Telephone wake up at 6:30 a.m…again! Honest callers who don’t realize we’re currently
3 hours off Michigan time can be forgiven for the early
intrusion…robocallers/telemarketers telling me they’re cancelling my Microsoft
something that I don’t even have and will ding my bank account unless I call
them…yeah, they don’t get any grace for early wake up calls. Of course, there’s not a person on the other
end of the phone but I make my opinion known…just in case they’re listening or
recording for training purposes. 😏 But today was an honest caller…Kim dealt with
it and we fell back asleep. I basically
refuse to start my day at 6:30!
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4 p.m.--- Decided today that the sheets need
to be washed…I’m up at the clubhouse now waiting for a washer to open up. I just got back from a ride…this is a good
time to start writing down my thoughts about the day. I find that I need to do that while
they're fresh in my mind.
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Kim’s sister Vickie and her husband Dan are
on a southern road trip. They’re headed
our way and should be here sometime this afternoon/early evening. We’ve reserved the site next to us…they’re
set up to sleep in their van so it should be a good fit.
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We’re in need of some groceries so a trip to
Coolidge was in order. Talked about
riding the bikes but the best scenario turned out to be Kim taking the truck
and me going for a bike ride. He’s been
talking about moving his telescope to the back corner of the park. The location across from our campsite is good
but there are trees that limit his imaging targets…can’t target any
nebula/galaxy that’s close to the horizon because of the trees. And with the full moon coming on his targets
are limited even further. So the back corner
of the campground is dark and wide open…no trees to get in the way. He didn’t want to take a longer ride because
he needs to move his equipment during the day.
So he went grocery shopping and I went riding.
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Random encounter of the day:
I didn’t intend to ride far…just ride what I
call the Tom Mix Loop. I stopped to gas
up down at Picacho Peak Plaza and then headed for Park Link Rd. Not far down the road, I encountered a
bicycle going the same way as me but he was pulled off on the opposite side of
the road. As I passed him, I realized he
wasn’t riding a bike…he was pulling a wagon with a harness and had an American flag
attached to the back of it.
Hmmmmm…… Didn’t get far down the
road before my brain started up with the nagging… “Everyone has a story…he has a story…you know that you love to hear
those stories. You have to go back, you
know, and find out what he’s up to. You
need to find out his story.” Okay,
brain, okay…I’ll turn around and go back.
I was alone and knew I was taking a chance by stopping to talk to a
stranger but my brain wouldn’t let it go.
I’m so glad I did.
I was coming at him from the front…stopped,
turned off the bike and said, “I just
rode past going that way and had to turn around to come back to find out what
you’re doing. There’s a story here and I
came back to ask what it is.”
His
response? “I’m walking across the
country…in 100 days or less.” What?!
That’s a big undertaking and of course, I had a lot of questions, which all
came tumbling out because we were parked sort of on/off the road and there was
traffic. First I asked if I could get a
picture of him, then he gave me his card and after that we talked fast.
His answers to my questions and some info he just volunteered: His name is Jack and he looked to be in
his 30’s, maybe early 40’s…he’s doing this just to break the record…he’s on his
third set of wagon tires (Home Depot
carries replacement tires for his wagon)…he has several solar panels on top of
his wagon and a couple of batteries for power…he’s from Royal Oak,
Michigan…he’s determined to do this in less than 100 days…he started on March 1st
and is on day 19…his Fitbit just registered 1,000,000 steps this morning…he
stops whenever his feet are tired, no campground needed because he’s set up to
camp along the road…the most he’s walked in one day was 48 miles…he has a
website and told me I could track his journey in real time….he has a Go Pro and
several types of GPS to track his journey for verification…his family is used
to his wild ideas…he uses a harness and walking sticks to help him pull the
wagon…he owns a construction company which allows him to do this kind of thing.
His wagon has sides on it and is filled with
the type of equipment needed for undertaking a cross country walk. I noticed a stash of candy in one of his
totes. 😎
It was time for both of us to continue on
our merry ways. I wished him well in his
endeavor and just before I started the bike, he yelled “The show must go
on!!” When I came back past him, he
raised his arm and walking stick in a goodwill gesture…I raised my arm and gave
a loud whoop. I was pumped not only
about meeting him but also that I was brave enough to go back. Yessss!!
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I checked the website listed on the card
that Jack handed me… jaxwalk.com.
I also checked his live
track and I think I met him at about mile 19 of an almost 40 miles day. He’s walking anywhere from 50,000 to 60,000+
steps a day. Goodness! And to think that I get excited when I
get 10,000 steps in a day.
His
objective according to his website: On March 1, 2019 I
will be attempting a solo transcontinental walk starting from Newport Beach, CA
to Tybee Island, GA and hoping to complete this 2500 mile adventure in 100 days
or less. This has been a lifelong dream and I am excited to turn this dream into
reality.
More information is on his site…I’ve already bookmarked
it and will be checking his progress periodically.
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Vickie
and Dan arrived at about 4:30 p.m. We
gave them the grand tour of our trailer and then we got the grand tour of their
van…it’s all neatly compartmentalized to accommodate a bed and storage for their
belongings. The only thing they’re
missing is a ‘bucket’ in the corner. 😉 They’ve had a couple of mentally exhausting
days so they went to bed shortly after supper and a chat. Tomorrow I think we’re exploring Saguaro
Nat’l Park…they were going to stop on the way but we suggested that they just
come on into camp and we could all go tomorrow.
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We’ve had two days of temps in the
80’s…seemed like a good night to go scorpion hunting. Walked down to the big tractor tire on
Picacho Highway armed with our black light flashlight…it’s maybe a ¼ mile down
the road. Not only did we find a
scorpion but we also added to our step count. 👍The scorpion was in the same location as the
one we found last year…it moved quickly and went down a hole so no picture but
it was there, we saw it, and it counts.
If tomorrow is warm we’ll probably head back down to have another
looksee. Hopefully I can be quicker with
the camera.
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So Kim got his telescope moved to the back
corner of the campground…and the sky clouds up.
It’ll probably clear up in the wee hours of the morning but Kim won’t be
seeing it if he’s sleeping in the nice clean sheets. 😊
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Today’s miles: 95
Total miles: 1289
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