September 1st, 2009

 

33.8 Miles!

That’s right, 33.8 miles in one day pulling 217# with a wind that was up to 30 mph at times, my longest day yet.  The reason is that I wasn’t welcome in Jeffrey City WY.  You say that you’ve never heard of Jeffrey City WY?  Me neither until I tried to put a sleeping bag down in this abandoned little town.  It is a ghost town that was thriving in the 50s from the uranium mines and then it went bust in the 80s and the town went from 5000 to 100, so you can get the idea that there is nothing here but abandoned buildings and only one business that still exists, the Split Rock bar and café.  So we found a city park and proceeded to put up a tent and a rotund sheriff drove up next to us and instead of getting out of his pickup he decided that he would turn on his siren to get our attention.  “So… what’er you doin”, he asks.  Now you have to understand that this is the same sheriff that met us outside of town about two hours ago and asked “so…what’er you doin”?  With his vocabulary being limited, I tried to speak in clear concise language.  “Puttin’ up a tent”, he says “ya can’t… this here’s private property”.  I replied, “ya don’t say… sure looks like a city park with the monkey bars and bunch o’ swings”.  “Nope” he says, it’s private property”.

I said, “well I don’t see a no trespassin’ sign anywhere”. Well, you get the idea, he wasn’t about to let me stay in this deserted little town and so I had to pack up my handcart and head on down the road after walking almost 16 miles already.His parting words about me not getting to stay there were, “whatever”.  So between Victor IA, the only other little town that wouldn’t let me stay there and Jeffrey City, I have an idea, why don’t you become sister cities and you could go together and make up a sign that says; “We don’t like strangers in our deserted little town… so you should just keep movin’ on”.

So that is how I walked 16 hours and 33.8 miles yesterday because I was hacked.  I arrived at my next destination at 11:15 PM and walked two long days into one, so I am now three days ahead of schedule again and so I have the ability to prepare in walking a very difficult stretch coming up.  So it is my recommendation that if you are in the vicinity of Jeffrey City, WY, stop in the Split Rock Bar and Café and have a $4.50 cheese sandwich and tell the large rotund sheriff at the end of the counter, “hi” for me.  He’ll remember me for sure.