Upon arriving at Ambers house I was to meet her roomate, Lotte, who is a Norweigen girl studying to become a Chiropractor. I got home and grabbed a quick shower as I was my usually smelly self after walking for the day and got chatting to Lotte, who after a while told me she had her Chiropractors table in her room. She went and got it and proceded to crack my back, hips and kneck. I love Chiropractors, they had helped me out a lot with some problems I had when playing football, and after today... still I love them, my body already does feel a lot better, thanks for that Lotte.
Now that I have finshed that boring, hard leg of the trip on highway 61, I will rejoin the river tomorrow morning and continue my way south. This little rest here at Ambers has been a blessing. Not just physically but mentally and spiritually aswell. I feel rejuvinated and eager to continue exploring the remains of the Mississippi River. Just arriving into Davenport today and seeing the river made me smile, it has almost become like an old friend.
October 30th
It is 8:30 in the morning and I have packed up camp in the town of Maquoketa and am sitting outside of Subway, under the side roofing to keep from the rain that has just started. A little squirrel is running around the grass in front of me carrying a nut that is as big as his head in his mouth, from a distance it appears he has two heads, try that with a pumpkin, impressive feat I think.
Yesterday was a beautiful day, a little cold but with blue skies and no wind, but I was to encounter a little hiccup on the road early on. As I left the city of Dubuque, the shoulder of the road I was walking on turned into gravel - thick, chunky gravel. This made it a huge pain to drag my best little mate, the cart. After about 2kms of this I thought to myself, there is no way I am dragging this thing all the way to Davenport ( 120kms away). I thought I would try my luck and crossed the road and began to hitch hike south with the plan to get to a town, find a place to stash my cart, come back the point where I was picked up and continue walking. After a frustrating period of watching a perfect day for walking go by, I managed to get a lift. I hopped into the seat after chucking my bag and cart into the back of the ute (pick up - for you Americans) and we set off. The fella who picked me up was a nice guy, but maybe a little too nice if you ask me. Not long after we started chatting, he began to comment on what great physical condition I was in, and that I had a beautiful accent. From there he asked me what I did for romance on the long, lonely trip I was on – I tell ya, I could not answer this question quickly enough and explained with the “enthusiasm” of a man in love about my amazing fiancé in Colombia. The rest of the trip was spent with me talking about her and Colombia with me trying not to let gap of silence enter the car for the chance he might comment next on my “high cheek bones” or “strong hands”… but in the end I made it to the town and must say, he was a nice guy and he did help me out with a lift to my destination, thanks buddy…
Apart from this incident, yesterday was a good day. I found a good place to leave my cart (at the local Baptists church) and headed back to the highway to grab another lift to where I left off. This time I got picked up my the local pastor (not from the Baptist church), and what a good guy he was. He explained to me that I will not have much luck getting picked up by people around here as there are a lot of prisons in the vicinity and these days’ people are scared of almost everyone around here and might think I am an escaped convict. Bidding Pastor Jim thanks and goodbye, I set off with just a few things and my gear from camping. With Maquoketa being more than a 50km hike I was expecting to camp for the night. After a long day I reached a service station (the only one on the whole stretch) around 5pm, grabbed a burrito, chips, energy bar and an iced tea and immediately felt better. I had planned on camping around here but felt good so I decided to take advantage of it. I was also annoyed at the lost time I had collected waiting for lifts whilst hitch hiking. I had already walked around 30kms and if I wanted to arrive at Maquoketa, another 22km to go. I put my head down and continued on. Around 7pm it got dark and cold. I was lucky I had brought my Thermaltech down jacket, I quickly wacked that on and the upper half was toasty. My legs however were only protected by shorts. This is not as bad as it sounds, as long I am moving the legs stay pretty good to weather a little below 0c. So after a long day, and night, I arrived in Maquoketa around 9:30pm. As there were no clouds, I found a good little sheltered place where I lay out my mattress and sleeping bag, without setting up the tent, and I was asleep in a few minutes dreaming of a foot massage and chicken parmigana….
With rain here this morning, and looking like settling for a good part of the day, I am now going to eat a lot of subway, head to church, and then, if the weather has cleared at all, hit the road for a less strenuous day! After my longest day of 52kms yesterday I am not overly stressed on a big day today. Davenport is about 65-70 kms away, I plan to take the same pack with me today with all my camping gear and I should have no problems with reaching Davenport in two days. Upon reaching Davenport I will then have to come back here to retrieve my cart which is a bit of a pain, but I am beginning to learn to roll with the punches…
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