Image courtesy of MARK JOHNSTON/Daily Herald
Rick Hammersley walks along Riverbottom Road in Spanish Fork as he crosses Utah for Rick Walks America on Tuesday, May 27, 2008.

I resumed my walk on US 6 again this morning. We had left US 6 just North of Delta after picking it up in Ely, NV and being on it for 150 miles or so. I took some shortcuts North of Delta that saved me about a day of walking.

I walked all day in the mountains. The trend is downhill I think, but I had to do a lot of uphill climbing in some spots. When I stopped today I was on about a 4 mile gradual uphill walk, and when I pick it back up on Friday, I’ll still be walking uphill.

Chris got here today and Valda & I went out to dinner with him. Chris & I then went to the new Indiana Jones movie and Valda came back to the RV and did laundry. We are taking tomorrow off and staying in the Provo area. On Friday, we will head toward Duchesne, UT. I am about 20 miles out-of-town and if I walk tomorrow, it will add several more miles to our drive back to Provo.

I had good weather today and enjoyed some great scenery. I’m not sure when the mountains end, but the map looks like I’ll be in them for a while. And then just when I get out of them and hopefully have some flat areas to walk, the Rocky Mountains will be right in my path. Oh joy. 😱  Of course, once I’m over the Rockies, then it’s 1800 miles of flat all the way to eastern Ohio.

Miles Covered: 13
Total Miles: 879
Money Found: $1.20
Total Found: $25.05

We finally made it to Spanish Fork, just below Provo, UT. The mountains are all around us and most of them have snow all over the peaks. Tomorrow, I start walking through them on US 6, heading southeast toward Price. Eventually I’ll connect with US 191 and go northeast and connect to US 40 and then I’ll have Colorado firmly in my sights. I can’t believe I’m just about half way through Utah. 🤗

I had another newspaper interview today with Janice of the Provo Daily Herald. She spent about an hour and a half with me and then Mark, the photographer walked about a mile with me, snapping pictures and shooting video. Many thanks to them.

Chris arrives tomorrow to resume filming me walking. I would think that would get boring for him, but I guess not.😏  Hopefully the end product won’t be just of me walking and nothing else. I guess if I keep losing weight that by the end of the movie I might not be in the picture. 😝

Miles Covered: 17.75
Total Miles: 866
Money Found: $1.45
Total Found: $23.85

Well, like the song says, rainy days and Mondays always get me down. We woke up to rain and actually it rained most of the night. We decided that this day would best be spent doing errands and some sightseeing in Salt Lake City. So that’s what we did. We got the RV dumped and took on water in Spring Lake and I had to buy some new cargo pants (smaller size) at Wal-Mart. It’s the first time in decades that my pants size went down. Hopefully in another month I’ll have to buy some smaller ones. Wouldn’t that be a hoot?

We drove the 50-some miles to SLC and took a self guided tour of that city. It is just like all other modern American cities except it has one fantastic mountain range as a backdrop. It is actually quite clean and we were impressed. The whole SL valley from north of SLC to way south of Provo is very populated and busy. It is quite a contrast from the lonely desert I’ve been used to. We then drove out to the lake itself and was quite surprised at just how far out it has receded from its original shoreline. We stopped at a marina off I-80 and the water had to be a good half-to-three-quarter miles away from the marina. All there was between the marina and the water was mud flats with splotches of water here and there. Interesting.

We visited Jim & Jackie B, old Southern Cross friends I worked with in Texas and Georgia. I hadn’t seen them in a couple of years and when I found out they were working in SLC, we just had to get together for a hamburger. Thanks to them for their donation to Gateway. It is much appreciated.

I found out this morning that the daughter of a classmate of mine from FCHS passed away last Saturday of bone cancer. She left two small children. This is another reason I’m walking to raise money for research in this area. It is a job that probably will never be finished.

By the way, I got an email from Vincent Yu, the cyclist from Taiwan who is riding around the world. He is in Arapahoe, NE and about halfway across the country. He gave me a link to his website and I will put it in the blog later. It has been translated by some of his friends into English, and is a little sketchy, but you’ll be able to figure it out. Hopefully the weather will clear tomorrow and the walk will resume. Till then.

We are now just a day away from Spanish Fork, UT. This is where we will hook up with Chris and spend a couple of days. We have friends working in Salt Lake and hope to see them while here also. On Thursday, I will be speaking at a Xocai meeting in Provo and get to meet some of the folks I’ve become associated with. It will be nice to have a short break before heading on East and toward the dreaded Rocky Mountains. 😱

Today was a pretty decent day, although it sprinkled a time or two. No downpours and no snow, so that’s a plus. Met Kenny B. biking from Providence, RI to Anchorage, AK. He left on Christmas day last year and will winter in Anchorage. Next summer he will bike back to Providence. He said it will be 30,000 miles total. These guys I meet and their bicycles – they really put me to shame.

I found out today that we have an article in the June (2008) issue of Highways Magazine, a magazine for the RV industry and RV’ers from all over. We haven’t seen the article yet, but you RV’ers out there, let us know what you think. Many thanks to Good Sam and Highways Magazine for the article.

Also, many thanks to David B for your donation to Gateway For Cancer Research. It is much appreciated.

Valda & I are currently sitting in a church parking lot on a hill in Santaquin, UT. Off to the north I can see the lights of Provo. It is sure nice for a change to be in an area where people out number the tumbleweeds. 😋

Miles covered: 19.25
Total Miles: 848.25
Money Found: $0.57
Total Found: $22.40

Well, we’ve made it to Nephi and I can honestly say that I’m just tickled pink about it. The road over from Lynndyl was a decent road, but the traffic on it was horrendous. First there were cement carriers to and from a cement plant and then today there were all the weekend warriors heading to the hills with their ATV’s behind their RV’s. Man was the road crowded.

We went through the little burg of Leamington, UT and met the post master, Eva Neilsen. She is married to the mayor and gave Valda a good video interview and a history of the small town. Many thanks to her and her son Kade.

We had snow/rain/sleet/hail yesterday evening and in fact it didn’t stop doing something outside until up into the night. This morning though, it was nice and clear and after walking two hours, it was overcast as could be. It didn’t do anything though until after dinner and it has been raining for the last couple of hours.

Tomorrow we head for Payson and then Spanish Fork. Hope to be there by Tuesday. Also, our son Chris is flying in on Wednesday PM and will be with us a few days. I hope he recognizes us.

Personal to Mary K of Miami (and anyone else who was wondering): No, when I walk in the cold and rain, I do not wear an 8′ apron and then switch to a 1′ apron. I’m referring to the side of the road, more commonly called the shoulder 😀  The road from Delta started out with an 8′ apron (shoulder) on both sides of the road and then it narrowed down to 1′ on both sides. It was just too narrow to walk in the rain. I stopped wearing aprons when I got out of the Army 😝

Miles covered: 17.5
Total Miles: 829
Money Found: $0.26
Total Found: $21.83

Miles Covered: 19
Total Miles: 811.5
Money Found: $0.35
Total Found: $21.57

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. We woke up to rain this morning and it continued throughout the morning. If we wanted to walk, it meant rain-gear and getting on with it. I walked. It wasn’t too bad. I had an eight foot apron and the rain was more of an occasional sprinkle than anything else. We got through 9 miles and I was pretty happy about how the morning went. Then we took a lunch break and the skies opened up. The afternoon walk was a washout. I lost the eight foot apron and between that and the hard rain, it was decided it was too dangerous to walk. So, l took a nap. 😴

Grainy photo of Utah Mountains after the Rainstorm.

Now, when I was walking in the morning, I knew there were mountains to my East, but I couldn’t see them due to the clouds. This picture is what I woke up to after the rain stopped. It’s hard to believe they were nowhere to be seen earlier.

I did go out after dinner and walked another 3.5 miles, so the day wasn’t a total loss. The terrain is flat and a lot of scrub bushes, but there is a lot of green around. We got to Lynndyl and head toward Nephi tomorrow. The weather was cold, rainy and with a moderate wind. Tomorrow promises to be better.

Miles Covered: 12.5
Total Miles: 792.5
Money Found: $0.02
Total Found: $21.22

Well, we finally made it through Delta, UT. It has only taken us three days to get through this area,  including a day off, some RV and a spat of nasty, cold, rainy weather. Other than all that, things went smoothly. This morning at 5:00 AM we were awakened by rain, and not real comfortable where we were parked (we didn’t want to get stuck in mud), so we moved into town, about ten miles away. So, this morning we got a bit of a late start, but it all ended well. The day was raw, about 40 degrees cooler than yesterday, and quite windy, but it didn’t rain. And, for a while anyway, the desert is behind us!

For all of you who have inquired, we are indeed ahead of the schedule posted on the Google Map section on this website. I’d like to say this is due to outstandingly fast walking, 😉 but in reality, I probably made some sort of mistake when I did the files for the satellite images. Whatever the reason, we are ahead of the posted schedule, so that’s good and the cushion will come in handy when I hit the Rockies.

Tomorrow we head to Lynndyl, then there is a route change. We are taking UT 132 to Nephi instead of US 6 to Eureka. We will end up at the same place, but save about ten miles of walking. I’m for that! 😀

Miles Covered: 17
Total Miles: 780
Money Found: $0.69
Total Found: $21.20

I want to tell you about our last couple of days. After seven days of walking in the desert, we took yesterday off and spent it in Delta, UT. We drove around the town yesterday morning just getting our bearings. We passed the library and came to a large dip in the road at an intersection. I was driving and slowly made my way into the dip and out onto the other road. The back scraped and I cringed. I stopped and looked under the rear of the RV, but everything looked okay to me. So we proceeded on. We finally got to the campground and when I started to hook up our sewer hose, l discovered the black water tank valve is what had scraped the road and was bent over all out of shape. It’s plastic verses asphalt and the asphalt won. So, there we were, a tank full of black water (commode) and no way to drain it. The gray valve (sink/shower) was okay.

We went ahead and hooked up and Valda was looking through a local paper she had picked up a restaurant. Lake Philgas had an ad in the paper and it mentioned RV service and parts. We called and the owner Matt Loo walked me through what I needed to do to get the tank drained. He said he had the replacement part and if we got the tank drained and brought the RV into his shop the next morning, he could probably fix it in about an hour. Okay.

So, with a few minutes of nasty sawing and plier twisting, I got the tank drained without much junk getting on me. You can imagine being on your back, looking up at a broken valve, pulling on that valve with a pair of pliers and hoping everything works like it’s supposed to! 💩

To make a long story short, we got to the shop this morning and Matt proceeded to get on his back and take the old broken valve out. Now, it’s one thing to be working on your own sewer and sewer junk, but to work on someone else’s takes a pretty strong character. Anyway, Matt tackled the job with a smile and within the hour he had it all back together and working. Now, this is where it got interesting. He went back into his shop and picked up the old valve and put it into a plastic bag. Out he came and said he’d take care of that and that we were good to go. Valda had the checkbook in her hand and started into the shop, but Matt told her there was no charge. No charge?! What do you mean Matt?

He wouldn’t take a penny for what he did. The part must have been twenty or thirty dollars alone,  plus an hour playing around in someone else’s sewer. He said it was the least he could do considering what I was doing. It humbled me. Matt Loe, you are quite a guy. Best to you always, my friend!

Thanks to Antelope Valley RV Park in Delta for comping us a night. It is much appreciated!

Personal to Nic: Great job on hitting a home run in your first game of the season!

The rest of the day went just fine. We got back out to the starting place and got in 17 miles on a windy day. Tomorrow we go through Delta and head toward Lynndyl.

Miles Covered: 17
Total Miles: 760.75
Corrected Mileage: +2.25
Corrected Total: 763
Money Found: $0.02
Total Found: $20.51

We are currently in Delta, UT and I’m taking a day off. It has been nice to just sit and work on the computer. I think we are going to be in a more populated area for the next several weeks and hopefully our communications will improve. It isn’t fun going through an area without a phone. I see signs on the highway all the time telling you to call 911 in case of an emergency and l wonder where do I get the two tin cans and string 😮

Something I’ve been reluctant to talk about much is my weight loss. I currently have lost 23 pounds since started the Walk. I know a lot of it has to do with walking 740+ miles, but I also know that since l started eating the great Xocai Healthy Chocolate the weight is coming off in droves, and I feel great, my blood sugar (19-year diabetic) is right where it should be and my blood pressure is the best it’s been in years. ls it all because of the chocolate? Probably not, but Valda has lost 5 pounds and she isn’t walking like l am. Also, I love chocolate and this satisfies my craving for it.