I laid there from 5am on hearing the loud thumps as the tires entered and exited the bridge. The traffic was picking up now and it would make the thump noise every 10 seconds or so. There was no way I could sleep through that. The noise was pretty loud.
I had maybe an hour of sleep and I just felt the weight of how tired I was weighing down on my eyes. I just felt a thickness in my thoughts and my head was heavy feeling too.
I laid there until about 9am when I knew I needed to get up and start walking before it was so late that I would be walking in the hot part of the day. The next town was Electra, 16 miles ahead.
So I got up and in a dizzy state I packed my things up. I noticed my hips and knees hurt a little more than usual. The concrete slab I slept on was on a slope so I had weight pushing me down that put an awkward and constant pressure on my hips when I laid on my side. Which I normally do.
After I packed I started walking. I felt very drained and like I could fall asleep in about a minute if I had a couch and air conditioning. But the next air conditioning I had was 16 miles ahead. And just a hard chair most likely rather than a couch.
I walked back onto the 287 and headed north. It didn't seem too hot compared to other mornings, so that was a plus. I walked about 13 miles non stop. I wanted to get to Electra early so I could relax. I was exhausted.
At about 13 miles in a car pulled off in front of me. A guy came walking towards me and said "nick?". I smiled and said "hey!" I figured it was a twitter follower. He shook my hand and was happy to have found me. His boss had told him and some guys they work with about my walk (Parts Unlimited) and they were checking up on me. I was very thankful. That lifted me up after a hard morning. He asked what I needed and I didn't really need to ask for anything so I said I was pretty covered. But then he insisted on giving me something. He started listing things like "food? Money? Water?". I knew he wanted to help somehow. He said there was a sonic in the last town and he could run back, so I said "ya some food will help". So he drove back to the town and went to order me food.
He came back out and met me down the road again a little further up. He brought me 2 chicken wraps and a slushy drink. The drink really hit the spot as I drank it right away. He pulled out a $20 and handed it to me. At first I said "no, I really don't need it". But he said, "I hear you help others, so you can share it". That was cool. I took the $20 at that point. He gave me a few bags of trail mix too and then we parted ways. I was very thankful and felt much better after that as I walked on.
I finally came to the little town of Electra. A small place where everything was very brown and old. It was very plain looking and just had a rusty kind of vibe. I walked up to a gas station where there was a subway. I went in and there was a booth there with an outlet.
I bought a drink in there and sat down at about 2:00pm. I was so tired and it felt good to be sitting and not exercising in the heat. I sat there the rest of the day watching people come in and out. A very country town with a lot of oil wells. A lot of grimy workers came in real dirty to get drinks and cool off. It was about all there was in the town so it was the hot spot.
At around 8:30pm I left there and walked a couple blocks. There was an old abandoned baseball field there and I crept in there and settled me and my cart into the dugout. The ground was dirt so I put my tarp down and then sleeping bag on top of it. It was out of sight as the outfield was just marsh land beyond the fence with no houses or buildings. It was basically the last thing on the west end of town. The feild was dry and looked like it had not been used in a while. But it was a good spot to be hidden for a long nights rest.
I fell asleep around 10:30 and with the exception of waking up from beetles a handful of times, I slept ok. Maybe a little above average nights rest compared to the norm.
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