Day 81, June 23, 2012

 I woke up on Day 81 feeling the heat warming me up. When I opened my eyes I noticed a piece of paper next to me on the floor with a rock on top of it. I grabbed the paper and read it. It was from the pastors wife who was in the next room the night before and overheard our conversation. The paper said that she left the door to the church open and to go inside and wash up using some wash cloths she had set out for me in the bathroom. It also said she can relate to my search of truth out here as she went through a similar stage in life. And also said she will be praying for me.
         So I got up and packed my stuff, then I went inside to wash up. It was cool in there and it felt good. I went into the bathroom and stripped down to bathe. I used the wash cloths to scrub myself down. It was refreshing and felt great to clean up half way decent. Have really learned to be thankful for that out here. I washed my hair and brushed my teeth. It felt good. I dried the wet floor with another wash cloth.
        I sat on a bench inside the church and patched some of the blisters on my left foot. They were hurting pretty good so I wrapped them up and put blister band aids over them. It was a tough morning and I did not sleep well. My spirits were low.
         I went to put on my shoes and I saw something inside my shoe near the toe front part inside. I banged my shoe on the ground and a huge spider crawled out! It was pretty big. Maybe about the size of a dollar bill folded in half. It ran under a bench and I couldn't get to it to kill it. I just hoped nobody would be frightened from it after I left.
       I left a note telling them thanks and I will appreciate their prayers. I headed out to get to wills point about 4 miles up. I was beat tired, and my feet were still tender. So I figured it was a good day for a rest. I came to a dairy queen there in town. Just before the dairy queen there was a car wash going on to support a dance team. So I h\gave the lady out by the street with a sign $2. She looked at me very confused and then said thanks. It was priceless. I don't think people expect me to give money away when I'm pushing a cart and have long, non groomed hair and a beard.
       As I was walking into the dairy queen a man walked up to me from the parking lot and gave me $10. It was literally 2 minutes after I gave my $2 away. It was awesome and paying it forward came right back to me in a bigger amount.
         I went into dairy queen and ordered a chicken sandwich. I sat down and was relaxing there. I was so tired I was dozing off while sitting up. I was trying to get caught up writing these blog posts but couldn't find the energy to start. My mind was scrambled and way out of focus. It was hard to even keep my eyes open.
         I ended up having some twitter followers come and visit me there. That made me feel a lot better and lifted my spirits. It was 3 guys and they brought me some supplies too. We sat and talked for about 2 hours. Man it felt great to have company. Always seems to help me out. Just the company does so much for me. Even if someone came with nothing but just to visit, that would still be awesome!
          After they left I hit another wall. I was so tired and really hadn't slept that great in a while. I sat there til about 7. I went over to a church a couple blocks away to check out if it was a place I could stay. It wasn't really hidden but I laid down on the front steps anyways to lay down. I fell asleep there for about an hour. A car had pulled up and woke me up around 9. They didn't say anything but sat there and looked at me. So I took off.
         I walked west down the 80 trying to spot a place to sleep. I had to walk a few miles until I finally found a spot. It was behind a hardware store in a grassy area. It was out of sight of any houses or anything and was soft grass. I made camp there. I laid down around 9:30 but couldn't fall asleep. I ended up awake until almost 1am. I finally fell asleep there. The visitors that day had brought me more powerful bug spray so I used that and the bugs were not that heavy that night. So that was a plus.