And we took our time. There wasn't really a big rush on this day..we didn't have very far to walk. We were rallying only about 3 miles from our final camp and from there we were joining up with the Northern Route for the first time to do our walk in together.
So we were a pretty lollygaggy bunch. Had plenty of time for tea and coffee in the morning, pack up slowly, let things dry out before we put them away - that in itself was quite the luxury. I had time to do some journal writing - and so around noon we headed out in our bazillion car caravan and were on our way to Greenbelt, Maryland.
I was on the bus with Amy - who seemed her normal, angry self -- it's a great quality in a bus driver really. Something was up with her that morning though..something was generally up with her, but on this morning she had me light a cigarette for her while she was driving...it's one of those things that's just not done...but it's a bad idea to argue with the bus driver so I did it.
The ride was fairly uneventful until we took a turn and were driving down this street and we saw Glen coming up the other direction towards us. Amy stops.
"What's up...is this the wrong way?"
"Yeah, there's no park down there.." Glen says.
"Greeeeaaat," Amy says, smoking.
"I'm gonna GPS it and let you know."
So the whole caravan...well..maybe 5 of the caravan start the process of turning around. We had been driving on this 4 lane freeway at about 90 miles an hour and lost pretty much everybody in the process. I get a text message from Kathleen:
"R we lost?"
"Yep." I text back.
So we all spill out in this posh little neighborhood, somebody jokes "I wonder how long it will take for someone to start washing and hanging up laundry?" We laugh about how perfect it is that we get lost on our last day. "The Longest Lost Walk," someone says.
Eventually we get it sorted out and make our way to this park. After about 20 minutes we see the caravan of the Northern Route pull in and we all circle up, line up and get ready to do this symbolic/celebratory march. We notice that Nathan hasn't arrived yet. We are not surprised. He calls Kathleen for directions...she can't help him.
We headed out, I noticed how big a group we were now that the Northern Route had joined us. There were also people that were slowly returning to us. We were getting shades of what D.C. would be like. Some of us mentioned that we - meaning the people that had been a part of this thing since the beginning - were going to get lost in all of this, that we should be prepared for all of that.
Personally, it didn't really bother me. I knew that the numbers were going to grow..and that was a good thing. I had already been witness to people showing up on the walk and talking to spectators like they had done the whole walk...it was kind of a "whatever" thing for me. I know I started from Alcatraz and that was fine with me.
We walked past this sign and it all started to become a little more real...that we were on the outskirts of D.C. It started to become a very cool feeling.
And then we started to make this turn into the park. This was to be our last base camp, our final home for the next 4 days while we did a series of this and that and completed our journey in D.C.
I walked in with Ray, Jen, Patrick and Kid. We were pretty quiet...I was pretty quiet. I was trying to figure out if I felt anything...and really, other than tired...nothing really emotional was taking place. I knew it wasn't just any other walking day...but I couldn't really make it anything else either.
So we made it into our camp. By the time we circled up there was some electricity there...I really just felt relieved and was looking forward to setting up that tent for the last time on this trip. We had to find our home.
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