Needles to Avi Casino

Today we made up the 16 miles that we got shuttled yesterday from our parade site. It was a good, strong walk – there were about 40 of us. Our Elders were in meetings with the Fort Mohave Tribe so we were led by Bonita Leonard and Jun-san today. Bonita gave a good talk at the beginning of our day, thanking the walkers for being there and reminding us that we were on a spiritual journey and to remember why we were walking.
And Jun-san – well, she kept us moving.
The weather was pretty warm...but you know, we wouldn't have really known it 'cause it was pretty darn windy. I always have to give it to the staff carriers on these super windy days – I carried a flag for only about 3 miles and that was challenging – I can't imagine carrying the Eagle Staff in that kind of wind! We find our strength though, and whenever i find myself getting tired i look to the Eagle Staff and send prayers to the staff carriers and am able to take my power from them.
It also helped that we had an amazing lunch hosted by the Aha Macav Cultural Center – Indian Tacos! We all ate to our little hearts content and then fell out all over the grass and slumbered for a bit. We did wake though to hear Preservation Director Joe Scerato give us a presenation about the Fort Mohave Tribe; and were then treated to singing by Joe and Larry. Thanks to everyone for your gracious hospitality!
We did our last five miles in one shot – which is actually pretty rare for us, but we wanted to get the miles done and get home out of the wind. We had an escort from the tribal police who directed us to a nice little path down by the Colorado River – which was a lovely way to finish out our day.