July 22nd, 2009

 

9.1 Miles

Short walking day today, and thank goodness for that.  I was finished walking by 10:30AM and the first thing I did was to take a nap, but where am I located?  That’s right… next to the train tracks.  I will be following these tracks for about the next month.  It’s interesting though, as I was on the road and all of these trains go by all day long, those engineers must be curious as to who this old guy with the handcart is that has been walking West for the last few weeks.  Because I’m friendly, at the beginning I would wave, but most of the time I got no reaction.  I felt like a little kid riding by a semi-truck and trying to get them to blow their horn.  Well, these guys must run the same route, over and over and get bored with their routes, so pretty soon when I would wave, they would blow their horn.  Now, when they see me, they open their window open, wave, and blow the horn.  It keeps me entertained when they go by.  So here we are in the middle of NE and we do this supportive salute to each other… the two oldest forms of transportation on the road at this time.  Me pulling an 1856 handcart, and the train, which helped build the West.  Maybe I have too much time on my hands, but I think that it is nostalgic.

We just finished one intense rain and hail storm, just a few minutes ago.  I have photos that I will try and get onto the net asap.  These storms in the Midwest are just crazy, as you have heard me describe them before.  Well I have gotten two phone calls in the last hour telling me that I need to take cover here shortly because there is another storm cell that has the potential for doing some destruction.  I can see it way off on the horizon and I can

hear the thunder in the distance as though it were mortars going off, miles away.  I am waiting to set up my tent so I don’t have to try and keep it in this county. We’ll see how it goes.

Well before the storm gets here, I’m going to make a turkey bone soup stock.  Remember that I shot the two turkeys with my camera and got two turkey legs at WalMart, well after I ate all of the meat, I have been saving the bones so I can boil them and then add a little bit of the barley that I am allowed to have.  Mmmmmm…. Good….. turkey bone soup.

PS.   I came up with something to eat that wasn’t too bad.  I call it “Beg, Borrow, or Stew”.  I had the two turkey bones left from me chewing on them, broke them in half to be able to fit and to get the marrow out from the center and dropped them into about a quart of boiling water with ample salt (because I need the salt).  Next I had a red potato from over 3 weeks ago and cube it up and put it in.  I then had an onion that was donated to me in Council Bluffs a couple of weeks ago and it needed to be used so I put the whole thing in there, chopped into large chunks. My last item was another piece of sweet corn that I found along-side the road, and I put it in last. I simmered all of that for about 25 minutes and I had an awesome pioneer stew.  I had two Keiser rolls from a few days ago that were getting pretty firm, so I used them to dunk into the broth and presto…. You have “Beg, Borrow or Stew”.  Twern’t too bad….

July 21st, 2009

 

15.1 Miles

The two days off that I earned to be at Kearney seemed like a long time off.  I did a ton of things in those two days, well this morning, I was joined for the first six miles by the LDS youth group from Kearney.  I loaded up the cart to about 350# and let them have at it.  They did awesome!  I think that they should follow me all the way to the Salt Lake Valley.  You gotta love the energy of the youth.  Thanks guys and girls… I really appreciated the company and the six mile rest.

I was then met on the road by the reporter for the Kearney Hub, the local newspaper and so we should be in an article on Wednesday.  Also, the local ABC station did a piece that has aired the last couple of days.

I was really disappointed that I couldn’t satisfy my craving for a fried egg sandwich, because Kearney was a trading and purchasing point along the trail, I tried to work for, or barter for a fried egg sandwich, but no luck.  So as I was pulling my cart out West towards the edge of the city limits, I thought, there goes my chance to eat a sandwich that has some taste to it, and then I walked by an ear of corn on the side of the road.  I glanced at it but thought that it was some of this hybrid stuff that they grow around here and not edible sweet corn that is so good, and then about another 200 feet down the road was another ear of corn, so I picked it up and peeled back the husk and it was the wonderful, plump ear of sweet corn.  I started to eat it raw and you can’t imagine how good that corn was.  I ate the entire ear and headed back up the road and picked up the one in the driveway, peeled it and ate it with joy.  That taste was just what my body needed.  You couldn’t have bought a better piece of corn at the Farmers Market.  So enjoying the fruits of my newly found treasures, I started on my way out of town again and what did I find, 6 more ears of corn!  Hallaluah!  The Lord is dropping manna from Heaven on me and all I had to do was bend down and pick it up, but wait…. I am still in the Kearney city limits and I have the ability to still barter or trade for my egg sandwich that I never got, so I went to back to Shirley (my escort) and asked if she had all of the things to make my desired sandwich and she said that she did, so I traded my six ears of corn for two fried egg sandwiches with cheese and the whole enchilada.  Thank you Dear Lord for dropping those ears of corn into my path.

Now the night before, Bill Rasmussen, whom I can’t thank enough for his kindness and generosity, took me fishing in the local pond and he caught two Bass and a Catfish.  He donated the catch to my ever shrinking waistline and so I cooked those up on Tuesday night, since they needed to be cooked sooner than later and I ate all three in one sitting.  Great fish!  Thanks Bill.So upon arriving in Elm Creek, we met Bill again and used his second home to set up camp.  See, I told you he was just the best.  I met the neighbors because I cause a commotion wherever I go and she was a 4th grade teacher and so we made a short video of me, “the pioneer”, for her class when they resume.  It was fun to talk to her future class, but I had mentioned in conversation that I was planning on eating some Rattlesnake somewhere in the WY future and her husband said that they have an old timer by the name of Wayne Simmerman who is famous in these parts for his Rattlesnakes.  He has been exhibiting and collecting all of his life, so after a quick phone call we were headed to the Rattlesnake farm to learn more about this fearsome snake.  Now you have to know that I am not a snake person in the slightest, so when we entered his shed with 19 snakes (in boxes and cages), I was nervous to say the least and the big 4 and 5 foot Diamond Backs that he caught in Oklahoma started to rattle.  They were huge!  And then he started teaching me about the different characteristics of the snakes, what to do if you get bit, how to prepare and cook one, and especially what to do if one crawls into my canvas tent at night.  For the first time in my life I held a number of his non-poisonous snakes and got a whole new respect for the species.  It was one of the more interesting afternoons that I have spent in a long time… but I’m still nervous.

And lastly, as with every other night along this stretch of road and for a long time to come, I have been getting no sleep because you are camped in these little towns that have 300-500 people in them and they sit right next to the railroad tracks and the trains are required to blow their whistles all the way through town.  I might as well be sleeping on the train tracks.  Plus, it has been cold the last couple of    nights.  I have been sleeping in my clothes to try and stay warmer, but I’m still cold.  With one blanket under me and one over, there isn’t much there when you are looking for warmth.  I keep repositioning Bessie (my Jack Russell) to try and stay warm, but my bones hurt from laying on the ground and so I have to turn over every hour or so… add all of that up and it makes for a miserable night…

July 18th, 2009

 

28.1 Miles

It was a marathon day and was my longest walk so far to date.  I wanted to put two days together so I could have an extra day off.  I have done this twice this week and the reason is that the Archway Pioneer Monument and Museum that spans Interstate 80, is going to be doing some publicity with me and I needed the extra time off, another reason is that Fort Kearney was a place where you might be able to barter, buy or trade for some extra supplies, so I have given myself the opportunity to be invited to a dinner (charity) and hopefully to hire myself out to work for some extra supplies that I have lost, due to the rain.  So far, Bill Rasmussen, a friend of my brother in Seattle, has let me use his shower (thank goodness) and he also fed me a wonderful dinner high in protein, an item that I have been sorely lacking lately.  It may be a stretch, but I accepted.  Bill and his wife Diane are also setting up different religions to walk with me on Tuesday, which will be awesome!  By the way, I weighed myself after the shower and found out that I have lost 25 pounds in 40 days!  I wouldn’t recommend this method of weight loss.  The carpal tunnel just isn’t worth the trade off. I was met by a number of wonderful and curious people along my trek today and will show their photos as soon as I get them downloaded to the net.

Once again when I went to church today (Sunday), they had a pot luck dinner afterwards and for the fourth time, I abstained.  It smelled and looked wonderful and the church members were very kind and generous, but I felt like I need to abstain.  I will eat charity from a private home, but for some reason, I just have a hard time justifying this large buffet of food at the church.  Thanks for the offer anyway.  I was going to eat, especially the macaroni salad that I have been craving, but I just felt that I shouldn’t.  Anyway… I gave a talk to the young men and women this morning because they are going on their youth trek to Martins Cove in a couple of weeks.  It seemed like everyone was interested in what I had to say.  I appreciated the opportunity to share my experience(s), so the youth are going to join me for 6 miles when I leave on Tuesday.  I welcome the company.  We are going to walk a bike path that is very close to the trail and will keep everyone safe.

I am supposed to be interviewed by the ABC station here in Kearney on Monday.  I’ll let you know how that goes.

July 17th, 2009

 

13.8 Miles

You know, the toughest part about going into WalMart and just buying bread and water is all of the smells and the temptation on all of these wonderful foods around you and all I walk out with is… bread and water.  Sounds like a jail sentence.  So… last night and this morning, there were wild turkey’s in this county park that I was staying at and they were close enough to hit with a rock, well, I have a pistol that I have taken along (as the pioneers had a gun that accompanied them for hunting) and thought that I would use it when I got to the wide open spaces of WY, well I thought about those turkeys and… no, I didn’t start blasting the birds but I wanted to.  You have no idea how hungry that I am for real food.

So here is my new rule:  because if it was 1856 and I was on the handcart train, we would be eating turkey tonight.  There were 3 large Toms and 2 Hens and I would have shot em’ all!  Well because the City of Grand Island probably wouldn’t take too kindly to me shootin’ up the county park, I ran to my camera and shot two of the Toms a number of times.  Now why should I be deprived of wild game just because I’m in the 21st Century?  So here is the rule, if I see wild game that would be close enough to shoot with my pistol and I take a photo of it to prove that I had two turkeys (or whatever), then I get to eat my share and equivalent of that game.  Fair enough?  So this morning I shot two turkeys and headed straight for Wal Mart and bought two turkey legs.  I thought that the two legs was reasonable since I would have shared the hunt with the entire camp.  So I had them cook up two turkey legs and I am now in the process of savoring every single morsel.  I planned to eat just a little each day, even though I wanted to eat both of them in a single sitting.  Thank you Dear Lord for sending me two tasty turkeys today.  I am now on the look-out for anything that I could eat and shoot and then take a photo and head to the store.  That’s not too much of a stretch is it?  I’m awful hungry.

Today on my way out of town, I also saw a young father giving rides on a little bicycle to his children, so I thought that I would go over and offer them a ride in the handcart.  His name was Hosie Hudson, and his little kids were Horizon 4, Dayshine 3, and they were just the cutest little kids.  So we met and I had the dad pull them around in the cart.  What a wonderful small moment with this dad and his kids.  I enjoyed meeting this family and hope to stay in touch.

I was also interviewed today by the Grand Island Independent newspaper and they came out to take photos.  They said that the article will be in Saturday or the Sunday paper and on the internet.

Today was the first day that we almost caused an accident. Because I walk on the breakdown shoulder of some very busy roads at times, it becomes perilous at best, to be where I am at and most people drive by at 65 or 70 mph even though we have two cars with emergency lights, flashers, and a large sign on the back that says “SLOW” WALKERS AHEAD, they don’t slow down.  This afternoon a lady driving a pickup with her daughter and carrying a trailer with a large fertilizer container on the back was almost hit by a guy at full speed.  She was turning left just past me and the guy who was looking at me and not the road had to lock em’ up and fish-tail between this lady and another truck on the opposite side of the road.  It wasn’t good.  It would have been a very serious accident if he hadn’t reacted at the last second.  That is one of the things that I fear, is being part of an accident or causing one.  I pray that it doesn’t happen.

Here is my food craving for the day, a large bowl of hot Cream of Wheat with sliced bananas on top with cream, not milk, two slices of whole wheat toast with real butter and a large orange juice in a chilled glass.   You have no idea…..

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….

July 15th, 2009

 

24.7 Miles

Where do I start?  Last night after I updated the web site, I had a couple of very nice older ladies want to visit because they saw the article in the Columbus newspaper and they drove down from St. Edward (?), a total of 50 miles round trip to see the handcart and meet me.  It was about 10:30 before they departed and I was tired.  Then after that, I was sleeping in the city park in Fullerton and apparently that is where all of the local teenagers congregate until around 1 AM and so I thought that now I would be able to go to sleep, but the park was about ¼ mile from a feeding yard for cows and all I heard all night was a lot of mooing noisy cows.  Aren’t cows supposed to go to sleep at night?

So this morning came too early.  I ended up walking my longest day today at nearly 25 miles!  Everything that is on my body hurts and partially because I ended up pulling 8 miles in the deepest sand and gravel that I have been in to date.  It was miserable…  and there were small rolling hills for most of the day.  I ended up pulling for 12 hours and as soon as I finish this, I am going to sleep,

which by the way, my tent is still wet from the storm two nights ago and of course, wet canvas has its own flavor of stink.  After that I was getting back.The food situation was good today.  I found Choke Cherries along the road and filled a cup with those and Mulberries.  I ate my allotted 12 oz of bread today for the first time in a long time.  I also had an apple that I had been saving, 1oz of jerky a couple of cups of milk, so today was a decent day for food.

Also, today I got a farmers shower.  I saw one of the many huge sprinkler pivots that have been watering the corn for the last month and one of them was shooting water out on the gravel road so I waited for this blast of water to drench me and…. Man…. was it C O L D…  I’ve jumped in mountain lakes that weren’t that cold.  So I enjoyed myself by standing in this enormous sprinkler.  Oh.. and Bessie loves the water and had a blast chasing after the king of sprinkler heads…

I have to retire.  I am so maxxed, it’s hard to even think….

July 14th, 2009

 

16.3 miles

I had to walk today after having only a couple of hours of sleep last night.  I got into another one of those NE storms with the lightning, rain and wind.  It eventually tore down about half of the tent, so I laid there with a pool of water at the bottom of my feet and the walls collapsed and waiting for the rain and wind to let up so I could go out and fix the tent stakes.  All I want is a good nights rest.  I didn’t fall asleep until around 4AM and then to walk 16 miles today was a real effort.  I had no energy at all.The weather was overcast until around 11AM and then it got up to 92 degrees.  I was thankful that I had the advantage of walking on pavement today.  Tomorrow will be a killer.  It will be my longest day yet at around 24 miles and half of it will be gravel roads.  When I walk the gravel, that handcart just feels like an anchor.  

Feet aredoing well and I am still losing weight.  I get to eat a couple of ounces of rice tonight for only the second time since I have been walking.  I will put some powdered milk and some sugar on it and imagine that it is rice pudding.

I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Genoa and loved the wonderful people there.  It is rich in history.

Also, I forgot to mention that when I was in North Bend, that Darrell Ritenour, who owns the Corner Cafe, treated me to my last breakfast on the trek.  He served up a plate of biscuits and gravy that was huge!  And I appreciated every bite.  So if you ever get to North Bend NE… the Corner Cafe is the place to eat, especially the Sunday buffet.

July 13th, 2009

 

23.3 miles

I had Shannon Vavra from Columbus NE walk with me on Saturday for the entire distance.  I was only scheduled to walk 16 miles but since the next leg was only 8 miles, we put the two days together and walked the full 23.3 miles and Shannon pulled the cart the entire distance except for the first 1/2 mile before he met me.  It was great to be able to talk to someone for the entire day.  It takes your focus off from the drudgery of the walk and just your own thoughts for mile after mile.  Shannon is a young man that has been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for just a few years and so we had a lot in common to be able to share and discuss.  I was really impressed with his attitude and his desire to always be learning.  He pulled the entire distance because he wanted to have a one day experience of what it was like for those pioneers.  He plays soccer and is in great shape but said that he was plenty sore the next day.  It’s nice making new lifelong friends.

I gave a talk last night to a group of youth and adults from the Columbus Mormon church at my campsite.  It was good to be able to share some of the history with the local kids.  From this group, I might even get Kelly Haas and her mother to walk with me tomorrow.  It would be good to have the company.

I have to get used to sleeping within earshot of the local train tracks until I get to WY because the train and trail follow each other fairly close and there are as many as 60 trains per night and they blow their whistle all through town.  Genoa wasn’t too bad, but Columbus was all night long.  I would love to have just one peaceful nights rest.

As for the food, I lost the remainder of the bacon that I was allotted to have. I had already lost about half of it from before because it had gotten wet sitting in the cooler and now the remaining amount also got wet.  Since that was my only real treat and food that had any taste to it, I am disappointed at the loss, but as in pioneer fashion, I’m not able to replenish it now that it is destroyed.  That stinks, but I still have a small amount of venison hamburger that I was given by the Williams family and I have appreciated every bite of it.  I also had someone who had caught some catfish in the local river and brought me a few small pieces and I ate it with enjoyment.  Just plain old friend catfish was awesome!

Everyone here in the Genoa and Columbus area has just been great to be around.  Jerry and Nancy Carlson who are the local historians in Genoa, gave me personal tours of the Mormon Trails museum and the Indian School Museum.  Genoa in the 1800s was the center of the Pawnee Nation and had as many as 10,000 Pawnee in this area where I am at; in fact, I am camped at one of the ancient tribal grounds.  Brigham Young in 1857 brought in 100 families to help settle this area and use it as a replenish post for the pioneers going West but the government took it over and made it the Pawnee capitol.  The Pawnee had as many as 1700 acres of corn growing in the area and Jerry, who is also a local farmer, brought me some of the same strains of original blue corn, red stripe flour corn and small ears of red popcorn that were all grown by the Pawnee.  What a gift!  They are all dried and each kernel can be planted for a new plant, but this is very rare and from the same strains as 150 years ago!  That was great!

I am also sitting in the Genoa City Hall right now, as they have let me use their conference room and internet to try and update some of my web site info.  Nice folks.

I did the KSL (Salt Lake City) television interview this morning via web cam.  The piece is supposed to show on the morning of July 24th in Salt Lake just before or during their very large Pioneer Day Parade on television.  It might be accessible to people via the internet also, but I’m not sure.  You could probably request that they post it to the net.

As for the body… my hand has some feeling back but it is still very much dead and tingling.  I still don’t have an answer for that.  I have tried some different exercises but so far no luck.  My hernias are what are the most painful and problems.  My only answer there is to deal with it or get an operation, right now I am dealing with it.  Feet are pretty good, my mind is always questionable, but it’s the craving for real food that is my biggest temptation.  When I’m out in the country and walking gravel and there is nothing around then I do better, but like today when I am camping across from the local ice cream store….man it is tough!  I love ice cream…

I don’t know if I have mentioned it before or not but as I have hour after hour to think, I torture myself with different meals that I would love to eat.  At the moment, the top meal is the best fried chicken in the U.S. from Patty’s on Beale Street in Memphis.  They marinate it overnight in a hot sauce and their breading is out of this world.  I could eat an entire plate of just the breading if they sold it that way.  Then I need to have my wife’s chilled macaroni salad.  If you have never tasted it, then you just don’t understand.  Next is my mother’s awesome potato salad and for dessert would be cold watermelon that had been chilling in Lower Seymour Creek, then my grandmothers German Chocolate cake (none in the world better) and finish it with my grandfather’s root beer float.  You can see that I have too much time to think, but you don’t understand, I don’t just think of this meal, I am like the dog in Pavlov’s experiment.  I think of this meal and I start to salivate…. seriously….  The problem is that three of chefs of the above desired items have passed on to the “other side”.  The other thing that I am coveting is to sleep at the Marriott Hotel on the first couple of nights when I return.  My daughter Autumn is a Supervisor for Marriott and so I stay there at a discount  whenever I can and I L O V E their beds and after laying on the hard ground with just a couple of wool blankets for 4 months, I will be ready for a stay at the Marriott.  There… now that’s not asking too much is it?

Also… if you live in the Salt Lake City area or have friends in the area, we are putting together a welcoming trek from “This is the Place” monument to a park downtown Salt Lake on the day that I return on Saturday, Sept. 26th.  Because the handcarters were taken to this park in Salt Lake as their temporary resting spot, that is where we will end up at and everyone will join me (us) when I come out of Emigration Canyon into the valley.  We hope to have people of every faith walk with us and we hope to have hundreds participate.  It will be great!  So come join us, come be part of history and help me to make this a great last couple of miles.  I will keep you updated as we get closer.  In case anyone has any connections to any officials or notables in the SLC area, or would like to help us put this all together, please let me know.  We could sure use the help.  Email me at grizzlydoctor@gmail.com.  If an old guy at 60 years old can pull 217# over 1400 miles, you need to put on your tennis shoes and come walk the last couple of miles with me.  You’ll enjoy the walk… really….

July 10th, 2009

 

16.2 miles

I got another blister on my foot today since the first couple of weeks and I’m not sure why but it will sure add to the discomfort of having to walk about 15 miles tomorrow.  Today was flat pavement with a bit of a tail wind and so that helped.  At least for the moment the terrain is flat and I appreciate that but at the same time there is little if nothing on the horizon to have a goal or destination to shoot for and so mentally it seems like I am going nowhere.  All I see is mile after mile of corn with no real progress.  So I have gone from tough, hard hills to mind numbing corn.

A friend of mine, Abby Parker, sent in an email to KSL and they have responded to me to do a piece for Pioneer Day, so tomorrow we are going to try and do a web cam interview.  We’ll see how that goes.

Food is still a problem.  I’m not eating very much because it is not what my body wants to eat.  I haven’t eaten my full 12oz of bread/flour products since I left.  I just can’t do it but I do drink a lot of water.  I also make a blueberry drink with sugar and cold water that seems to taste pretty good.

July 9th, 2009

 

15 miles

Flat pavement today with a wide breakdown shoulder to walk on to stay half way safe.  Yesterday I had to re-route onto a gravel road just to keep from getting killed by all of the trucks.  Even though it was easier pulling, the shift went from physical pain to mental boredom because there are no immediate goals that you are trying to accomplish, the mile after mile after mile of corn becomes a mental weight.  You walk for hours and hours but you really don’t see a lot of progress in your forward movement because everything looks the same.

89 degrees today and about 50% humidity.  Body is doing better because of the less stress in pulling.  My right hand is starting to get some feeling back in it.  The muscles in my lower back keep cramping and that is my only real problem at the moment.I’m not exactly sure what is happening, but I have been writing information on here and save it and it doesn’t show up the next day.

I need to figure out what’s up with that.  With that in mind, I will re-tell how I got hit by my escort.  I was walking into Fremont and all of a sudden I got bumped on the back of the cart and thought that Shirley was not paying attention, well the bump kept going and it pushed me into the ditch and I ended up rolling down the small embankment as I am watching Shirley (who had fallen asleep), continued to coast about another 50 feet down the shoulder until she woke up to find me behind her and in the ditch.  She came running back and was very sorry but had just fallen asleep and the van just pushed me into the shoulder.  No harm done.  It was only a few miles per hour and so everything is ok, but I now will have to tease her about running over me when she is supposed to be the one protecting me.

I am getting eatin’ alive by mosquitos… I gotta go…

July 8th, 2009

 

14.8 miles

Just as a continuing note from Monday, Dave and Phyllis got up early with me and fixed me a wonderful breakfast before I left.  Grapefruit, rhubarb sauce, scrambled eggs, bacon and english muffins.  You have no idea how great that tasted.  Dave said that this was the most excitement that he had at his home in years.  He and his older

cousins (in their 80s) get together once a week and don’t have much to talk about, but he said that now he will be the hit of the meeting.  I loved their Golden Lab Macie.  I think that she wanted to go to Utah with me.

July 6th, 2009

 

17.5 miles

I tried to walk two days into one so I could have next Sunday off, which I don’t have at the moment, because I don’t want to have to walk 14 days in a row with no rest.  I came within a mile and a half, so it’s looking good.  The temperature was close to 90 today and the humiditywas close to 50%, so it was a struggle all day.  My feet

are not the problem anymore… it’s the hernia’s and my dead hand from pulling.  Not sure what can be done.  I was given deer meat yesterday as charity and so I cooked it all up tonight and had a deer burger.  Believe me… it was awesome!

July 5th, 2009

 

Rest…  The rest for the last couple of days has been greatly needed for a body that was needing nourishment and repair.  I spent my Sunday at church and had a couple of chances to speak about my experiences and it was very rewarding to share those moments.  I also was invited by Mark Goodwin, a young man that I met the prior week out in Macedonia, to eat dinner at his home with this great family.  He also invited his friends, the Williams, whom Katie Williams ancestor is one of the signers of the “Declaration of Independence”!  What a great legacy.  Go read about John Hart and the trials that he went through and eventual death for his participation in our freedom.  What a wonderful meal and wonderful new life long friendships.  Mark is a great musician by the way. Also this evening, while getting

things together for tomorrow at the Trail Center in Florence, I met a number of nice visitors to the area, but especially fun was meeting Alan and Debra Kimball from Woodinville WA, where I lived for almost 20 years.  It was like a letter from home as we talked about all of our common friends.  I told them to send my love back to everyone that I knew.

I’m walking tomorrow for the first time, unescorted because Shirley and Galin won’t arrive until Monday night.  I should be alright, but we’ll see.  I have to add additional weight to my cart tomorrow because the pioneers of 1856 had to re-supply themselves here in Winter Quarters (Florence) and so I will be adding another 100#.

July 3rd, 2009

 

16.2 Miles

Saturday / Sunday Rest – For those of you who went to the bottom of the page looking for an update, I apologize and will be putting the latest updates at the top like I should have been all along.

I AM IN NEBRASKA… Yahoo! There were a number of times that I really didn’t know if I could make it or not but without adding up my zig zag miles, I have put around the first 300 behind me with around 1100 to go…Ouch!  My 3 ½ weeks in IA have been painful but conditioning, wonderful but sometimes overwhelming.  Some of my most unexpected surprises have come in the form of friendships in Iowa’s small towns and countryside.  Take for instance, Macedonia, population 325.  Upon first impression, it is a town that had its hay day 100 or more years ago with the small streets lined with once stately buildings that are now mostly vacated and in need of some paint, but just passing thru at 45 mph won’t let you get to know some of the most wonderful and trusting people that you have ever met.  After stopping in the one room city hall and library to see if I could sleep in their neatly trimmed flower lined park, I got the royal treatment.  The city clerk called Ruby Bentley, the town historian, to come and meet me.  She drove in from her farm and she awarded me with a great hard covered history book about their town, which I loved.  She then showed us one of Iowa’s most outstanding antique bird collections, the summer theatre building in the old implement store, and where one of the buildings on the main street used to be the Macy’s of the Midwest to shop at.  They have a historical society and an arts council.  She then gave us the keys to a number of buildings if we needed to use a rest room or if my escorts wanted to set up their air mattress in one of the buildings.  I was then greeted by a number of curious residents and children and then the Mayor heard that I was in town and came over to visit me and we had a great conversation and he welcomed me and wished me well.  Isn’t it interesting that this shell of a great town has all of the qualities that we all wished that we had in our own neighborhoods, where everyone leaves their door unlocked because there isn’t any crime.  They give you the keys to anything that you need and you just leave them on the table when you’re finished and where everyone is friends.  All of the things we wished that we had…. but that we move away from.  This town is not unique to my travels.  Towns like Newton, Colfax, Anita, Atlantic, Redfield, Adel, Brooklyn and the list goes on, are all varying degrees of what I just described.  So if you want to make some new friends in just a short afternoon, travel the back roads of the heart of America…that’s where you will find some great people.

So to give you a bit of an update since last Sunday in Atlantic, the trail has taken me on a combination of paved and gravel roads and the gravel gives me difficulties like you don’t understand.  I suppose that you can only mention and complain about the conditions so many times without beating a dead horse.  My feet are doing much better but are just fatigued each night.  My right knee gives me pain when I climb gravel hills all day long and my hernias seem to cripple me when at the end of walking fast, other than that, I believe that my old body is slowly conditioning to this pace, even though I have been getting leg cramps at night recently and they are painful.

It is the most rewarding when I am on actual trail, be it paved or gravel.  In my mind’s eye, I can see my grandmother with her six children walking these green hills with me.  Whenever I find berries or a fruit tree, I can imagine them also being able to find the same food. You just feel closer to 150 years ago when you are out in the country and walking gravel, even though it extremely hard, that is what this is all about.

So after going through a few little towns and a lot of gravel roads, I needed to camp for the night but couldn’t find anything but a corn field, so I found a field that had just a small piece of grass tucked into the middle of this 7 foot high corn and that’s where I pitched my tent. Now my escorts left and went to a small town to sleep at the motel and left me to my wild imagination.  I told you that I had just slept in a cemetery a few nights before, but for some reason, I was more uncomfortable with the corn than the cemetery.  This is the only night since I left that I took my gun to bed with me.  I have a pistol that shoots small shot gun shells that I planned on using

in WY if I could kill a rattlesnake for dinner, anyway, I pitch the tent, eat my meal, and crawl in with the “Children of the Corn”.  Now if you have never seen “Children of the Corn”, you won’t appreciate my imagination, but for some reason, that is what stuck in my mind.  Now corn, when the wind is blowing, makes a lot of noise.  It’s pitch black outside, my head is stuck in this rattling corn, and….. and…..that’s right….4AM I can hear a noise that is not the corn and sounds like it is about 50 feet away.Now you have to understand that I have brought my Jack Russell Terrier with me and she hears the noise and starts to growl.  The animal gets closer and is making this unique hissing growling sound that is unique only to a Badger of which I have seen and heard many times in Montana and a Badger is not an animal that you want to deal with under any circumstances.  It sounds like he is searching/digging for food and getting closer to the tent so I pop the side of the canvas tent with my hand a couple of times to try and scare it away and the sound stopped.  So I slowly untied the tent door and looked into the dark corn and saw nothing around any longer and uneasily laid back down and tried to get some additional sleep in the “corn field”. On Wednesday the 1st, I walked two days in one so that I could get into Council Bluffs a day early so that I could take an additional day off and also to let my escorts go home to Utah for family business a day early.  The hike was long and difficult.  I even was given special permission to cross a bridge under construction that only had a culvert at the bottom of this ravine and the embankments were very steep, so steep in fact that I couldn’t pull the cart up the other side and had to have Shirley and Galin help push.

Upon arriving in Council Bluffs, I began the search for someone to escort me to Winter Quarters, since my escorts had just left for Utah.  After calling everyone that had given me a contact number in the area, I had no one.  I was resigned at that time to taking the cart apart and putting it in the truck and driving it the 16 miles to NE when all of a sudden there was a man standing at my truck window who was interested in the handcart and asked what was going on.  Long story short, he volunteered to escort me the next 16 miles.

The journey on Friday to Winter Quarters was a good trek, long but fairly easy.  I was interviewed by the channel 6 news out on the trail and it was a good piece.  I then stopped at the Crescent gas station for some ice and there was three teenagers selling corn out of the back end of a truck and so I went over to try and find a way to get them to donate a piece of sweet corn to me.  I started to tell my story and before I could finish, they wanted to know if I would accept 6 ears of corn and of course….yes.  Then as I was continuing a discussion with these three enthusiastic entrepreneurs, they gave me 6 more!  They have no idea how much that means to my stomach and taste buds.  Thanks kids!  You’re awesome….

Continuing West, I had to try and get away with walking 3 ½ miles on the 680 interstate and over the Mormon Bridge into Florence NE (Winter Quarters).  No more than a ½ mile onto the interstate I was stopped by the Highway Patrol and said that I couldn’t walk across the bridge because it didn’t have a breakdown lane.  After a few moments of pleading my case and what I was trying to do, he agreed to let me walk on the shoulder and then I needed to load the cart on the truck to cross the bridge, at least I would be able to continue.  I then walked to the bridge and discovered that it had a breakdown lane and so I hustled across and got to walk the entire distance, including walking across the Missouri.  I arrived in Florence around 5PM and was glad to be able to put a milestone of having IA behind me, but the awesome task of walking NE for the next 45 days!

The missionaries here at the Mormon Trail Center in Florence have been great.  They have let me pitch my tent in the rear of the property and everyone has been so kind, especially Pres. Brewster who is in charge of the center.  We shared some great conservations and he, in true pioneer fashion, offered me some charity and took me to the local store and let me buy some supplies for the coming days ahead.  He purchased an onion, potatoes, carrots, 3 apples and some potato rolls.  They will be consumed with gratitude.  Everyone has been wonderful.

June 27th, 2009

 

14.6 miles today.

Sunday Rest, Chad & Lauel McCance and their kids (Bryce, Sarah, Lauren) have been a great family in Atlantic.  They offered me that wonderful Iowan hospitality and gave me nourishment that was wonderful.  I am able to accept charity from kind people along the way in Iowa because that is how it was in 1856, but after Iowa, those moments will be sparse because the population in 1856 ended in Iowa.  So when someone offers me kindness (and they have to offer, and not me ask), I then accept and the McCance family has been wonderful.  I got to go to church today and that was good also.  I’m sure that I make a great first impression on people until they find out what that old guy in the funny pants and the beard is doing in their church.  They had a pot luck dinner here after church

like they did in Newton but I didn’t accept (but I wanted to) because I felt that it wasn’t part of the pioneer trials and rewards, but the food smelled wonderful but I had some great potato salad that I have been craving for the last few days.

I had a much needed day off to rest my failing body and appreciated the moment.  Chad McCance is a general surgeon and gave me some good advice on how to help my newly developed carpal tunnel.  My right hand, except for the little finger is completely numb from pulling.  So hopefully his advice will save me.

I’m rested and ready to go to Nebraska.  I am scheduled to be in Florence NE (Winter Quarters) on Friday, July 3.

June 26th, 2009

 

20.4 miles today.

Insane day #2…. I don’t really even have the energy to write this but it is important to document everything, because it relates directly to the pioneers of 1856.  I traveled trail today that was, as yesterday, deep gravel and sand and I pulled this 217# wooden anchor up 39 hills!  That means that I have pulled the cart up 81 hills in the last 48 hours.  I don’t have time or energy to cook anything, so I have had 3oz of bread from a loaf, ½ piece of bacon, 1 tomato, 1oz of jerky and tons of water.  

 I pulled today for 13 hours straight and I’m so tired that I don’t want to eat or even set up my tent, but Shirley (my car escort) is cooking me a couple of pieces of bacon and an egg.  Oh by the way, I lost more of my cooked bacon this morning to the water from the ice getting into the storage bag.  My feet are working, but my right knee doesn’t like walking over about 14 miles a day. Tomorrow, I am scheduled to walk 20 miles.  Heaven help me…. I have to go to sleep… It’s 10PM.

June 25th, 2009

 

14.24 miles today - too darn far.

What an insane day with the heat and humidity both in the 90’s and I carried that handcart up 42 HILLS!  That’s right, 42 hills!  It was down one ravine and straight up the other side and I could hardly put one foot in front of the other.  I can’t even begin to explain what it is like to climb that many hills with the cart.  I left at 7:30AM and arrived at 5:30PM.  All day I only had 3 oz of rolls and 1 oz of jerky.  Because I was burning so many calories, I needed something else and so Shirley (the car escort) gave me a granola bar… which was awesome. So when I arrived at my destination, the Dalmanutha Cemetery, I saw a grounds keeper and asked if I could sleep the night here and he said sure.  So this evening, I am sleeping in the in the cemetery….Ooooooo….Then after talking to BarryWilliams (grounds keeper), he invited me

to use his shower and he wanted to buy me dinner.  The shower sounded almost as good as the food and because I hadn’t eaten all day, I accepted the hospitality of a local resident and I enjoyed an egg omelet with hash browns and toast.  It was awesome!  I also met the principal of the school and discovered that he is quite the history buff.  The people are Iowa are super friendly and generous.  Those friendships have been my unexpected surprise on this trek.

It’s almost 11PM and way past my bedtime.  Time to go pitch my tent with my sleeping friends.

For correspondence, email me at: grizzlydoctor@gmail.com

June 16th, 2009

 

9 miles

What a lightening and rain storm last night!  Yeow!  I got rocked out of my canvas tent at 2:15AM by an Iowa original rainstorm.  I thought that I would be hit for sure but according to system of counting by seconds to see how far the strike was from me, the closest was about 2 seconds!  The flaps on my tent only tie shut and consequently, I had quite a bit of rain running in the door last night, and of course the worst is knowing that you have to get up in a few hours and go walk in this stuff and without a coat or without any rain gear…because why class???  That’s right, because we are doing what the pioneers did over 150 years ago.  Luckily for me, it was only raining and the lightening had stopped… as if that is a benefit to be able to just walk in the rain.
Made good time this morning (even in the rain), left at 7AM, traveled 9 miles and arrived at 10AM!  It gave me

the time to get caught up on all of the research and writing that I need to be doing.  Met some great people here in Newton at the LDS church and they let us put up our tent in the back of the property.  They also brought me a gift of some of the food that is indigenous to the area which I enjoyed. They couldn’t have been kinder.

I have had a number of television stations contact me today for stories they want to do in the next few days.  They will meet me out on the road somewhere.

And…. And…. I bought a pair of shoes that I think will HELP MY FEET!  I’ll let you know how that goes in the next few days.  Today was the best day for my feet so far.  The guys will appreciate this… I wrap my feet in duct tape.  That’s right… duct tape.  It’s the only tape that sticks to my feet in the water and it is smooth to keep things from rubbing.

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.

June 14th, 2009

 

I got my second rest day in just a couple of days.  
This one was scheduled and the Brooklyn one wasn’t.  Weather is warm and humid but it is supposed to rain tomorrow.  I’m still trying to find time to do all the things that I need to do.  I still need to spend time on coming up with a formula to make biscuits with my 12 oz of daily flour.  I need to spend more time writing and videotaping everything that happens and my feet are still in bad shape, with another new very large blister on the ball of my left foot.  If I can’t repair that, I can’t walk, and on top of all of that, I have no energy to do anything except sit and soak my feet in Epson salts when I get into camp each night.

I am going to be walking on country gravel roads starting tomorrow because it becomes actual trail and there is some historical significance to this area and I need to be on location, so I am off from Highway 6, at least for now.  As for yesterday on the trail, it rained on me for most of the day.  It was good in some ways because it was overcast and it kept me cool… sometimes too cool, and with all of the moisture, my wheels started to bind up and so we bought a wood file to shave down the axles and not they run better.

I was also interviewed on the road by Dann Hays, a newspaper reporter from Grinnell, a nice fellow who does Civil War reenactments.  He said that the article will be in the paper on Tuesday.  He then came back out and walked and pulled the handcart for 3 miles into Grinnell as part of my trek where I want to walk with as many different people of different faiths as possible.  He was a practicing Methodist and we had a great conversation for about an hour and a half

Went to church this morning in Newton and enjoyed the companionship.  Everyone wished me well and I may have a couple of people join me on the trail in the next couple of days.

I filled up a solar shower bag with water to see if I can get the water warm enough to hand from a tree somewhere and cleanse my body…. you have no idea….

It will probably be a few days before I can update again, just because of “net” access and time, but I will keep you informed of the highs and lows.