Today I had every intention of sleeping in, but Aaron had talked to a local radio station and set up an interview for me at 8. So I said I would go as long as I had some kind of breakfast first. haha

I woke up and rolled out of bed, and Aaron had made a delicious breakfast sandwich for me before his wife, Amanda, I left for the station. I was there for an hour and did a pretty good interview. Amanda and I came back home and had 'real' breakfast which consisted of ham, onions and peppers in an omelet with homemade salsa, with grits, and a biscuit. yum, yum, yum.

I spent the afternoon working my poor back that just refuses to relax, and blogging and just trying to relax. Around 3, Amanda and Aaron came and got me and took me out to a Mexican restaurant where I had a huge 12 inch tortilla with shrimp and cheese, it was so good! I ate pretty much the entire thing, left a little of the soggy tortilla but that's it.

The rest of the evening was spent working on trying figure out Tybee, and answering emails.

Today I woke up feeling much better, with a lot more energy. I slept like a rock so that helped I’m sure. Shelia dropped me off at 8:30 and I was off. I didn’t have my cart, and it was a little warmed than yesterday, and I was on very quiet roads all day. It was wonderful, with beautiful oaks with moss and pine tree farms and hay and cotton fields. The first half of my day I only saw maybe 5 or 6 cars, and one of them was Shelia bringing me some pizza for lunch after she was kind enough to drop off my cart in Swainsboro at the Edenfield Inn, the B&B I will be staying at for the next two nights.

I tried to soak up the quiet as much as I could, since I will only have 5 walking days left after today. Looks of birds; cardinals, blue birds, and other various song birds. For awhile I turned my iPod off and guess listened to the birds. I ended up on a dirt road for a few miles at the end of day. That was much needed, my legs were starting to hurt from too much weight on my back. I got into town around 5, and I got to the B&B at 5:30.

The Edenfield Inn is absolutely beautiful! There are beautiful paintings on the walls, stunning furniture, and it just has a warm, inviting feeling. Aaron, the owner, gave me a gorgeous room with a huge 4-post bed which I get to enjoy for the next two nights. I had an interview with the newspaper when I got there, and showered before dinner; which turned out to have a great deal of people, more than I thought there would be anyway. They made a flavorful veggie stir fry with egg rolls, and homemade chicken wings that were awesome. The company was great, and I got to meet Samantha, the woman who connected me with Aaron and the Inn.

What a great place, very friendly, and unique!

Today was kinda cold, and I just wasn’t really feeling it. It was only 22 miles, but it felt like 30. I was on a highway, although it wasn’t too bad, there were logging trucks, but it was flat and pretty straight, so it was easy to see each other coming. Laura was kind enough to bring me some lunch from Zaxby’s which was really good, and I finished all the chicken, fries and coleslaw in about 5 mins. It was still beautiful scenery, even for a highway but I was so glad to be done; I ended up getting stopped quite a bit, and so I didn’t get to my pick up point until 4:30 where Shelia was waiting for me.

Shelia was a wonderful host, her and Laura had put together a cute little gift basket for me which was a nice surprise.  I showered and we went out to dinner at a Chinese buffet with some friends of hers, and then stopped by her church to see to some of the youth there. We got home around 8, and talked for a bit before I finally went to bed. I don’t even remember getting into to bed I was so tired. I guess it was the cold? Or I was just tired… Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow.

Today was a pretty good. Woke up late, around 8:30 and Coco and I left the house around 9:40 and met Kay and her friend in Milledgville for brunch at The Local Yolkal; I had a strawberry waffle and bacon with cheesy grits. We stayed till 11:30ish and I said good bye to Coco and headed back to Kay's house to drop off my stuff before starting my day. Thanks Kay and Kenny for all your help!!!

I got dropped off a little after 12, and started on my 15 mile walk towards Sandersville where I would be staying with Laura and her family. It was a nice day out other than the wind. Luckily I didn't have my cart, so it wasn't so bad. The temperature was nice, and I ended up passing a couple of kaolin (chalk) mines which was kinda cool. Never seen something like that, and it was strange because everything close to the roads there were coated in a very fine layer of white, probably would't even notice it driving. I also got stopped by a woman named Jennifer who saw a post about me on Facebook, and brought me a hot chocolate and a banana! That was pretty awesome, I also got stopped by a guy at a trucking company in Deepstep, who said his wife saw me walking the other a day and they looked me up. His wife also ended up finding me in Sandersville, and stopped to say hi, and thank me for what I was doing.

Today was also the first day I saw Spanish moss in the trees; right when I walked into Sandersville. To me that is the last change to scenery I've been waiting for; it's been so interesting to slowly watch the scenery and landscape change over the last 3,400 miles... From the lush greenery of Seattle, over the mountains to the apple orchards of the Columbia river valley, cross the Columbia to the flowing wheat fields, and dry high-deserts of eastern Washington. Into the Rockies of Idaho and western Montana, to the rolling hills of sagebrush and wildflowers in eastern Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota. To the land of corn and soy beans of Iowa, and back to the land of hard wood trees from Minnesota to Ohio. Into the pines in the Hills of Kentucky, and the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee. Magnolias started to appear in North and South Carolina, and now, here in Georgia, the Spanish moss makes it's first appearance!

I got to Sandersville at 5:20 and got picked up by Laura and her kiddos. We got back to her house and I showered then ate a yummy dinner of beef, carrots, potatoes, and homemade bread with whipped cinnamon butter....so good... The rest of the evening we chatted and worked out plans for the next couple of days. Laura and her husband are real easy-going and we had a good night. Pretty good day all-in-all!

Well, I had another beautiful day today. But it was mostly on busy highway so not too exciting. I got stopped a lot again, at one point I actually got stopped in front of a Walmart and didn't leave for about 10 minutes or so because so many people kept stopping to talk to me.

I spent the first part of the day on a small side road, but it was pretty busy, so I had to pay a lot of attention to traffic. The second half of the day was spent on a 4 lane highway that had a wide shoulder, but rubble strips down the middle of it, and signs on the side of the road that said: SHARE THE ROAD, with the bike underneath. I don't understand for the life of me why they bother putting in a nice shoulder and rumble strips and yet don't leave enough room for a bike to use it, so the bicyclist is forced onto the street.

So I spent 3 hours walking between the rumble strips and the highway where I bikes usually are. Which wasn't too bad until I got further into town and the shoulder turned into a drainage way. That's hard to push my cart on because it's at an angle and makes it difficult to keep it straight.

I stayed in an apartment that owned by a professor at the college in town. He lives in Athens and I actually got to meet him last week while he was driving to work in Athens, that was completely on accident, since he will be home in Athens tonight. The apartment was super cute; a studio in an old, colorful house that was surprising quiet considering it was on the road right in front of campus.

Steve set up dinner with 4 of his students who I meet downtown. It was a nice way to spend the evening and I had some great pizza at a restaurant called The Brick. After that, I went back to the apartment and watched some TV on my phone since there was no TV or WiFi and that was it! Pretty good day all in all, even if the traffic was busy, I'm just so glad to have some nice weather again, it's been a few months since I haven't had any rain, and temperatures in the 50's or higher.

Today was a bit of  a crazy day! Only 15 miles, but hilly and curvy and fairly busy for a back road. I only walked 4 miles before I decided that I was done walking with my cart... No long after that thought, my contact in Wrightsville texted me and said that if I needed any help for the day, she knew a bunch of people in the area. I immediately called her asking if she could find someone to come pick up BMW, she said she would get right on it. After we hung up, two woman pulled up to ask what I was doing and asked if I wanted a ride into Sandersville. Of course I said no to the ride into town, but I asked if she could watch my cart for me.

She said she would be happy to help, and called her husband to come with his truck. I also asked if they could help get it to Sandersville and they said yes to that as well! It also just so happens that Kay, the woman who pulled over, was driving her daughter-in-law to Macon's Medical Center and offered to take me there since I was going there to visit Riley, who was suppose to come meet me on Friday, but got sick and couldn't. Soooo it worked out better than perfect meeting her. I had also called back Sheila and told her I met Kay and thanked her for her help.

So Kay's husband, Kenny came and got BMW and took us both to their home where I met a reporter, Kyle, for the local paper. After that Kyle took me back out to the main road and I hauled to get where I needed to be to end my day. I was so happy to not have my cart, and just be able to enjoy the weather.

Kay found me around 1:30 and took me back to Macon around 3:30 where I finally got to meet Riley and give him his shoe bead and a Courage Tiger that he loved. I also met the sweetest little girl; she loved her Courage Tiger too, and we played many games of 'catch the tiger' and she had the absolute best facial expressions I've ever seen on a two year old, what an angel. I am sooooo happy I got the change to come back. I was at the hospital until 5 when I got picked up and headed back to Priscilla's house. Glad to be hanging out with them again tonight, they all just crack me up, and are so easy going. We ate pizza and watched 'Bad Teacher' while I got caught up on some much needed blogging. And finally got to bed around 11:30. Good thing I don't have to wake up early tomorrow!

Today was such a beautiful walking day, highs in the 50's and sunny. It was 22 miles today, and half of it was on a dirt road. Which was rather difficult, but absolutely no traffic. 

The first half of the day was on the highway and I got stopped a few times by folks who saw me on TV and got a few donations and some food. I was happy to get off though and get on some quite roads where I didn't have to devote all of my time to watching traffic.

It was really uneventful, enjoyed the peace and quite, and nearly killed me legs trying to get up the hills on the dirt road and it took me nearly an extra hour to get to Eatonton... When I got into town I met at the office for the newspaper and did an interview before Julie came to pick me up for the night. She lives out by the lake where we stopped at a seafood restaurant and I had an amazing plate of shrimp and cheesy grits that were so good. After dinner, we went to the movie theater and saw "Last Survivor", which was a great movie, but very sad. Great folks, her and husband have a really cool house, and a beautiful pavilion where they host lots of events, just gorgeous.

Today I had a appointment with the Children's hospital in Macon, and met some great ladies who took me to the few kids they had in today. A father of a little boy also came in to meet me, Jamie, which was really touching. I will actually go back Monday afternoon to hopefully meet a few more kiddos. But I had a really good time while I was there.

Before I left, two TV stations came by and did interviews (at the same time) One was NBC 41 and the other was 13 WMAZ. I spent over an hour with them interviewing and had to jet right afterwards to get back to Madison which was a little over an hour away, for my Chiropractic appointment at 3:15, then another massage at 4, and drop off the car at 5, and grab dinner before heading back to Kim's house. 

I finally got some quite time, and finally got caught up on blogging and downloading, and emails... What great couple of days, but I'm excited to get on he road with only 11 walking days left. and 2 weeks left total. 

Today I woke up around 8 and went to have breakfast, and a slow, easy start to my day. I met Jean, Amy and Danielle in Roswell at FlameTree Glass to make beads!

That was tons of fun, Lance and his wife were amazing and we were there for a little over an hour making glass beads and watching and learning. Marcy, an amazing glass artist came and did a couple of beads, and I asked her for a shoe bead. My own Dream Bead! Very cool, I am excited to get it when Amy comes down to Savannah for end of the Walk. Lance also gave me a beautiful bead pendent and I added it to my collection of beads on my "Walk 4 Courage" necklace. 

Jean and I went to Starbucks for a quick lunch/coffee before I headed off to Macon, which was about an hour and half away. I got into town 4:30 and met Priscilla and her daughter Coco. I love Priscilla's home. It was build around 1900 and is just beautiful, it's like walking around a gallery and there is so much to see. But it's done really well.

We all hit it off right away and talked until her husband came home and we went out to dinner to meet some of her friends... who were hilarious! Kept me laughing all night, and I am excited that I will be staying with them again Monday night. We were out pass 10, which is late for me! But I met some really awesome people and had such a good time. 

Wow, what a day. Jean flew in last night to come with me to Egleston and Scottish Rite today. I met her and Nancy, our escort for the day, as well as Amy and her daughter Danielle, at Scottish Rite at 10:30 this morning, and we wasted no time (well, except to get some coffee) going and meeting kids. 

Jean had gone to Walgreens and printed out a ton of pictures of Courage Tiger (walking next to me) and I for me to sign and give out to the families we met today. It was so cute! I loved it; people were putting it in their collection for photo albums or scrapbooks. Usually I bring 30 beads to visits and only end up giving out a few and leaving the rest with the hospital. However this morning I gave out nearly all of them! I was already tired by lunch time, but a nice sandwich and a bowl of hot soup helped pick me up again. The flourless-chocolate torte I shared with Jean didn’t hurt either… We also spent time packaging up more of my beads since we would probably be seeing more kids at Egleston than we did at Scottish.

After lunch, we all headed to Egleston where we would end up spending the rest of the afternoon, and evening. I finally got to meet Liz, a long time follower on Facebook, and it was such an honor; she brought her son’s beads to share with me and there were so many, it was amazing and very touching. She stayed all day, and her husband came to show his support as well.

We started the afternoon in the Seacrest radio studio. Which was so amazing! --- Ryan Seacrest started a foundation to open up radio stations in Children’s hospitals throughout the country, where kids can come and deejay and celebrates can come and do interviews and do meet-n-greets with the patients--- I did a interview with the station and left one of my pictures to put on their wall. During the radio interview, I was asked about all my bracelets I was wearing. That got me pretty choked up, because for me, I guess these bracelets would be my beads. Each one was given to me by a family wither either a children still fighting his or her battle, or, their child lost his or her fight, and the family asked me to wear the bracelet in honor and memory of their child and asked me to carry it all the way to the ocean in Georgia. There are also a few given to me by fire departments or police officers and those mark miles along my route. I also have a one from a woman who worked at a hotel I stayed at, and she gave me a bracelet to protect me on the rest of my journey. I also have a friendship bracelet made by a cute little girl I met at a EMS station who wanted to share something with me, but didn’t have any money to give me, Sooooo, I have a lot of bracelets, and they all are very special, with deep, powerful, individual meanings.

We stayed at the hospital until 6 PM with nonstop visiting with children and their families. Some of it was rather emotional, and people were so excited to meet Jean and be able to thank her for everything she has done for them. There were lots and lots of hugs shared, as well as a few tears. Needless to say, I was absolutely exhausted by the time we left. I went back to the hotel for a few minutes before walking down to the restaurant where I would be meeting Jean and Robert and his wife (he came with us to the hospitals). We had a great dinner with mussels and curry fries and a lamb sandwich and squash, with an Irish coffee and crème burlee for dessert! Like I said, what a day.