June 15th, 2009

 

12.8 miles

Left Grinnell at 7:15 this morning and went South of town to catch original trail for about four miles because of the only handcart grave still left in IA.  It is a baby that is 19 months old, named Job Welling.  This child was on my grandmothers handcart train and died of canker.  They carried him 10 miles before they were able to bury him.  I can’t imagine the sorrow of those parents having to leave their baby on the side of the trail.  It wasn’t as hard walking country dirt roads as I thought but I had to pull up the steepest hill so far.

We are a novelty wherever we go and people stop and take photos alongside the road.  Apparently when leaving Grinnell this morning, someone called the local

radio news station to ask who I was and what was happening.  He didn’t know, so he jumped in his car and interviewed me out on the trail.  We did a lot of video recording and talked to quite a few people, so it took a little longer to make the trek today for the miles traveled.  I had the Mormon missionaries walk with me for a short while today.  They carried each other in the cart and one of the young men weighed close to 250!  Now that’s a lot of flour.

Cool weather today and good for walking.  Rained a couple of times but nothing significant.  My feet did better today but they are still painful.  It seems that all of my other ailments are secondary to my feet.  Looking forward to a short walk tomorrow of a little less than 9 miles.