| All journal entries are in reverse order, with the latest entry at the top. Clicking the "Location" link will take you to a map where you can see details of the area from which Wesley posted the entry. Thanks for all of your support! | ||
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Week 1: March 24th through March 30th |
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| WEEK 11 | June 2nd through June 8th | |
| Sun 6/08/03 |
Journal
Entry from Wesley Anyways, Shane picked me up and we went to the early service of church. It was one of those with all the songs and stuff projected on the wall. We sang a few songs that I've missed hearing. I don't take the great worship in Savannah for granted. I got all packed up, all said goodbye and all on my way by 11 am. An easy day of walking. Not a complaint. The weather was kind of strange today. The only thing that really stayed constant was the really strong wind. I was leaning into it and it sounded like I had my head sticking out of a car window. Yeah, some fast wind. My eyes got all dried out. I took a break hiding behing a big piece of farm equipment. I got out of most of the wind, but it still gusted enough to shake this multi-ton machine. I got to Palyrma, MO which was the closest phone to Quincy, IL across the river. In Quincy is where Joanne Wilson lives. She's the cousin of a friend from Winona that I got connected with. She came and met me at the gas sation in Palyrma and gave me a tour of Quincy. It's a pretty town. I like this size of town. However, I read the comics in the newspaper today and they were pretty terrible. So, I can't live here. Joanne and I had a great dinner and looked at maps of the rest of my trip. I decided on a little different route for the next few days. I even found the listing of the convenience store in the next small town in the phone book; so, I know I can find food there. I called ahead and asked them some questions. It's the first time I've been able to do that. So, because of my little change
in route, I'm done with Missouri. It was a fun state. It's still really
strange every time I see the river. All of these river towns have so much
in common. It all reminds me of Winona. The trees are looking more like
Minnesota and I even saw a few stores yesterday that are North Midwestern
chains. It makes it really hard to not think about the end. I still have
all of Iowa. I keep repeating that to myself. |
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| Sat 6/07/03 |
Journal
Entry from Wesley Location: Hannibal, MO So, I disappeared for a little bit there. I hardly knew where I was for a while today. It's a beautiful walk between Louisiana and Hannibal, beautifully empty. I got up this morning and the fog was thick. Everything was wet. It took me longer than usual to get things together with my wounded finger. I'm feeling pretty rough which is also one of the words I'd use to describe today. I walked about 22 miles with very little food. I had snacks that I rationed, but they never seem to make any difference. It was a really tough 22 miles as well. These hills are incredible, worse than the mountains in TN. The road just goes straight up and seems to go on for miles. I'd get to an area where I could see over a mile of open road and then watch it climb up a huge steep hill for another half-mile. Some motorcycles raced past me at like 80mph and I watched how small they got and how slow it looked like they were going because of the size of the hill. Fotunately, I have this vocal minority in my head that I call the Little Engine Node. Every part of me says,"yeah right, forget it" and this node says,"nope, we're doin it!". I think I lost that five pounds I gained in Kirkwood. I did take a lot of short breaks, but the mosquitoes would literally swarm me every time I went in the shade. Their shift ended a little after noon and that's when the gnats took over shade or sun. Those little creeps kept trying to get in my nose. There's nothing in there for them? So yeah, today was really hard. I took a nap around 1pm because I could tell I was starting to lose it. It was still lost when I woke up. I walked a half mile in the wrong direction before realizing it. I even passed the same street sign and somehow made sense of it in my head. I could feel braincells jumping ship. That's when I finally went to one of my emergency MREs that I've been carrying since the beginning. It was an interesting little beef patty that tasted a lot like tuna. But, I even drank the juice out of the package. As I approached Hannibal, I found a way to keep going today. It might also be a good indicator of my state of mind. I pretended I was Michael Jackson. Hey, it worked. I kind of sluggishly danced and screamed for a couple miles. At least it kept me laughing. I finally got to the edge of Hannibal and had dinner at the big tourist center. Very poor service, but a really nice place. I got in touch with Shane Graham, the brother of a friend of Jason's back in St.Louis. I hadn't been able to get in touch with him at all until today but he still found me a hook-up. His church is putting me up in the Econo Lodge. It's sooo great to be able to rest. We got together after I washed up and went to the coffeehouse. We met a friend of his there who's from Iowa and is checking on some more possible contacts for me. I'm still quite scared about Iowa. The corn won't even be knee-high til the 4th of July which offers very little shade. Anyways, I got a little tour of town. Hannibal seems like a very nice place. I'll be going to church with Shane in the morning and we'll see what happens from there. I'm just enjoying talking to people again. Today was a big toll in more ways than just physical; but, I feel great about finishing it. I know I probably forgot a lot. I'm still kinda recovering and I need to sleep now. |
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Fri |
Journal
Entry from Wesley So much for getting to bed early. Like I said, I've been thinking a lot about how long I've been walking and I stayed up reading through a bunch of my old journal entries. I was obviously still in bed early compared to most college students. It rained on me very early in the morning giving me more reason to sleep in. All the way to 7:15! Yeah! I was getting my tent packed up just as it began to sprinkle. It got heavier and was all out raining by the time I was walking. I can't believe how worn-out I get walking in the rain. After 3 miles, I found an old tin-roofed shed that I rested in for a while. I started getting really cold from all of my sweat (that raingear doesn't breathe). But, after a couple more miles in the rain, I finally found something that I like about the rain: I'm reminded each step that I'm walking. When it's nice out and even when it's really hot, I can find myself kinda forgetting that I'm walking because, hey, there's no reason not to be walking. When I'm in the rain, every step is like,"oh man, I'm still walking and it's still raining". It gets me so worn-out so fast that when I get food or shelter or anything, it is soooo great. I even got to test this new-found "non-hatred" of walking by turning down a ride in the pouring rain. I waved goodbye to the van happily. No part of me was kicking any other part. I even got to Louisiana sooner than I thought I would (which is amazing for it being in the rain). The rain stopped right about when I got to town. I chugged some chocolate milk and talked with the gas station lady for a while. I taught her what a Luna moth looks like. There was one on the side of the building. But, there were more pressing matters than service station entimology on my mind. I hadn't eaten a meal since 3pm yesterday. I got to the local restaurant and they had a buffet! Happy day, a buffet! So, I ate a lot and gave the locals something to see (me, unwrapping myself from all my rain gear and maneuvering my pack around tables). Now, it was time for more of my least favorite part of the trip, making decisions. What's the weather gonna be like? Do I keep walking even though I'll be really far from anything. Do I find a place to stay here in town? These questions keep going and generally there's very little concrete anything to go on for answers. Out of a four person poll, I got a 50/50 response about weather. After about an hour of pondering and gathering of various hints and subtle clues, I decided to keep walking. I made the right choice. The weather stayed beautiful and the scenery here is amazing, big hills and wide expanses. The big dramatic clouds left from the storm made it even better. I made it another 12 miles leaving about 19 for tomorrow to Hannibal. I'm camped next to the bridge over Salt Creek. I already saw 2 herons. Wow, after I wrote
all that about my great day, things got rough. I had a popped blister
on my foot start hurting so much I had to lay down. Then, I cut a little
chunk out of my finger on my razor. Why was my razor lying around? Because
I'm an idiot. I bled a lot. My sweatshorts look pretty bad. I had to change
the band-aid after about 5 minutes because it had all soaked through.
I've got it all wrapped up now. I had to lay down again after all that
bleeding. I really wish that hadn't happened. It's making all sorts of
simple tasks much more difficult. Dang. |
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| Wed 6/04/03 | Journal
Entry from Wesley Location: Elsberry, MO I slept really well last night. I fell asleep smiling. The temperature must have been just perfect. I wasn't cold and didn't sweat. The train a couple of blocks away hardly even woke me. I hope I sleep that well more often. I'm all packed up and looking for some breakfast. Then off to Elsberry. I wish these towns were a little farther apart. I feel like I should have more miles each day. But, looking ahead at the map, it looks like towns will start spacing way out soon. I should know better by now than to try and plan way ahead. I'm sure it'll be great. However, I have come to a part in the walk where it's difficult to avoid counting miles to the end. I didn't do it for most of the trip. I'm still enjoying each day as it comes though. Oh, and the sun came out late mornin and stayed out all day. It'd been a while. I didn't find a church in Elsberry that has a Wednesday night service. The local Baptist church has their business meeting the first Wednesday of the month so I did run into someone. We talked for a while and I filled up my water in the kitchen. After discussing the area, it sounded like a good idea to keep walking until sundown and possibly cut a day out of my schedule. However, before I had gone 2 miles, I was called to by a woman at a local roofing company (Julie). She offered me a place to stay. The company was right next to a trailer park which she and her husband (Marcus) also owned. One of their workers, Calvin, had a sofa that I could sleep on. We all talked for a while, I got some dinner at Calvin's trailer and then a group of us went fishing. We went out to a pond to catch Bluegills which we were going to use for bait on a troutline to catch Catfish. It took a long time but I finally caught two. We didn't catch enough before it started getting too late. So, we didn't go catfishing. Still, I haven't been fishing in many years. Another first for the trip. Calvin's trailer was what he called a "real Hoosier job" and I agree even though I'm not quite sure what that means. The light in the bathroom turned on by screwing in the bulb. I've never stayed in a trailer before either. I still found myself almost fretting over not carrying out the plans that I'd decided on not even an hour before they changed. When will I learn? Maybe I was getting too caught up in counting down. A fun night like this reminds me why I take and enjoy each day as it comes. It's probably a good thing I didn't push anyways because the hills coming up are supposed to be quite massive. So, I'll be worn out but also I don't want to rush past the scenery that I've been anticipating since before I started walking. I'm sure I'll be stopping to take pictures. It's been dawning on
me a lot lately how long I've been walking. It's so much to think back
on that I sometimes get things mixed up or think that I might have thought
something before. The names of towns are starting to sound familiar and
also getting harder to remember. So, if I repeat myself or tell the same
stupid joke twice, just pretend I'm a silly senile man, politely chuckle
and forget it (because I already did). People told me that this trip would
age me but I thought they meant it in a good way. Well, at least I already
have my cane. |
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| Mon 6/03/03 | Journal
Entry from Wesley I rode this morning with Allyson to the edge of town. I started just past St. Peters which was a great place to start. It sure is summer -- -the typical dark cloud cover, constant sprinkling and balmy highs in the low 60s. It is nice that it's cool. I hope it doesn't get too too cold tonight. I was getting quite used to nice beds. I'm really glad that I got to stay in Kirkwood for so much visiting. I probably already mentioned that but, I'm serious. The rest was really good. I feel very refreshed. I'm walking through an area full of sod farms. I always wondered whose lawn we were taking when we sodded ours. I'll be walking closer to the river soon and expect some memorable scenery. I'm stopped for the day and it's not even 6. I'm trying to get onto a town schedule(planning on being somewhere where there's something regularly). I'm gonna try camping on a church lawn right in town. It has a porch just in case it rains too much. It's a block from Main St/highwayand it's surrounded by houses. Hopefully, nobody has a problem with me. It's also a block from City Hall/police station? so the cops won't have to make much of a trip if they're called. I would hate to cause inconvenience. Winfield seems like a nice town. I have to get back into the habit of meeting strangers to really get a feel. There were some rough country dudes hanging out in the Mexican restaurant and their conversations were interesting (Minnesotan talk). I won't let them be the sole ambassadors in my mind. Ok, I guess that's all for now. Hey, I'm back. I was having
my quiet time and also praying about about where I'm sleeping tonight
when somebody came out of the church. I talked with him for a little bit.
His name is Matt Ryan (ooh, 2 first names!) and asked if I could camp
in the yard. He said sure and wished me well. So, the thought of maybe
having a small fear (of rejection?) was laid to rest. Now, I just have
to get in that sleepin' bag and try to warm up. It's getting really quite
cold. My fingers don't feel like typing any more. Goodnight. |
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Week 1: March 24th through March 30th |
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