I (Sam) woke up around 8 this morning and took down my tent. I then headed over to the Walmart we were sleeping next to to restock on a few items and water. James met me there, and we were soon on our way. We realized that the address we were planning to stay at in St. Louis was 79 miles away instead of 75, meaning that we would have to exceed 25 miles for at least a few of the following days. We also told the family that we would be arriving at 7pm for dinner. Thus, the pressure was on. My feet were really feeling it today, and I knew that I would need new shoes once in St. Louis. The $9 Walmart sneakers really did put up a hell of a fight though. About 17 miles in, a man named Keith stopped me on the road to give me four bottles of water on the side of the road. He said that he had seen us earlier and wanted to help out (his house was on the road). I thanked him, and continued a few more miles to meet James at McDonalds (he was about 0.5 miles ahead of me). I arrived and immediately ordered a medium Big Mac meal. James proposed that we walk 32 miles today instead of 25, a plan I was skeptical of because it would involve walking at night again. I voiced this concern and floated the idea of waking up earlier tomorrow to do more miles with the sun on our side. James said that the road we would be on was not a main road and therefore shouldn’t be too busy. We spent about an hour at McDonald’s, our final destination still up in the air. After further discussion, I agreed to walk the extra miles at night. After all, this would mean easier days ahead. While the mosquitos were quite awful at night, the road was indeed less busy. We felt completely safe, and trudged through, eventually arriving at a nice park at around 11:30pm. I also called my friend Ethan for the last hour of the night, which is always a nice distraction from the darkness. We pitched our tents under a pavilion and called it a night. I’m glad we walked those extra miles.
8/13/22
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