it was nice to have things around after being in bare desert so much. I went to the McDonalds and sat down. Usually once I sit down it feels good, but sitting was almost worse as the pain in my knees was still there and now all I was thinking about. And I couldn't get comfortable. This was the fist time I had this problem. Again I was worrying.
       I sat in McDonald and ate a Mcchicken and had a drink. I arrived there around 2:30 and sat in there until about 11pm. When I was ready to go to bed I walked out behind McDonalds and found a spot behind some desert bushes on a rock. It was not landscape but natural terrain. I made my bed on this huge rock where me and my stuff were hidden. I stayed up until about 12 when I fell asleep there. There were some little thin needle type things poking me through my sleeping bag. They must have been whatever grew on the bush next to me. Those would poke me whenever I would roll around through the night. That was a little annoying, but other than that I slept decent. And decent out here means about 4-5 hours waking up every 30 minutes or so from bugs or noise.

   

Day 120, August 1, 2012

 I woke up at around 8:30am. I was surprised I woke up that early. I had slept as long as I could since I fell asleep the night before at about 3:30 or 4am. I slept pretty good aside from a huge beetle that kept crawling on my legs after the sun came up. I didn't zip my sleeping bag up since it wasn't very cold.
         When I woke up I could see out from under the bridge to the east bound side of the freeway. But just a little bit. I could see the wheels of a big rig stopped there. It was weird because it was pulled over on the bridge part of the interstate where there was a railing and not much room. So I was confused.
       So I packed up and brushed my teeth. When I was ready I pushed my cart under the freeway to a frontage road I didn't see the night before. When I climbed up and got onto the road I saw the freeway and was shocked! The entire east bound side of the interstate was completely stopped as far as I could see and people were outside walking around. It was in the middle of no where too so I was confused. All I could think of was there must have been a pretty bad accident up ahead in the distance. The people were outside visiting and walking around. It looked like they were stopped for a while now. It was funny too that I pooped out from under the bridge and the people stopped right there were staring at me.
         So I started walking west on the frontage road. I walked for a few miles before I saw the traffic slowly began moving. It was a trip seeing all the people standing around for those few miles. Entertaining to me for sure.
        I walked about 6 miles to get to a tiny town called Montoya. There was about 10 houses there and about 7 of them looked abandoned and falling apart. No gas station or anything at all to fill my waters. I was actually getting low on my top water and was thinking I might have to break into my emergency water I have stored bungied onto my frame underneath. I hadn't done that yet but it didn't look like much ahead for a ways. A guy from Australia here driving across the country stopped and gave me a cold drink. Man that was so good to have!
            So I continued walking. It was getting really hot and I was trying to conserve water the best I could. The frontage road zig zagged over the freeway a couple times and then at one point it broke off away from the freeway.
            I noticed a sign on the freeway that said rest stop next exit, and I hoped the frontage road had access into it so I could get water. But it didn't and to get there I would have had to double back for miles. So I just kept going really hoping for a stop ahead soon with water.
           It was beating down heat now. The water I was drinking was so hot it burned my throat. So I had to swish it around in my mouth first to cool it down a bit, then swallow. It literally felt like boiling water. Hard to tolerate that for sure.
          Finally I ran out of top water. I stopped and opened a water from underneath on my frame. It was about 2 liters of water and it was also scorching hot. Just stopping to get the water I could feel the heat and it took a toll on me.
          When I started walking again I began to feel my hands shake and my shoulders shake too like the muscles were tired and weak. My mouth was so dry and the hot water didn't seem to help. I was starting to get VERY tired and really hot. So then I knew I needed to stop. I looked around and there was no shade. So I kept going hoping for something in the desert to stop in shade.
       My head was hurting and I was really dizzy. Finally I saw a bridge ahead! I walked slowly up to it and it was hard just to keep walking. I got to the bridge and rolled off the road. I hid my cart behind a small hill of dirt and then grabbed some stuff and hiked under it into the shade.
         I laid some stuff down and laid in the shade. I was exhausted. When I laid down I felt so weak and even laying there my legs were shaking still. I drank hot water, not because I was thirsty, but because I was dehydrated and knew I needed it. I sat there 10 minutes and it was silent. I felt like everything was delayed. I don't even remember falling asleep.
          I woke up and didn't know where I was at. I sat up frantically and ran up to see where my cart was. After I saw it I calmed down. Then I sat back under the bridge. As I sat there I felt much better physically. But I was having some very alone thoughts. I was thinking I was possibly dreaming. Is this real? Where am I? Am I actually stranded and have been here for days and just don't realize it? Am I out of water? I quickly looked to my water jug that I was pretty sure was there. When I saw it had water I calmed down again. Then I wondered, maybe I'm still sleeping though and I am out of water, and this is a dream. I sat there 20 minutes when finally after continuing to drink water I snapped out of it. As the sun lowered and clouds blocked the sunlight, my mind was at ease as I knew the cool night was coming soon.
        I sat there about an hour and then felt much better. I for sure didn't want to tweet about my thoughts, or put them on Facebook. Then I know people will worry and freak out. So I kept calm and just dealt with it on my own. I even had the thought that I was only imagining I had contact to the world.
       I started walking shortly after that and felt better. When I went to access my gps I saw that I didnt have signal. A quick thought back to imagining my outside communication came back, but I checked it and confirmed to myself it was just a bad area with no signal.
        I was almost out of the 2 liters of water when I came to a tiny little village. The frontage road came back to the freeway and ran along side it too now. I could then see that up ahead there was a gas station! Such a relief! I walked up to it and went in and bought a canned soda. I pounded it and then sat outside to gather my thoughts. I looked around for a hose but didn't see anything. Then I went back in and asked the man if there was somewhere I could fill some water jugs. He said yes and showed my where it was outside.
       So I filled about 4 jugs up and was so relieved. I had about 26 miles to get to Santa Rosa NM. I was feeling much better and decided to walk as the sunset. If I could get 6 miles in before bed, that would be 24 for the day, and would leave 20 to get to Santa rosa.
      I walked and watched such a pretty sunset. I really enjoyed that and it was about an hour of such a great reassuring feeling that everything will be alright. I thought of ideas for helping people after this journey, and it was a good amount of time where I was very connected to myself and everything around me. It's really fascinating how sloppy and unsure I can be, and then hours later, I can be so sure and have things together. Such a wide range from the highs and lows out here and in such a short time between them. Really interesting. Even writing these journals I'm sure you can see some of the days where I try and write and am just not 100% with it. Those are days and times I'm sloppy/tired/losing hope. And then some entries I am tested and I find myself very together, and things are more crisp and clear...
        So after I figured I had gone about 6 miles I found a spot to lay down. It was pretty rough but it seemed a good choice for what was available. It was a driveway that went to a huge tower. It was all that was around. So I laid my sleeping bag down right next to the gate in some rocks. I laid down there on the sloped driveway and was very tired. It was pretty windy and the moon was extremely bright. So bright I could see everything around. I was still along the frontage road next to the freeway but there were no cars on the frontage, so I had a good feeling I wouldn't be seen there. I fell asleep around 11.

     

Day 119, July 31, 2012

  I woke up at about 7:30am. I felt the sun warming my sleeping bag. The weather said it was gonna be 106 today, so I planned to only walk a little in the morning and then stay cool during the hot part of the day.
       I got up and packed. I went back across the street to fill up my waters at the McDonald's. I left there around 8:15. It was about 10 miles to an exit just west of Tucumcari. After the exit it was pretty much bare desert for a while as far as I knew. So I started walking on I-40 and hoped to get there before it was gonna heat up.
         The walk was mostly uphill but I was really on a roll and pushing hard. I think I was going faster than normal since I had to get into a groove. I couldn't believe how fast I made the 10 miles. I came to the exit and there was a gas station/dairy queen in one. To get to it you had to cross a cattle guard. It was all bare desert rolling hills as far as you could see around there.
        I went in and it was about 11:30. I ordered a drink and sat in a booth where I found an outlet. It was a pretty small place and the employees were looking at me. I was hoping they didn't mind that I sat there all day.
          I ended up staying there and relaxing out of the heat. At around 6 I heard someone at the counter say "he rode here from Oregon". I looked outside and saw a guy on a bike. So I went out there to meet him. His name is Joe. He graduated from Oregon State and wanted to do something after college, so he decided to ride a bike across America to DC and making a stop in Oklahoma to visit a friend.
       We talked for about 2 hours! He was such a cool dude! He was really roughing it homeless too and we were able to relate on a very high level of how we experience living this way. It was really cool. Before he left we exchanged info and are able to message back and forth and stuff. I was so interested in his trip and how he has made it so far. I for sure wanted to keep up with him.
       We both left there as the sun was starting to set. I felt good and wanted to get a little night stretch in before calling it a night. I was gonna have to rough it along side of the highway, but I was willing to do that.
       I walked until it was about 10 where I was wanting to find a spot. There wasn't much around besides just a small piece of land off the shoulder before a barb wire fence was up about 15 feet off the highway. So I kept walking when finally I came to a dry creek. I saw it down a little slope with my flash light. So I rolled my cart down the slope through the weeds and grass. I was using my light to look at each step ahead incase of snakes or anything in the dead tall grass.
      When I got down to the dry creek it was actually not bad. It was pure sand and soft. There was a bridge where there were about 5 square concrete tubes going under the interstate. I flashed my light into one and it was clean and bare. I walked into it hunched down a bit. When I was under there it was way quieter. So I went back out and pushed my cart into it and it just fit perfectly. I pushed it about 10 ft in and then made my bed there right next to it. It was just wide enough to lay my sleeping bag across it in the soft sand. It turned out to be a good clean spot.
      Just when I laid down and was about to go to sleep around 10:30, I had a tweet from a man named Corey Brooks. He was also walking across America with a crew. He and his crew are raising money against violence and to build a big youth center in one of the most violent cities in America, south Chicago.
      Corey Brooks was nominated for an award in Vegas, so they were stopping their walk in St Louis MIssouri to head to the ceremony in Vegas, then they're headed back to continue the walk after the weekend. So he had tweeted me and said they were on their way down the 40 and wanted to stop and see me!
        I was so excited as I have followed their journey and love what they are doing. So I had to stay up a while and wait, but I didn't care. I stayed up until 2:15 when they had said they were getting close. So I put my reflective vest on and went up to the shoulder to wave them down. Before they got there a cop turned around on the interstate and came speeding back to me.
      The cop got out of his car and came up to me slowly. He asked what I was doing out there. Then I realized the truth I was about to tell him was going to sound insane. But I told him "I'm walking across America, and another group walking across America is coming to see me because they were on their way to Vegas to an award ceremony". He looked at me like I had just smoked a pound of crack. Mind you, it's 2:30am now. So then he asked for my license while still looking at me very weirdly. He took my license and told me to stay there.
        So about 2 minutes later, here comes this RV driving up with a huge wrap all around it saying they are walking across America. I was so happy they pulled up then so that the cop would see I wasn't just a clown lookalike crackhead standing on the interstate with a reflective orange vest on at 2:30 in the morning. This group of about 10 guys came walking back and one of them had a huge video camera. Then the cop came walking out like he was in a dream. I think he was really trippin.
       So we sat there on the side of the freeway and shared stories and what we are both enduring. It was really cool and we connected deeply. Even though I felt like a zombie and was exhausted, it was a great 30 minutes of visiting. The cop stood there the entire time just listening and he looked blown away. They said a prayer for me before leaving and it was a powerful experience. Corey is a person I look up to. Not so much his faith (although strong) but more of his dedication to helping communities with his sacrifice. I really see him and what he does as a model for what I would someday dream of doing. I hugged them before they left and they also gave me a shirt and a camel back. Very nice people.
       After they left the cop walked up to me, he then had a look of admiration. He shook my hand and said he really appreciated what I was doing. He then said to be safe and to be careful sleeping under the bridge. It was really cool to see how he went from being very unsure of me at first, to now having a powerful validation of my journey. It was awesome. He left then too.
        So there I was alone again at about 3:30am, maybe 4;00, I can't remember. I turned my flash light on and hiked back down the hillside. I hunched down back under the bridge and went to where my sleeping bag was laid out. I laid down and was extremely tired now. I fell right asleep.