Hello Everyone,

Well, here I am laying here in the Excursion for my last night in real comfort on our thick foam, regular pillow, and a blanket. Tomorrow I’ll be roughing it in a tent and at probably the only sheltered spot that I found at the start of the old Ridge Route, on private property, that’s posted no trespassing.

Left Jim’s towing after a good night’s sleep and got a fairly early start for what Google said was only 15 miles. Wrong, it turned out to be a total of 17.90 miles. Boy, was I disappointed when I hit 15 and realized I wasn’t even close, and I was tired too. It’s like those, “almost at the top of the hill”, that turn out to be just a slightly less steep climb but still keeps on going uphill, forever!

Today was probably the last day of the two least exciting of the whole trip, walking into all day traffic on busy SR126. I wanted to do it door to door, good and bad. To make it a little more pleasurable I just listened to music and found myself really enjoying most of the scenery once I blocked out the road noise. Maybe I am showing my age, but how can you not enjoy walking on a beautiful day while listening to the Beach Boys, Jimmy Hendrix, and some of my other favorites?

Overall, the walk today was very uneventful, other than the sheriff’s deputy stopping to just chat with me and a few other people that went out of their way to talk to me at the fruit stand and food places. I am taking advantage of that eating out before I start to dine on my dehydrated food, which start tomorrow.

I do have to say that even though walking on a busy highway was not the greatest, slowing down and actually having the time to look around is amazing when you realize what you are missing on our fast travels. I am amazed at what I have noticed and found. I found a very nice knife just outside Piru, east of Fillmore. It was such a nice knife that I wondered why someone would have throw it out of their car. Maybe they were leaving a crime scene where it was used as the weapon and it was thrown out because it was evidence? See what you think of when you have the time.

Oh, and of course the animal pattern bikini top. Must have belonged to a biker chick? When you have time on your hands your mind starts to wonder all over the place. I picture her riding the bike, as the driver or passenger, when she lost it. That must have been a sight!

And, I have never seem so many plastic bottles discarded on the side of the road full of pee! A bit of trivia. I actually read somewhere that bottles of urine are one of the items most picked up by government road workers. Gross for the environment in more ways than one.

Mindee and I are all snug in the Excursion on a dirt road leading to a farm field at the corner of SR126 and Chiquito Canyon Road, about two miles west from Interstate 5, if you are keeping track. Tomorrow I will trek about five miles to the start of the old Ridge Route, and then about six miles up to the no trespassing camp spot. It will be steep and probably the toughest part of my trek, other that the Sherman Grade outside of Bishop.

Am I tired? Funny, I start off well, then hit a wall about half way. Then after a break, food and drink, I get a second surge of energy. Then towards the last few mikes I start to slow, but once I stop for the day I feel fine. Do my feet hurt? A little, but not bad. Actually less than the first day. Am I sore? Not really, but I’ll wait until tomorrow and hopefully will give the same answer.

I’ll end now and hopefully will have another good day tomorrow to tell you about.

Ted

Next Post: Day 3