Day 8 - Monday, March 29
After surviving yesterday’s stage of almost 30 miles, I crawled into our home on wheels which was parked in the back of a truck stop happy to be off the road and to have beaten the strong storms that came through as forecasted at 4pm. I was able to run in the last few miles and was hopeful that the shin issue was behind me. But, how quickly the mighty can fall…
I woke up this morning after an uneventful night that included eating massive amounts of food, washing down with some wine and polishing off with big bowl of ice cream. Lights out at 8pm and then up with no alarm at 4:38am. After my standard breakfast of 3 spoons of vanilla Greek yogurt, granola, raspberries and blueberries, i threw on my running clothes and Lucky and I are on the road. First Point of Interest is Johnson State Prison, a medium security prison that house around 1,600 males. As i approached in the dark i noticed a car in the parking light with the lights left on and decided to go in to let them know someone’s car is going to die. As Lucky and I entered the facility at around 6:30am, i found a window with a note to ring bell for service. A serious blond woman came out and looked at me, then Lucky and asked what i wanted. I thought about asking her if i could take her picture but decided she looked like she might arrest me so just told her about the car with lights on. While her face softened a tad and thanked me, she abruptly turned around and walked back to wherever she came from. As Lucky and I left and ran around the facility, a few dogs in the distance barked at us which brought out a squad car to inspect us as we continued to put distance between his and the Prison. It was a very surreal experience.
After 10 miles of a glorious morning with 50 degree temp, a full moon and feeling good - no shin pain - it began to hurt and by mile 15 i needed to stop and sit. Alex came to me as i couldn’t take another step. I got into the RV and took 4 Aleve, iced it and massaged for the next 30 minutes. When i got back out i couldn’t run but could do a slow walk - pain was 7 out of 10 so not something that was pleasant or worth pushing through as there is too much left to risk hurting worse. It was up and down until I finished the 30+ miles over 8 hours. The area is swollen and off color so something I need to respect.
The route is now very rural and i really only saw one person today. Lucky and I passed through a town named Harrison which was one crossroad and other than a post office, it was abandoned. Most of the rural towns i have visited so far share this fate and make me wonder where these folks are going.
Alex and Lucky found a nice spot for us at Warthen RV Park in Warthen GA and as i came up, Alex was already working on maintenance for the RV - in this case it was changing the oil on the generator which must be done after every 50 hours of use - he learned how to do this by watching a YouTube video!
We have decided that we will take tomorrow off and try to rest the shin as well as catch up on laundry, other RV maintenance and personal affairs.
I am hopeful that i will recover over the next 36 hours so that the journey can continue.
Thank you for your support - Cheers.
