june 16
day 38
25 miles
total 992
no, i didn’t get in the miles i hoped today.
an hour late start;
part of a compounding problem of coming up short of my goal day after day.
and misery from the bad toe i (foolishly-i admit it now)
did not get fixed before attempting this run.
i started the day in hobbling pain
and finally admitted i had to take the drastic action i had been avoiding.
a long break to implement some new toe care,
the endless leftist camber of the road was rolling the toes of my left foot over each other
and threatening to create the first blisters of my journey.
so i taped them back into proper alignment.
and i cut out a big hole for the bad toe to stick out.
the rest of the day went great.
not every ache and pain of nearly 1000 miles is fixed.
but i can address the rest as i go.
by the end of the day i was pushing 2.5 miles an hour
even in the 97 degree heat.
sorry to bore you with excuses
before telling you about my cool day in amish country.
the first buggy i saw
i scrambled to get out my camera
and failed twice to turn it on
before snapping a couple of pictures of my feet as it passed.
i needn’t have worried
as i saw about a thousand buggies by the end of the day.
and despite more dismal photography failures
i eventually got some good pictures…
even some inside buggies at the buggy dealership!
i am much better at taking pictures of signs
as they do not move so fast.
all the indiana amish smiled and waved,
unlike the surly amish of new york.
although they smiled as if they knew something i did not.
i checked for food in my beard
(none)
and my shorts don’t have a fly
so i wasn’t sure of the joke.
maybe word was passing among the amish
of a strange outsider limping down us20?
matt cantrell and his dad ushered me thru the day, and now are passing me along to a new crew.
i think the goal is to get me out of indiana as quickly as possible.
laz