This is one of those blogs that I've been wanting to write for weeks...and now that we're here, I really don't have too much to say. It was an amazing day -- from the early morning caravan craziness, trying to stay behind Joe Spado and having Kathleen tell me, "I don't want to make you nervous..but you need to drive like you're in the city."
Which meant...get your inner demon on and drive like you've got an angel on your shoulder. She's great at it, Miss New Yorker...Me? Not so much. But we got there and after some spinning around found a parking spot by Malcolm X, where we would be starting from and making the mile or so jaunt down to the White House.

I think at this point I'm just gonna run a bunch of pictures and comment on them. It was a really, really long day. Part exciting, part lounging...and I think a little like...okay, we're doing this and tomorrow we start saying our goodbyes. It was kind of a lot to wrap around.


Let's do this.

Part of the excitement of this day for me was the hour or so before we started walking...as people were gathering and greeting one another and kind of getting there scene together to begin the walk. Here is Margaret arranging a shawl she had gifted to Jen. It was beautiful and looked lovely on her. Margaret joined us way back in Bakersfield and had the unenviable task of being in charge of finances for awhile. For the last month or so of the walk she was able to just participate as a walker and support person for both walkers and runners. I enjoyed getting "saged" by her at the end of our walking day. Really a very sweet woman who I hope to see again down the road.



Wayne-O, Wayne-O - a Grass Dancer, shown here in full regalia. Beautiful.



Here are our monks - I have a photo of them in color as well, but...as you will see...I do like my sepia tones. It's hard to imagine what this walk would've been like without the chanting prayers of the Nipponzan Myohoji order - I did appreciate their dedication to this walk, even though I know it was difficult at times for them. I will say, with all respect, that I will not miss being woken up at 4:00 by their drums however. Lovely to walk to, not so lovely in the pre-dawn hours.



Oh, sweet Taka - this little 4 year old carried his own staff on this day. Mario's little boy was a joy to many on this walk. I would love to run into him in ten years and see how much he remembered of this experience. I don't think he will ever be far from my mind or heart.



Dear Joe Spado -- I know I have a better picture of him carrying his POW flag somewhere among my 8 GB of pictures, but I was having a hard time finding it in time for this post. I was soooo happy that Joe and Barb were able to come back and join us for these final days and that he was able to walk his flag into D.C. I know it was something he needed to do in his heart...and I will try over the next couple of days to find that picture!



And speaking of flags...here's Roman with his "Flag in Distress" - this symbolism is tough for a lot of people, including myself. I think because I know so many veterans, there is something that calls up disrespect for all those who have served under this flag, when I see it hanging upside down like that. I know Roman and know that his intention is far from that, that he believes that this country is in serious trouble and that is why he is carrying it in that fashion. Roman brought and carried the Earth flag for pretty much this entire walk and he is own of the only people that has been a part of this since Alcatraz. I know his heart is passionate for the healing of this planet. Hey Joe..if you are reading this...how do you feel about the symbolism of the inverted flag?



If I had to pick 5 of my favorite pictures from this walk, this would be one of them.



And there he is - Raymond Muckuk, carrying the Eagle Staff - as is only right. Patrick said often that if Ray didn't get to carry this staff into Washington that he would refuse to walk. Ray is also one of the only people to walk the entire distance, he was also a runner. He is Ojibwa, "100%," he would say and carried himself so well throughout this entire experience. Ray was one of those men who I could talk to on a spiritual level...not because I was so grounded in that way, but because he was. He was serious about "bringing the message" to Washington and carrying it honorably. I learned a tremendous amount about prayer and sacrifice and honoring one's own intention through Raymond. It was a true gift to get to know him. Thank you so much.




And so here we go! This is Ray, with Dennis in front of him, as we walked out of Malcolm X park and onto 16th Avenue that would take us to the White House. Pretty fun moment.



Fun little photo of Patrick and Jen on their way. I was so happy that Patrick decided to join us for this final walk. He had taken a couple of days off to visit a friend in Fredricksburg and just get away from everything. It would have been truly disheartening not to have him with us, seeing that he too, had started with us in Alcatraz and was a dear part of our family.



Here's Kathleen, Momma and sister Susannah.



Two of our lovely Japanese walkers; that's Gen on the right, who was so sweet and fun...and I'm sorry not to remember this young man's name...he came back towards the end and I never got it right.



Shun...one of my favorite people ever...Wako, who was really happy to end her time as a walker and Ammon who I'm glad was able to join us for the final ceremony.



Here we are arriving at the White House....



Here's a photo I've been dreaming about for awhile...



After we circled up and offered prayers, we had some time to kill before we moved on to the Capitol Building. One of the tiny logisitical problems we had was that Jen's mom, Barb Spado, Susannah and Kathleen all had their vehicles parked back at Malcolm X Park, slowly running into overtime on their two hour meters. As they were discussing the best way to get back quickly, Kathleen noticed this man sitting in an unmarked, but obviously, police-type vehicle outside on the street in front of the White House.
"Hey...would you give us a ride up to Malcolm X Park?" She said, kind of jokingly...kind of not.."We're with the walk and our cars are gonna get towed if we don't get up there fast."

The guy thought about it for a second and said, "yeah, sure...let me just wait for the other detective to get here and I'll run you up there."

No way. No way! I don't know how she does it. Truly gifted. Here they are in said vehicle.




We hung out at the White House for quite some time...kind of just doing this...



Oh...but then this opportunity came up. It seems Darryl Hannah was interested in our final walk; I never did really figure out why. She was taking a bunch of video footage along the way. It turns out Patrick is quite the fan of Ms. Hannah, particularly in her Kill Bill role of late. She was incredibly gracious about taking photos with everyone, including one with Patrick. She hung out with us for the day, and after everyone mellowed out a little, she just kind of cruised in and out of our crowd without any hubub - she seemed very down to earth and quite sweet.




After this portion of our day, we started walking towards the capitol building. Here's Addie (booger too), Jen and Kathleen.



After arriving at a park near the capitol, there was much more hanging out. Senator Congerss came and accepted our manifesto. Unfortunately for me, there was a media crowd and I wasn't able to get close enough to take any pictures. That's okay...here's some pictures of walkers...as it should be anyhow.


Beautiful Aiko, eating beautiful chocolate chip cookies that Susannah had made and brought from New York for us.



Here's Sunshine...looking kind of pensive. I ran into him later in the day and he told me he finally felt "done" and ready to leave. I knew that feeling.



The AIM patch on a well-worn jacket...



Our dear Elder, Henry was able to return to us for our final ceremonies. So good to see him again. What a beautiful man; I appreciated his words many times along the course of this journey.



Mucaw and Patrick displaying the Longest Walk 2 "gang" sign - an L, a W and a 2 -- we were joking that it was kind of like 'rock-paper-scissors' - it hurt our heads to try to figure out what beat what. I have a fun little video of Patrick doing this; when I get back home and on my own computer I'm gonna figure out how to upload all the video I have.



We were off again...final walk down to the Washington Monument. At this point it was about 5:00 and many of us were super tired. Here's Amy though..going again, carrying the LW 2 lead banner...



Wow, don't these folks look great?



We left the Capitol and made our way down to the final spot...





Kathleen and I ended up driving this distance, with her sister and mom behind us. It was kind of a nutso drive and deserves it's own blog, which I'll do here in a moment. Here's where we...and the walk ended up though for a final circle. We were finished, completed. We would be getting together for a concert the next day, but as for walking...unbelievably...we were through.

Also had to say farewell to Patrick at this spot, who wouldn't be coming back to camp with us and was flying out in the morning. It was short and sweet, quick hug there on the grass with the monument in the background. Love you Patrick...look forward to seeing you in Portland in November my friend!