It was the 4th of July, so I was thinking of family right away. I missed them a lot and it was probably gonna be a tough day to be alone.
I headed towards Decatur TX. It was about 4 miles away. I wanted to stop at Walmart there to see if they had any small solar panels. As I approached Decatur, a car pulled over in front of me and turned its flashers on. A girl got out and jogged towards me. She said she saw me in Denton a couple days ago. I noticed she had money in her hand. Then she said, "you need money". Since she asked I didn't want to say yes, since I didn't absolutely need it. So I said no thanks but I really appreciated it. She had a $100 bill in her hand. And she said are you sure? She said she was gonna give it to me, but I said I was ok. That was really awesome!
I got to the intersection where I was ultimately going north on 287, but the Walmart was south a half mile. I never like backtracking since it doubles the miles. But I needed a couple things. So I went towards Walmart. Right before Walmart there was a lowes. I figured I would check there first. As I was walking through the parking lot, a car pulled next to me and I heard "hobo nick!". It looked over and it was the family that came to visit me in subway in Denton a few days before. I asked if they were in the area, but they actually drove about an hour to come visit! That was awesome! They gave me a gallon of water, $10, and some gatoraids. I asked if they wanted to hangout or if they had to go? I was Hoping they could stay and visit. They said they had no plans that day. So I told them I would meet them at McDonald's after I got a couple things at the store.
So I went in to see if they had it there. And they did! They were a little pricey, but I wanted it for the long desert runs just incase. And it would be great to keep my stuff charged all day. So I paid $92 for it. But it could save my life.
So I was a little low on money now but still have enough where I'm not seriously worried. Plus if I need to I can be incredibly frugal and eat bread again.
I went to Walmart and got another gallon jug of water, and duct tape. Then I hurried back to the McDonald's across the street to meet them. It was the couple and then 2 kids. It was really awesome and we hungout for a couple hours just sharing stories. It was an awesome surprise and visit for the 4th of July! I was so thankful I got to spend it with some good people. I was happy. I wasn't worried about my trek too much that day either and just took in the pleasure of having company.
They ended up staying til about 3. They went to the store and brought me back dry ice to try out keeping my water jugs cool. I left McDonald's at about 3:30. I headed out north from decatur TX up the 287.
I walked a little ways and my new solar panel was working great! It was charging my iPod right up and I was pretty exited about that. About 4 miles past Decatur, a man pulled over and gave me 2 ice cold cokes. He said its hot and make sure to stay cool out here. It was pretty hot out. The dry ice was also working really good and keeping my waters cool.
So I walked about 12 miles up when my feet really started to hurt. The shoes I was wearing were starting to wear out. I had started using them about half way through Louisianna and they were just about done. The soles were warn down so much that I could feel every little rock on my foot each step. I also felt some blisters coming on, so I pulled off in Alvord TX. It was a very small town with one exit and just 2 gas stations. But the high school was surprisingly really nice! So I ended up going up along side of the high school and found an outlet. I made up my camp on the grass there next to the building.
There were a lot of bugs there and they were constantly crawling all over me. I sprayed my bug spray heavily around my sleeping bag and on myself. But they still crawled on me. I laid there around 9pm hoping to maybe catch some fireworks. I heard a lot but didn't see any. It was a tough night falling asleep alone, but I was still thankful and it meant a lot that the family came out to visit me earlier.
I fell asleep around 11 and still would wake up to a firework boom here and there. And the bugs crawling on my skin woke me up constantly. I also was blasted big time by a sprinkler around 3 am. It popped up right next to me and drenched me and my sleeping bag. I was lucky that my iPod was in my shoe or it would have been soaked. So I moved onto a cement slab next to a side door and passed out again at 4. It took me a while to fall back asleep.
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