Day 31 - December 1st

Update from Senor Tidwell

Hello Everyone!

I've made Arizona. I'm praying for good weather and better internet so I can get my journal entries to the blog. They are currently trapped in "Sending" limbo. I'm afraid it's out of my hands for the time being. I want to thank everyone who helped get me across California. I understand I've crossed some 450 miles and I know I didn't do this alone. It would hardly have been possible without your support either in the form of hospitality and shelter or your notes and texts.

I expect it will take me three weeks to cross Arizona if it's a straightforward walk and I don't meet anyone or the weather takes a bad turn, but I'd like to linger if I can meet people who live in the state. If you know anyone who lives along my route (See below), let me know! Texting me is turning out to be the most reliable form of communication as I can't pull my emails without internet which is frustratingly difficult to connect to.

I hope everyone is doing well!

Best,
Sam


Arizona: Parker-->Highway 72-->Salome-->Backroad towards Buckeye, which is south of Phoenix--> Highway 85--> Road 238 through Sonoran Desert-->Maricopa-->Casa Grande-->Florence-->Highway 79 North to Globe-->Highway 70 to Safford--> Highway 70 to Lordsburg, New Mexico.

Day 30 - November 30th

Good morning Sam,

Just a quick note to tell you how much we enjoyed meeting you and

and sharing a meal up in Yucca Valley.

 

We got lucky with a coupla pics that turned out rather well....

 

Barbara and I send our best regards for a successful and rewarding

trek, many new friends and the best America has to offer on the road.

 

B n J

Janet and Kevin aka Cowboy! They gave me a quick 

lift into Yucca Valley that put me back on track time-wise.

Day 29 - November 29th

These are the thoughts of a very tired man. I had another go at Highway 247 today and it whooped me again. The camber of the road is devastating my right ankle so I am constantly trying to stay on the pavement until the desert rats push me off again. Throw in some desert showers and an extra long day to make up for lost time and you have yourself a person who could only sit, blinking, his possessions strewn about him as he thinks about thinking about setting up his tent. At least the ground is sand here so I wont have to shift over rocks all night.

The water situation is less than ideal. I underestimated the distance to Yucca Valley and I didn't think the road would be such slow going. I have one full water bottle plus two inches left in a one gallon jug. I am not too worried though. Its 17 miles to Highway 62 then an extra 2 miles to Yucca Valley. I also have a new friend who lives there named Jeff Milhem, compliments of Leslie Cloud, a lovely woman I met several weeks ago. When I meet with him I'm sure he can hook me up with some water.

The electronics are also low. I'm on the second batter of my GoPro and cell phone. My ipod is just about dead which will make tomorrow much more difficult. Curse this holiday weekend!

Two people, Stew and Peggy, stopped me on the road and chatted with me, which was nice. It raised my spirits. Should have asked them for water!

P.S. I'm almost out of gummy worms!

Day 28 - November 28th

It hasn't taken long to discover Highway 247 is no fun to walk on. The shoulders are soft and sloped for run-off and I am constantly forced onto it by the psychonauts driving out here. Nearly all of the vehicles on the road are huge-tired trucks and RV's with long clanking trailers of ATV vehicles. Everyone else is extremely eager to get around them and I am glancing over my shoulder like it's a nervous tic to make sure they aren't trying to pass between me and the slower vehicle; this has happened numerous times. Once it was even another trailer hauling semi veering into the other lane to get around an RV.

I wouldn't be so irritated with the idiotic scary driving if there was anything to look at but every mile of desert mirrors the next. No plants are taller than myself and the view they yield is deadpan, silent except for the cars roaring past my right ear. Something in me is rebelling against my innate curiosity and I don't want to make any observations. All my efforts to search for what is interesting here has been rebuffed and are not finding footholds. I wonder why I didn't just start in the South, why I insisted on venturing down here. The land reflects the nothingness I already know I am capable of; why should I have to revisit this in myself. Searching for people more interesting than I am, filling myself with stories not my own, these are the reason I'm doing all this damn walking in the first place. I huddled for an entire year in my own narrowness, memorized its lesson repeatedly. I have already been here and there is nothing more to learn about myself in this place.

I've resorted to counting my steps to enter some semblance of rhythm while i walk ....8,9,10,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,1,2,3... The only things that saved the day were gummy worms and the audiobooks of James Herriot. I think I am largely invincible as long as I have gummy worms. And it is so relieving to listen to Herriot's life.

Day 27 - November 27th

Days 23 - 26 November 23rd - 26th