My last night in Cape Girardeau was so much fun. I met a lot of nice people, went around to a few of the local bars. I even got to sit and drink a beer in the bar stool where Ben Affleck sat in the movie “Gone Girl. “It was pretty clear how much fun I had the next morning when I woke up. I didn’t get to bed until around 4am. I didn’t make much progress that next day. My new cart also started acting up. After all I had been through with my previous cart this was demoralizing. I was able to get in touch with the manufacturer and sort it out for now. I won’t get into the details, it will upset me, I have moved on. I was on a mission to get back into a rhythm after getting my cart rolling again. I feel like I have done that. In the last 5 days I have traveled over 130 miles and gone over 1000 in total now. That is a pretty big milestone for me. 1000 miles. I have said I was going to do a lot of things in my life. I have done fewer. I am staying at The Wagon Wheel Inn tonight on the old Route 66 in Cuba, MO relaxing and appreciating how far I have gone. I have come to realize that in Missouri the sky looks routinely clearer than I have ever seen in my life.
Yesterday and today I walked through the Mark Twain National Park. It is truly a beautiful area. So much land full of green. It is unfortunate that everything appeared to be fenced off. All of this land for few to enjoy. What is the point? I swear the guy who sells “no trespassing” or “private property” signs made a killing here and all along the southern states. I have now seen 3 dead snakes to add to the vast collection of dead animals I have passed by. I hope to never see one that is still living. On the negative side regarding walking through the national park, the road indentations. You know those marks on the side of the road that if you drive over your car vibrates until you get back in your lane? Those things suck. They are annoying when you are in a car. When you are pushing a cart, everything shakes, everything. I spent about 16 hours of walking over those things. 16 hours! They are no less annoying in the 16th hour than they are in the 16th second.
Over the course of my walk so far I have found how much your mind can work against you. I have found that when I get frustrated, I force myself to smile. I must look even more ridiculous than I already do. A sun beaten man with a long beard pushing what appears to be a baby along the highway with a giant serial killer-like smile on his face. I wish I could see myself. Anyways, I feel that when I smile my brain automatically begins to feel the positive side of what I am doing somehow. It’s simple. I don’t get it, but it’s simple and it helps. A spoke to a man named Tim the other day. He pulled over after driving past me multiple times along the highway. He told me about a life threatening concussion he suffered after being hit by a drunk driver in his car. He was the pastor at a local church. It was very nice to talk about head injuries, and the effects of them with somebody who has gone through it. He gave me several bottles of water and some strawberries which is always appreciated. I hadn’t had fruit in quite some time, so good.
Most nights I camp off of the road I am on, usually behind some trees or whatever I can find. I have gotten into the habit of setting my tarp down and sitting on it as I watch the cars pass by and wait for the sun to set. I look at the people in the cars. First I look to see if they can see me. They usually can’t, which means I picked out a good spot where nobody will bother me. They usually don’t even look in my direction, blind to their surroundings as they pass me in their cars. Unaware that someone sits in the trees so close to them. I feel so far removed from these people. Even if they were to look towards me all they would see are trees. They will never know that someone is starring back at them, watching them.
A few nights ago I was camped around 10pm and I started to hear footsteps. I moved around and made some noise. The crackling of the leaves began to slow. Something or someone was out there, my eyes were wide open. I guess I will never know.
I am 46 days into my walk about 10-12 days from Kansas City, MO. I saw my first 7- Eleven the other day. It is crazy 1 7- Eleven in 1000 miles. My old house in LA had 10 of them in the 2 miles surrounding my house. Gas stations serve biscuits and gravy here, for a dollar. Something I would normally never touch, but I gobble those things down. My weight has stabilized at around 170, and I do not eat healthy at all. My diet consists of beef top ramen, Oreos, cliff bars, peanuts, pop tarts, and mountain dew.
It has gone 4 days without rain. The longest it has been dry consecutively during my entire walk. I say this as it is currently pouring rain. It was a good run.
Side note
I was reading this article the other day that seemed pretty obvious that it was not a real storry pretty early on. It was about people getting head transplants. Basically you take your current head and get a new body. I don't know how this is possible. I sat there thinking of the possibilities of this if it were real. Then I thought, who is donating the bodies?