Avi Casino to Bullhead City

What a lovely walk we all had today. After a good rest, the walkers, nearly 70 of us, took the back road out of town and through Nevada ending up at a camp by the Colorado here in Bullhead City. Lucky, lucky us!!
We had new Walkers arrive today as well as a young day walker named Jasper who came to visit his Aunt Kathleen Longwalker. Jasper is 11 and seemed to enjoy his time very much on the walk – completing all 14 plus miles with ease!
“It's fun!,” he said. “My favorite part of the walk is C.J.! C.J. of course is our 4-legged who travels on the road with us and Jasper got to walk with him for a little while this morning.
“I like being able to walk really far with a lot of people,” he continued, “I've never walked this far before. Sometimes my family goes to Chinatown in San Francisco and we walk a lot then, but I've never walked 14 miles at a time before.” He also was able to get his cast signed by Larry Bringinggood and later by Dennis Banks which he thought was pretty cool.
Thank for joining us today Jasper an we hope to see you again down the road!
We also were visited again by Willy (Willy) Fragosa who joined our circle at our third break and let us know that he felt we were walking beautifully today, unified. At the end of the ay he had this to say:
“One of the things I love about walking is the possiblity of community – but not just any type – it's the possibility of community that's ancient. Just as our ancestors did so many years ago – all is one for a common goal, which is what we have here. The goal is no less than Mother Earth's Spirit – and it's not the human beings we have to pray for – it's the holistic creation for the 7th generation – we want them to smile and be happy for what we did today and what we are doing. We have to remember that whatever we do today we have to think about the 7th generation. And I want to end by saying to any children that may be reading this – that we may never get to meet you but we care about and love you. This is for you. Every step is a prayer.”
Thank you Willy Willy for putting today's walk into such loving intention.

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.

Entry to Needles

Wednesday, March 5th

We had a very short walk today because we had covered so many miles yesterday – but it was quite the two mile trek!
We left the city park campground (which was a good thing because we would've completely blown away if we had stayed any longer – the wind was epic!) and walked down to the Fort Mohave Indian Reservation Elementary School.
When we first arrived at our circle we were greeted by Tribal singer Larry who sang a few beautiful songs for us accompanied by young women dancers.
We continued our walk and were met by the local marching band (!!) before we had a grand circle and were introduced to the Fort Mohave Tribal Chairman Timothy Williams and Vice-Chair Shan Lewis. We felt so honored, the reception was incredibly warm.
Dennis said a few words and then we all gathered to sing the Longest Walk 2 song and the American Indian Movement song followed by a dance by our very own Wayne!
Short walk – big day!

tehachapi to lone fir

Sunday – March 2nd

Today was.....interesting. We got up very early in the morning, had breakfast and got cleaned up and out of the Methodist Church in plenty of time for them to get ready for services. We also had a lot of miles to cover while we are trying to work our way the heck out of California as quickly as possible. This means our runners were put to the test and had to cover nearly 90 miles between the 6-8 of them. Bless those runners!!
Us walkers, meanwhile were shuttled in busses, vans and cars those 80 plus miles so we could pick up the remaining miles. I've heard that we walked 18 miles. Then I heard it was 21 plus. Then someone told me it was really closer to 30. I'm gonna go with 21 plus – 'cause it felt like that – we were out there for a long time putting the miles down with nearly 50 walkers. We finished strong though – cruising right into the Lone Wolf RV Park at right about 5:00. We got a late start because of the drive, so we didn't hit the pavement until 10:00 – but we got 'er done.
There are two things I remember the most about this walk. One of them was the constant wind that challenged all of the walkers especially our staff carriers!). The other thing was the wind. It was windy. (It was also really tough on our runners). So, yeah, it was blustery – not too cold really – but it was coming across the desert floor and whipping up a decent scene for everyone. So – that was what we had to contend with.
There was a fun little moment – we were walking through the city and came by a mall signboard that was showing all of the featured shops. One of the signs simply said “SUSHI” in big block letters an caight the attention of Jun-san. She kept pointing at the sign, smiling and nodding her head. We were waiting for the light to change, and when it did she started banging the drum and walking towards the direction of the mall. She came back – but she seemed a little reluctant.
We arrived at the RV Park to yet more wonderful hospitality. An amazing meal served out and hot showers available. Folks turned in early.

Here's what Walker Maggie had to say about yesterday's walk:
I woke up around 4am and wished I could just turn the heater on and sleep in but I crawled out of my tent and meditated with the buddhist monks. At the morning circle we were honored to have Morning Star and her family back with us! We hastily loaded our vans and caravaned out of the Sierras towards Joshua Tree. The wind was STRONG today and while we were on the hwy I watched as wind blew a pot off the top of our van. It was some kind of like a giant wok and it looked to me like a big metal basket. It landed right side up and we were able to stop our vecheles before hitting it. We all pulled over and tied down out gear. At the rest stop later the win was blowing so hard you had to fight it and cover your eyes or walk backwards. We were transported to Apple Valley and it wasn't quite what I expected. There weren't any apples. It was a really spotty place for pedistians. Roads starting and ending in random places signs saying “flooded” cars buzzing by trains, wind turbines, prisions, a water treatment plant, trains and then the choas of the actual town. Sometimes we didn't know where to walk and other times we had our own fancy sidewalk painted to mimic a road. We were excited to see a kid on the walk again Morning Star's daughter walked a bit of it with us. It was windy all day and we were pretty beat when we pulled into camp but we very blessed by the kindness of Rosemary and Ken our hosts at the Lone Wolf RV park. They fixed a fancy meal for us and wouldn't even let us help them clean up afterwards! It was such a hectict day that at the end up it I was just happy we were all still alive.

La Paz to Tehachapi

We walked out of La Paz right around 8am – filing past Cesar Chavez' gravesite on our way out – some offered tobacco and prayers as we went past. We were a little sorry to leave such a beautfiful place; the energy of La Paz and the generosity of the family and friends who lived there was great comfort to all of us. Paul Chavez told us that his father used La Paz to rejuvenate, relax and enjoy his family – resting for the work ahead. He said that he hoped we also felt energized after our stay to continue on with our work..they were all wonderfully sweet and we were honored by their generosity.
The morning walkers were definitely rested as we heaed easily up the mountain grade on our way to Tehachapi about 11 miles away. The weather was cool, with a good deal of fog hugging the mountain sides. By the time we reached the top of the pass and our second break before we went through town – the wind started and the temperature dropped, making for a pretty cold little stroll. Many of us had dressed way down because we had been so hot over the past couple of days – whoops on that one. Big mistake.
Antonio was driving a support vehicle and offered sweatshirts and hoodies to people who needed them.
We made it to the Methodist Church in Tehachapi by noon and had a lovely lunch of sandwiches, salad and bread. At the circle following lunch, Dennis announced that because that we were going to knock off another 5 miles after lunch. Many people had stayed back to help at camp, so he reqyuested that all those who were able bodied (we have some sick and njured folk among us) should be out in the afternoon.
So – I think we had 48 for the afternoon walk – the staffs were carried by Max and Emmett among others – and I have to say that it wasn't too long into the walk that we realized we were having to jog to keep up with them! Emmett is one of our elders and a runner, so he ha a very quick stride – and Max is one of our younger walkers so he has all kinds of energy. After having to run to catch up with them for the 5th or 6th time, Jun-San ran up to the front an told them to slow down!! Eventually, they did and we were able to catch our breath!
But, we finished out the day with just over 16 miles under our belt. A fine day of walking!
Oh – an in the very good news file – Takashi surprised us by coming back home to us! He was met with many hale hearties – we are soooo glad he is bak with us -Thank you Carol for bringing him!

no pictures - just info

Hey guys - we are camping outside an American Legion Hall here. It's about 7:30 and I am soooo ready for bed! I have been fighting a little bug (pretty darn successfully I might add), but it wipes me out. I've decided that I will take my leadership from the Japanese and unless I am deathly ill, I continue to walk - it seems to help. I just drink lots of water with my Grapefruit Seed Extract in it, eat lots of fruit and try to get good rest and I haven't been totally wiped out yet.
But, we did 12 miles uphill today and that was pretty trying. It took my body about 3 hours it seemed like just to get the muscles used to the new stride. It also seems like, oddly, the lead group moves faster when we are climbing, so I had to do quite a bit of jogging to keep up.
I always try to stay up front - the energy is stronger behind the Eagle Staff and the drummers - there is much less chatter and more focused prayer and intention, so it seems to just carry us through. So, by the time we reached the summit - like 5 hours into our day, I had been trucking along pretty good. From there it was just 2.5 miles downhill and to the end of our day.
Probably the highlight of my day was getting to talk to Aiko for a little while. She's from Japan an speaks just enough broken English that we can have pretty good conversations - and she's really very funny. We had a fun talk about Winnie the Pooh, which she just read a couple of years ago translated into Japanese. We had less success with me trying to explain the Cat in the Hat...which she had never heard of. How do you describe Thing 1 and Thing 2?

hey I'm back in wireless world for a second

Joe had to run into town and i grabbed a ride 'cause I knew he was going to a place with wireless. I just wanted to put up a couple more pics for you guys. This is a shot of a little desert spring love that shined for us yesterday while we were being shown some of the sacred sights of the Southern Mojave People.


This picture flat cracks me up. This is a lunch-time scene. Now, we don't normally fall-out like this during our lunch breaks - we generally only travel about 9-10 miles before lunch and have gotten strong enough that we still have plenty of energy to actually, you know, converse with one another. However, on this day we were taken to the Avi Macav (Mohave for The River) Cultural Center and fed a lunch of Indian Tacos - which is basically tacos with frybread. So good. So filling. Many of us had more than one - and one really is PLENTY. And..well, here is the result.
Even C.J. got droopy!