Bunny, forgive me for taking your post to put in here. I was going to try to write about the event that brought you back home for a while to get medical treatment, but somehow, I had a really hard time wanting to write about it. I think I will be able to do it later, when a little more time has gone by. Till then I will let you tell your own story as you have done here. I love you bunny. mom
(the photo her is one of the family who helped Jed on this day)

Why do moths fly into the campfire?

Saturday at 10:55pm
Anyone who's sat around a campfire in the summer for any amount of time has undoubtedly seen moths dive bomb into the fire. Why do people do the same? You know the outcome of the moth when it comes close to the fire. You are viewing this from an outside perspective. As oil flow into the gulf is that not a huge fire that the whole of society is flying into? Something that will undoubtedly burn us all in the end. The climber that dies on the side of a mountain unable to see their deteriorating state. Surely, if they could truely see what was happening they would turn back. Last Thursday I left Bazine, Ks. heading for Ness City and beyond for the day. I knew the day before something was wrong with my ankle, but as with all the other pains on this trip I say it's ok. By mile 3 on Thursday I knew that this wasn't going to be a good day. By mile 9, I was on the verge of crying. Partly from pain and partly because I knew that this type of injury had the potential to stop me. By the time I made it 12 miles to Ness City I was done for the day. I went to the city park to camp for the night and ran across a family biking across the country. I made it down the stairs at the park and sat down on a picnic table beside them. They asked me if I was ok. I was barely able to walk down the stairs and I'm sure that the pain was written all over my face. I told them that I was Ok. This is what I've always told people. They offered to the next town that had things that could help me take better care of myself. I at first turned them down, but in the morning I knew my ankles wouldn't get me there. It was apparent even to me. My ankles had taken me from doing 30 miles daily to barely being able to walk down stairs. Fast forward to today. My ankles really haven't gotten better. It still feels like someone is stabbing my left ankle with a knife. Today I looked into buying a bike that I could finish this trail in. Not the way I want to finish in, but the way I think that my body will allow me to finish it in. A 2,000 mile down payment on a dream to have it repossessed by bad ankles. There are no regrets though. I can see what the family at the park saw. A good man with a broken body.

more critters !

Ah bunny, this is typical of you. How many turtles have you helped across the road on this trip? You've rescued many of these little guys who wouldn't have made it without getting hit by a car. They may not know their lives were spared for another day, but God sees and records the smallest of these kindnesses. Just another reason why I love and respect you.

Back to your story

I guess I will back track a little. It's been a while since I have written. Sometimes I wonder why I am writing this, and then I remember it's really for you. Somehow, I know this is more than another one of your adventures. It's

as though it could be a turning point in your life. That can be very frightening to me. I feel it, yet want this trip to be just another one of your "walk abouts". I know in a way only a mother can know that there is much more to this journey than a personal challenge...much more than raising money for a cause dear to your heart.

I posted this photo to illustrate how you

can have your Jed sense of humor no matter where you are, or under what conditions. With a title of "Showdown with a Calf" , you made light of running along this incredible lonely stretch of highway. Knowing the terrain you ran through in Kansas, with the blazing heat that we have had this summer, I can't imagine laughing about anything, though the little guy does look forlorn.

Actually I was thinking.....he saw you...he instinctively knew that you were trying to escape Kansas.....he knew what his future as a Kansas cow would be...and in that instant, he made a break for the breach in the fence, and was wordlessly standing there begging you to take him with you.......

Either that, or he just came out of the pasture to wonder (if cows do such things) what the heck some ditzy guy was doing running along in all that heat in such a hurry to go to the endless horizon.

MOO-O-O-O-O..........

Highs and Lows

This will be a short post. Much like Jed's run, I have felt both extremes of emotion the last two days. Yesterday I was at work when I heard from Jed. He had checked his posts to his charity's page, and found a five hundred dollar donation from the one and only Dick Vitale, famous ESPN basketball sports announcer. You could have peeled Jed off the sky he was so happy. I think so happy in fact, that he was able to ignore the growing pain in his ankle. It had been bothering him all day, but he had 30 miles to go and was not going to let it do him in. You have to understand that in Western Kansas, you just don't stop along the way. It could cost you plenty to stop when you only have enough water to make it to that next town. He is carrying a lot more water now, to make it through the intense heat of July in Kansas. A lot more water is a lot more weight.......
Today after 12 miles, the pain was so intense he had to stop. I got a message from him. He found a pool in town, and he was trying to cool the pain in the water. With such limited resources, he is unable to stay in a motel, so must make do with what he has. Funds must be conserved as he has a long way yet to go. I could feel the discouragement in his voice. I am going to call a few people I know and ask them to include him in their prayers, putting him on their prayer lists at church if they are able. The white hot pain in his ankle has taken yesterday's joy and pulled the rug out from under it. I hope anyone reading this post would say a prayer for Jed that this will be a temporary set back for him. He has given his all. I love you bunny. I will pray for you, and keep a prayer in my heart continually for your recovery and health.

Just thought I would post some of the beautiful accommodations you've enjoyed during your travels. Abandoned houses and barns. All the amenities!!!

Well this looks familiar. Bleeding blisters. I rather had to chuckle at the "Jedness" of the post you ran with this picture.

Blister care......1. pop it. 2. drain it. 3. duct tape it.

4. carry on.

You made light of it, but I rememeber when I danced and had these same looking blisters. No easy task to put your shoes back on after you have taken them off. That was the hardest part. It took a while after you began to adjust to the pain. Pretty sure you walked and ran through a lot of the pain, though you'll probably never really say. I know many (most really) would have just quit. You have learned when to stop for a while, and when to go on.

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!