Santa Rosa -- Texas

A few short miles of Santa Rosa, New Mexico...I was wiped out. Infection in my right toe and right heel, and suffering from the exhaustion that comes from camping in thirty degree weather after hiking from morning to night in the New Mexico...it had taken a toll. I had to hitch to town to get medical help, and a place to recover for a few days.

What happened after that was really just...incredible. Ameeta, my American Cancer Society contact in Flagstaff has continued to keep up with me a month after making sure I made it through Arizona safely and with relative speed. Wednesday night she texted me...telling me she could be in New Mexico Thursday night to crew my run for four days. She'd be able to get me into Texas, and out of the limbo of truck stops and barely populated towns I've been stuck in for the last long while.

So, she came...and I got down the road. Now...I'm in a Best Western in Amarillo, she's headed back to Flagstaff, and the next step on this journey begins.

So, some updates. I've ditched the running pack. It served me well, but over time has simply fallen apart. I don't like carrying things while I run, and I had no other means of strapping the thing to myself, so we tried something new with the GPS. We left it in the car on the dash mile to mile. It's nice not carrying it, because it really is sort of unruly when running. I have to strap it to my running pack, and it bounce and comes loose often enough for it to be a pain in the ass. 

There was also a long stretch of highway that was under construction that Ameeta could not park on to provide me food/water, so we had to add that to the 'miles to make up in Texas' category. If I were still hiking at that point, no biggie...but with a run crew that was not a situation that could be negotiated. If I'm running, I need access to food and water from my run vehicle. They can't part ten miles ahead. Really though, no big deal. I look forward to running all over Austin making up the remaining miles before I head to Lubbock when this journey is finally completed.

Right now, I'm waiting for a call from Amarillo media to do an interview, updating this blog, and organizing my hiking pack just in case I have to do some more highway traveling on foot. That said...I'm getting help, so hopefully last week will be the last time I put that pack on unless I'm going camping in Santa Barbara. A friend of mine that I've not seen in over ten years, Meredith, is coming out Tuesday to crew me for twenty miles West of Amarillo. I'm not technically here, as I still have thirty miles to complete before I can officially say I've made it to this city. After that, someone I know through my site from Lubbock has offered to help me out as well.

The closer I get to Austin, the more solid my support gets, so I'm looking forward to getting that direction. After Austin, it'll be a final push into Lubbock. I'll be dropped twenty miles outside of town and will run in after four final hours on the road.

Things are looking up, people are getting involved, and I'm very happy with the way things are turning out. It meant the world to have Ameeta here to support me, and it's meant a lot recieving calls and messages with offers of help down the road.

I look forward to taking on these final days, and these last experiences before I hang up the pack and try something new. This really has been an incredible experience. Completely incredible.

-Dustin