July 16th, 2009

 

24.5 Miles

Pulling this handcart almost 50 miles in the last 2 days has taken its toll on my joints and everything else that has a moving part.  I put two days into one so I could have a day off on this coming Monday because I am scheduled to do some media, etc., at the Archway monument in Kearney, so I will need the extra time.

The day started off with some threatening clouds on the horizon and within an hour, I was getting dumped on.  I thought that I would deal with it, as the pioneers did, and within moments, I was soaked to the bone.  It was coming down so hard that I could hardly see, so I stood under a tree for a moment, but that didn’t help, and then I squatted under my handcart, but the wind was blowing the rain in sideways.  So here I am kneeling on my arthritic knees in the pouring down rain, soaked and cold and now the lightning started.  I saw no end in sight, so I took cover inside of my truck until it let up and then started walking again, only this time I was soaked and cold.  I’ve lost some weight and my suspenders were the only thing holding up my pants that now weighed twice as much.  Then within a couple of hours, it was sunny again and now I had 80% + humidity.  My clothes dried out, but my shoes and socks never did and so I

developed new blisters from walking in wet shoes all day. I thought that I would never get here.  I pulled for around 13 hours and by the time I got to a place that we could sleep, set up my tent and eat, it was dark.  I am typing this on the following morning just because I couldn’t even move last night.  So I am starting out late today, at around 10AM but my day is only around 16 miles, so hopefully I can make up the time.  I had a glass of powdered milk this morning for breakfast and it tasted like a milkshake to me.

By the way… here is the next meal that I have been craving.  A fried egg sandwich with real cheese melted on top and three pieces of extra crispy bacon on top of that.  Put some butter on one side of the toasted whole wheat bread and mayo on the other and add a large glass of cold milk and hmmmmmm… and I can’t wait. And…. If I were out in the country a little bit, I would be having turkey tonight.  There have been 3 toms and a couple of hens in our camp site all night and I would have shot one, but the good citizens of Grand Island might not appreciate me shooting up the local park.  So… lets think about this, if I could have shot one but didn’t, doesn’t that mean that I can have some turkey from the store?  I think so… maybe just a little bit.  Hmmmmm….