April 29, 2014

Ive made it to Wickenburg AZ. In two days as a matter of fact.
As previously mentioned, I was expecting high winds and rain over the weekend, so I decided to set up camp at Centennial Park.
I was greeted to a warm welcome by Miss Dory, who told me to pick a spot preferably under the shade and meet her at the Pro Shop (There's a golf course here).
I set my things down and made my way over to the shop when she asked what I was walking for.
I handed her my debit card and said "I'm walking to raise awareness for veteran services that need a greater amount of support, particularly homelessness, health care, and suicide prevention".
She threw my card back at me, to which I thought I might have said something wrong or offended her.
"You're my guest for the weekend, do you have enough food for dinner" she asked.
I thanked her and said I was covered, but would like to borrow a book from the shelf over in the corner.
"My grandson was in the Army but was medically discharged due to a knee injury. They wouldnt fix it while he was in, and now that hes out they seem to be in even less of a rush to operate" she said.
"That's one of the reasons why I'm out here, walking. To many of us are getting left behind due to uncontrollable situations".
 She told me if i needed anything to come over to her RV and she would be more than happy to help me out. I told her thank you again and reatreated to my site.
After getting everything situated, I went to bed hoping to sleep through the "storm".
Around 5AM i woke up to what sounded like pages from a paperback book whipping back and forth through the wind. I soon realized, it wasn't pages, but flaps of my tent. I had unintentionally set up my tent perpendicularly to the wind. The tent was collapsing.
I laid there for a minute, weighing the options of leaving it or correcting my mistake.
Rain had started to fall during this quick interval of thought. I threw on my sweats and jumped outside to rearrange everything.
Being out of the flow of things, i fell back asleep. Around 10am Miss D came by to see how i was doing, and brought some fresh blueberry muffins and a starbucks mocha. After thanking her for providing me with breakfast i asked if itd be okay to stay another night and wait out this wind.
"Not a problem, come by around 5pm, ill have dinner for you".
One of the biggest parts of this walk has been getting past my pride and independence, and allowing others to help me, and taking people up on their offers. Its a very humbling experience.
Later that day, the weather cleared up so I knew I would be able to get back on track sunday morning.
That was exactly what i did.
Awaking at 6am, the sun was just beginning to rise and I was greeted to breakfast and goodbyes. I hope to return again soon to the area. Preferably with a vehicle of some sort. 
I finally left around 8am, and made my way towards Aguila. Walking along the 60 highway, you notice two types of drivers. There are the ones who know its a less traveled road, so they use it as a "Short Cut". The other group are those who understand the scenic value, and take their time cruising and enjoying the space they inhabit.
Unfortunately combining these two together on the same road proves to be quite alarming for the travelers on the side. Those in a rush use the open lane to pass up the car in front of them, regardless if some walker or cyclist happens to be close to the line or not. Trust me, id walk closer to the field if i wasnt afraid of the snakes waiting to absorb the warmth of the road.
By 5pm I had come to Augila, and was in desperate need of a shower. As luck would have it, a man named Bob ran a motel towards the end of town (Only a stretch of 2-3 miles), and being a veteran of the Army he gave me a room for $20. we sat and talked about how hed previously had a group of 3 kids stay there. They had walked from Connecticut, and arrived on day 200+.
"How cool it must be to be able to put something like that on your resume, Id hire you right away, just to figure out what makes you tick" he said.
I will admit, Im excited of that prospect.
Mondays walk was a bit shorter in distance, yet seemed to be twice as challenging.
Im sure it had to do with the semi-mountainous climbs the road took.
Again, lots of nothing but desert and incredible views the locals now have lost amazement over. About 6 miles out of town, a lady stopped her car on the side of the road, and handed me a bag of fruit and water. She told me she'd seen me on her way to work, and figured i could use the vitamin C. I ate them without hesitation and quickly felt a boost of energy.
During this time I also got service back to my phone. It had been unable to find a network for a week.
I recieved a text my dad had sent a couple days prior aletring me about the article in the Fontana Herald about the walk.
Im extremely excited to see this walk gain a great deal of coverage, and am thankful for the time and effort being put in by everyone involved.
By the time i ended my night, my legs/feet decided they'd had enough and more or less stopped working. I must have been quite a site to drivers passing by as I hobbled along the road.
Setting up my tent and getting into my sleeping bag has never been so difficult, but when i awoke this morning everything was in order. Im unsure how today is going to end, but i do know im going to check out the Museum before i leave town. Theres only 50 or so miles to Phoenix, which I had planned to reach by Friday. Things are looking very good on that front.
Id also like to give a huge thank you to everyone who has contributed at the donation page (www.crowdrise.com/natewalks). You don't know how much it means to me. You all are making this walk possible. I am truly blessed. Thank you again, so very much.