DAY 56 

Return to cross the river at 'Rocky Ford. If this keeps up, we’re going to be 'old-hands' at it, ha ha!

My new wagon evener works great on the road east towards the town of Yates Center. I took it easy on Reba, I made her work, but I didn’t get frustrated or push her. I hadn’t been walking up the hills with her because I was already working 15-17 hour days and she was working 6 hour days at most, so I figured she could pull me up the hills, but the wagon is heavy, and her work is hard, so I walked the hills with her, and we fell in rhythm; she would stop, I would get off, we would walk up the hill in lock step, then she would stop again, I would get back on the wagon, she would resume pulling, and we did it all without voice commands but simply by knowing each other, like when she stopped, she would watch until I was on, and then she would resume pulling. It went well and we made good time!

We had to get on Hwy54 for a mile to cross a river. We then came to an intersection with an old country store where I needed to get ice, and no more had I pulled into the gravel parking lot when a lady named Dona came forward to see what I was about. Dona said I could camp at her place just 2 miles up the way, which happened to be the exact way I was going, and it just happened to be that time of day to start looking for a place to camp, and Dona said there was a barn I could camp in, and a pen for Reba… it was too good to be coincidence, it was God. He was going ahead of me, making a way. He has done so in so many ways. Like about ten days ago, Reba lost her respect for my electric fence rope/wire because the charger had stopped working, and Reba got caught in the rope and nearly panicked, and I had to get her out of it…and ever since then, people have come forward with pens for Reba to stay in, and there are so many other specific things, it’s just crazy-good, like the way my wagon got repaired, and so much more. I’m not saying this is easy. Its late November, I’m living outdoors, this ain’t no fooling around. Rural and small town America has been dwindling for decades, this ain’t no fooling around.

Back on gravel roads, we crossed this old iron bridge on the way to Dona’s place.

Oil storage tanks made out of wood. Wow, I wonder how old they are?

Darn, another broken tent pole. I repaired this one same as the first one, by cutting off a piece of my reflector pole and putting it inside the tent pole, then wrapping it with duct tape. Angela came with her father and mother to give me a load of laundry she had done for me, and together with Dona we visited for a while (I worked on repairing my tent while visiting).

Dona and her husband who has Alzheimer’s disease. I camped in their barn, and Reba had a pen to stay in. Thank you Dona for coming forward out of the blue without hesitation even when your hands were already so full!

Text Post: DAY 56: I AM GRATEFUL FOR THE VISITING AND GETTING TO KNOW SUCH GOOD PEOPLE, but now I cannot visit as much because this winter weather increased the workload while at the same time, the days are shorter and that means that making camp and all its chores must be done by dark when the temperature falls like a rock…all I’m saying is; I hope folks understand. Note: Now that it has gotten so cold, I use town libraries when available to sit down with my laptop computer and record events. Otherwise, I do it in my tent.