For now I put up a video of us eating dinner in Branson the other night.  The main video will be up by tonight. Sorry for the delay. Hope you like the blog…

It’s been about a ten days since our last blog so I’ll try to touch on the more exciting parts. The last couple days with Rob’s mom and aunts were spent in the Taos, New Mexico area where we had an awesome experience at a Native Indian Pow Wow. For anybody who doesn’t know, a Pow Wow is basically a Native American Indian celebration of dancing and singing It’s also a spiritual celebration for the natives. There are many variations of Pow Wows, but the one we attended was actually competitive with prize money. I could probably go on forever explaining the scene, but hopefully the pictures do it some justice (i’ll try to upload a video soon too). I can honestly say that it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of. Just want to thank Rob’s aunt Cassie again for speaking with the announcer and having our names called over the loud speaker. The entire night was really enjoyable.

After Eagle Nest, it was time to say goodbye to our support team for the week and it was back to the grind. Twenty five miles took us into Cimarron, an old western town with a minimal population. We knew we had a free stay at the St. James Hotel that night, but we definitely weren’t aware of the history behind it. The hotel was first built in 1872 by Henry Lambert, personal chef to President Abraham Lincoln. the St. James was visited by many famous lawmen and notorious outlaws and was the scene of many murders. A favorite saying in the area became “It appears Lambert had himself another man for breakfast.” and the usual question around Cimarron was “Who was killed at Lamberts last night?” The hotel is said to be haunted and the original bullet holes from the saloon are still in the ceiling of the bar area. It was pretty cool to see and learn about. (Thanks for setting that up Loren)

Sorry to bore you with history, but I thought some people might enjoy learning a little something new.

Anyway, from Cimarron we had 43 miles to get to Raton. We originally planned for it to be a 2 day walk but we just didn’t have it in us to pitch a tent that night. Instead, we walked all 43 miles (our longest walk to date) and crashed at a hotel around midnight. Event though we paid for it the next morning with some sore hips, we also bought ourselves a day off. The Motel 6 was pretty gross the night before so we headed to another hotel in the morning (which strangely had steam showers that we took advantage of). After a day of rest, we were able to walk 37 miles to the ghost town of Folsom pretty easily. Expecting another miserable night in a tent, we had an unexpected encounter with a woman named Amy who let us sleep in a trailer she used to live in next to a church. A few dead bugs on your mattress doesn’t matter once you’ve experienced a restless night in a tent. The trailer also saved us from waking up in a puddle because it poured that night.

It was nice waking up the next morning knowing we only had a 16 mile walk over the border into Colorado. We had been in contact with Branson, CO weeks before and we knew they were going to take care of us once we arrived. As we approached the border a reporter named Tim Keller was there waiting to take some pictures of us as we crossed into our fourth state. When we made it to Branson we met the mayor, did an interview with Tim for a local newspaper, and met with Rachel Snyder. Rachel is an author who is also heavily involved with rebuilding the town of Branson. She did so much for us in the couple of days we were there. She even made her latest blog post about us which I really enjoyed reading. Not just because it was about us, but more because it was a great piece of writing with so much truth behind it. I’m leaving the link here for you to click on – it’s definitely worth taking the time to read.
what two guys from new jersey can teach you about ‘inspired action only’

In Branson, we also had what might have been our best experience of the trip so far. Rachel introduced us to Willard and Mary Ann Louden, an older married couple who are also both artists. They showcase an art gallery in their attic that Willard built with family a little while back. Unfortunately for Willard, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease recently, but that hasn’t stopped him for doing what he loves. He’s the kindest, gentlest man and his spirit shines right through. Aside from his artistic talents he’s also a geologist, a world traveler, and even knows how to fly a plane. We probably could have sat there for hours listening to stories of his life experiences.

We first planned to stay in Branson a second night after Rachel had offered to do a pick-up and drop-off but our friend Casey, who we studied abroad with in Florence, came to visit from the Boulder, CO area. Although we only had lunch planned, her and her friend Cara showed up with a bunch of food and supplies we needed too. It was a huge help because we weren’t going to see civilization for a couple of days. The following day they dropped us off at Kim, CO where we had 52 miles until Springfield. We wanted to walk 35 miles that day but a thunderstorm forced us to pitch a tent in an abandoned house 8 miles short of our goal. Another terrible night of sleep in the tent, 102 degrees of blistering heat, and ridiculously boring scenery made the rest of the walk to Springfield a living hell. On the bright side of things, we’re now only 34 miles from Kansas.

Not only are we looking forward to reaching our next state, but we also get to see family over the next 10 days. Rob’s brother Mike, along with his girlfriend Christina will be here tomorrow for a few days and my parents get here this weekend. It’s unfortunate they’ll have to suffer with a Kansas vacation but I’m sure they’re going to be thrilled to see us healthy.

Rob and I would like to dedicate this blog post to Theresa M. Cucinello, a Nutley Thriving Survivors Member who passed away earlier today after a long struggle with breast cancer. She was a lifelong resident of Nutley and graduated from NHS and raised her family in Nutley as well. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 2:44 am and is filed under Pre-Walk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.