DAY 36 ~ 10/20/21

Joan and I walked a total of 16.8 miles today. We walked 10 miles before lunch and 6.8 miles after lunch. The first stretch of 3 to 4 miles was very tough walking as there was a sloped shoulder with larger rock which was difficult to walk on when we needed to move over for traffic. This happened a lot since there was a ton of traffic. The afternoon stretch was on a beautiful farm country road that had fun curves and was hilly. Very nice to walk on, however we were pretty tired when it came to the hills.

Talked to a lot of animals today. As a girl, I watched my mother do it on many road trips. Well the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. These are always some of my favorite moments of my walking days.

We had lunch at Dave and Joyce’s Country Kitchen in Red Bud Illinois. Sean and Paige joined us for lunch which was wonderful. And I’m not just talking about the food LOL. The waitress never really warmed up to us until the very end when Sean told her I was walking to Texas. She walked away not believing us. With all of us sharing parts of the story she came around and we ended up hugging at the end. She told me to be very careful on these highways as people text and drive. Was very touching!

I had to say goodbye to Sean today. The hugs were special. I am moved beyond words that he came all the way from Alaska and walked a day with me. I will never forget it!

We had a kind gentleman pass us, stop and turn around and come back to us to ask us if we needed a ride. He was a Vietnam vet as he was wearing his hat proudly. It was a busy road so we could not chat long but we did tell him we were going a pilgrimage walk for my mom.

Joan showed me a picture of her granddaughter Helen today with blowup photo copies of our route that she colors in the progress with a green marker. My 93-year-old dad is doing the same thing with a red marker on a National map. This makes me so happy!! So cool.

Paigey and I were on our own tonight. Loved our time together. Ate at a delicious local BBQ place. The ribs were amazing!!

I crunched some numbers tonight and I am calling it crossing the 500 mile mark as I have walked 499.3 miles. I have officially passed the 1/3 mark. I really can’t believe it. Some days I feel like I’m in the twilight zone, seems so unreal.