Day 30 – I’m A Barbie Girl

31 May Day 30 – I’m A Barbie Girl

Strange title?? Well this is because in my final miles today I met Deanna Thomae and her daughter Julia. I will explain more later

Farmlands

I am back out in farmland now and they are so much more enjoyable in these conditions. OK, so the wind is pretty strong and no matter which way I face I always seem to be walking into it, but this keeps me cool as I walk through this vast expanse of farmland. There are some classic old farmhouses, you know ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ ones with the red sides and white lined roofs. sometimes you look across a field and you think you are looking onto a film set.

Hobbling

Leg two was not good today, I set off with a limp due to either the blisters on my feet or my shoes being too tight or just the wrong sock combination, it is all very technical. Anyway 10 miles later I was still hobbling. Not much fun, but it does make people stop and ask if I am OK and I get to spread the word about the walk. I also got stopped by an Illinois Police Officer. He was great, after telling me he had seen me walking over 15 miles away I told him what I was up to. He took all my details and went on his way with no problems. I checked my blisters when I got back in the RV and one looked OK, but when I drained it, let’s just say it was a little like caramel. That does nothing for the confidence. I cleaned them up and headed on my way.

Out of Signal

So now we are in the deepest darkest depths of Illinois, we lost all connection to the internet. Our only way of finding out the route. After hitting a T-junction both the RV and I had to try and figure it out, We both guessed right (west) and we were both wrong. To make sure we knew for sure we headed off to the nearest town to find some signal, but there was none to be found. Such a pain. Anyway we final got one bar on the wifi box, and quickly wrote down the route. It was getting late so we decided that today will only be a 35 mile day. I will catch up on a day off. After my close encounter with a car after dark I didn’t want to risk it. I am now 4 miles behind schedule.

Barbie & Fairies

So on this final 7 mile stretch I met Deanna Thomae and her daughter Julia of Miles Station Rd, Shipman, IL. Julia, immediately told me where she was headed, back home after visiting her grandparents. I responded with my plan to walk to LA. She was un-phased by this and simply went on to tell me about her Barbie movie where the fairies lived in Los Angeles. I promised I would say hello to them when I got there. Luckily the conversation didn’t end there as we were all walking in the same direction. Deanna and I spoke about the logistics of walking across the country and after taking a quick picture I headed off to find the RV. Ridiculously, after 1100 miles these are the only two Americans who have walked with me. Actually Matt Oberg did, but really I count him as Scottish as we met in Edinburgh. I would also like to thank young Julia for offering me a place to stay for the night. I am sure it would be far more comfortable than the RV but I still had 3 more miles to walk. It was great to meet both Julia & Deanna and I hope they manage to find the website alright.