Day 99: (Judgement) Problems - 29km

Blanch & Bill's in Golden Valley to Ina's in Loring

Waking up after an awful sleep is always tough. Knowing your best friend is also leaving, and having no clue where your heading that day... even more reason to lay there a little longer. Hearing how exhausting it was for Katherine, she kept saying she didn't know how we did it. How we were instantly so comfortable at other people's houses. It's true. We settle in really quickly now. All pretences of polite, shy guest kind of go away. Yes we are polite, and we're still guests. But it also takes too much energy to tiptoe around and not make yourself comfortable. It was interesting having Katherine there, seeing everything from her perspective, an outside person living on the inside.

We made breakfast on the BBQ. Well boiled water for coffee and oatmeal, packed the car full. Joseph surprisingly agreed to ride Lux for the first bit while I drove ahead with Katherine to find a place to drop all our things so she could drive home. It took us a while. We drove the 30km mark and then pulled into a driveway. A middle age gentlemen came out, he seemed confused and disoriented smoking his cigarette and drinking his coffee. He explained he was up drinking the night before, and didn't seem to believe my credibility. He said he had property on another road and would lead us there. I asked about bears, "Are you kidding, you're in bear country." he laughed. I knew it would be a no before he even showed us the "clearing". Full of inedible brush and surrounded by bear infested forests.

So we went us. It's always a weird feeling, vulnerable I guess, to pull up to a drive way and essentially ask if you can sleep on their lawn. I usually frame it something like "we were wondering if we could sleep here, or if you know anyone else that has a lawn, or paddock/barn, etc." after all the preamble about what we're doing. A way to give people an out by thinking of someone else. Katherine suggest I just outright ask to just sleep on their property. I guess that's really what I'm looking for. So we started driving back East. We pulled into this property and a woman was hanging the laundry outside. This time I came right out with it, she said she had to ask the owner of the house.

A tiny, hunched, old woman came out to see what we wanted. Skeptical at first, then she invited us in to sit down. After talking a bit, she called her son to come over and find a place on her property for us. "I'm just a few days away from 100" she said. Wow! I couldn't believe that, she was up and walking around by her self. "And by few days I mean December." I couldn't help but smile at her concept of time. "When your this old the time just flies by" Ina said.

We unloaded all the things and Katherine and I drove back to find the four others. They were slower than I anticipated. We pulled down a road and ate our lunch of last nights baked potatoes. Katherine and I said our goodbyes, we all did.

She didn't just help me by being there, I can tell she uplifted everyones spirits. Just by being her, just by being there. It made it fun, more adventurous. Every new place we stayed was extra special because we got to share it with her.

We were on the road again, just the three of us and our steeds. It went fast and slow all together. The 522 grew boring and scarce. After driving it with Katherine, I saw that our future would be nothing but highway with poor shoulder and brush on either side, nowhere to even graze or take a break. We stopped earlier than we thought, and by 6pm were ready for bed. Denis, the first man who was confused by our visit before came by for the 2nd time. He had read about us in the newspaper later that day and dropped by a donation. He came by again with a backpack full of beer and another donation. He just wanted to help.

I told Katherine about the experience. At first we thought he might be kind of sketchy to stay with. But it's true time and time again, you can't judge someone based on how they look or talk or live. Just because someone lives a lifestyle I wouldn't choose, doesn't mean they're bad, or below me. They're just different. He was a really nice guy, and genuinely wanted to help. We were in our tents by 8pm, asleep before 9.

It was peaceful. Something felt different that night. With the 100th day just hours away. I accepted where I was. Earlier that night walking the driveway barefoot to collect wood, the sun going down and the warm summer night falling around us. Completely exhausted. There was a moment earlier when we all had to do something, make a fire, cook, set up tents and highline, and we couldn't. We were all so wiped we just lay there. And then we got up, and we did it. Maybe we're just at that point. Rest, get up, do it, rest. At least we're in it together.