DAY 18 ~ 10/2/21

I walked a total of 16.3 miles today, 12.5 before lunch and 3.8 after lunch. Joan did a total of 14 miles cutting the morning walk short, and joining back on the afternoon portion. The first 10 or so miles this morning was on Illinois 40 again. Then we got a nice change transferring onto a quiet gravel road for the rest of the day. Was so nice not to see one car, except for the RV of course. We still have about 25 miles until we walk though Peoria IL.

A man passed us on the highway going the same direction we were walking, came to a complete stop, the reverse lights came on and he backed up to where we were walking. We were like - oh boy what’s going to happen next! He rolled his window down and said “You guys are out in the middle of nowhere!” We said yeah we know we are walking to Texas. He must not of heard us because then he asked if we needed a ride. We said no of course and told him the story. He was pretty surprised and wished us luck.

On the country road this afternoon we were greeted by two friendly dogs who ran right up to us on the road. One of them ran back to the house and came back with his ball. Joan threw it for him once. The other one kept walking with us up the road until we got to the next farm house where another dog again ran up to us on the road. This one was just as friendly, ran back to the house and grabbed her rope toy. I threw it for her a couple of times. Brought absolute smiles to our faces and joy in our hearts!!

We dressed up prepared for rain but the rain never came. It was a cloudy day with a good breeze that kept us cool the whole day. Overall another great weather day for walking. Man have we lucked out!!

The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation PR department reached out to me and said there’s a news station in Peoria that wants to catch up with us on Monday when we walk through. Oh boy here we go again. What a ride we’re on!!

We moved onto another RV Park this afternoon (Leisure Oaks RV Park) just south of Peoria in a town called Bartonville. We drove through Peoria (Joan needed new shoes and we picked up Papa Murphys pizza and yes cookie dough!) on our way and it looks so cool. Right on the river with a river-walk full of restaurants and stuff to explore. Can’t wait to do that over the next 6 nights staying here. 😁