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August 8 - August 17, 2009
 This set of days definitely changed my emotional status in a good way. Lot's of crazy things happened to make this part more worth it. These past few weeks have been physically and emotionally draining and have put me in sort of a rut. I had many doubts and issues and even self-threats to quit. But I remember the advice that my uncle gave me right before we left from Le Bugue, "Even though it seems difficult and not worth it, you have to try and enjoy it as much as possible or you'll be miserable." And that lately is something that I have not been doing...until now. All I've wanted is to finish as soon as possible and anything that gets in the way is going to frustrate me and make me go crazy. And guess what? That's exactly what God did; he put people and situations in the way to slow us down. But this time, I was thankful because they were pleasant and fulfilling things!
Our first day back on the road was pretty good. We actually made a record distance of 46 kilometers! That's around 28.5 miles! And Brett has healed even more and was able to walk even faster now because of the day off yesterday. Other than the drunk guys at a bar who took a picture of us walking in Villereal, nothing much really happened today. The next day brought us more surprises though.
I woke up at 4:00 AM the next day from the torrential downpour of rain hitting our tent. It's extremely loud. But I was able to make it back to sleep for a few more hours. The only problem was that it didn't stop...all day. We had to wake up and break down the tent in the rain and walk all day in soaking wet clothes. It was one of the most miserable days so far. And when I say it was "raining" it was that incredible thick sideways rain. When your shoes, socks, underwear, skin, shorts, shirt, hat are completely soaked it's not exactly refreshing. But I knew I had to keep a good attitude through it and we finally got out of it in the late afternoon. We kept walking after dinner and came up to a very small village but it had a bed and breakfast in the town. Since today was so difficult and I had a little extra money I thought we could just get a cheap room for the night so we can try and recover from the day. So we got to the bed and breakfast and were immediately disappointed, not because it was a crappy place but, on the contrary, it was a huge chateau. We knew for a fact that we couldn't afford staying here. The owner of the chateau came out and greeted us and informed us that even though a night to stay was 80 Euros, all his rooms were full. We walked all this way to try and see if there was a place to stay and we failed...great. But he kindly granted us access to sleep on his nicely cut lawn, and since we had nowhere else to go we said "okay." So then he offered us some drinks and asked us to come in and sit at the dinner table with the rest of the guests. But then his wife, Sophie, began to prepare a full plate of dinner for us! And they served us as if we were one of their guests! So then for an hour and a half we sat with over a dozen people from France and Belgium (most of the spoke English) and had a blast talking about different stuff. It was fantastic! But THEN after dinner J.P. the owner offered us a place in his pool house! It was still on the floor but it was still a roof over our heads! It was so amazing! And that night we got to stay in the pool house of a massive chateau for free. I love God's style.
 The next morning Sophie cooked us real French Toast! It was nuts! It actually caught me off guard when I asked what it was. She was explaining the ingredients and I said out loud, "hmmm, that sounds a lot like French Toa...OH! This is French Toast!" She laughed. And once we finally left that morning they sent us off without having to pay for any of the food! At that bed and breakfast every meal costs money and they gave us a free dinner and breakfast! They were awesome! But the blessings didn't stop there!
At 6:00 PM that same day once we walked about 30 km and trying to get to 45, God stopped us once again. We took a typical 15 minute break on the side of the road and the only place was the driveway of a beautiful house with a gate. But since there was a little shade and the residents couldn't see us, we thought it would be okay. But then a man named Rene came through the gate and asked if we wanted a drink and we said yes. When he came back he also brought his wife Michelle who was just the most joyful loving woman we've met so far. She came to us and notioned if wanted to swim in their pool. I was hesitant because I was still in the mindset of trying to get to the next day off ASAP, but I thought "well we can just take our dinner break now while we swim and we'll be okay." So I said yes. But even after that while we were swimming, Michelle came to us and asked if we wanted to stay for dinner and stay the night. Now I was really hesitating because I just couldn't get past the fact that we would be losing time. But something in me was saying "yes" and so I just took my uncle's advice and went for it. It turned out to be such an amazing night. We got to eat a two hour dinner with Rene and Michelle and learn about their life. They are such incredible people and extremely loving. I wish I could talk more about how they just blessed us so much but there is still a lot more that happened this round of walking. So the next morning she gave us a bunch of water, food, med supplies, and tic tacs and fed us a great breakfast. It was so great to meet them and we didn't even speak a similar language. We were able to communicate this whole time without speaking the same language. It was amazing.
 We walked all day after Michelle's house and slept behind an abandoned train station and walked half a day more until we got stopped once again by another new friend. This time we had stopped under the only trees around for lunch to get out of the sun and it happened to be the driveway of a very wealthy farmer named Jan Joullie (pronounced "Yon"). He first asked if we wanted some water and then came back and proposed that if we needed a place to stay for the night we can stay as long as we wanted. I was shocked. God did it again! I thought, "Ah well we're already behind. Why not stop?" So we stopped walking after lunch and just hung out with his family. What we thought was going to be just half a day a turned into 2 and a half days. We were enjoying their company so much that we ended staying two more days there. We got to know their youngest son Theophille a whole lot. We hung out with him most of the time. We went four-wheeling, toured their farmland, went swimming and jumping off an old aqueduct in a river, watched some movies, swam in their pool, saw an old castle nearby, the whole bit. We even got to help with some of the work on their land. We felt like part of the family! They even had plans while we were there but they didn't care, they still wanted us to stay there. Nicole, the mother, was extremely loving and even took us into a big town to go shopping for food. I was just blown away by their love and kind hearts. We also met some of their friends who are actually moving to Dallas so that the father of the family will start his position as the senior curator of American and European Art at the DMA! What a small world! So taking a break here with the Joullie's has definitely been the most fun I've had in France. That was the condensed version of our glorious break but there was so much more. I can't explain it all though. You've just gotta trust me, it was amazing.
 Our first day back on the road was good except I starting getting sick a lot. I felt horrible and the heat was not helping. We made it to nightfall about 50 miles from the border of France and met another great couple named Anthony and Denise who fed us a great dinner, let us shower, and allowed us to set up our tent on their beautiful lawn. France even has some southern hospitality. I didn't get this kind of kindness in the north; or at least this frequently.
The next day I wasn't feeling any better and all day I was having stomach problems. At our lunch break we met a British guy who works in Dubai. He was pretty cool. It gave us some entertainment during our lunch break. But by the time 7:00 PM rolled around, I couldn't go much further. I am pretty sure I got food poisoning from something I ate. I felt terrible. So Brett ran around in this tiny town to try and find a B&B or hotel or something and find some medicine but had no luck. So we just went to a house nearby and asked for help. It was this huge family and they had all gotten together here at their summer house for a few weeks. They were so nice and helped us tremendously. They knew a little English so I was able to tell them what we were looking for. They gave me stomach medicine and found a very cheap B&B nearby for us. It took them over an hour to find one though. Very genuine people. The funny thing was that the B&B was ahead of us and I told them that we HAD to walk to it. So they at least asked if they could take our bags ahead of us and drop them off there. We definitely took up that offer. So we got to walk 1 km without our packs and it was glorious. I can't believe how awesome people can be because of such little things like that. And so that night and the next day we relaxed, didn't walk, and Brigette, the owner of the B&B took care of us. It was such a great way to finish out walking through France by meeting all these great people that completely changed my attitude for this walk. Praise God for all that has happened. And praise God that we are only a day or so away from SPAIN!!!! I can finally speak Spanish soon!!! Woohoo!!!! I have long awaited for this moment.
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