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Monday June 16, 2008 Newport, Tennessee PEACE PAGOTA - Asheville, North Carolina |
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I slept well and surprisingly woke up this morning with a smile on my face, ready for the day. It was 3am and I was anxious to wake my cousin Heethawish up, I was excited that he would walk with me today. Everyone broke down camp and cleaned up as much as possible before circle started.. 5am eventually rolled around and Dennis called for circle in the pagota. It was cool, yet crammed. We all sat on the floor, no shoes on and no idea what he would say next. Haha! As most of you know, we usually have NO SMOKING DAYS.. Dennis usually tries to do at least one a week but you never know, he likes to surprise us sometimes.. Anyways, this morning he announced that it would be an ALL NATIVE WALKING DAY. Of course I was amped because I was already planning to walk, but now my singing buddies on the walk would be there by my side. And although he said all native, our Japanese friends still joined us. I give mad props to the Delegation from Japan, without them the walk would not be the same.
In circle, Dennis also announced Red Horse as the Head Man Staff Carrier! Whoooo! Go Red Horse! He is one of the most positive people that I have ever met, in my life! No really.. He walks just about everyday, except on the days when he is helping with Kitchen or Trash Crew.. But even then he still finds a way to walk. I have much respect for him and I know the rest of the walkers do to..
Circle broke and Red Horse led all of the Natives down the hill from the Peace Pagota.. He led it off with a prayer and song, and I followed with a traveling song from California. We had another circle when we reached the bottom of the hill.. All of the support vehicles lined up and we all took off.
At first I walked behind the flags because I wanted to walk with my cousin, but pretty soon I had him run up with me to walk behind the staffs and in front of the flags so that I could sing. Mucaw, Billy, Maztal, and I were all taking turns singing and I got tired of hearing them yelling my name to sing from the middle of the group.. Lol. Yeah, so the walk was good. We met a lot of people along the way. For lunch we had stopped at Bobarosa Saloon at RV Tent Camping USA. They were way cool people. SHOUT OUT to Jessie and Bob!! They donated some water and soda to us as we had our lunch break. In total today we walked like 15 miles..
We arrived at our camp, which is where I presently am. It took forever because as a caravan of 6 vehicles, we got lost for about an hour.. And then individually, I got lost for about another hour in Minnie (the Winnebago). So the people that rode with me in Minnie got back here all late.. We all found our camping stuff and set up the tents and ate. The locals had brought lots of good food for us. THANK YOU!
Tomorrow is a rest day, but I’m pretty sure we are walking through downtown. IDK but I’m sure I’ll find out tomorrow.. I need a shower because I’m all sweaty from walking, and so is everyone else.
Today also gets an A+, just because the walk was amazing.. If any of you have the opportunity to walk with us, especially me (haha), then I strongly recommend that you run with it! Trust me! Come out and join us! Everyday that we get closer to Washington, DC, it gets more exciting and we all become that much stronger. We get our strength from everything around us, especially the people that support us.. Without that love we would be able to do this as efficiently.. So, THANK YOU to all of those who have helped us out so far.. I look forward to meeting our future supporters and fellow walkers! Lol. Have a wonderful evening and check back for more updates!!
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