Today is the 7th day of my walk and I feel very positive about what I've done so far. I did have one rest day but I have gone 163 miles from Myrtle Beach. My expectations coming in were that I would be able to do 10-15 miles a day to start out, so obviously I'm very excited about my progress. I sit here once again at a Mcdonalds, I know, but they always have free wi-fi. I don't really eat here, which i'm sure everyone here loves. They must love the site of me walking in no shower for a week, putting down Radio (the recently acquired name of my backpack) taking my shoes off and filling every outlet with various electronic devices. Ok so after my last post I ended up walking about 9 miles at 5 in the morning with no sleep to the Sharolyn Campground and Motel. I arrived at about 9am and just camped there through the night. The woman in the RV next to my site told me that she had lived there for the past year and a half. She couldn't have been nicer she washed my clothes for me and cooked me a big spaghetti dinner, and it was so nice to get some quality rest. I got up the next day and cruised. I finally had a paved shoulder for a good stretch. At one point I was walking and 4 women had stopped on the side of the road. I approached them and one of them said "are you mitch?" I was so shocked these people knew my name. They apparently had read about me and my walk somewhere and asked to take a picture with me. I ended up finding an open field to camp in that night.The weather was perfect and I ended up walking 30 miles. Today I headed into Columbia, SC the capitol. I saw the capitol building it was pretty cool . Shortly after, sidewalks disappeared, I grew frustrated as I kept having to go over the curb and push my cart uphill on long grass. No easy task. I had finally had it and started walking in the lane of the road when I was immediately called by a state trooper to meet him in the median. He gave me a warning and told me to just walk in the median and gave me a sweet reflector vest. The median was actually awesome , it was like a lane to myself. Im currently in Lexington, SC about 70ish miles until the Georgia border. That will be my first mini victory getting to a new state. At this pace I should be in Georgia in about 3 days depending on the weather it is supposed to rain thursday through saturday. I may get a motel to avoid some of it and possibly take my first shower.I'm currently hearing grumblings on a bad stench in the air from the family a couple of tables away.
I do want to thank everybody who has messaged me and shared their encouraging words with me. I love hearing from everyone. Also those who have seen me on the road and messaged me, It's almost like I am building a small South Carolina family! It is a great thing to know that I have the support of people who have seen me on the side of the road and haven't even met me and those who I have run into along the road.
The other day after I walked through East Sumter (scariest place in the world) at night this what I wrote in my journal and I thought it was halarious. I was walking down the dark street and all I could hear was dogs barking for miles. I put my headphones on to drown it out. For some reason I still kept hearing barking. I thought am I hearing them, or am I just imagaining this? Then I thought, maybe I should just stop listening to The Baha Men.............. (THIS IS A JOKE THE BAHA MEN ARE NOT ON MY IPOD) just to clear things up. Here are a few pictures from the road so far.
Wix is not very quick for adding images ill try to find a better way next time I post and post some on Facebook.