Monday, July 29, 2013

Vernal 2

Monday morning I woke up and headed to the radio station for a interview. I was scheduled to meet Andrea and do the morning show with her. It was quick and easy, we had a good time. Andrea had offered for LeeRoy and I to stay at her place that night and I gladly accepted. The Smith family! Tell me if this sounds like a start to a joke. A lawyer, detective, and a reporter all living in the same house. Joann (lawyer), Shaun (detective), Andrea (reporter), Ken and I don't remember the other guys name had a BBQ for me and invited friends over that night.  We hung out, ate, laughed and had a great time. Now I don't know how you feel about it but I'm a big fan of cigars.  I was given a box of cigars by a girl named Anne at the local cigar shop so we decided to share cigars, tell stories and talk about life. Those are things I love to do the most, get to know people and hear their stories. I feel like a part of what I do is sit and listen to other people's stories and not pushing what I'm doing so much.

  One by one, people started heading inside and going to sleep cause they had to work the next day. The last two up were me and Andrea.  We talked about relationships, life, God and at one point I was quoting scripture. The next day we got up and headed to another radio station.  Andrea drove LeeRoy and I to my first interview at 8:30am with Lincoln Brown.  It was a good interview, no commercials, just talking straight through. Thinking that was going to be my only interview I was going to leave, but in the same building was a country station and they decided to have me on as well.  So I did another interview last minute and after Andrea took me on a mini tour around town. We had a quick lunch and then I headed home for a nap. That night we had a BBQ again and again I spilt my guts about the good and bad in my life.  It was awesome to become friends with these people! Shaun and Andrea have really become fast friends and I really enjoy that this wasn't just a host home but it turned into a friendship.

The next day I was back on the road. I got dropped off and after we said our goodbyes we made plans to have another BBQ in Jensen, UT, the next town the next day. One of the people at the BBQ the other two nights was named Ken.  He lives in Jensen and I was going to stay there for the night.  They were going to have another BBQ and I made the Smiths promise they would be there. *Side-note, one of the best parts of this walk is that I get to have a BBQ at least a couple nights a week with host families. Love it! 

As I started heading out of town it was absolute pandemonium! I had been in the papers, done radio interviews so by now my story was out and almost everybody knew who I was. I ended up being stopped every few minutes...Pictures, donations, it was great! Here is a cool little story:  So I was walking out of town and as I'm walking I see a huge garbage truck pull up next to me which kind of scared me at first. The guy was holding out a $50.00 bill, said "thanks for what you are doing" and left before I even got to say thank you back. So to you Mr. Garbage Man, Thank You! 

The reality of this project is that I do not have enough money to get across America. On that same note, I honestly feel that where God guides you, He provides for you.  When I left for the second part of this journey I didn't have enough money to make it through even a few months and that was a bit scary.  Looking back now I remember being really stressed out leaving Vernal. I spent more money than I wanted to there and honestly I am not really good with a budget.  So as I was walking I was thinking about food, money and just how It was all going to work out.

I had walked about 7 or 8 miles out of town when I came upon a gas station that was being rebuilt.  I will give you little back story.  About a year ago a truck was leaking fumes of some sort and it was parked inside of a big warehouse.  All the fumes from this tanker had filled up the building and when the heater kicked on in the middle of the night it exploded, blowing apart several buildings around it including this gas station which was a good quarter-mile away. I pulled up to this gas station around noon.  LeeRoy was eating some bushes and I was kind of sitting in the shade of the building.  One of the workers was eating his lunch and we got to chatting about what I was doing, just same old same old. This guy asked me if I wanted any power bars and I said "sure, absolutely".  He went to his truck and brought back a box overflowing with power bars, granola bars, chips and sunflower seeds.  The owner of the gas station had given them to him because they could not resell them.  Everything was considered lost in the explosion.  Remind you, these were perfectly good bars. I was so grateful and I gotta be honest, I'm still eating those bars to this day!  It blows my mind to be able to pray for food and then have a box of granola bars.  I want to make something very clear, this is very specific to my needs. If he would have brought me cans of soup or something that would have needed to be heated up I could not have used it.  I do not take a camping stove with me.  I can't take any food that needs to be prepared.  That kind of stuff, the little details, they always get me.

 I ended up walking the rest of the way to Jensen that afternoon.  As I was walking, there was a truck that was repainting the lines on the road the opposite way I was walking.  It was going too slow and there was a truck behind it with a big sign that said NO PASSING.  You can imagine how long of a line of cars there was behind that truck. For the next 5 miles cars were just creeping by me and It kinda felt like a parade in reverse… like I was the parade but they were moving. Eventually we got to Ken's house and I got to say Ken is a pretty sweet dude.  He is one of those guys that is just super friendly and at 23 years old he owns his own house (which to me is shocking).  At 23 I didn't even know how to balance a check book… wait… I don't think I even know how to do that now… hahaha... Just kidding... Kind of...

That night we had another BBQ with Shawn, Andrea and Joann who all came over. I like to ask random questions, like what was the biggest lie you were ever caught in or what is your most embarrassing moment.  I gotta say, Andrea takes the cake for biggest lie ever told.  Well, maybe it wasn't really a lie, but she just has a real doozy of a story.  Sometimes when I'm walking I think about that story and just giggle.  Eventually Shaun and Andrea left and it was just Ken and I.  We sat on his back porch and smoked cigars, finishing off that box that I was given and we talked about life and relationships.  He was struggling from a past relationship that he had been involved in.  She had really done a number on his heart.  He was questioning whether he could even be in another relationship again, whether he could even trust women.  I gave him the only advise that I could think of at the time, I told him this, if you don't kill your past it won't let you live.  Since then we have talked about that a couple of times through text messaging.  I went to bed a lot later than I wanted to that night. The next day I was leaving the state of Utah and finally made it to Colorado. 

Friday, July 12, 2013

Vernal

I woke up the next morning in a clean bed, wearing clean clothes and with a clean body... It felt funny. I think I find comfort in the dirty dude vibe now… I know, kind of gross. We got ready and headed over to the concert for the sound check. The singer kept asking me questions about the walk between songs and I have to say I remember the band being cooler back in the day… haha .  I waited till they were done and headed to get my picture taken with the band. I don't really know what happened but they took off before we got to take a picture together. It's all good though, I really wanted to go so I would make it on time to the the Relay for Life event. I got there just before the opening ceremonies and found a spot in the grass at the side of the stage. Just trying to avoid being in the middle of the crowd. The opening of the event was a little awkward to say the least. A man came on stage to sing but it didn't seem like he even knew the words to the song. He kept on shuffling through his stack of papers as if he was looking for lyrics. A few cool things happened like meeting the vice president of The American Cancer Society. We took pictures and chatted a bit.

I don't know what my expectations were for the event but whatever they were, that was not it. It was more like a carnival with games for kids, people camping out and just a family fun event. I  personally took this very seriously and it touched a bit of a sore place in my heart. This wasn't suppose to be some fun event. This was about the lives ruined by cancer. I was thinking a lot about the last few times I saw my father and was struggling to hold back tears ( I realize now that I'm a bit of a crier haha). My head was down and I was trying not to make eye contact. I didn't want to socialize, I wanted to grieve my father for a bit.

During the ceremonies they said no dogs were allowed but I had asked the event organizers 3 different times if it was ok that I walked with the goat and they really wanted me to stay and walk with Leeroy. However everyone around me was like "they said no pets" and every second person was sure to remind me of that. It didn't help that those who didn't care that Leeroy was there actually wanted a picture with him. My heart was just not in to it at all. I didn't want to share or take pictures. After about 4 times around the small track I left very disappointed by the whole thing.

 The next day I went to the bank, then to the post office and that afternoon while I was chilling in my hotel room Dominos pizza called ME and asked if I wanted a pizza…hahaha…they called me!!! I thought that was pretty funny. When the delivery girl came with the pizza she asked for a signed stack of cards for all the workers back at Dominos. She kept telling me that I'm famous and that everyone knows about me. Its kind of a strange thing to keep hearing cause I definitely don't feel famous.  Thanks to everyone at Vernal Dominos Pizza and thank God for His constant provision. 

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Craig to Hayden


I'm currently in Winter Park, CO.  I'm at a hotel called the Best Western.  I don't know why but I feel like I'm not getting any blood into these blogs.  There is just so many amazing things and so many amazing people that the amazingness just starts to become common.  It is hard to articulate it, if that makes sense.  It is so crazy when, for lack of better words, when every day miracles happen, you know what I'm saying?  I'm always thankful, but I'm at that point now where I have to plan for the kindness of others.  I only take about a day's worth of food with me, even if it takes 5 days to get to the next spot.  I only take about a liter of water with me.  The reason is because everybody just keeps bringing me food and water, bringing me supplies without me asking.  Like I said, where God guides, he provides.  And I have to plan for his provision.  If I stock up on food and water people will bring me stuff and I either have to turn them down or I have to carry too much food or water, and I never want to make them feel that I am ungrateful.  Anyway, back to Craig.  I came into Craig on Friday and my birthday was on Sunday.  Not a lot went on there in Craig.  I mostly just camped out in the hotel and let my body and LeeRoy rest.  The only thing about the time I spent there is that Shawn and Andrea came out for my birthday.  They brought me birthday cake.  We went to a local spot, played pool and had pizza.  I love those guys to death.  They keep telling me that they are going to be there at the end of this walk, and I hope they are.  I hope everybody is there.  I hope I walk into Times Square 50 strong and we can make a statement.  It is absolutely fantastic.  We took a bunch of pictures and they headed back home to Vernal.  The next day, again, headed back out on the road.  Steamboat, here I come!

I walked 18 miles from Craig to Haydon.  It was daunting, hot, grueling and I was unhappy about it. I planned on camping between Craig and Haydon but I was so close that I decided to keep on walking.  We pulled into town and there was only one restaurant open and they were going to close in about half hour so I posted LeeRoy outside and went in and ordered some food.  I swear to you I had been in that town not even 10 minutes.  This random lady shows up.  She is a very thin lady, long stringy, thin dishwater blond hair.  She is very, very soft spoken.  Very kind of passive aggressive type.  She stars questioning me about what I am doing.  Not about the project necessarily, but about where I got the goat, why I have leather and duct tape on his feet.  She says to me right off the bat "goats are not pack animals" and I said "yes, they are" and (this is the only time she was aggressive with me) she says "no they aren't" and I said "yes, ma'am, they really are"!  I was feeding LeeRoy french fries.  She says "do goats eat that, because that's bad for goats".  I said "it's fine".  She said "you are hurting your goat".  Right then I realized that I'm in some serious trouble.  I immediately pull out my card and had it to her, tell her about the orphanage, tell her about what is going on over there.  LeeRoy tried to pull and strain to get to my French fries, his collar is pulling on his neck.  She reaches for his collar and says "oh my God, you need to loosen his collar". I push him back and show that his collar is actually quite loose.  She is like "have you been cleared by Animal Control"?  I asked her "what do you mean, like to walk through this city"?  She said "to walk a goat across America".  I told her "you don't need permission to walk a goat".  Now, here's the thing, she is not raising her voice, she is acting all innocent like she really doesn't care and is trying to question me like she is a good person, and I'm not saying she is not a good person, but at this point I am starting to get frustrated.  It has been a long day for both of us and I just want to eat and set up camp.  She says "I'm going to call Animal Control".  I say "do it".  She goes inside the restaurant, gets the number and comes back out.  She tells him that the animal is in danger and then I hear her say "call me back after you call him".  I know what that means.  That means Animal Control is going to call the police but she doesn't want me to know it.  I'm not stupid.  She then starts questioning me about Uzima.  My first words were "it's in the slums of Nairobi Kenya.  She interrupts me and she says "I have been there, it is not a slum, they don't call it a slum".  OK, THAT'S IT.  I have crossed that line from being courteous and go into WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO RIGHT NOW.  I go into what we are trying to do over there and she immediately tries to discount everything I was trying to say.  I look at her with a very serious face, no hesitation to jump down her throat and I say "what are you trying to do right now".  She looks back at me like she is the victim, like she is my friend and she is all concerned, "oh nothing, I'm just asking questions".  I look back at her with intensity in my eyes and I say "if you have a problem, you can walk away from me right now".  She say "oh, no.  I am just concerned for the animal".  I stand up and I get LeeRoy and I say "do you want to see his hooves, do you want to see if there is something wrong with him"?  I pull out my knife.  I realized in that moment that I might be starting to go too far.  She says "no, no, no.  I'm just concerned".  I can feel just the anger rising inside of me.  She is playing the victim card so well in this scenario that there is no way I can get mad and come out on top so I just sit down. We sit there in silence for a few moments.  You can cut the tension with a knife.  I take a couple sips of my drink and a couple bites of my burger.  I look up at her and I apologize.  I say, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so aggressive,  It has just been a long day and I might be a little over-tired".  We sit in silence for a few more moments.  The Animal Control officer arrives, along with a police officer at the same time.  I stand up to greet Animal Control to shake his hand, she is still sitting.  She gets very quiet, doesn't say a thing.  So I speak up for her and say "I think she is concerned that I am abusing my goat, hurting him in some way".  She says "that's not what I said".    I say "I'm sorry, then what's the issue"?  She again doesn't say anything.   I immediately kind of go into defense mode.  "look I'm walking across America.  I put these boots on him for protection and extra comfort.  My goat is not injured".   He says "yeah, that's smart.  I put dog boots on my hunting dog".  He says "what's the problem here" to her.  She just kind of mumbles and puts her hand towards the goat  "is this OK, is this legitimate"?  The control officer is looking at her, leaning on one foot "oh yeah, I used to have a pack goat".  She says "isn't this too much weight"?  He touches the backpack and says "oh no, oh no.  Goats can carry way more than this".   I hand the officer a card and I say "I think she is concerned if this is a real gig or if I'm just stealing this money".  The officer asked for my ID.  He wants to check to see if I have any warrants or anything like that.  During the time we are waiting she says "so how are you going to make it back from New York"?  I said, just trying to keep the conversation civil, "I will probably fly".  She says "oh so you are going to use some of the money".  I swear to you, in that moment, I almost lost it!  On the inside my emotions are red lining on the outside I'm keeping it calm, collected and cool.  The lady said to the officer "how do I know this is legitimate"?  I look at the officer and say "you can go online and Google it, take my tax ID number".  No phone had good enough service right there so they couldn't Google it from their phones.  I was able to pull it up on my phone, show them the website, show them pictures.  During that time the lady says "my business is right around the corner.  Let's go there and use my computer".  She went with the officer to verify that I am not a fraud.  The Animal Control officer donated.  The police officer came back and said we were all straight and free to go.  I finish my meal and just as I'm about to leave she shows up.  She offers me a place to stay at her house and tries to apologize.  It's not like I don't forgive her and I totally accept her apology, but I want nothing to do with her and definitely don't want to stay at her house.  By the time it's all over it was dark and I still needed to find a place to camp.  Across the street was the city park.  It's crazy!  All the kids hang out until 3:00 in the morning in the parking lot of this city park.  I decided I wanted to be as incognito as possible.  I blew up my sleeping pad and just threw out my sleeping bag right behind the park bathroom, no tent, no nothing, just sleeping pad and sleeping bag.  Pretty much like a homeless guy.  The whole time kids kept running around me, talking to me, pet LeeRoy, take pictures.  Then something was wrong.  My air mattress had a HOLE in it!  It would deflate in about 20 minutes.  Man, did that suck!  I'm just thinking about the next time I could get an air mattress and that was a pain because I had to at least use this pad for 4 more nights.  Then, just about when I'm going to fall asleep the sprinklers come on in the park.  I know that sound!  That is the best alarm you can ever have!  The sound of air and water being pushed through the tip of the sprinkler, kind of sputtering.  I'm on full alert, wide awake, DEF CON 5!  First things first, SAVE LEEROY!  I run over to him and grab him, untie him from his tree and run to the front of the bathrooms where there is concrete and no sprinklers.  I tie him to doorknob of the guys' bathroom.  I run back to get all of our gear.  That's when it happened.  A straight head shot by the sprinkler!  I'm barefoot and the grass is just wet enough to where I slip and fall.  I pick up all my gear and head to where LeeRoy is at.  Now I can't decide if I want to sleep inside the Mens' bathroom or just in front of it.  Since the light inside was automatic and LeeRoy would just pace around I just slept outside of it.  WE DIDN'T SLEEP A WINK!  I was up all night long.  Kids racing their cars around the parking lot, sprinklers coming on, LeeRoy stepping all over me and my sleeping bag, my sleeping pad completely flat.  It may have been the worst night of this trip so far.  At about 6:30 the sun rose and all I can think is "I HATE HAYDON"   to be continued......

Sunday, July 7, 2013

I Heard Him in a Song...

God spoke to me.

Now I know you're probably skeptical and don't want to read on… I'd normally think the same thing but when I say I heard God speak it wasn't like I was walking in the heat of the day and the clouds parted and a ray of light shined on me and a voice from heaven spoke. NO, it was nothing like that. I have never experienced anything like that but He spoke to me. I think its better if I start off by saying, whenever The Lord speaks it's hard to explain. I mean for me it's so personal that when I try to explain it people are like yaaaa ok good for you. So that my be your thoughts right now.

 Ok here it goes… I left Sunday morning fully stocked up and ready to head off into the heat of the high desert. It was Father's Day which can occasionally be a hard day for me. I mean my father died when I was 12 and I'm 33 now. Sometimes on Father's Day the people that are closest to me send me messages like.. Hey I know today's Father's Day hope your ok I'm here if you want to talk ( I never want to talk) or Hey I know Father's Day is hard and I know your dad would be proud of you. Most of the time I never let that stuff effect me, I just say thanks and move on. However this time "I know he would be proud of you" stuck with me. I don't know what that would feel like for him to be proud of me . I just don't and on top of that I don't even know how I feel about the not knowing . Anyway, for the most part it was a wonderful day and I thought about those words "he would be proud of you" off and on that day. I was finishing Tina Fay's book "Bossy Pants" and listening to music just taking it easy. We walked about 16 miles that day and drank more water than I though when in fact we were almost out and we had 3 more days to go! I had been told by locals that there was water at a spot about 25 miles out and from there there was a rest stop about 18 miles past that. So I wasn't too worried. I set up camp and saved us a little water for the next day.

 The next morning we finished off our water and started walking when within 2 miles this truck stops and asks "you need anything?" I smiled and said ya water would be great. They gave me 3 water bottles, a big Gatorade, a tall can of ice tea and some tuna! I thanked them and walked on. I looked up at the blue sky and said a simple "thank you". Before I knew it, we made it to the truck stop that was actually a bar annndddd it was closed on mondays… haha so no water! *Side-note, this is a bar that is in the middle of no where! Literally, very strange. LeeRoy and I  took a break as I drank the ice tea and gave LeeRoy a bottle of water. Not long after we finished the rest of our liquids and another car stopped to give us a bottle of water that we shared. Now its about 2 in the afternoon when leeRoy and I  once again finished every drop of water we had. I looked for any shade I could find so we could stop for another break but not even a bush or a tree were in sight. So there we were climbing this hill in the heat of the day. I was counting every mile to this rest stop we were suppose to find water at. 9 miles to go. I thought, OK we will find some shade somewhere, hide out till it cools down then make a break for the rest stop water.

 We had walked maybe  1/16 of a mile from the last drop we drank and this truck came over the hill and stopped right next to us. It had a trailer with 2 sheep haha and get this, a guy jumps out of his truck and bring us water. He was Hispanic so we had a bit of a language barrier as I was trying to tell him the story of what we were doing. He said "hold on"  and came back with a cooler full of melted ice for LeeRoy to drink. Leeroy just goes to town on it drinking till he couldn't drink anymore. Then the guy handed me a snack pack pudding, a foot long subway sandwich, an ice cold coke and gets back in his truck and drives off. I just started laughing! I mean like the deep belly laugh where I could hardly breath. Really God!?!?! Haha now you're just showing off! I wanted to get to the top of this hill so bad so we kept walking about a quarter mile. I am not joking I was laughing the whole time but wait it gets better. Just on the other side of the hill the perfect little tree with branches that made a little shady spot sat there as if it was waiting for us . I remember thinking as I walked up to the tree, "God made me a picnic".  We set up out little spot and I ate that sandwich like it was that last one I will ever eat! It was so good! I sat there and though, I know that God knows everything and He knew about this moment but I could help thinking I bet he put this tree here just for me just for this moment. Then things went deeper to the places of my heart that I normally  don't talk about….HE noticed me. Now I don't know why that's so important to me but it is. The God of the universe noticed me?! Here's the thing, I know what the bible says  and I know the theology... I get it but when you experience that moment, it's just a whole different thing.

Of course the enemy always wants to ruin the moment  and the thought " you didn't pray for this" like I didn't ask God for help or worse I didn't rely on God for what I needed. And it's true for the most part, I have always felt like I'm on my own like It's up to me ya know. And when I pray I try not to bug God with little things like water. I pray for ST and the kids in Africa and for the money and my general safety. I don't want to bother God with things like water or new shoes or whatever. I just don't want to "bother " God ya know... Again I understand the bible so these thoughts are wrong theology but ya it's just my thing.

 The day went on as more and more people stopped and gave us water and I just couldn't help but praise God. Not only did Leeroy and I get plenty of water but about 15 miles later another semi stopped and brought us 2 Leters of water and a Gatorade. My pack and Leeroy's pack were completely full with water. We couldn't carry another drop. We had been blessed with more than we could handle. I wanted to make it to the rest stop anyway so we kept walking another 3 miles.

Now this is the part where The Lord responded to me. As I was walking up the hill I was half listening to my iPod but mostly deep in thought about all that had happened that day. All at once everything seemed to stop and I heard the words of this song by a band called Stavesacre. The song is called "Keep Waiting". Now I have heard this song about 500 times but this time it was burning in my heart and mind. The song starts with the words of a man that seems to be talking to himself almost.  In the bridge The Lord responds with a simple response and it touches my heart to the point that I'm on the side of the road crying and praising God.

"And when they try to take your eyes off of me, remember
And when they try to take your eyes off of me, remember me

Keep Waiting, I'll be right on time
Keep Waiting, I'll be right on time"

More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/s/stavesacre/

This was The Lord speaking to me about things that are more than I can even explain.

I'm going to end this blog with the words of a song from a band called  Telecast. Every time I hear this song I weep...It's everything I feel.  The verses are a man coming to The Lord and asking Him if He has done too much or turned away to many times for God to love him. In the choirs God responds and I lose it every time... Maybe you can identify with this song.

Will you stay with me
When I forget you're there?
Will you still love me
When my love lingers elsewhere?

I hear you softly speaking
Secrets that enclose
Words that softly linger
A sweet repose

And I will never leave you
Leave you waiting round
Cause I'm the one that's been waiting
For you to turn around
For you to turn around

And how can I contain you
When you contain everything?
The house of my soul
Is far too small
And still I will sing

I hear you softly speaking
Secrets that enclose
Words that softly linger
A sweet repose

And I will never leave you
Leave you waiting round
Cause I'm the one that's been waiting
For you to turn around
For you to turn around

Enclosed by you
Enclosed I say
I am in you
And you are in me
And you are in me

Golden Corral

I woke up the next morning in a clean bed, wearing clean clothes and with a clean body... It felt funny. I think I find comfort in the dirty dude vibe now… I know, kind of gross. We got ready and headed over to the concert for the sound check. The singer kept asking me questions about the walk between songs but I got to say I remember the band being cooler back in the day… haha .  I  waited till they were done  and headed to get my picture taken with the band. I don't really know what happened but they took off before we got to take a picture together. It's all good though, I really wanted to go so I would make it on time to the the Relay for Life event. I there just before the opening ceremonies and to be honest they were so awkward and things just seemed to get worse not better. A few cool things happened like meeting the vice president of The American Cancer Society. We took pictures and chatted a bit but that was it.

I don't know what my expectations were for the event but whatever they were, that was not it. It was more like a carnival with games for kids, people camping out and just all kinds of "fun" stuff. I  personally took this very seriously and it touched a bit of a sore place in my heart. This wasn't suppose to be some fun event. This was about the lives ruined by cancer. I was thinking a lot about the last few times I saw my father and was struggling to hold back tears ( I realize now that I'm a bit of a cryer haha). My head was down and I was trying not to make eye contact. I didn't want to socialize, I wanted to grieve my father for a bit.
During the opening ceremonies they said no dogs were allowed but I had asked the event organizers 3 different times if it was ok that I walked with the goat and they really wanted me to stay and walk with Leeroy. However everyone around me was like "they said no pets" and every second person was sure to remind me of that. It didn't help that those who didn't care that Leeroy was there actually wanted a picture with him. My heart was just not in to it at all. I didn't want to share or take pictures. After about 4 times around the small track I left very disappointed by the whole thing.

 The next day I went to the bank, then to the postoffice and that afternoon while I was chilling in my hotel room Dominos pizza called ME and asked if I wanted a pizza…hahaha…they called me!!! I thought that was pretty funny. Thanks to everyone at Vernal Dominos Pizza!

Monday morning I woke up and headed to the radio station for the interview. I was scheduled to meet Andrea and do the morning show with her. It was quick and easy, we had a good time. Andrea had offered for LeeRoy and I to stay at her place that night and I gladly accepted . The Smith family! Joann, Shaun, and Andrea, it was a great time! Let me start off with this, Joann is a lawyer, Shaun is a detective and Andrea is a reporter and they all live together in the same house. Haha sounds like the start of a joke right!

Monday night they had a BBQ for me and invited friends over.  We hung out, ate, laughed and had a great time. Now I don't know how you feel about it but I'm a big fan of cigars.  I was given a box of cigars by a girl named Anne in another town so we decided to share cigars, tell stories and talk about life. Those are things I love to do the most.  One by one, people started heading inside and going to sleep cause they had to work the next day. The last two up were me and Andrea.  We talked about relationships, life, God and at one point I was quoting scripture. The next day we got up and headed to another radio station.  Andrea drove LeeRoy and I to my first interview at 8:30am with Lincoln Brown.  It was a good interview, no commercials, just talking straight through. Thinking that was going to be my only interview I was going to leave, but in the same building was a country station and they decided to have me on too.  So I did another interview last minute and after Andrea took me on a mini tour around town. We had a quick lunch and then I headed home for a nap. That night we had a BBQ again and again I spilt my guts about the good and bad in my life.  It was awesome to become friends with these people! Shaun and Andrea have really become fast friends and I really enjoy that this wasn't just a host home but it turned into a friendship.

The next day I was back on the road. I got dropped off and after we said our goodbyes we made plans to have another BBQ in Jensen, UT, the next town the next day. One of the people at the BBQ the other two nights was named Ken.  He lives in Jensen and I was going to stay there for the night.  They were going to have another BBQ and I made the Smiths promise they would be there. *Sidenote, one of the best parts of this walk is that I get to have a BBQ at least a couple nights a week with host family. Love it! 

As I started heading out of town it was absolute pandemonium! I had been in the papers, done radio interviews so by now my story was out and almost everybody knew who I was. I ended up being stopped  every few minutes….Pictures, donations, it was great! 

Here is a cool little story:  So I was walking out of town and as I'm walking I see a huge garbage truck pull up next to me which kind of scared me at first. The guy was holding out a $50.00 bill, said "thanks for what you are doing" and left before I even got to say thank you. So to you Mr. Garbage Man, Thank You! 

The reality of this project is that I do not have enough money to get across America. On that same note, I honestly feel that where God guides you, He provides for you.  When I left for the second part of this journey I didn't have enough money to make it through even a few months and that was a bit scary.  Looking back now I remember being really stressed out leaving Vernal. I spent more money than I wanted to there and honestly I am not really good with a budget.  So as I was walking I was thinking about food, money and just how I'd make it another week.

I had walked about 7 or 8 miles out of town when I came upon a gas station that was being rebuilt.  I will give you little back story.  About a year ago a truck was leaking fumes of some sort and it was parked in front of a big warehouse.  All the fumes from this tanker had filled up this building and when the heater kicked on in the middle of the night it exploded, blowing apart several building around it including this gas station which was a good quarter-mile away. I pulled up to this gas station around noon.  LeeRoy was eating some bushes and I was kind of sitting in the shade of the building.  One of the workers was eating his lunch and we got to chatting about what I was doing, just same old same old, just chit chatting. This guy asked me if I wanted any power bars and I said "sure, absolutely".  He went to his truck and brought back a box overflowing with power bars, granola bars, chips and sunflower seeds.  The owner of the gas station had given them to him because they could not resell them.  Everything was considered lost in the explosion.  Remind you, these were perfectly good bars. 

I was so grateful and I gotta be honest, I'm still eating those bars to this day!  It blows my mind to be able to pray for food and then have a box of granola bars.  I want to make something very clear, this is very specific to my needs. If he would have brought me cans of soup or something that would have needed to be heated up I could not have used it.  I do not take a camping stove with me.  I can't take any food that needs to be prepared.  That kind of stuff, the little details, they always get me.  I ended up walking the rest of the way to Jensen that afternoon.  As I was walking, there was a truck that was repainting the lines on the road the opposite way I was walking.  It was going too slow and there was a truck behind it with a big sign that said NO PASSING.  You can imagine how long of a line of cars there was behind that truck. For the next 5 miles cars were just creeping by me and It kinda felt like a parade in reverse… like I was the parade but they were moving. I eventually we got to Ken's house and I got to say Ken is a pretty sweet dude.  He is one of those guys that is just super friendly and at 23 years old he owns his own house (which to me is shocking).  At 23 I didn't even know how to balance a check book… wait… I don't think I even know how to do that now… hahaha... Just kidding... Kind of...

That night we had another BBQ with Shawn, Andrea and Joann who all came over. I like to ask random questions, like what was the biggest lie you were ever caught in or what is your most embarrassing moment.  I gotta say, Andrea takes the cake for biggest lie ever told.  Well, maybe it wasn't really a lie, but she just has a real doozy of a story.  Sometimes when I'm walking I think about that story and just giggle.  Eventually Shaun and Andrea left and it was just Ken and I.  We sat on his back porch and smoked cigars, finishing off that box that I was given and we talked about life and relationships.  He was struggling from a past relationship that he had been involved in.  She had really done a number on his heart.  He was questioning whether he could even be in another relationship again, whether he could even trust women.  I gave him the only advise that I could think of at the time, I told him this, if you don't kill your past it won't let you live.  Since then we have talked about that a couple of times through text messaging.  I went to bed a lot later than I wanted to that night. The next day I was leaving the state of Utah and finally made it to Colorado.