Can’t sleep. So many little pieces to try to pull together at school to finish up the year combined with a room full of gear, food, and boxes to get set up.
I’ve even lost track of how many days are left to go due to the fact I’ve switched phones and don’t have my countdown app anymore.
The good thing is that Althea is always happy to see me no matter what time it is. She’s glad to have a scoop of food and some extra pets to start her day. 
Four on me and twelve on Althea. Yikes. Just a 4.5 mile walk after dinner. Went north on the NCT for once. 11 Mile Rd up to 13 Mile and back. Quick little walk. Almost took longer to pull off the ticks.
Nice hard 9 miles with Althea in the early morning. Everything is feeling good. Pack, shoes, legs. Seems like it is all coming together.
Spent the dark hours before walking putting together some dinner bags for maildrops. 8oz of dehydrated beans, 6oz of Minute Rice, four packets of olive oil, and small bags of onions, jalapeños, kale, and tomatoes. Just need to add Fritos and some cheese. I’ll add Fritos to some of the boxes. At other stops I’ll just look to add the chips and cheese. I can eat this dinner hot or cold by soaking it for an hour in a peanut butter jar. Each day gets 2oz of beans and 1.5oz of the rice with a portion of everything else.
Slow progress on my organization of maildrops. It’s a puzzle that doesn’t have a picture. I’m going to have to make some hard decisions soon. Maybe some divine intervention will occur, and I’ll be blessed with fantastic insight.
Justin’s peanut butter has arrived. I don’t think I can ever get sick of peanut butter. It hasn’t happened in 49 years, so I don’t think it’s going to happen on this trip. I love peanut butter and Justin’s delivers what I need. Tortilla smeared with peanut butter is my go to for lunch. It provides enough stick in the gut to make it feel like I’ve eaten something. It’s also conducive to adding just about anything else to it. Dried fruit, cheese, or chips work great and I’m game to try other combinations.
One hundred packets of peanut butter is enough to send to my 10 primary maildrops with the extras sprinkled into the map mailings. Who doesn’t like a little peanut butter with their maps?
I’m hoping the USPS boxes arrive early next week, so I can start on completing this last task.
Truckin’ on.
After the big push this weekend, I haven’t done any serious walking for three days. Monday did find me picking up meat from the butcher. Freezers are full of enough beef to last two years. It’ll be a little freezer burned by the end, but we’ll have food even if my unemployment stretches a bit beyond the end of my five months of walking.
I picked up a bit of pain in my hip. Not sure where it came from as I didn’t notice it while walking or the day after. I fell hard on my left side in late winter pulling a #100 feed sack out of my jeep. Slipped on the ice and landed awkwardly. Doesn’t make sense that it would hurt now, but I can’t think of anything else.
I ordered boxes from the post office, so the mail drop organization process should be able to start next week.
Michael Sweet 