After arguably the best nights sleep of the tour so far, I set off at 0600 just to the east of Old Washington.
I said a farewell to Deb (gutted) and John drove her to Zanesville so she could begin her journey home.
It was a cold and foggy start to the day but my overriding feeling was one of relief. My feet were free of pain and I felt as fresh as I have done for days.
I met John at the 9 mile point for a wrap. While I was eating it, a tow truck arrived. 2 guys approached the RV and explained that we were parked on private land. A fine of $180 would need to be paid or the RV would get towed. I explained what our mission was and they called the owner. He arrived quite quickly and he greeted me with the heartiest handshake I’ve ever had in my life. His name was Lloyd and once I’d explained what we were doing he was happy to let us go on our way. What a great guy I thought.
That episode put a spring in my step and I made my way along route 40 which also seems to be known as route 22 for some reason.
I passed a Cheetos van which made me chuckle. That snack seems to be the staple food of the support team!
I made it to the 13 mile point at Cambridge, Ohio where John was waiting. Fortunately, he’d parked in a legal place this time. I noticed a nearby barber / salon. I popped in and asked if they could fit me in for a number 2 all over cut. The member of staff, Sandy, said she would be able to in 10 minutes time just after she’d applied some colour to another customer’s hair. It didn’t take long to do and she washed my hair afterwards to avoid any itching. Sandy wouldn’t take any payment for the cut which was extremely kind of her. I learned that she was due to retire in June. I was one of her final customers.
The road after Cambridge was absolutely perfect for me; a flat surface, not too many stones and a nice size hard shoulder. It’s the kind of surface I’ve been dreaming about for 18 days! I took full advantage of it and began to build some pace.
I met John at the 20 mile point and had an omelette with bacon. Oh and a 30 minute tactical snooze of course. The meeting point was at a drive through beer shop. I stopped at this exact spot back in 2011 on day 88.
The next section started slow but I was soon able to find a little bit of pace. I felt that my backpack was holding me back and I sent a message to John up the road to say that I’d be ditching it.
I had a quick sandwich at 25 miles and set off to try and get 30 done by 1800. I was only carrying a single bottle of water but felt a lot more freedom without my backpack.
I made it to 30 miles with 4 minutes to spare. The finishing point was just a little further at 30.4 miles.
Due to a low battery again in the RV, we are staying on an RV park and are hooked up to the electrics. I haven’t budgeted for this. If the issue doesn’t get resolved on Wednesday in Columbus at Cruise America then loss of power will mean having to find shower facilities somewhere (such as a truck stop) and not being able to run a fridge. We will be living in squalor basically. I’ve lived in a motorhome for 100 days before and 83 days twice. Never have I had these kinds of problems. You can’t beat a bit of mild peril.
To end the day on a positive, John has had a textbook first day on solo support (apart from almost getting us towed. Oh how I laughed). Navigation and communication is working really well. We are looking for a repeat of today’s food running tomorrow. At least 30 miles by 1800 is the target.
The pleasing thing about today was that I had many more miles in me at 1800. But we are doing 12 hours of running and 12 hours of recovery / sleeping.
Continued thanks to those that have donated to St Benedict's Hospice.
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TUNE OF THE DAY: It has to be - Sandy - John Travolta.
