the journey continues

It's the Fourth of July already. Deep into summer. I have had so many thoughts about you Jed. Usually I am nowhere near a place or time that I can record my thoughts. I am sure you can imagine much of how I feel at this point. There is not a minute that goes by that I do not wonder where you are, how you are...if you're tired or thirsty....

As mother, I want to fix anything that could possibly confront you. I don't believe I will mentally get over that feeling. I think it's part of the human condition. Some parts of me though, can step back and see this for what it really is. A story about a man among men.

I remember driving across Kansas some years ago, when we went out to see Maw in Arizona. You were little then. The air had gone out on the car, and we had the windows down, and were wiping you guys down with cold water that evaporated and kept you comfortable. The stretches of road were relentlessly long and uneventful, and the heat came up in waves from the pavement. I remember passing a grain silo, then going for what seemed like hours, seemingly to pass that same silo again. Of course it wasn't, but the terrain was so the same, that it was impossible to tell if you had made any progress. I remember reading on one of your posts how unnerving it was to run for six or more hours, and the silo in the distance didn't seem any closer than it had for the last number of hours. It was like that in a car! Can't imagine that same feeling on foot, knowing how much water you had left, and how far you had yet to go to have more of that precious liquid.

I will long remember the message, finally, from you that you had reached a point where you found a ditch with some brackish water trickling along, and how you fought off the revulsion of the smell and taste of it, just to have something wet to swallow. A while later, you knew from your maps that you would come to a bridge that had a shallow river running under it. At last, a place that would provide shade, with water to boot!

The bridge appeared, and as you put it, "in my heat induced delerium, I ran for the bridge, dropping off my pack and plunging into the river without thought."

You told me later that it was about 30 to 40 seconds later in that glorious water that you remembered your cell phone was still in your pants pocket.

The phone didn't take too kindly to that dip in the pool, and now you were without a means of communication, with a while to go before you would come to another stopping point, and still later till your friend Tony would be there at that next town, and put you up for a couple days. No way either to get the call from the television station that wanted to interview you for their news segment on people who make a difference. Worst of all, for me....was that period of time till you were able to get to another town to give me all this news. I must say, this was a crummy break, but the thing is, I have such faith in your abilities that I wasn't really worried. I knew that you could and would be just fine. I have learned to trust you completely.

http://www.kwch.com/videobeta/24902492-93a3-4af2-bebe-1d226b7979b5/News/Video-Man-journeys-across-America-on-foot

The link above is from KWCH TV in Wichita, Kansas.  An interview set up by the son of an old friend who was working for that news station.  Thanks Cliff Judy!