And So It Begins…

Tomorrow morning I start my first 10 miles! I hope to start walking in the 9:00 hour (Pacific Time), and if you’d like to track me, see the ‘Track Me!’ tab in the menu above.

I should catch you up on yesterday & today…

Yesterday morning I drove from Life Foursquare Church to my next host home in Anacortes, WA.  I wasn’t expecting it to be so cold in Yreka – it had rained overnight and all the rain on my car was now ice! A few minutes with the defroster & I was good to go.  Shortly after getting onto the freeway, there was a gorgeous sunrise view of Mt Shasta.

…and I loved this barn!

However, very shortly into the trip, my stomach started feeling weird – as if I had just eaten a huge feast, even though I hadn’t eaten anything at all since a very light dinner the night before. NOT good timing! As most of you know, I love to drive – but that trip couldn’t get over fast enough.

I was staying overnight in Anacortes with Steve & Denise, pastors of Living Rock Foursquare Church. They were SO supportive and kind – they prayed over me and gave me a baking soda home remedy.  Between that and the prayers (and taking in nothing but water), I had a pretty good night’s sleep and woke up feeling much better.

I attended 2 church services this morning.  I drove to Oak Harbor to attend Grace Church and meet Desiree, who I’ll be staying with next Fri & Sat nights.  Then I raced back to Anacortes for the 10:30 service at Living Rock. I had been told to enjoy Deception Pass along the way, and it WAS breathtaking – but I’ll be able to linger more when I come back to Oak Harbor next weekend.

Pastor Denise at Living Rock asked me to speak briefly, and they prayed for me. I was blown away when Pastor Steve said they would be taking up a collection next week for my trek! There were also offers of rides back to my car in the coming week – and a husband & wife who want to provide walking/vehicle support.  Joanna & Ken will start with me tomorrow!

My intent was to scout my route for the week after church, but I only got Day 1 & Day 2 done, so the rest will have to wait till after I walk tomorrow.  I wanted to get to my next host home in Abbotsford, Canada before nightfall – and I ‘just’ made it.

Because my walk starts in Peace Arch Park which straddles the international border (I can actually go into Canada without a passport as long as I stay within the park boundaries), I hadn’t anticipated an ‘official’ border crossing.  When Randy & Lorrie opened their home to me in Abbotsford, I made sure I had my passport – but neglected to check the legality of my pepper spray. I didn’t think about it until I was just a few miles from the border.  When a quick Google search mentioned ‘fines and imprisonment’, I went to Plan B. I just happened to be driving through the town of Linden at that very moment – and my host home for Tues, Wed & Thurs night is in Linden! So I called Diana & dropped the pepper spray off with her.  I’m glad I did, too – because with my car loaded down as much as it was, the border agent was pretty curious about what all I had in there, specifically asking about “weapons of any kind”.  I’m glad I didn’t chance-um…

When I got to Lorrie & Randy’s home, she had a lovely meal prepared, but I was too leery of my currently-delicate stomach to do much more than sample it.  I tried a bit of everything and it was delicious! My stomach seems to be doing fairly well this evening after the first non-liquid meal since Friday night, so I have high hopes that things will be back to normal in the morning.

I have appreciated all of you who have prayed for me after hearing that I wasn’t feeling well.  It really made a difference in my attitude about the whole thing – and as some suggested, it may be that a bit of anxiety is causing it.