We don’t have broadband tonight even though we were in Hayden, a town of 1500 people. But five weeks ago we had it in Austin, NV (pop. 300). Go figure!

Not much happened today. We covered a 17 miles and the terrain has gone from looking at the mountains in the distance to looking at them as I walk among them.

Miles Covered: 17
Total Miles: 1,149.25
Money Found: $0.28
Total Found: $36.67

Today it was back to work. We drove back out to the stopping point and I walked into Craig and through the town. Tomorrow we head out toward Hayden and Steamboat Springs. Then it’s the Rockies.

Valda took some pictures of antelope today and we have seen quite a few in the last few days. It is a real difference from CA, NV, and UT where we either didn’t see any wildlife to speak of or very little of it.

Personal to Mark N, Nancy W, Wendy S and Patricia W. Thanks so much for your recent contributions to Gateway For Cancer Research. It is much appreciated!

Miles Covered: 20.25
Total Miles: 1,132.25
Money Found: $0.80
Total Found: $36.30

Whittle the Wood Rendezvous in Craig, Colorado

It may not sound like much of a deal to some of you, but it was a big deal to Valda & me and I thoroughly enjoyed the day. We spent it at the city park where they had a Whittle the Wood Rendezvous. This is where they invite wood carvers from all over to come strut their stuff. Now, I’m not talking about some old geezer sitting on a log whittling a pipe or a toy soldier. These people mean business. They all have chain saws, sanders, grinders and what have you to shape tree trunks into the most spectacular wood carvings you’ve ever seen.

Peek-a-boo!

Now I know you all have seen great big carved grizzly bears in front of Cabelas or somewhere else – they can’t hold a candle to what these people do. In fact, they had some carvings from five or six years ago (they have carvings all over Craig) that were just like the grizzly and they can’t compare to the polished look and the imagination of the carvings they are doing today.

It was a nice day and we had a great time.

This was indeed a weird day. Nothing out of the ordinary happened to us, but we went into the little town of Maybell, CO and it was as if we went into The Twilight Zone. Now Maybell has maybe a hundred people living in and around it. It is so small that it isn’t even on the list of towns for Colorado in the atlas. But they do have a nice little park in the center of town and we checked it out yesterday and found we could service our RV there. So, I walked into the town center and Valda had gone ahead and entered the park and was waiting on me. She was parked next to Dave’s Road Kill Cafe, an enterprising little joint in the back of a trailer. Now, I’m not sure what kind of dining fare Dave has, but he offered us an elk steak sandwich “fresh off the grill” – yeah, probably off the grill of a Mack truck.🦄  🚚 🍔  We politely declined, saying it was much too early for our lunch.

Now, that isn’t the half of it. There was a dog show going on in this park. There were about twenty RV’s of different sizes and price tags parked in every conceivable spot. All the owners and spouses were out on the acre size lawn with their dogs going through their routines. There were tunnels, ramps, fences to jump and posts to run around for these dogs. It was quite an event. Someone said there were people there from all over the country and Canada too. Who would have believed it – an international dog show in Maybell, CO. Now this town has only one restaurant (besides Dave’s mobile one) and it is closed. The Sinclair gas station sells cold sub sandwiches and candy bars and coffee (something Dave didn’t have). So, Valda & I can’t quite understand why there is a dog show going on in this town where the only people watching it are the participants, their dogs, a judge or two, Dave, Valda & me.

Oh well, the people seemed to be having a good time, and the dogs sure did seem to enjoy what they were doing. The last time I saw Dave, he wasn’t looking at the dogs, he was inspecting the front end of his truck. 😜

We are in Craig on my version of a weekend. I am taking Saturday off and will resume walking on Sunday. Utah stats should be posted tomorrow.

Personal to Mark K, Dan M, and Laresa B. Thank you all for your recent contributions to Gateway For Cancer Research. It is much appreciated! And a thank you to Nic and Jude for informing me about the pictures of the animals. I should have known Nic would know what they were. We can’t wait to see you too.

Miles Covered: 16
Total Miles: 1,112
Money Found: $0.01
Total Found: $35.59

Well, another day has come and gone, another 20 miles is behind me and I am now 55 miles into Colorado. I caught my first glimpse of the Rockies today – they are still too far away to impress me, but I know that’ll change. The walk today was over undulating hills and I mean to tell you, I’m one tired puppy. It will stay that way until Maybell at least (Valda & I drove into Maybell this afternoon) and after that, who knows?

The particular area we are in right now was part of the largest wildfire in Colorado’s history. Back in 1988, this whole area burned. I don’t know what was here, scrub probably, but it has been planted in grass and reminds me of the prairies of North & South Dakota. There are mountains in the far distance and of course, those persistent up and down hills are all over the place.

We are going on to Craig and should be there Saturday. I’m taking Sunday off and if there is any hint of rain on Monday, I’m taking it off too.

Miles Covered: 20
Total Miles: 1,096
Money Found: $0.02
Total Found: $35.58

Well, so far in Western Colorado we’ve had rather unique scenery. The terrain has been mostly rolling hills with a lot of flat land in between. The flat part is full of scrub bushes and little else. This part of Colorado sort of reminds me of Southern Kentucky around Bowling Green or Southern Indiana along I-64 between Louisville and Evansville. I’ve seen no wildlife except for prairie dogs. They are everywhere. They sometimes dig their holes right next to the roadbed and they chirp at each other as I walk by. Their communication system works better than mine. 😝

We are in the little wide-spot of Elk Springs, CO. We are trying to get to Maybell where we’ve heard they have a little park where we can take on water and dump tanks. That’ll be nice. We’ll probably make Craig in about three days and then I’ll get a day off. These 20+ mile days are beginning to get to me.

The weather was good today, sunny mostly with a stiff breeze. No bugs. There hasn’t been much money to find in Colorado, and after the good luck I had in Utah, it was like someone turned off a switch.

Miles Covered: 20.75
Total Miles: 1,076
Money Found: $0.11
Total Found: $35.56

We left Utah this morning and at around 9:30, walked across the line into Colorado. Other than that official designation, there isn’t much difference between the two states so far.

Today was little different from yesterday. We did start the day out in bright sunshine and then in the PM the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up and it has started to turn cold. We are currently 3 miles east of Blue Mountain, CO and heading for Maybell. We should be there in a couple of days I hope.

Miles Covered: 20.25
Total Miles: 1,055.25
Money Found: $0.67
Total Found: $35.45

Today we left Vernal and got within 6 miles of the state line. The walk that I thought was flat was mostly uphill. 😦 Scrub all around after we got out of the irrigated fields of Vernal and mountains in the distance.

Miles Covered: 20.5
Total Miles: 1,035
Money Found: $0.89
Total Found: $34.78

Sometime around 9:00 AM this morning I walked my 1,000th mile. 🎉🎉🎉

Valda wasn’t there to toot the horn, the clouds didn’t part with dazzling sunshine, and as a matter of fact, I didn’t even give it a thought as I walked between miles 4 and 5 for the day. Anyway I wanted to share some stats associated with me walking 1,000 miles. When I was playing with the calculator, the enormity of these numbers just jumped out at me. No wonder I’m so tired. 😜

1,000 miles =5,280,000 feet = 2,112,000 thirty-inch steps = 1,056,000 steps for each foot = 63,360,000 total inches = 3 blisters. Now how’s that for some numbers – and I’m not a third of the way across yet!

I’ve found a total of $33.89 for the first thousand miles, and that averages out to not quite 3.4 cents a mile. The last couple of days here in Utah have helped boost that figure. 💰💰💰

Something really strange happened to me today. I was on a shortcut across the south end of Vernal, UT while Valda was restocking at Wal-Mart. I was walking through a somewhat rural area with houses on each side. I was walking up to a stop sign and a pick-up truck was turning toward me from the cross street. I wasn’t paying too much attention to it and, as it turned, the driver stopped and said to me, “I see you’re still walking.” It was Scott, the driver of the overturned car from five days ago. I couldn’t believe it. He pulled over and we chatted for a minute. He had to spend two days in jail and pay an $800.00 fine for not having a driver’s license. His car is totaled (see picture on blog titled ‘Excitement all around‘), but he is okay health-wise. I was really glad to see him, and I really think he was glad he ran into me too. 😀

We are at a campground in Vernal for the night. Tomorrow we start the last 25 miles or so to Colorado. We may not have broadband tomorrow. The picture below was taken in the Indian Canyon. If you look real hard, you’ll see me in this picture – walking of course!

Miles Covered: 19
Total Miles: 1,014.5
Money Found: $2.25
Total Found: $33.89