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Headed home for Christmas:
 Well wish I could say that I met my mileage goal that I had planned on reaching before Christmas came. But unfortunately due to a couple of reason I was not able to. My feet have been giving me some trouble over the past few weeks and I believe that the problem has to do with a few factors such as heat, the shoe size, repetitive motion on pavement, and different friction locations. I had built up calluses on the
Appalachian Trail but they are the not in the same spots. So basically what all that means is that I decided to come home a week early and let my feet fully heal and request some new shoes and then start planning the home stretch.
My departure date is set for around the beginning of the year. I will fly back out to
Phoenix using the free ticket that I got from being bumped back in March and meet up with Bryan Schlackman who will be driving the Support Vehicle (that we are still looking for) . My calculations show that I have roughly 2,000 more miles to finish up the
United States portion of the Earth Expedition. That is where Bryan will take the banner and fly to
Europe and start to walk his section.
Past two weeks: The past two weeks have been totally blessed by meeting Katie, Amy and Rocko. Rocko and I met on the
Appalachian Trail but I have never met Amie and Katie before. But over the past couple of week I have been staying at their house as I was waiting for my feet to heal! They have been absolutely awesome! They invited me into their lives and took me line dancing, invited me to pub nights with the girls! (I was referred to as the Y Chromosome) and made me feel like family. I am very grateful for all of you and your hospitality.
Flight: I am back in
Ohio now. I traveled yesterday from Phoenix, AZ to
Atlanta GA. for my connecting flight. I think that flight took me about 4 hours. As I was up in the air at 5,000 feet I realized as we were about to land that what I just flew in four hours will take me 4-5 months to walk. I didn’t like having that though. I had a short layover in
Atlanta and found myself gravitating toward smell of fried Chicken at “Popeyes”. I ordered the 3 piece, spicy with Cajun fries. About 20 minutes later that was a decision that I regretted. My stomach was churning. Mental note: don’t do that again. I then proceeded to head to my gate where I always wait to be the last on the plane. This way I can pick what seat I wanted to sit in if there where any better ones. I passed up my seat for it was a middle seat and there were already two larger men sitting in the aisle and window and I didn’t want to be in the middle of a man-sandwich so I kept walking down the row and say the most beautiful sight…..an exit row three deep with no soul around! My flight was great from
Atlanta to Akron/Canton. I laid out like it was a couch… Life is good…. Until I reached
Ohio and got off the plane to 23 degrees! I was in 75 degree weather that morning. I am that guy who walks off the plan in shorts and a t-shirt and hops into the car. Home for the holidays!
 Support Vehicle: We still don’t have one. I actually thought that it would be much harder to find a person to drive the vehicle rather than find the vehicle itself. I guess I was wrong. We have not been sitting on our butts with this though. We have been in contact with some corporations and dealers but with the economy we the dealerships are not able to let anything go and we are still waiting to hear back from the major corporation. I do have to say that we have heard from a variety of people who have vehicles but they need repair before we use them. We really do appreciate the offers but The Earth Expedition is still a privately funded project and we are and always have been on a strict budget of basically just food and minimal postage and such. Even the flights have been flights that we have been able to get for free. With all that said we are still looking for anyone who might know of a vehicle that The Earth Expedition may use. If you you happen to know of a vehicle then please contact Amie@theearthexpedition.com. Thank you!
Until next time, “Life to the Fullest” Daren
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