Salvador stayed in touch with us, and we met him where Interstate 15 & Route 66 meet, where Shay and I had left off the day before. He brought his two lovable, year-old, chocolate doberman pinschers. He allowed me to walk one of them (the more well-mannered one), and walking a energy-rich doberman pup felt like having a medium-sized machine pull me forward– the same sort of sensation one may feel when steering a self-propelled lawnmower– only far more unpredictable with a young doberman in front of you.
We didn’t arrive till the early afternoon, and Sal joined us for the rest of the day’s walk. We thoroughly enjoyed walking and talking to him for hours. Sal is a rock guitarist who is originally from Guadalajara. As part of Shay’s family is from Mexico, and I’ve spent eight months in Latin America since 2007, we all enjoyed our cross-cultural conversations.
Upon reaching central Fontana, a very nice woman named Cynthia was with her daughter on the same street corner of Marygold & Sierra, next to one of Sal’s favorite local restaurants, and offered to buy us dinner, food for the dogs, and a few bucks for the road. We couldn’t eat at Sal’s favorite restaurant, because despite the fact that the three of us are all vegetarians, there are more animal ingredients in their food than Shay’s stomach can tolerate. So, Cynthia took us across the street to Sizzler, paid for salad buffets and gave a tip, then said goodbye as she and her daughter hit the road before even joining us. How wonderful is that!? Imagine…
Some of the locals call Fontana “Fontucky.” Well, with Fontucky being this hospitable, I’m also tempted to investigate re-routing the Walk to actually walk through Kentucky!
Andrew, friend of Kyle’s in Azusa, picked Shay and me up at the end of the day, and took us back to his place to spend the night in Redlands. He’d mentioned that Redlands is cool, and we both got the vibe that his opinion could be well trusted, so it was easy to take Andrew up on his offer, and skip the potential of walking a “V” shape down to Riverside before actually reaching Redlands.
Andrew lives in a recently remodeled old home in the heart of historic Redlands– a very beautiful place. He shares with five other friends, all in their mid 20’s as well, all super cool, all having known each other since at least high school. He invited us for three nights. Tomorrow’s plan is to walk back to the house from Sierra & Marygold, in Fontana; Saturday will be a day off!