Field Trip

Sometimes there are days when I just don’t want to walk. They’ve been rare over these last months, but they do exist. I could not be feeling well, I could be in the funks, or I could be just plain tired. Sometimes I walk through it anyway…which is usually the best thing to do and by the time I hit the road I’m generally okay.

But then there are those moments when I just want to play hooky, call in sick, check out.
I did this the other day with Addie. I can’t even remember now what the reason was. Oh, now I do.

So; I was walking back to camp from a day in Asheville, NC. It had been a good day away – a rest day – and I had spent time in the library and in bookstores. Had lunch with a fellow walker, hung out at a coffeeshop and wrote a letter and a couple of postcards.
It was a three-mile walk back to camp. The weather was pleasant, it was early evening and I was grooving along to the iPOD happy as a clam. And then I hear this,

“Nikki-san! Nikki-san!”

Oh no.

I look over and see Shegecko waving frantically at me by the side of the road.

“No, no!” I say, “I’m good. Walking back. No ride.”

“No, please come..” she tells me.

Dammit.

I walk over to this little blue car that I didn’t recognize, and notice Jun-san is driving it.
Yeah. Jun-san. Sixty year old CRAZY woman, behind the wheel of the car.

“Jun-san! What are you doing driving?”

”No, I drive. Drive long time.”

“Okay. Right. What do you need?”

”Nikki-san. You come to friend’s house and use computer to help with route. Tomorrow we have no route. Need you to use computer.”

Dammit!

You can’t say no to a request like that. I really wanted to. I was so happy in that moment and I was wanting to get back to camp, pack up for the next day and go to sleep. Instead I get brought into Jun-san madness world. I did it for the walkers really. But I will say that my life was deeply at risk getting into the car with her driving. Insane driver. Insane in the driving-20-in-a-45-zone kind of crazy.

I’m not even gonna go into the entire farce that went on there. I walk in, there are maps everywhere – the phone is ringing off the hook and I have to talk to these people from other states and cities to discuss routing and Japanese nuns needing rides from the airport, and something about a festival somewhere down the road at a temple. And then people are stopping by this house and throwing wrenches, no friggin toolboxes into routes we had just discussed. I recall hearing Kid Valence screaming from the other end of the phone when we had to call him back a third time to change the running miles and location (not at me…I could just hear it, it was that loud). I did get a shower there though. That was nice.

It was dark when I got back. The route seemed deeply…confusing. And I think I remember going to bed knowing I wasn’t going to walk the next day. No way.

So I talked to Addie who had to drive to take care of Little Booger, and asked if I could ride along with her for the day. It was cool with her, so I did.



And we went thrift store shopping, which was awesome. Found this little place outside Asheville called, “whatever,” and it was filled with great stuff. Here are some photos of said stuff.

The lady at the counter was really sweet. We told her about the walk and she got all excited, said her daughter-in-law had just saw us on the news and mentioned it. People usually react positively to our adventure. They think it’s cool or crazy one of the two. I only recall one truly bad reaction from a guy in….I can’t remember the place…or the state for that matter…it was the place at that truck stop where we got to order anything we wanted and didn’t have to pay for it…and there were showers there too….

Kathleen was telling this guy about what we were doing and she was talking about native issues and the like and the guy interrupted her and said,

“Well, as long as it doesn’t have anything to do with the environment.”

”Oh, but it does,” she said…and her voice had just a smattering of edge to it.

“Yeah? Well, there’s nothing wrong with the environment,” he said…sitting there with a trucker hat and one of those short sleeve plaid shirts. He was probably in his sixties. Let’s say he was smoking too. You could smoke in that place. (Where was that…we were camped in an industrial park…it was somewhere in Oklahoma I think…it doesn’t matter.)

At this point Kathleen had wandered over away from the dining area and was talking at him from behind his back. She was looking over the cold drinks…or the snack food or something when she said;

“Oh…I beg to differ that there’s nothing wrong with the environment.” And that time, there was definitely an edge.

She looked at me and said, “Let’s get out of here.”
I could’ve finished that sentence with, “Before someone gets hurt.”



But that was one of the few negatives we’ve had to deal with along the way. It’s mostly been this sort of fun, excited reaction…people are kind of amazed that anyone would walk that far. “Hell, I don’t like walking to the curb to get my paper in the morning,” one guy said to me. There’s a slight rock star feeling to the whole thing at times, but, you know, we aren’t rock stars and so the feeling is fleeting. Very.



Where was I going with this story?

Oh yeah, the field trip. The thrift store. It was one of many we visited that day.

But, it wasn’t a complete hooky day. We did go to Walmart and scored some water donations and tried to get a couple of shoe donations for Paco, who just joined us, but didn’t really have any decent shoes. So…we didn’t show up at the next camp completely empty handed from our day off.



And it was fun. I remember laughing, which was nice. I didn’t know Addie very well, so it was fun to get to talk with her. The night before, after the whole Jun-san abduction, she and Kid and I had a really nice talk down by the river, waiting for the full moon to come up. It was one of those sweet little moments that just felt like everything was going to be alright.

And that’s how the field trip day went too. It just felt comfortable and fun. And needed.
And that was that day.