Thanks to all of you, we made it into the top 3 finalist round of the Myspace Impact Awards! Now we need you more than ever! Simply click on the banner or the link above and cast your vote for The Earth Expedition to win that $10,000 award! Voting only last from now until Wednesday at 11:59am and you can only vote once per day per myspace account. So please repost this voting plea to all your Myspace (and facebook) friends.
This donation and media exposure will do so much to assist us with launching our message with the European Leg of the Earth Expedition and our clean water projects in Zambia this year!
Dinner with Peak Axe: I love Days off…. Especially with friends…and especially with friendships that were made on the Appalachian Trail! There is just something about the bonds made on the A.T…. I guess it is the fact that no one else in the world has experienced what the two of you have experienced…. Unless you walk mountains, live in the woods, and drink from streams on a regular basis. I am going to guess that is not your traditional lifestyle…. But our time in Birmingham was great… “Peak Axe” (Josh May) really took care of us when we were there. Tonight he made for us Pork Tenderloin, asparagus, and rice…. This may be my favorite meal ever! Ahh… soo good… the conversation was also good…. I find my conversations with people always end up philosophical… which I don’t mind… it is great actually… but I consider myself a simple person so my philosophical thoughts are one liners…. I guess this past year has really simplified my thinking…. You know.. what is important and what is not important… what hills to die on and what to let slide…I look forward to processing all of this in about a week.
The Barking Cudu: Wow… I feel like today was a Appalachian trail Reunion! The first week of the Appalachian trail I met a guy named Mark…. I was still Daren at the time for we just started and was not yet “trail named” but after that weekI didn’t see him… I thought maybe he got off the trail which many do and I really never thought of it again… well… about 5 months later up in New Hampshire I was hearing about this guy named “Hangman”I didn’t know who he was for I didn’t know a “Hangman” well it turned out that it was Mark! It was awesome… and kind of surreal… I mean I barely recognized him and him me for none of us had shaved and looked like completely different people! Well we ended up walking through the White Mountains together and into the “100 mile Wilderness” where he slowed down a little because his ride was not coming in until a few days later. I never saw him again…. Well I turn out he lives in Birmingham! So we got a hold of each otherand all of us met at the Barking Cuda! Which is a pretty sweet hang out joint with live music… He was there with a girl he has been talking to and Bryan, Josh, and I met them... the night was great and filled with “Well What next?” and reminiscing of the trail and what each other have been up to. Through talking with Marks friend Anna I found out that she is climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro for a charity here within the next year!It was a great night filled with a bittersweet goodbye and as usual I tell people that “if you are ever in Michigan you have a place to stay” I love meeting new people… .Their stories are incredible!
So today was a chilled day. We slept in and worked on the website a little. Then Kellet, one of Peak Axe’s friends took us to a local fast food place called
Milo ’s. It was tasty, although I couldn’t experience the fullness of the burger since I couldn’t eat the bun. But the meat was good…
We relaxed pretty much all day and then ate dinner at home with Peak Axe. He is a man of many trades because he is also an amazing cook. Then we went to hang out with a bunch of friends at a place called the Barking Cudu. I got to meet another friend of Daren’s that he met on the AT named Hangman (Mark). He was really cool. And I got to meet his girlfriend Anna who is hiking up
Mt.
Kilimanjaro in September. I am very impressed. So they’re good people. Oh yeah, and I saw a washout rock band of a bunch of guys in their 40’s trying to be young again. It was sad, but entertaining nonetheless. But that was pretty much it for the day. We have our last four days ahead of us. It’s almost over! CRAZY!!!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Daren’s Blog
8 hours of Water: Ok.. I thought we were going to make it across the United States very lucky walkers… well I was wrong. For the past 2 months Bryan and I never had to put on our rain jackets.. well… we made up for the two months today and by the looksof it we are going to pay for it for a few days.
Maramaduke: Over the past 2 months I have really have got used to all of the dogs that are not tied up. Most of the dogs come darting at you but stop right before the road... I usually yell at them “NO” or “SIT”and they get really confused or I raise my hand like I am going to hit them “Most dogs are familiar with this action” and they scurry away. I sometime walk across the road if there is little traffic as to lure them into the road….I should be awful about this but I don’t.I like dogs.. .not just the ones who want a part of my Achilles. Well today the fear of dogs have been restored… I was walking today and out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw a horse running at me! Holy cow! This dog was huge! It was a Great Dane and it was not on a chain and it didn’t care that I was luring it into the middle of the road… it came into the road and at that particular moment there was no car to come to my rescue… I thought aboutpulling my knife as I usually do but thought to myself.. “Yeah Right”this think was barking and frothing…not good… One thing that I learned when it comes to dogs that has worked for me is to never turn and run.. that is when you get bit.. so I face them and yell and kind of fake rush them… I have found they typically run away.. .I usually do this to dogs that are knee high.. . I have ever encountered one that was neck high. I walked backwards until a cars did come and then changed my walking to a brisk run J Safe!
10 Good People: Today was awesome!Since it was raining I had 10 cars stop and ask me if I wanted a ride!And as I always have done I say “I appreciate it but I can’t… I am walking for a charity and need to walk every step but thank you”right after I say that I think to myself (inner monologue) “you’re stupid Daren”
Rebecca and Carl: A few days back a lady by the name of Rebecca contacted The Earth Expedition. She found the expedition through following about 5 different links that lead her there but she and her husband offered their place to us when we came through. She didn’t know that we were about 2 days out! Which was a God thing for we didn’t have a place that night!But we connected and they ended upgetting us a hotel with a hot breakfast! So sweet after yet another rainy day! They then took us out to “Ryans” for a Buffet. They had contacted Ryan’s earlier that day and got Bryan and I a free meal compliments of Ryans!Heck Yeah!
Before we left Peak Axe’s this morning, he threw a bunch of his food in our car. It was awesome. What a nice guy. Then he took us to breakfast in downtown
Birmingham . We ate at the Original Pancake House. It was delectable.
But unfortunately, we ran into some bad luck. And it’s funny that it happened on Friday the 13th of all days. This entire trip we have not run into any hard rain. One day a sprinkle of rain for about 10 minutes came over us in
New Mexico , but that’s it. Today, it poured…all day. It never stopped. It was the most annoying and depressing day I’ve walked so far. We almost made it across the entire country without rain!!!! So yeah, it sucked.
But when we got into
Cullman, AL we got a little surprise! A random family (Rebecca and Karl Bartholomew) contacted us and told us they wanted to take us out to dinner and put us up in a hotel for the night! What a surprise! So we met up in Cullman and went to dinner at Ryan’s Buffet and had a great time. Before we got back to the hotel Karl and Rebecca gave us some home-made honey. One of Karl’s side jobs is that he owns a Bee Farm. That was a very generous of them. He said over 100 worker bees sacrificed their life to produce this bottle of sweet honey nectar. It was delicious!
I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow. I will cry if it does.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Daren’s Blog:
Radio: this morning my phone rang at 7:30… I went to answer it and just missed it.. but after I listened to message found out it was a radio station.. He told me that he was very interested in the story and was going to call me back in a few minutes to do a teaser.. and that he wanted us to come in on Monday to do an interview… we will see what pans out..
Another rainy day: All kinds of good media exposure are happening for the expedition! The majority of these opportunities comes all the way from Michigan when the director of development and communications for Active:Water (Amie Hadaway) spends hours contacting all kinds of media outlets forus! But a news reporter read the press release that she had sent out and wanted to meet us in the downtown area. He said he would meet us at“Jeffersons”Ok…. That sounded like a restaurant to me and I am always up for meeting at a restaurant! It was kind of a unique place.. there were colored 1 dollar bills all over the walls and ceiling and it was PACKED with people. I guess it is the place to eat… and man was it goooood. I rocked a Philly Cheese steak sandwich and some sweet tea. I figure I better get all I can get because I know when I cross north of the Mason Dixie line the Sweet tea ceases to exist! We then proceeded down the street after the meal and did the interview. CLICK HERE FOR THE INTERVIEW
Off to our Host Place: Earlier in the day a reporter that covered the story for the local newspaper came and met us at lunch! He brought us some fantastic Bar-B-Q. Bryan and I had lunch with him and devoured everything! I knew that I had an additional 12.5 to walk that day but the food was sooo good! He offered his place to stay that night. Bryan and I showed up late for we had the interview tonight that got us in late. But they were very good to us. We go there and ate again! At this point if you put food in front of my face I am not going to deny it! Andy’s wife also made a cake for us! Ohhh Sweet Nectar of Life! I have a whole ‘nother stomach for desert! She made coffee and I think Bryan and I was “food drunk” which a term that Peak Axe and I made up on the Appalachian Trail where you get goofy after eating a ton of food. I don’t know why this happens I just know it does! I am going to sleep really really good tonight! Good nightCLICK HERE FORTHE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
Rain again…I can’t believe it. All flippin day. I even woke up today feeling sick. I think I have a sinus infection. I’m pretty sure it’s because I was walking in cold rain all day yesterday…DUH!!! But only the weather and my sickness were bad. A man named Andy Powell who is a journalist for the Gadsden Times wrote an article on the Earth Expedition for today. And then he met us for lunch on the road and brought us some awesome barbeque! What a nice guy! Then when we got into Gadsden for the night another man named Phillip Swindall who works for the Gadsden TV news station met up with us and did a TV interview! He took us out to dinner at a town favorite called
Jefferson ’s. It was awesome. So the night ended well.
Then when drove to stay at Andy’s (the journalist) house for the night. His wife was more than kind to meet my needs for some medication for my sinus infection. So she gave me some strong cough medicine that had codine in it. Let’s just say I was all of a sudden a lot more chipper after that. I don’t know what happened J. So they were a lot of fun and were very hospitable. So now I hope for two things, that it doesn’t rain and that I feel better.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Daren’s Blog
GA Border, Half Day, a race for the interview: Today was the day when we cross the last state border. To be honest I have lost track of the total number of state lines to date but I do know it was the last! It was going to be a short day of about 18 miles each. We needed to stop because we have been planning on doinga “Century Day”(50 miles each) on the last day into Dahlonega, GA which is where I started 373 days ago. Crazy to think about.When Bryan and I met for lunch we realized that we were going to lose an hour when we crossed the border which was an issue because we had an interview with a radio station at 3:00 and we were going to be late if we walked the remaining 10 miles so we had a short lunch and figured out that in order to make it in time we need to run for 15 minutes and then walk 5 minutes and then back to 15 minutes of running and continue this for the remainder of the day! I am feeling that mistake right now.
Congratulations: I am already receiving phone calls today from friends congratulating me on the USA section of the USA. I love friends… and I have awesome ones!
CIY: I am just laying here waiting for the CIY guys to come in. CIY (Christ in Youth) Is an organization that…well they do a lot of ministry related work with youth. The reason I am waiting on them is they are flying into Atlanta today and then driving up to Rome, GA where we are at They are going to video the last day of the Expedition and shoot video tomorrow. They are going to be using the story in their summer conferences this summer. If you remember previous blogs.. this is the same organization thatflew me up to Joplin when we were back in Dallas.
Bryan is Zonked: I can’t sleep and Bryan is zonked out and it is 6:30!.. I am not going to lie.. I wish I could sleep right now as well. Grrr
50 miles each: Tomorrow is the longest walking day that I will have ever done in my life. Back on the Appalachian Trail I walked with 4 other guys a total of 42 miles. It took us 17.5 hours to do is as well and that was with a 37 lb pack on my back as well.. but in about 4 hours we will be getting up to do 50 miles into Dahlonega. We decided to get a good breakfast at Waffle House before the morning begins! We get up at 1:25pmI really hope I get some sleep!
Bryan’s Blog
Today was our short day before the beast-of-a-day walk to the end tomorrow. I still feel under the weather which concerns me because I…HAVE TO WALK 50 MILES TOMORROW!!! And it rained AGAIN! I’m glad it was a short day because I was going to start destroying things if it took any longer to finish. We stopped in
Rome, GA and had a radio interview with a local AM station. It was a lot of fun. That was another first for me.
I am going to try and go to bed right now…it is 5:30 PM. We have to get up at 1:30 tomorrow morning to get to Dahlonega before nightfall. Gosh, I can’t even imagine doing this. Pray for us!!!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Daren’s Blog:
VICTORYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
100 miles of rain: Ok…Wow.. this day will be a day to remember. We woke up at 1:25 am after about a total of 3-4 hours of sleep and headed over to the Waffle House. We ate $27 dollars worth of food… that is crazy for breakfast! Unfortunately rain is in the forecast for the entire day! BOOOO
Fell asleep walking: I had read a book about a year ago that a friend gave me called “Ultra Marathon Man” In that book he shares a story of how we fell asleep during running and would wake up in the middle of the road. I am not going to lie… I had a hard time believing the whole thing until today. It was about 3:30 am and I got no sleep last night …. It was pitch black on the road with the occasional semi-truck that would pass spraying me with water but other than that it was pretty silent. I my were closing on me and then I woke up and I was tripping in the grass… I had Fallen asleep! I couldn’t believe it…. I did it about 3 times over the period of the morning…. My legs would keep walking but mentally I was asleep. Muscle memory is crazy!
Friends:I was excited today for the last 12 miles of the day my friends Chris Dove (which is the same guy who started it with me) and Kelly Powe are going to walk into Dahlonega with me! I tell you what… I sure needed it… I was feeling like the bottom of a trash can but friends made the last part of USA leg just melt away. My friend Kelly wore Sandals and by the end of the 12 miles her foot was bleeding profusely! I thought about posting the picture but it looks pretty disgustingly awesome and didn’t want anyone to lose their lunch so I won’t JI promise
52 miles:I have to say that now that it is all said and done…. The 52 miles that I walked was not all that bad. I think I was distracted all day with the CIY guys pulling by my… setting up the camera… I would walk by, and then they would pass me and do the same thing probably about 15 times throughout the day. I did develop a pretty nasty blister but I didn’t care because I don’t plan on walking for about a yearJ . I have even been knocking around the idea of starting a new expedition called “The Couch Expedition”I think the tagline“Life to the Laziest” fits well but then I realized that I am pretty sure that over half the country is already on that expedition…. Ohh.. that felt a little harsh! Moving on… I am soaked from the day… and the day was pretty much the wettest and most dangerous days of the expedition. There were no shoulders all day long and being that we were walking in pitch black with headlamps on for a lot of time people were just not seeing us…add rain and people texting on their phones and it is a bad combination for Bryan and I.
Pizza: Bryan is pretty much allergic to anything flour.. so for the past month we have not been able to go to Italian restaurants to eat! Ahh… Which is not good for me for I have been craving carbs!!! And I love Italian. But Bryan had told me that he didn’t care he was going to eat a large pizza when we got done with the Expedition. Everyone who was there at the end of the expedition all went over to “Caruso’s” The Pizza place was only about .2 miles away but Bryan and I decided that we were going to drive J
What to think?:Wow… You know what….people have been calling like crazy today to congratulate meand they ask how I feel and what next?I got the what next down but I don’t have the how I feel down yet..I think it will take a few weeks to process all of it. It is hard to put 4,400 miles of walking over a period of 373 days in a one liner.Time will tell.
WE DID ITTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am alive! I have legs! I don’t hate my life! Woohoo!!!! Man, what a day. I didn’t know so many things could happen in one day. This might be a long blog.
We woke up at 1:30 AM to get ready and get eat a hearty breakfast at Waffle House before our 100 mile walk. I will just say this…there are some crazy, weird people out at 2:00 in the morning. So we ate as fast as we could and got out of there. We started on the west side of
Rome, GA and I began walking at 2:50 AM. We did 10 mile legs at a time and had a twenty minute break in between each one. So the first ten miles was in complete darkness the whole way (obviously). It went by rather quickly because I was scared for my life the entire time and I guess that makes time fly. It was dark, it rained AGAIN, there were weird sounds all around me that I couldn’t see, and I was tired. I was tired, but wide awake…you know what I mean? It was miserable. I can’t believe that it did not stop raining for the last four days of the trek. Man, what are the chances. But I was able to get through the first leg without anyone attacking me.
The second leg was by far the worst leg. My body got so used to walking in the dark so my mind finally relaxed. Which means I started getting REALLY tired. The sun didn’t come up until 7:15 so for about an hour and a half I was struggling with the worst case of fatigue that I have ever had. I am not joking when I say that I was dozing off while walking. Good thing I didn’t doze off into oncoming traffic!! Thank you God. So the only solution to staying awake was for me to run, which we promised we wouldn’t do for this day since it was so long. But we did anyway. So I made through the second one. Then
Eric, MD , and Daniel (from CIY) met up with us to start following us and recording some footage for their video.
For the third leg we continued to do some running because of two things. One, to stay awake because I was still tired. And two, because we got behind on time and we had to catch up. So we walked on the uphills and ran on the downhills. This leg felt a lot better and I started wake up. We stopped at the end of this leg to have a quick lunch and fill up on energy.
So the fourth leg we had to haul our butts to get to where Daren’s friends who were going to meet up with us and walk the last leg. So we did even more running to make it there. We walked for 10 minutes, and then ran for 10 minutes. It wasn’t as bad as I thought I was going to be. But you better believe that the rain was pissing me off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we got through it and were at 40 miles.
The last leg we took it easy because we had enough time to make it to the end before daybreak. I walked the whole way, through the tormenting rain and made it to 50 miles. So I drove up to Daren and parked it at the end of his 10 miles. But something was wrong. We mapped out 100 miles away from the end and somehow we were two miles off. So we had to walk an extra two miles to the end. I will be honest, this mistake made me angry. I was tired, achy, wet, and ready to be done. But we had to do 30 more minutes of walking. But we got into the college at Dahlonega and finally made it. It was glorious. I was so happy to be done. The CIY guys did a little interview while we were lying on the ground. Then they took us to a pizza parlor to gorge ourselves on carbs! I decided to eat bread this one time out of celebration but I paid for it shortly afterward. But it was sooooo good. I ate the whole 14” pizza by myself. We had a great time with Kelly and Chris (Daren’s friends) and Eric, Daniel, and MD. They were all extremely nice and it was an honor getting to spend the last day with them. And now the American leg is officially over! Thank God!!!
Daren’s Final Thoughts
I have journaled just about every day of the past 373 days. It was my intention to write a book of the travels, lessons, experiences and people along the way so that people could come along with me on The Earth Expedition.I have committed this year to doing just that. This year I will not be subscribing to get cable or Satellite TV and I will use that time to write. I could attempt to write some thoughts out right now but I would not be doing anyone any justice. I guess you are all going to have to wait J
Here in about a week or so we will be sending out a newsletter unwrapping all of the details of the developments of The Earth Expedition. This will answer all of the “So What’s Next?” questions.
After walking across
America , I have realized a few things. First, I love cars. Second, I met so many people on this trek who were nothing like me. And I realized that God made everyone differently for a reason. It’s easy to get along with people who are just like you. It’s even easy to love them. But it’s very difficult to try and care for others and put their life above yours when they are nothing like you, when you might not get along with them, or when they don’t even believe the same thing you do. But it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how they live their life or what they believe. I am called to love EVERYONE. Before I did this trek, I loved people who were like me way more than those who aren’t like me. And this trek helped me to love everyone no matter how different they are. There are so many people in the world who need community with someone. I met a lot of them. There is nothing more important than helping and caring for others. Third, I learned a lot about myself. When you are away from all the distractions and influence of others, you start to learn what your true colors are. I didn’t like what I saw on some things and some things I thought were beneficial. But at least I know now what I need to strengthen and even weaken to become a better person. Overall, this trip was brutal, difficult, and life changing. But it was worth it.
March 17, 2009 373 day, 4,300+ miles (United States) Completed!
The day that we have been thinking about for a long time has finally come! Bryan and I both got up at 1:25am Monday morning with the intention of walking the 100 miles from Rome, GA to Dahlonega, GA. We both committed to 50 miles each with we estimated would take around 15 hrs to complete. We will elaborate more on the last day more in the next blog but we did want to share with you that the United States section of 4,300 miles is completed. The expedition started 373 days ago! Bryan and I are both really achy and are not going to blog for a few days as we make our way back to Dallas, TX with a few stops along the way. We do want to thank all of those who have helped us across the USA! You hold special places in our hearts.
We will update the site as well as the blog from the past week here on Sat when we get back to Dallas! "Life to the Fullest" Daren and Bryan and the Earth Expedition Team
Daren’s Blog: Day off… basically today consisted up updating the website… The only other things that happened today is that our couchsurfing friend took us out to Eat at a BUFFETT!Yes… She is now my best friend in the whole world…. Well at least until the next person takes me to a buffet J
Bryan’s Blog
All we really did today was sleep in (thank God), update the website at a cool bookstore called Turn Row Books in downtown
Greenwood , and chilled with Alicia and Brendan. She kindly took us to a Chinese Buffet which we put out of business again. We proudly accept dinner engagements to cheap buffet restaurants. They are our best friends. It was a very chilled day which is what we need. So not much happened. Oh wait, except for the top news story today that we saw in person…a farmer tried to drive a tractor with a plowing machine (one of the biggest I’ve ever seen) through the town and it hit one of the light signals. Because of hitting the light and ultimately tearing it all down, the plower then broke off the trailer and began plowing the concrete. Big mess…but it didn’t end there. A police officer tried (but failed miserably) to direct traffic through all this mess. The officer was on the phone the whole time and kept putting his/her hand on his/her head as if he/she didn’t know what to do. The officer directed us to go in the exact opposite direction that we needed to go, even though the lanes were clear and open. But then we came back five minutes later and traffic was now going that way and NOTHING CHANGED. It was ridiculous. I guess the police academy needs more training in the traffic catastrophe sector. Or he/she just needs to get off the dang phone. But it was funny enough to blog about.
Tomorrow…
Eupora, Mississippi . Giggady Giggady.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Darens Blog:
End of a long day: Today was a good day.. but as usual a long one…. Starting off the day knowing that you are going to almost walk a marathon is quite the mental hurdle….but knowing that you are going to do it for 4 days straight is a whole other hurdle. None the less….today was Sunday and because it was Sunday there were not too many people on the road this morning and not many truckers drive today either which is good because they have a tendency to not like to share JBryan and I are healthy and Bryan was having some trouble with his heel but he said today was fine. That is good news.
First Baptist Church: Our good friend Nancy has been calling the towns that we are going to be passing through and today she called me and told me that she talked to someone this morning at the church and told her to tell us that all we have to when we get into town is to go the church and talk to the reverend Travis Gray …it wasn’t a definite but it was a lead and that is better than nothing. So Bryan and I head into town and find the church…. There were a lot of people parked outside and being that it was a southern Baptist Bryan looks to me and says “we could be the only white people in here tonight”So we walk in and someone greets us (we just got done walking 25 miles and it was hot today so we are really really sweaty and gross and have soccer shorts, tshirts, and I am wearing y camo hat… none the less….they seat us in the back and Bryan leans over to me and says“nevermind”there wasn’t a black person in sight..... we stayed for the rest of the service and then afterwards people come up to use because we are obviously out of place and ask how we are and what we were doing (in a friendly way) and we tell them and ask them which one is the reverend.They tell us that the reverend is not here…. I am thinking…ok.. this is not good.. but we ask to speak to someone that could help us out.. we explain what we are doing and that we are not looking for money but just for shelter for the night. He says… give me a sec and I will see what I can do… we share with other people standing around what we are doing and why and then the man comes back out and says “we are going to put you up in the new hotel in town tonight”SWEET!They drive us down there and get us our room!We are soo blessed….we asked them if they would be interested in going out to eat with us and they agreed . We drove about .5 miles down the road to a Mexican joint and just talked about our travels. They were super interested… and we asked them about their lives and it ends up that the man is the city supervisor!It was a great conversation. After dinner we snapped a pic and now Bryan and I are back here at the hotel.. it looks like no one has ever stayed in this room!Sooo Clean and there is carpet!My feet are happy tonight.
So, today I did not rule the road; the road ruled me. It was surprisingly hilly and it just came out of nowhere. Right when we left
Greenwood we walked right into the rolling hills of
Mississippi . But afterward we were able to find a place to stay with the help of (once again) Nancy and Mark Powell! We had to go to the First Baptist Church of Eupora to find our contact. We arrived right in the middle of the Sunday night service so we decided to sit in and listen to the second half of the sermon. Afterward, we needed help finding our contact, whom we had no idea what he looked like. We found out that he actually wasn’t even there. He left for the weekend. But then the man who was preaching for him named Mr. Maclellan kindly helped us with sleeping accommodations. He made a few phone calls and then found us a place to stay at a new motel in town! So he took us over there to get settled and then took us out to eat at a little Mexican restaurant. His wife Mrs. Maclellan joined us as well. We were there for a while just talking up a storm. They were extremely genuine and loving. They actually gave us a chance AND wanted to even spend time with us. There is hope once again. If you remember before yesterday’s couch surfing host, we ran into many instances where people just didn’t want to help us…even if they were people in the church. But these people were so great and had authentic love. The reason I know this is because no one else knew about us coming in. Only the preacher we talked to on the phone knew and he wasn’t even there or told anyone. They helped us out of the kindness of their heart. And now we are sleeping in a lovely motel thanks to them.
Columbus, Mississippi tomorrow! We’re getting closer!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Daren’s Blog:
Another hot day in the Mississippi: Today wasn’t much different than any other… we woke up and got going late.. .we have tendency to do that when we have a hotel to stay in! but as we were watching the weather for the next few days we realized that we are going to get hit with 80+ today and tomorrow… and then we are supposed to get thunderstorms on Wednesday… which will be awesome… considering and we are on a schedule now to be done on the 16th. Good news is that we have shoulders on the roads again… which makes for a little better for our lives are now at less risk! Still people have the tendency to swerve toward us because they are looking at us and then they jerk back about 40 yards out… it happens all day long.
Megan Mclane: Megan is awesome… she is the reason that I am writing this blog in a hotel tonight…Megan is a friend that we met just a few weeks ago at the presentation in Frisco, TX.. . She had told us that she had some contacts in this area and she would do what she could to make something happen and through a series of events we got put up by the local Methodist church.I have to say that in the last blog I had asked the question “Where has the church gone” well… I think I have to recant now… The last two nights we have met some pretty fantastic people. Faith is restored… if how we have been treated by the church the past two days is any indication of how the church loves their community then the last two towns are in good shape.
Okay for this last week I think I will use Ibuprofen again. My feet are hurting worse than they have this whole trip. I can’t stand it. My pace is getting slower and slower. Not good…
So we got to the outskirts of
Columbus and finished and didn’t hear from any of our PR people that we have a place to stay tonight. So we just ate dinner first at Ryan’s Buffet, which I am never going back to, because we didn’t know what else to do. But then right before we finished dessert our friend, Megan McClane, called in the nick of time to let us know she found us a place to stay! The First United Methodist Church of Columbus put us up in a motel for the night! We are going to the church tomorrow morning before we head out to
Alabama to hang out and talk with them for a little bit. That should be fun!
Another day, another dog biscuit…
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Daren’s Blog:Mmmmm…what Bryan says J
Bryan’s Blog
Wow. This morning was FANTASTIC! We met with Dr. Sam Morris, the lead pastor, and some other ministers of the church. We ended up being there for almost two hours! It was so great! And it looks like their church might do the Two Weeks of Sacrifice which would be outstanding. They bought us some breakfast, did some interviewing, and then just talked and talked. It was a great start to the day. Though, now are starting our walk late. But that’s okay…it was well worth it.
We crossed into
Alabama today! I didn’t know
Alabama was so beautiful! Well at least the northwestern part. It is quite the sight. It is ridiculously hilly once again, worse than
Mississippi . But at least it is scenic.
We got into Fayette today and had no place to stay. It’s our only town left that we don’t have a place to stay. But then, my sister came to the rescue! She wanted to buy us a motel for the night! Thanks Rachael! Out of all the sisters in the world, she is the greatest. From here on out we are certain on where we are staying. We don’t have to worry about that anymore. I am pretty sure tomorrow will be just as hilly as today, so I need some sleep. Good night all.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Daren’s Blog:
Cool Rainy day: This morning Bryan and I woke up early to get started for we were invited to a dinner by one of my friends (Peak Axe) that I met on the Appalachian Trail about 9 months ago. We walked about 700 miles of the A.T. together and became good friends. None the less.. Bryan and I decided to walk both legs of the morning and afternoon because Bryan’s feet are still giving him trouble… He is not too sure what it causing his foot trouble…. I mentioned this crazy theory “walking a marathon a day for the past 2 months?”JBut we really don’t know. My feet don’t hurt at all and we are walking on thesame stuff so I really don’t know.Today was easy walking… we have entered back into the hills which I love! It reminds me of the Appalachian Trail which I have to say has been the best part of the USA leg for me personally.Nothing different about today that we haven’t been experiencing for the past month…. It rained some this morning, same dogs chasing us everyday….except the dogs are basically all one breed! Pit Bulls!Some of the ones I have seen have been the thickest Pitt Bulls I have ever seen… One had this giant chain around his neck… I mean..the link were the size of my fist and the dog was moving it around like it was a rope around his neck… I walked a little faster by that house.
“The Club”:Peak Axe had told us that he had a friend that had a membership at “The Club” http://www.theclubinc.org/Club/Scripts/Home/home.aspwhich we had been invited to. Wow… the view was breathtaking from up above Birmingham. It was wild. There was parties going on left and right… there was a cigar and whiskey tasting outside, it was right out of the movies! We ended up staying there for about 4 hours just talking around the dinner table as we had hummus, lettuce wraps, and more. I really had a hard time wrapping my head around it all….. Because about 6 hours earlier I was sitting on the back of the Blazer with Bryan eating rice crispy treats!Such a paradigm shift! The people we met were awesome…some of them in the wine business, others, engineers, and for Bryan and I ….MMMM… we walk..lol. Everyone was very kind to us. I love meeting new people so this was an exceptional night! A night to remember for a long time.
It has been a very long day and I am going to find the futon!“Life to the Fullest”
We finished today really early! We were able to go to bed early last night for a change which means we got up early and started early. Yippee. But we had to finish early anyway because our contact tonight is supposed to take us to a special dinner and it starts at 7:30. We finished in Jasper,
AL but had to drive all the way into
Birmingham . We get a day off tomorrow though so it’s worth it.
We got into
Birmingham and it was so cool! It was one of the hilliest cities I’ve been in. I am still amazed at how pretty this state is. Walking through this thick forestry is a great change from the horrible desert. I love it.
We are staying with one of Daren’s friends he met on the AT, named Peak Axe (Josh May). He is really cool and extremely hospitable. So we got to his place and showered up and headed straight to this “special dinner.”
It happened to be more than I expected. It was at this place called “The Club” which already promises greatness when they have domain over the name “THE CLUB.” It was the nicest country club in all of
Birmingham and it settled on top of this HUGE hill that overlooked downtown
Birmingham . It was incredible. There was a whiskey and cigar party where all the top businessmen and celebrities of
Birmingham congregated. We all relaxed out on the massive balcony and talked about current topics. I met a lot of great people, who were the ones that made the night awesome, not just the setting we were in (Scott, James, Megan, Kellet, Drew, Gia). Then we went inside to eat dinner in the nice grill. The food was amazing, of course. And, someone paid for it! Whoever did that, THANK YOU! But it’s funny how our lifestyle completely shifted on us. Earlier today we were sitting on the side of the road eating rice krispie treats, and now we are at the most prestigious club in town having dinner. Wow, our spectrum of living conditions drastically changes quickly. But it’s just another example of great, genuine people taking care of us. Thank you everyone who has supported us along the way and allowed us to have such an amazing experience! This is a good almost ending to the American leg.
We get a day off tomorrow! And then the last four days of walking! I can’t wait!!!
4 more walking days until the USA is Done
We are pretty pumped and there is a film crew coming in from MO to video the last two days of the USA…. They are going to be using it this summer for their conferences (over 20,000 people!YESSSS
Before you read you might want to go grab some popcorn and something to drink for this is going to be a long one filled with deaf evangelist, tricycle tag, crazy dogs, Jesus men, and I am sure there will be some good old rants and ridiculousness for your enjoyment!
Friday, February 27, 2009 Texarkana, TX
Daren’s Blog:
Day off: Today was good… Per usual on my days off the majority of the day is consumed with updating the website and replying to e-mails…. Something that I enjoy doing it is just that my rest days are just physical rest days.
Olive Garden: Bryan’s stepmom gave us couple of gift cards to go out to eat and one of them was to Olive Garden! I guess when you are used to fast food a good meal from time to time is excellent! I rocked out a chicken parmesan …I noticed that a lot of my blogs have to do with what I eat… probably because it is the highlight of the day!Except for today! It gets better!
Blind Date: Ok.. Bryan and I didn’t go on a blind date but Andy (our couchsurfer host) did tonight and he told us to just come along… we were hesitant because we didn’t want to be the 2nd and 3rd wheel so we told him to text her and see if she can bring some of her friends. She texted back and said that she would and so we all met at a restaurant called the “Ironwood Grill” . The night was good… once again the night was filled with stories from what we were doing as well as just plain ridiculousness…. Something that Bryan and I are really good at. After closing that place down we decided that we wanted to get some ice cream and so we headed over to the “Marble Slab” … When I say we it was Bryan and I, Andy, Carrie, and Kristy. The goofiness then continued… Carrie’s Parents actually walked by, came in and said hey. We decided to call it a night around 11:00…we were all crashing. Later that night we came back to Andy’s apartment and popped a movie in and got something to drink and headed to the porch on the third floor of his apartment. We all had a great conversation about faith and life, and everything in between. It was a good night. I think it was like 1:00 before I actually crashed on the couch. I am going to be sooo tired tomorrow
Wow, best day off ever. We went to Olive Garden for lunch by ourselves because Andy had to work. But we got lunch for free because Jesse back in
Abilene gave us an Olive Garden gift card! Then we hung out at Starbucks to do the usual website updates for a few hours. After that we went out to dinner with Andy and two girls to a place called Ironwood Grill. It was gooooooood. Andy was kind of supposed to be on a “blind date” with one of the girls, Carrie, but because we were in town Andy insisted that we go with him. And then Carrie brought her friend, Christy, to tag along. But it turned into a fun night. It wasn’t awkward at all. After that we went and had ice cream at Stonecold Creamery…very relaxing. While chillin there, Daren and I decided to just stay another day with Andy because he was just too much fun…and a stud. So yeah, we’re staying another day, hahaha.
Saturday, February 28, 2009 Texarkana, TX
Daren’s Blog:
MMM..2nd day off JOk.. Bryan and I had such a good time here that we decided last night that we would stay for another day. Andy has been hooking us up and treating us like gold so it is hard to say no… that it he is hilarious. We woke up late today and kind of goofed around on the computer for a little while as everyone got ready… replied to some e-mails .
Tricycle Tag: Ok.. I am not even sure how to explain this… but I will try…Andy took us over to where he works… once we got in there we found that they had a giant warehouse… they also had a bunch of tricycles to get from the front to the back… well we decided to play Tricycle tag… we had a piece of heavy foam that was the ball and we spent 45 minutes chasing each other, ramping, and setting up barricades… words could never bring this experience to justice… but It was hilarious… I haven’t laughed this much in a long time. I am pretty sure that I ruined one of the bikes. One of Andy’s coworker s came in and we persuaded her to play for a little bit with us…lol……. (Later we found out that there was a email sent to all of the staff at his company requesting new tricycles for the warehouse)lol…
Into the Wild: We watched that movie and talked about the sensationalism of the movie… it was weird to watch… I have been there! I think the movie sensationalizes a lot of things… I guess I have a lot to say about this but I think I will keep my thoughts for a book.
After lunch Andy took us to his work to see where he makes the big bucks. It has something to do with electrical engineering (I don’t know I really wasn’t paying attention). But what ended up happening was that we played tricycle tag in his HUGE warehouse for almost an hour. Their warehouse is so long that they have to ride tricycles with baskets on the back so they can carry pieces of equipment. Kind of cool and kind of lazy, but whatever. We used it to our advantage and made it fun. It was ridiculous. We’re such little kids sometimes. We found out from Andy after that that one of the warehouse workers requested to get new tricycles because they had a few “banged up” ones. Hahaha.
At we cooked a nice dinner for some of Andy’s friends, Rachel and Trey. We also watched YouTube videos for about an hour and a half. Gosh, we’re dorks. But it was still enjoyable. After that we watched, “Into the Wild”, a movie that is relevant to what Daren and I are doing. It was for sure an interesting film and it really put things into perspective for me. Some of the things he went through walking across the
US are the same things I’ve gone through. Check it out. It’s an eye opener.
P.S. We are staying another night! AHHHHH!!! We’re having too much fun! I promise tomorrow will be the last day.
Sunday, March 1, 2009 Texarkana, TX
Daren’s Blog:
3rd day in a row: Ok… right now Bryan and I should be about halfway across Arkansas right now but we are not because Andy (our couchsurfing friend) is flippin awesome! We ended up just hanging out all day long… we went to go see Slumdog Millionaire which was a pretty awesome movie.. .and then we just hung around the apt got some pizza and hung out the rest of the night. I always meet people along the way that I wish lived closer to me because they are a just awesome people… that is how I feel about Texarkana.
I slept in again…glorious. If it wasn’t for Andy and his awesomeness, we wouldn’t have stayed two extra days. Seriously, he is one of the coolest guys I’ve met so far on this expedition. He really has an amazing heart and desire to help others. We need more people like Andy Spillers.
We went to Applebee’s for lunch. And I know what you might be thinking, “Gosh Bryan you’re spending a lot of wasted money on expensive food!” Well, actually, the crazy thing is that every time we have tried to pay for food, Andy takes the bill and pays it. Today at Applebee’s was the first meal that we paid for in the past three days. Isn’t that crazy?!?! What a cool guy.
We were able to catch a cheap matinee after lunch. We watched Slumdog Millionaire. I can see why it won best picture this year. It was an amazing movie. I really enjoyed it. After that we just went back home and lounged around Andy’s apartment, cooked dinner, watched another movie and just vegged. I’m now ready for tomorrow. This was an incredible Couch Surfing experience and I’m going to really miss Andy. He treated us extremely well.
Monday, March 2, 2009 Magnolia, AR
Daren’s Blog:
Cold: It was 27 degrees this morning!
The day: This day was actually a really good day… Ifound a good radio station which made the day go by much faster and the afternoon when I run about 8 of the 12.5 miles was cool and made the run real easy. The scenery has been changing.. I have noticed that there have been more and more water and a ton of huge pine trees which are my favorite.
Hotel: Bryan and I are in a hotel tonight… one of Bryan’s friends had donated a hotel room tonight which is awesome because it is cold out there…. To be honest… I don’t really care but if someone wants to donate a room then I will take the bed and warmth and thank them up and down! It is actually nice to stay in a hotel from time to time… We hope that we will be able to find something tomorrow night when we are in El Derado.Time will tell ...
So we made it to Magnolia today, right on schedule. It was freezing today and still was at night so we used the money that one of my sister’s friends, Arielle, gave us for a motel and used it. That saved us big time because we would have frozen to death out here. It was somewhere around 27 degrees. Today was quite an easy day. We finished quickly and I didn’t have any foot or knee pains. Nothing really happened, so this will be a short blog. Sorry…
Tuesday, March 3, 2009 El Dorado, AR
Daren’s Blog:
Cold Mornings! I guess there is some type of cold front coming through this part of the country because this past week has been really chilly… I mean when we wake up it has been somewhere below around freezing in the mornings. The morning is pretty chilly… I have all three layers on in the morning and I shave one in the afternoon when the sun actually heats up the surroundings.
Ford to the Rescue: About every day I have some type of dog come at me…. Most of the time they are not a problem…. They just look like they want to eat you but when they get closer they stop…well today was a little different of a story… I usually have my headphones on so sometimes I don’t even hear them coming until they bark… today I saw it barreling across the yard straight… I usually figure of the dog is off the leash then it is not going to be a problem but that theory is based on my assumption that humans are all moderately intelligent and will leash a dog that bites… but I am pretty sure my theory has some holes. None the less… as it was running toward me with froth hanging from its mouth I pulled my knife and screamed at it to “SIT” and it just kind of stopped… it didn’t really sit or anything like that but it did stop… I kept looking at it for about 30 seconds as I walked away and I decided to start running again and as soon as I did it started to hail tail toward me again… right as I was about to pull my knife again a truck from across the yellow line pulled across the road and in between me and the dog and he continued to chase the dog through the front yard after the dog! I kept running waving my hand in thanks… and eventually he drove up beside me… I was kind of surprised that it was a older gentleman and his wife. He asked me “Do you need a ride anywhere” I explained to him that I was walking for a charity and thanked him for chasing down the dog! He said no problem and they took off the down the road. Got to love that!
Contact in El Dorado! Right now I am at a house of a friend from Indy… I was talking on facebook last night and started to chat with my friend Steve who is a pilot… he said that he knew someone and would get me a hold of them. He did and we got here tonight and they are super nice! They are about 60 and have lived here all of their life.. theytook us out to “Bayaou and Bistro” I had stuffed chicken which was awesome and some kind of dessert which was a alcoholic milkshake!SOOOOO GOOOOD!I loved it. We talked about all kinds of things… Planes, Our stories…and all of that jazz… I believe that they are going to take us out to breakfast in the morning! They are being really good to us. Lynn just told us that she was going to go to bed… she reached into her pocket and just handed me $100 bill and told us that she was going to go to bed!WOW… that is pretty awesome!Lynn and Garytold us that tonight that the last movie they went out to see was bridges of Madison county and the movie before that was top gun… Wow… They took us downtown to show us their historic downtown..and explained how the toen was oncea oil town.. and boomed way back…
Tasty Morsel: We were getting ready to eat lunch yesterday when Bryan said randomly “Man.. if someone were to eat me I would be a tasty human” I looked at him and just started to laugh.. he asked me what I was laughing about… I told him that it was just soo random and kind of creepy.. I had no clue what he meant.. he explained to me that it is because his muscles are so lean….lol…
Tomorrow night.. we don’t have a place to stay tomorrow night..and we are landing somewhere in Hamburg which I am pretty sure is a nothing town! Ahhhh.. not good! We will see
Crap, I got another blister on my right foot. I hate this predicament, because usually to let a blister heal, you don’t walk much. But I can’t do that so I have to keep walking on it while it gets bigger and bigger. Oh well, this has happened before so I know what to expect. Pray that it doesn’t keep getting bigger though. This morning was cold again but it heated up in the afternoon. It was another fast day.
We have a contact in our stopping town,
El Dorado ! Their names are Gary and Lynn Harrell. They are friends of a friend of Daren’s. They were extremely nice and hospitable like always. They took us out to dinner, showed us around downtown, and then gave us a hundred dollars!!! They always surprise you with it at the last minute too! It caught me off guard! How wonderful! The restaurant we went to tonight was called “Bayou Bistro.” We are 12 miles from the border of
Louisiana , so we are pretty much in Cajun country. It was fun. Different atmospheres are always interesting.
Gary is taking Daren and me to the best breakfast joint in town tomorrow morning, so I need to get some shut eye. Good night!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009 Lake Village, AR
Daren’s Blog:
Today: The day was actually quite beautiful… there were bayous which to be honest I don’t know what constitutes a bayou from a swamp… but I am sure to find out.
David: Met a guy today that invited me into his house and offered a place to stay… I was walking down the street today and I barely heard someone yelling at me… I heard some of what he said like”Where you coming from” and where ya goin?I decided to walk back.. he invited me into his house.. and when I entered he said“Everyone is Dead”I am thinking.. .allright….hoping for a reason for why he said that… He then said,… its just me… and he explained to me who lived with him…. He asked me if I smoked.. I told him no… as he was rolling his own cigarettes… There were candles everywhere.. .and I didn’t feel threatened for I though to myself..”I could take him but I did need to get going… He offered his place to us for the night… he explained to me that he hitched all over the usa so he knew what was up and wanted to help us out… I told bryan but after thinking about it fora little bit decided not to go back.. I am just hoping he doesn’t catch up with us tomorrow.. just kidding.. but seriously..:)
Train guys…..We decided to get a hotel tonight.. we had a donation of $100 from one of Bryans friends… So we have $100 in the hotel/motel fund… it goes fast so we decided for a really cheap hotel tonight! $35 dollars was the cost and let me tell you what… you get what you pay for!I kept my shoes on in the room.. it was pretty nasty. But I know the alternative and I am blessed to have the room to begin with!
Today my body was just warring against me. My blister has its own pulse now and is this size of a baseball (not really). It has made my foot completely stiff so now I limp. And then the tendons behind my right leg are so tight that they move around oddly which is irritating. And now, to help with it all, my knee pains came back. Grrr… But I just kept going and pushed through pain and over time it slowly goes away. So far there has been no pain that I have encountered that never went away if I pushed through it. It’s weird how the body works. If you keep going then the pain will soon enough go away, but if you stop to check if its okay or think that if you stop the pain will go away, then it gets worse! It’s crazy.
I’m sure Daren told you about the interesting guy that he met on the side of the road who invited him to stay at his house. I don’t need to say much about it since I wasn’t there but I am glad we didn’t stay. I wouldn’t have gotten any sleep, haha.
We stayed in
Lake Village, AR tonight. This is the town where all the train conductors and engineers stay for the night. It was kind of weird to see. They are all giants! They were twice as big as me! I would never want to mess with them.
I am not feeling well tonight. So I’m going to call it a night. My stomach is hurting and I feel light headed. Goodnight everyone.
Thursday, March 5, 2009 Greenville, MS
Daren’s Blog:
Mississippi!: We are finally here! Wow.. it only took us 4 days to get across Ar… and I happened to have the leg that went over the bridge! Ahh.. There might have been room for one person against the rail…I guess they are building a nicer bridge but it is not done yet so I get to cross the one with no room for walkers and the bridge was 3 miles long! Some semi’s were nice and others didn’t really care for my life too much.. I must value my life more than they did.. I took a few camera shots but I was nervousto keep my camera on the metal for I was afraid that it was going to fall into the Mississippi river..from all of the vibrations and wind today..
Jesus Man:Michael was his real name… Bryan and I were driving back to mist, Ar to start the day and we passed this guy pushing a cart…I said… lets flip it around and talk to him and see what he is doing. We had some food we were not eating and figured we could gibe it to him… we stopped and started talking to him… he was walking because he felt god had told himBryan asked “How long are you going to do it” He replied “until God tells me to stop”there was nothing mentally wrong with him.. just went from town to town preaching the good word… We told him what we were doing and he said what I hear a lot and hate “We are in need of Clean water right here”I said… “I would have to disagree with you” I explained the issue at hand.. and then he started to talk about some type of pump that didn’t work.. I have no clue what he was talking about… some.. I explained that Americans do go over there and build the wells… but we develop relationships with the people… he backed down a little and the conversation turned.. we gave him a lot of food and drinks that we had… he looked like he needed it…. We took a picture with him.. asked a few more questions.. he told us that he has gone through about 50 pairs of shoes and have travelled over 23,000 miles in 22 states…. He said he has found about 810 dollars in the past 6 years on the side of the road…. He looked pretty dirty… I offered some medical supplies that we had.. he looked at me and said that he didn’t need them… I said… ok… I guess he can predict the future on when he is going to get hurt… I didn’t pry…. For we had to get going.. we were going to be walking in the dark already.. we were getting a late start today because we ate McDonalds on a whim this morn.
Lady at Mcdonalds: Trunella (T8)I guess she wanted to be called that.. .she was adoment about because that is how she has been going by for years…. I guess she walked the bicentennial route across the country when she was 21….. I know that route well for I rode my Bike on it back in 2005 for the 4,400 miles of it! That is pretty wild… She had a dog called “Cowboy dog and a cat called Cowboy cat… I asked to see the cat and she pulled it out of the bag.. I t was soo light and super hot… I held it there in the wind for a while so it could cool down.. she was super nice… Just weird to meet two people that are walkers today.
Deaf evangelist:After running across the bridge today I looked over and this man motioned me over… He wrote who he was…. And basically the question if I was baptized in the holy spirit and whether or not I spoke in tongues… I wrote back and said that I have accepted Jesus as my savior….he wrote back something about the bible never asks us to accept Jesus as savior… I disagree.. and then he showed me a verse… Ok..I didn’t know what to write… The verse had nothing to do with what we were talking about… I wrote him and told him that I was baptized but I didn’t have the gift of speaking in tongues…. He wrote back about other gifts…. I didn’t know what he wanted.. he made a motion and I agreed.. and made a gesture of hands going from his head to the heavens… I was like.. ok… he then wrote down “joy and Peace” and speaking in tongues… I just agreed…I needed to keep running or Bryan would be waiting for me… he seemed satisfied… and gave me directions to his church…. And when the times were.. .he also gave me his pastors number.. which I decided to call later that night to see if he could do anything of us when it comes to shelter tonight… he called someone else who was a councilman of the town and he called back and gave us 2 numbers… to the salvation army… I thought to myself.. Ok.. it is 7:00… they are not going to be open.. we called andguess what… nope.. no one on the other end… so that means we are going to have to use the restof the hotel funds for tonight..! we do have a place to stay tomorrow though.. that is a good feeling
We’re in
Mississippi now!!!! A lot happened today. First, we met a guy named Michael who has been walking across
America for six years non-stop to speak at churches and spread the Gospel. He has walked over 23,000 miles! I couldn’t believe it. So we talked for a little bit on the side of the road and gave him some of our food. It was so inspiring! I couldn’t believe that in all the places he could be in the
US right now, he was on the same highway we were on. Wow.
Then at lunch time I met a woman named Trunella (her traveling name is T8) who was with her granddaughter and dog and cat going down to
Southern Arkansas to visit her son. But the crazy thing is that she also has walked across ¾ of the
US when she was 21 years old. She said when she started the journey, she weighed 120 pounds. And then when she finished she weighed 87 pounds. She carried nothing with her. Not even a backpack or tent or food. Sometimes she went two or three days on just an apple. But so many people helped her along the way. She said she wanted to go and see if God was really out there and that she will either find him and He’ll bring her back or He’ll take her. Obviously, He brought her back. What an amazing story. And what are the odds that we meet two people in one day who are or have walked across the
US ? Incredible.
Then right before I got to the
Mississippi River , a dear evangelist pulled over on the side of the road and tried to evangelize to me. He used pre-written note cards to communicate to me. But the funny thing was that I told him that I am a believer but he didn’t really believe. He wanted to know if I had the gift of the Holy Ghost and was able to speak in tongues. He obviously didn’t care if I loved Jesus or not. So after five minutes of me being purposely difficult, he just wrote down a map to his church and gave it to me. I texted Daren about it ten minutes later and he told me that the same guy ran into him too. Hahaha.
We didn’t have a place to stay in
Greenville so we used the card that the deaf evangelist gave us that had the Pastors number on it and tried to get help from him. He basically directed us to the Salvation Army. Unfortunately, the Salvation Army was closed and then we couldn’t get a hold of him again. So we just got another motel. A friend of mine named Reggie gave us money for a motel just in time for us to need it. Perfect timing. But it’s funny that some churches just don’t want to help us. It’s not like we’re asking for money; we just need shelter. It’s ironic that Couch Surfing, a non-Christian online community is more helpful and welcoming than the churches we have run into. What is that to say about how open the arms of the church are to the people? I don’t want to get into it. I could write a novel. But God is still in control and He is our provider. Thank you Jesus.
Friday, March 6, 2009 Greenwood, MS
Daren’s Blog:
Mississippi hates us: Ok…. I guess Mississippi doesn’t believe in Shoulders on the side of the road and they don’t believe in sidewalks through town. Because of this drivers are not too fond of us either. Today I heard more honks (non-friendly honks) than I have ever heard before. There is about 1 foot of walking space to walk on…. Then the “rip strips” (those things that make the noises when you run over them) and then the white line. We walk on the 1 foot of the pavement and I don’t know what it is with cars and especially 18 wheelers that they feel they own the road and they wont move! They have two flippin lanes and the traffic is light! Move over! Geez… I wouldn’t want to inconvenience their day… I understand that moving their steering wheel 3 centimeters to the left takes a lot of energy and has the potential to ruin ones day.Seriously! Make some room for the leathertramps!
5 days straight: Bryan and I have covered 250 miles in the last 5 days. We are excited about a day off… our bodies were revolting against us yesterday! We were so slow and it was over 80 degrees which doesn’t help at all. At the end of the day I took off my shoes and saw the ridiculous tan-line that I had. Wow.
Couchsurfing vs The Church: We got into town and called our online friend Alicia. She is the only couchsurfer in the Mississippi Delta! But she agreed to let us stay for 2 nights so that we could take a day off here and update the website and get back to people on e-mails and all of that jazz. She has been super nice to us and cooked us red beans and rice and had it ready when we arrived. That was awesome considering it is something that Bryan can actually eat since he is discovering that he is allergic to Gluten!Last night at the dinner table we were conversing about all of the evangelist that stop Bryan and I on the side of the road and our frustrations with them and their way of going about it. That conversation lead to our other frustrations…. You see we have a friend (Nancy Powell) who contacts the churches of towns in the future that we will be passing through asking simply for shelter… .we don’t ask for money.. simply just a place to stay for the night and then we are out by the morning.Well, the response has not been to good… the majority don’t get even return the e-mails at all (which is really irritating) and there has actually been churches who write back and say “no” they can’t help us….really? I don’t understand…. I have worked in a church for 5 years and understand that there is people out there who abuse the system of the church but we are not asking for money… simply shelter for the night.The couchsurfing community who is not affiliated with any religion or faith has been more hospitable than the churches have. Where has the church gone???
T Minus 10 days: I cant believe it but we only have 10 more days and the United States section of unites states is done.. that is over 4,300 miles!Here is our last 10 days and where we will be:
3.6: Greenwood (Place to Stay)
3.7: Greenwood (Day off) (Place to Stay)
3.8: Eupora, MS (Need Place)
3.9: Columbus, MS (Need Place)
3:10: Fayette, AL (Need Place)
3.11: Jasper, AL (Into Birmingham Peak Axe) (Place to Stay)
3.12: Birmingham, AL (Day off) (Place to Stay)
3.13: Cullman, AL (Place to Stay)
3.14: Gadsden AL (Place to Stay)
3.15: Rome, GA (Short Day) (CIY)(Place to Stay)
3.16 Dahlonega, GA(USA DONE!) (Place to Stay)
If you can help with any of these town let us know!
One day in
Mississippi and I already am fed up with it. There were absolutely no shoulders today to walk on so I had to walk in one of the lanes. I know that’s dangerous but there was no where else to walk. And
Mississippi is more densely populated with mean drivers because I got honked at every five minutes it seemed. Some people just wouldn’t even turn their little steering wheels three inches to the left and move over for me. They were just prideful and didn’t care.
Another evangelist stopped me today. This one actually got out of his car to talk to me. It was funny because he did pretty much the same thing as the deaf evangelist. I told him straight up that I am a Christian, I follow Christ, and that I am actually walking across
America for a Christian organization. But he didn’t believe me!!! Either he didn’t believe me or he just HAD to say what he wanted to say to check off his spiritual agenda for that day’s salvation. Or he might think that because I don’t go to HIS church, that I am not a real Christian. Lots of churches think that. He was saying how every church (but his church) is not teaching the right values and that everyone is lead astray. So he decided to tell me his testimony anyway. And I will be honest; I didn’t want to hear it. Because I could tell he was not interested in getting to know me, or show me love. He just wanted to get out what he was supposed to say and end it at that. It’s sad that some people think that showing love is telling them how they have sinned and need to repent without ever even getting to know them. He didn’t want to know about me at all. He just wanted to talk. He was on auto-pilot. But I stood there and listened so that he could feel better about his security and then I went on my way. But it frustrates me that those “evangelists” try and talk to non-believers like that. No wonder why everyone hates Christians. I WOULD TOO! I’m sorry. I’ll step down off my soap box now. But seriously, where is the love?
Our host tonight, who is a couch surfer friend, was very hospitable. Her name is Alicia and she has a five year old son named Brendan. She cooked us a great dinner, she showed us some independent short films, and then showed each other out favorite music till 12:30 at night. It was a good ending to a frustrating day. We are not the far from the end. I’m excited. Good night.
Dinner with Peak Axe: I love Days off…. Especially with friends…and especially with friendships that were made on the Appalachian Trail! There is just something about the bonds made on the A.T…. I guess it is the fact that no one else in the world has experienced what the two of you have experienced…. Unless you walk mountains, live in the woods, and drink from streams on a regular basis. I am going to guess that is not your traditional lifestyle…. But our time in Birmingham was great… “Peak Axe” (Josh May) really took care of us when we were there. Tonight he made for us Pork Tenderloin, asparagus, and rice…. This may be my favorite meal ever! Ahh… soo good… the conversation was also good…. I find my conversations with people always end up philosophical… which I don’t mind… it is great actually… but I consider myself a simple person so my philosophical thoughts are one liners…. I guess this past year has really simplified my thinking…. You know.. what is important and what is not important… what hills to die on and what to let slide…
8 hours of Water: Ok.. I thought we were going to make it across the United States very lucky walkers… well I was wrong. For the past 2 months Bryan and I never had to put on our rain jackets.. well… we made up for the two months today and by the looks
Before we left Peak Axe’s this morning, he threw a bunch of his food in our car. It was awesome. What a nice guy. Then he took us to breakfast in downtown 
CIY: I am just laying here waiting for the CIY guys to come in. CIY (Christ in Youth) Is an organization that…well they do a lot of ministry related work with youth. The reason I am waiting on them is they are flying into Atlanta today and then driving up to Rome, GA where we are at They are going to video the last day of the Expedition and shoot video tomorrow. They are going to be using the story in their summer conferences this summer. If you remember previous blogs.. this is the same organization that
52 miles:
The day that we have been thinking about for a long time has finally come! Bryan and I both got up at 1:25am Monday morning with the intention of walking the 100 miles from Rome, GA to Dahlonega, GA. We both committed to 50 miles each with we estimated would take around 15 hrs to complete. We will elaborate more on the last day more in the next blog but we did want to share with you that the United States section of 4,300 miles is completed. The expedition started 373 days ago! Bryan and I are both really achy and are not going to blog for a few days as we make our way back to Dallas, TX with a few stops along the way. We do want to thank all of those who have helped us across the USA! You hold special places in our hearts.
Daren’s Blog: Day off… basically today consisted up updating the website… The only other things that happened today is that our couchsurfing friend took us out to Eat at a BUFFETT!
First Baptist Church: Our good friend Nancy has been calling the towns that we are going to be passing through and today she called me and told me that she talked to someone this morning at the church and told her to tell us that all we have to when we get into town is to go the church and talk to the reverend Travis Gray …it wasn’t a definite but it was a lead and that is better than nothing. So Bryan and I head into town and find the church…. There were a lot of people parked outside and being that it was a southern Baptist Bryan looks to me and says “we could be the only white people in here tonight”
Another hot day in the Mississippi: Today wasn’t much different than any other… we woke up and got going late.. .we have tendency to do that when we have a hotel to stay in! but as we were watching the weather for the next few days we realized that we are going to get hit with 80+ today and tomorrow… and then we are supposed to get thunderstorms on Wednesday… which will be awesome… considering and we are on a schedule now to be done on the 16th. Good news is that we have shoulders on the roads again… which makes for a little better for our lives are now at less risk! Still people have the tendency to swerve toward us because they are looking at us and then they jerk back about 40 yards out… it happens all day long.
Daren’s Blog:
“The Club”:
It happened to be more than I expected. It was at this place called “The Club” which already promises greatness when they have domain over the name “THE CLUB.” It was the nicest country club in all of 
MMM..2nd day off 
Cold: It was 27 degrees this morning!
Contact in El Dorado! Right now I am at a house of a friend from Indy… I was talking on facebook last night and started to chat with my friend Steve who is a pilot… he said that he knew someone and would get me a hold of them. He did and we got here tonight and they are super nice! They are about 60 and have lived here all of their life.. they
Jesus Man:
Then right before I got to the
Couchsurfing vs The Church: We got into town and called our online friend Alicia. She is the only couchsurfer in the Mississippi Delta! But she agreed to let us stay for 2 nights so that we could take a day off here and update the website and get back to people on e-mails and all of that jazz. She has been super nice to us and cooked us red beans and rice and had it ready when we arrived. That was awesome considering it is something that Bryan can actually eat since he is discovering that he is allergic to Gluten!
One day in 