I did NOT awaken at the crack of dawn today. Maikey, last night’s host, had invited me to sleep in, and I quickly took him up on his warm invitation to do just that.
My body was sore, and hungry for the extra rest. The long miles had been taking their toll, especially as I had to wait till Day 1 of the Walk to get my body back in physical shape again, after that hobbling foot injury in late August. My initial goal had been to make it to Cottage Grove today, well over 20 miles away from where I had awoken (sore) in Eugene. Couchsurfing host Adam Tull and family were awaiting my arrival. Today was fascinating on a number of counts: Adam Tull gave me a call before I left in the morning, and since he was in the area on his dental office service business, he volunteered to drop by to pick up my backpack for me. How could I resist this better-than-sliced-bread offer?!? I met Adam, a very nice guy, at the beginning of my day, as he happily pulled all the weight off my shoulders.

Just as I was ready to leave Maikey’s house, I received a phone call from Skip Potts, who would be arriving to Eugene in about an hour. Skip had just finished his Boston-Santa Monica walk across America, for educational equality, a few months earlier. I’d found him on the internet, and called to ask him a variety of questions about what it’s like to walk across America, and what to expect. He gave countless valuable answers to an hour’s worth of detailed questions from me. He’d told me that he was in the process of filming a documentary about people who do long, interstate walks, and now that I was walking across America too, he was catching up to me today, to film my story. I told Skip what my route would be for the day, and he told me he’d find me amid my miles. Skip caught up with me outside a private school, and he invited me to simply go over and film there. We started filming, and then were promptly cited by school security. After explaining himself to the administrative staff, Skip and Bryan, a friend who was filming with him, received permission to film in a part of the school where there would be no risk of kids being caught on camera. We enjoyed a great interview session, and not only was I sharing with Skip the tremendous impression of how wonderfully helpful people familiar and new, including total strangers, can be, I also told him that only two weeks into the Walk, I was already feeling like it was going faster than I might wish– that I was already finding that I’d like the idea of spending more time with the people I was meeting, in their home environments. “Don’t get caught up with dates and deadlines,” Skip advised me, explaining that the true beauty of walking across America came with the many wonderful experiences I could allow myself time for on my way across the country. Though I was pretty molded into my mindset of crossing America in nine months, I did hear his words, and across the miles to come, I was to find these words to be sweet seeds scattered across my more-fertile-by-the-mile mind. Skip also offered me the wheeled cart he’d used to walk across America. I wasn’t ready to switch to a cart just yet though. I liked the flexibility the backpack gave me. Deep down, I think a big part of me also felt more “masculine” in a backpack too, regardless of whether or not I was ready to admit it. The cart seemed to bring something of a sissy image to my mind. (It would take quite some time and distance to break that cement slab of stubbornness.) He & Bryan gave me a hug and bid me farewell, as I proceeded forward on foot, and they quickly passed me with their Volvo wagon, stickers spelling “ADVENTURE NERD” prominently displayed across the rear windshield.

NEXT UP: HOLT INTERNATIONAL

Kourtni Rader, whom I’d met the previous day upon my arrival to Eugene, had invited me to visit and learn about Holt International Children’s Services. I was welcomed to meet a number of Holt staffers and be taught about the origins of the company, from Harry & Bertha Holt, who’d adopted eight Korean War orphans. For decades, Holt had been working to match children-in-need from Korea to ready-to-adopt parents here in the United States. Unbeknownst to me, friends of mine from back in elementary school, Paul & Tamara, had actually been adopted to the US via Holt. Impressively, Kourtni would later go on to begin her own organization for adoptees and unwed mothers in Korea. I look forward to catching up with her again in person, at some point after finishing the epic Walk.

Both arriving to and leaving Holt, I was walking a wonderful, creekside hike & bike trail which carved its way across Eugene. Though Adam Tull had carried my backpack forward, I kept my traffic safety vest and WALKING ACROSS AMERICA signs. Several locals asked me about the Walk as I made my way across town. I was even given a fresh veggie sandwich by a middle-aged man as I was approaching the Ducks football stadium, before turning the wrong way and losing about an hour, misguided (in these days before I had a smartphone .

By the end of the day, as night fell, I had walked my way across miles of city streets, hills, the University of Oregon and Lane Community College campuses to the north side of Goshen. I was ready to walk many more miles, when Adam called me and told me that for safety, he’d like to pick me up now, at the gas station I told him I was close to. He vowed to return me to the freeway-side Shell station the following morning, and even wanted to walk some of my miles with me the next day. Despite initially wanting to clock more miles for the day, I took him up on his offer, and the day ended at the gas station. Shortly before Adam arrived, a nice gentleman in an unusual wool hat saw my signs, asked me if I’d heard of Peace Pilgrim, who obviously seemed a very inspiration figure to him. Having spoken about Peace Pilgrim and her enormously enduring inspiration, before exchanging names, this nice man invited me home to spend the night with his family. I thanked him kindly as Adam was showing up. I really enjoyed meeting Adam and his sweet family for the first of multiple nights at the Tull House…