Archive for March, 2010

Hospitable green dinosaur strip.

Perhaps I should add some punctuation and depth the the quartet of words above..?

Wonderfully unexpected hospitality, which has been a core underpinning of what makes the Walk of Inspiration Across America so meaningfully successful to me, started off the day as Mary’s million-dollar pancake and soy-veggie scramble breakfast gave us the I-shouldn’t-be-leaving-so-fast feeling before hitting the road. Delicious vegan pancakes mixed with fruit and peanut butter, natural apple sauce, maple syrup, and the scramble were served to us in proportions far greater than what we could eat.

“Eat up,” she encouraged us, “you’ll need it!”

“This sounds a lot like Hansel and Gretel,” I had to tell her– after taking a while to remember which kids’ story was which.  “Oh well– even if it is– this food is soooo delicious, that I don’t know if I’d mind being your Hansel!”

The fairy tale ended just past 8:30, as Mary motored us to the corner of Hargrave & Ramsey in Banning, last night’s stopping point. Warm goodbyes and promises to stay in touch accompanied the gift of wonderfully put together sack lunches for Shay and me– sealed with love.

There is no easy way to walk the 22 miles from Banning to Palm Springs.  Google Maps offers a 75-mile walking route through the mountains, but we were determined to walk through the valley, and get there by nightfall.

We walked as far east as we could in Banning before reaching the I-10 freeway, which, with it’s “PEDESTRIANS PROHIBITED” signs, clearly wasn’t welcoming us.  We walked for perhaps a mile in a grassy section a few feet from the shoulder of oncoming traffic.  We were approaching a state weigh station, with state police busily present in front of it, and opted to walk through an adjacent cow field.  Getting through the barbed wire with big backpacks, we stepped our way through the green grass around a cow patty mine field till seeing a dirt road which appeared to connect a mile down to a separate, paved road along the Cabazon outlet mall strip.  Finding this worked out well, because we were just approaching a herd of cattle– almost all of whom where staring us down, many with sharp bull horns.

Off-roading lasted perhaps an hour, and actually turned out to be far more fun than the ugly outlet mall parade of plastic which followed.

At the end of the road of the greater Cabazon strip mall flytrap, we briefly visited the small theme park with the big, life-size (dead size) mechanical dinosaurs– none of which were on.  A quick pic, and up across the overpass we went to what we’re told is the classic Route 66– now a frontage road between freeway and train tracks. Frontage 66 took us nearly all the way to Hwy 111– our turn off for Palm Springs.

Palm Springs was another good ten miles away, and as the valley floor beside the freeway was mostly sand, we opted to walk it instead of the busy highway.  We paralleled the main road all the way into Palm Springs, passing hundreds upon hundreds of giant windmills along the way– some casting enormous shadows on surrounding hills as the sun began setting.

The desert sand abruptly ended in lieu of fresh, green, artificially grown grass. This was the opening sign of urban/suburban Coachella Valley– nearly all of which takes on such a theme.

Shay was experiencing lots of foot pain by dark, after 22 miles, so we took our host Ashley up on her offer of an end-of-the day, off-the-route ride– picking us up from a given landmark (to be returned to the next day).

Meeting Ashley and Kayla, her can’t-slow-down black lab, was a blast!

Another great, productive day down, filled with the great hospitality, green energy, and mechanical dinosaurs to counterbalance the strip mall setback!

Just before leaving the house early this morning, host Mary informed me she had some vegan pancakes fresh made and sitting ready for me.  I was still very sleepy, but having tasted her food the night before, upon arriving, I slowly drug myself up and out of bed.  I could faintly smell the delicious hotcake aroma wafting through the air, and I firmly believe that it alone lifted me up, out of bed, and to the table.  Mary had left out homemade apple sauce, maple syrup, organic peanut butter, and homemade pears.  The pancakes had fresh fruit and cinnamon mixed in, and upon reaching the table, their smell emboldened me more than the typical morning shower.  Three of Mary’s pancakes was more than enough to satisfy a person all morning, but as she’d left five for me, I obligingly at all five.  How could I not..?

Mary and I chatted for a while before I began the day’s walk.  Shane and I chatted for quite some time last night, mostly without Mary, who was studying for a nutrition class midterm.  Later in the morning, after Mary’s class, it was time to converse more with her, and what a fascinating sweetheart of a pair Shane and Mary are.  (Count this as another great Couchsurfing experience..!)

From where I left off outside of Beaumont last night, today’s walk was about a 23km endeavor to Banning.  Mary dropped me off at last night’s stopping point, and through all the hours and miles of the day, I only had to make two turns– the rest was just following the bends of the road I was on.  Fewer turns is often a sign of stepping into more sparsely populated areas, which is surely case for Banning.

“How many people stop and talk to you on any given day?” is a question that David, photojournalist from the local Record Gazette asked me as he walked with me, nearly half way through my day.

“Usually at least a half dozen.” And this was the case today, as a variety of locals stopped to ask what? why? where from? how long?

The further from the big cities, the more fascinated that the locals often are, it seems.

Palm Springs comes tomorrow, after a long, 22-or-so mile walk from Banning.

After a terrific trio of nights hosted by Andrew and his house of six twentysomethings, it was time to amble on to Beaumont.

Today’s walk pulled me past the outer reaches of the greater L.A. metropolitan area.  Having now reached expansive orange groves, sheep-covered hillsides, and the smell of fresh horse manure for the first time in weeks, the big city now feels far behind.  I’m still not quite into the open desert yet, and don’t predict I will be till this coming weekend, when I walk into the vast, open, dry, unpopulated stretches east of Indio.

Moving from the dense, concrete urban beach-patio jungle of Los Angeles to the endlessly boring sight of strip mall after strip mall after strip mall (see– even to read it three times gets boring!), the open expanses of hills and fields felt refreshing, as did the air, even if a whiff or two of manure was apparent from time to time.  I guess I’m ready for dung over diesel, days before dust dominates both…

About a half dozen different people stopped to chat amidst today’s 20k.  Among them, a fascinating motorcyclist from Goa, who road his motorcycle through thousands of miles in southern India. “God is watching you,” he told me, with the look in his eyes of a wise math teacher who patiently knows the answer to the problem you’ve been spending so much time and effort stressing over.  ”You’ll be hearing from me.” I imagine I will be…

Enthusiastic to pick me up shortly after dark, Shane & Mary, tonight’s hosts, met me at the bottom of the mile-long, uphill ascent to their home.  This ended up working out quite well for me, as not only is a large hill at the end of the day a least favorite feature of any given day’s walk, but the hill itself is actually off the route.  Off-the-route rides are generally welcome…

Shane & Mary are originally from the Pacific NW.  So despite the fact that I don’t drink any of the stuff, they don’t look at me funny if I say pop. We also say the word “bag” the same way.  Shay laughs at my pronunciation of the a in bag, but I get to feel at home with my pronunciation in this house!

Of course, now that I’m headed east, I’m wondering when hearing “you guys” will begin transitioning into hearing “y’all.” I’m also wondering just how fast this will happen– is there a specific split somewhere..?  Probably not.  I imagine that just as I see newspaper delivery boxes slowly change from one city to the next, I will hear a first localized “y’all” at some point, and then slowly begin hearing more of them, as “you guys” dies a painful Texan death.  We’ll see!

I noticed some Adventist literature around the house here, and especially since I just walked through the Seventh-Day Adventist stronghold of Loma Linda, I had to ask them if they were Adventists.  They confirmed this, and a newborn, hour-long conversation regarding faith captured our combined attention.  I’m much more careful and cautious when entering into such discussions nowadays, not nearly so enthusiastic to do so as when I was in my twenties, but given the fact that it blossomed rather well, this conversation felt quite fulfilling. I truly look forward to spending another night here with Shane & Mary.

Shay plans to catch up tomorrow as well, after a weekend trip to San Francisco.  (Unlike me, she’s obviously not devoted to having to take all the steps across.)