In the morning I awoke to a missing sock. I’d put my shoes and socks by the couch and one was gone. I spotted it across the floor and figured the dog, Tuffy, had gotten to it, but it was fine. I showered and had some coffee for a bit then went to put my shoes on and discovered exactly what Tuffy had done. In his excitement for new toys he’d skinned the duct tape off my shoes then dug out the insoles and chewed them up to oblivion. I didn’t even find the second one, the first one to ribbons was good enough. With my flat feet this caused great vexation for me, and almost had me resign my feet to sandals, or barefoot walking, until St. Francis. Thinking for a few minutes though I tried the shoes on without them and it wasn’t the height of comfort but it would be better than the alternatives.
I thanked Garold and his wife for letting me stay over and all then off I went by about noon picking up duct tape at the local hardware store. Leaving town the land had gotten so flat I could see the next town I was going to stop in at, Bird City, nine miles away. I decided to just go straight there with no breaks and get something to eat.
By 3 I arrived at the Blue Bird Café. I asked one lady where it was since I’d heard about it in Atwood and seen a sign for it on the road and it happened to be the one lady who ran the other diner in town on the highway. I felt a little bad about hat, but the café did end up to be nice so I didn’t feel that bad. Some ladies doing lunch there talked to me a little while, and one ordered me a bowl of popcorn.
I left there a little after four and slowly made my way toward Wheeler and St. Francis. One guy stopped and offered me a job for the day at $10/hr which I would have taken him up on had he been in St. Francis, but I wanted to get more miles in so I turned him down and kept going. Going through Wheeler it was about 8pm and there was a little diner on the side of the road. I saw part of the sign which read fine dining so I started to think maybe it was a place too nice for me. Then I read the rest above it which was Captain Cook’s fine dining. I stopped in just as the Open light went off, so I used the bathroom and went on down the road.
Being five miles from St. Francis with the sun setting I then had to make the decision of whether to camp and hit it the next day, or just walk a bit at night and camp in the roadside park. I opted for the latter and did a bit of night time walking. It was cooler under planetary shade using the earth as my parasol, but I can’t say that I liked it much. You couldn’t see as much, it was a bit nerve racking when cars would pass and I’d have to step off the road on to the grass unable to see if there were holes or bumps I’d be stepping on. Not for me. I got in a little after ten and stopped at a gas station for coffee and directions. There were two kids there driving from Denver to Concordia, KS who I talked with a bit then found out where the park was and made for that. My feet were dying by the time I got there so I set up and went to bed.