Roosevelt

Today is Father's Day and It's been a great day. The road from Dinosaur to Craig Utah feels all but abandoned. I really love that! Very very few cars so Leeroy and I can just walk in the middle of the road. I love wide open land where I can see as far into the horizon ahead as possible. Today was full of that! Beautiful desert (ya I said the desert is beautiful). The weather was absolutely perfect. It was hot out but not too hot with lots of cloud cover which kept the temp down. I spent sometime thinking about my father. I miss him so much. He passed when I was 12 and I find myself wondering often what it would be like to hang out with him. What he would think of me... ask him questions and get his advice on life. You know, things like that. 

 I woke up in Roosevelt early in the morning and went to the hotel restaurant to have some breakfast. Coffee!!!! Ummm.... Then I went back to my room and packed up my stuff. Check out was at 11 but I was sure that the girls would be their to pick me up way before then. I was wrong! I texted them at about 10:30 with no response. Oh man, I was bummin. I didn't want to walk all the way back to where they picked me up from just to turn around and walk back into town. But I'm committed to every mile (that's my one rule for this project).  I didn't hear from the girls so I started walking. I got to the edge of down town when the finally called me back. They came, got me and drove me the rest of the way to where we first met up. Now don't forget, the day before that the news paper came out with me on the cover. People were so stoked to meet me and everyone came out of just about every shop/ store to donate and encourage me. I walked all the way through town and to be honest,  I was feeling so good. I think for the first time I started to feel like " this is going to work" as in people are going to know about Uzmia and we are going to raise this money! I walked through Roosevelt and headed out of town on my way to Vernal. 

Ok so a few big moments as I was leaving town. Well one amazing and one very scary moment... First, the scary one. I'm just outside of Roosevelt where there is this hill that leads you out of town. Now both sides of that road are lined with concrete barriers. I walk closest to the road and LeeRoy on the inside between the barrier and I. So I had a steady eye on the cars as they passed, mainly cause this is a more dangerous part of the road. *Oh side note* We never walk side by side in this situation. I'm usually ahead and Leeroy kinda slacks behind. Anyway, I see a grey SUV and I always try to make eye contact with the drivers to see of they see me. All I saw in the window was a cell phone and I couldn't tell if they were trying to take my picture or if they were texting. Either way they were wayyyy over the white line. I started waving my arms and pointing to get over. It was not working at all and I was running out of time to get out of the way. I had to think fast so I abandoned the signaling idea and pushed LeeRoy into the barrier as I jumped half way over him and the barrier. My heart was racing as I braced for impact, flexed all my muscles, held my breath and let out a grunt. Haha ya a grunt!  The car jerked at the last second and LeeRoy started freaking out. He pulled me off the wall and darted into the road. This is my biggest fear! For something on the side of the road to spook  LeeRoy so he darts into the road. I finally got us collected and off the road. I looked back down the road to see if they stopped or anything but they didn't and I was angry (for maybe 30 seconds). Then I started laughing and cheering... I'm alive!!! haha I'm alive!!! I swear I felt so lucky I needed to go to Vegas and try my luck there! 

Now the second amazing moment happened just about  an hour after that brush with death. Again walking on the side of the road and a grey mini van pulls up next to me. An older woman rolls down her window and asks me a few questions. She had greying hair and the car was full of what looked like her grand kids and her son (I think). They looked like they were a part of the Ute tribe. Then after a very brief conversation she handed me a BIG stack of money. This one lady tripled the largest donation made by a single person thus far. It was like shocking! I couldn't help but think this is working! We are going to build this orphanage! I said thank you about a million times and she drove off. It seemed kinda odd ya know. I can't believe my life... I can't believe that I get to do this. I wouldn't trade this for anything. This is..... unreal and not something I could ever do on my own.