Day 6, Wednesday 
April 6, 2005

The alarm sounds at four. I’ve slept well but am still very tired. I hit the snooze bar way too many times. I soak my feet again. I’ve popped all my blisters and drained them and I dress them all for the day. I’m again traveling as light as I can with just the essentials in my day pack. The rest I leave for Sherri to pack up and load later in the day before I finish today’s ten miles. We head off to meet John for breakfast. Last night and this morning I try to answer all his questions about Dry Bones and walking to Denver. He is very encouraging and positive. He’s been working with the church and this school for twenty years and he seems to be well liked and respected in the community. We finish our breakfast and say our goodbyes. And off we go back to that big overhead sign with the flashing lights.

It’s still pretty early, about 6:30 AM and Sherri says I’m hard to see on the road and to be careful. There’s not much traffic and Walker and I start off up the road.
We’re still on Business 290 and before we know it we’re past Prairie View heading toward Hempstead. I never do this, but because it was a little lonely and uneventful, Walker and I crossed the road to check out the historical marker. There were two actually. One honored the Groce family from the early 1800s for the plantations that had built in the area and the way they had helped Sam Houston’s army before the Battle of San Jacinto, and later during the Civil War. The other noted that many civil war camps had been operated in the area, one probably on that spot, near Clear Creek. Moving along the road again, I spotted what I assume was Clear Creek off to the right in a sort of pastured valley. Before long we came to a sign and intersection that directed to the right towards Highways 6 and 290. It seemed to soon but we made the turn anyway. Just before we got to 290, we passed the Hemphill Church of Christ building on our right - too early for anyone to be there.

Walker seems fascinated by other animals, particularly horses and cattle (although he runs from them if they approach him). I have to keep reminding him of our purpose as we pass pastures of cattle or horses. He wants to watch them or go say hello. Anyway, we had been seeing lots of Indian Paint Brushes, Buttercups, and several other types of wildflowers, but for the first time, I noticed Bluebonnets near the Church of Christ. Also, our old friend had returned with a vengeance: the wind, which the day before had been fairly light and from my back was not very strong and right in my face. Fortunately, my pack was light and my boots were not on my feet. When I reached 290, I was probably about 4 or 5 miles into the 10 or 11 I planned to complete that day. My feet were not hurting too badly and again, the endorphins and ibuprofen helped with the pain. However, God equipped our bodies for pain for a reason and it is wise to pay attention to its message, as I would soon find out.

Approaching the cut-off for Highway 6 toward College Station is a huge Ford dealership basically out in the middle of nowhere. Most dealerships in Dallas don’t have as large an inventory as this place. We just keep moving into the wind. I know that very soon, the frontage road plays out and we will again be walking on the edge of the highway, except now it is the main highway with lots of traffic. At one point, I counted the number of vehicles passing and it averaged out to be about 1 every 10 seconds. Probably half were 18-wheelers. It’s a weird feeling: 30 mph headwind, 18-wheeler passing at 65 or 70 mph just a few feet to your right, the wake can nearly knock you down. This was happening with some frequency for the next hour and a half - probably at least once every 60 seconds as I traveled the next four miles. I soon passed the motel where we were staying and called to tell Sherri to wave. She couldn’t see me out the window until I was about a quarter mile past. The rest of the walk was uneventful except for the wind and the trucks,

After a while, I spotted the turn in the road that marked the end of today’s hike. I spotted a little antique shop on the right where it would be easy for Sherri to turn around and pick me up so we could head back to Highway 6 and on to College Station. I walked up to the front door of Monica’s Antiques and asked if it would be OK if I rested in the shade of the front porch while I waited on my ride. The lady at the counter said it would be find. Now Walker wanted to go in and browse around but I didn’t have enough money to pay for anything he might break so we stayed outside. I could see Sherri approaching so we moved out to the road to make passing us impossible. Actually, I didn’t want Sherri to get any ideas about shopping at Monica’s.

We headed out toward College Station. No sooner did I have my sandals off than my phone rang and it was my host for Thursday night in Hempstead. As we talked, I was explaining that I had walked past the church building early that morning, and that I had ended up west of town at a place called Monica’s. It’s so cool how God works. His next comment was, “Monica is a member of our congregation. I’m still working on finalizing arrangements for tomorrow night, but maybe you can stay on Monica’s property.” We talked a bit more and agreed to touch base on Thursday.

The next thing I knew, Sherri was waking me up asking me what exit to take in College Station. I don’t remember falling asleep. Sherri had already begun trying to make arrangements for me to see a doctor in College Station about my feet. I assured her that I would be OK. When we arrived at our son’s home in College Station, getting out of the car and walking into the house was rough. Our daughter-in-law had a great lunch prepared and called our son to come home from work to eat. The next thing I knew, he was standing over me waking me up for lunch. I don’t remember falling asleep. After lunch, I began catching up on email and my journals for days 3 through 6. Sherri began looking for a podiatrist who would see us today. She found one and we headed over there right away. God had to be intervening on our behalf. When we arrived, we were the only ones in the waiting room. We filled out the forms and I was called to an exam room within minutes. The doctor came in within minutes and proceeded to lance the remaining blisters and remove all of the dead skin. On the back of my right heel, he found an ulcer under the dead skin. There was no skin left here. He asked if I wanted to see it. I said, “No, thanks.” But he insisted that I see what it looked like. Now, I don’t have good looking feet, and this was not pretty. He kept insisting that I needed to get good shoes and I kept trying to explain that I had good shoes, but that the unusual stress of the first day got this ball rolling and each subsequent day simply added to it. Anyway, he was very helpful and sympathetic to the need to continue on the journey as soon and as safely and prudently as possible. He made several recommendations and showed me how to protect the ulcerated wound. Free samples, a prescription, a pain relieving lotion, and another admonition to get some more shoes - we thanked everybody and headed out the door. My feet really hurt worse now than at any point in the journey. They were swollen considerably. What I needed was to soak them in cold water and prop them up. Unfortunately, I had just enough time to go home, change, and go to the church to have dinner with the campus minister and discuss our presentation to the Aggies for Christ gathering later that night. Kelly Davidson is a neat guy. It was great spending time with him and getting to know him. My presentation fit very neatly into his lesson for the night. Everything went very smoothly and we answered many questions after the presentation and got to reconnect with several AFC students we had not seen in a while.

After the meeting that is held in a multipurpose room, the basketball goals were lowered and the balls came out. We made an interesting discovery: Walker loves basketball. Although not very good, he is an aggressive and relentless rebounder. He quickly became the star of the court as he chased down balls and tried to grab them in his mouth. Many of the guys started playing with him soccer-style. It appeared that he might actually eventually be able to sink his teeth into a ball. My feet were hurting terribly with each step and I really wanted to get home and prop them up. It was all I could do to try to walk somewhat normally in front of this crowd. At home, I got shoes, socks and dressings off and soaked my feet in cold water. Then, I propped them up hoping the swelling would subside. One day off and then twenty more miles, will I be able to do it. Does God want me to trust him to empower me to walk despite these injuries, or is He trying to slow me down for some other reason. The older I get, the more I think that blessings are to be found on both sides of sticky issues. Like, it’s not so much that there is a definite right or wrong answer, but that we are willing to wrestle with the question, seeking a godly perspective rather than a self-serving point of view. Perhaps the answer will be revealed tomorrow. One thing is for certain, there are so many factors in play in my decision to walk or wait on Friday, that a clear answer, if it comes at all, will have to come from God.