Today was a pretty difficult day. I (Sam) woke up quite tired and felt as much during the first few miles of my walk. About 40 minutes in, a police officer told me to get off the freeway on his PA system. Luckily, I was right near an exit that led to a paved service road. I got off and continued on the service road. For some reason, I could not go much more than one mile without sitting down on the sand. I also mismanaged my phone battery due to the earlier sunsets, so this was also an issue. Eventually, after around 10 miles of walking, I threw in the towel and decided to end the day early. I honestly felt pretty pathetic doing so, but at the time it felt like I had fully ran out of gas. James continued onwards, because he was slated to meet his parents in a few days for Thanksgiving and could not afford taking an early rest day. I fell asleep immediately at 8pm.
11/21/22
I (James) started packing up around 10am while Sam was still in the tent. By 10:30, I was walking. The USA would be playing Wales in the World Cup at 11am, so I walked for 20 minutes before finding a nice spot off the road to watch the game on my phone. The game ended in an unfortunate draw, and after resting for a bit longer I started walking again. After another few miles, I was able to get off the interstate and onto a paved side road. I received news from Sam that a cop with a megaphone had told him to get off the freeway. As we had already been kicked off the interstate in Arizona, this made us a bit nervous. I threw on The Hunger Games: Catching Fire to help get me through the hour of walking before Sunday Night Football started. A bit later on in the evening, I got word that Sam was in his tent and done for the evening. Normally, it would feel good to know I had a nice walking lead. However, it had been over a week since our last rest day, and I was envious of Sam lounging in his tent. But my family was visiting us in Indio for Thanksgiving, and my mother was going to come pick me up if I didn’t make it on time (she offered to drop me back off afterwards, but I still felt it would violate the integrity of the walk). So I kept going, even when it was extremely hard not to give up at times. I took a wrong turn off the paved road and onto a sand path. In order to get back on the right path, I would have to backtrack a mile. But I was near the interstate, so I opted to hop back on. I found a spot where I could squeeze under the fence between me and the interstate. I walked another 4 or 5 miles on the interstate before pitching my tent next to an electrical facility off the road.
11/21/22
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