Today's destination is Buckeye, AZ, a distance of approx 25 miles. We don't necessarily want to do this many miles in a day, but sometimes it works out better overall. Plus the coolers are full, the weather is nice, so why not. Along the road, I saw either a fox or a coyote. Considering where we are, most likely it was a coyote. We also passed what appeared to be large observatories (does anyone know if there are any in this area?) We also saw a large pig with long tusks, beside the road. Someone later said it was a Javelina Pig. It appeared able to do some damage with those tusks should it have reason.
We finally turned onto Baseline Rd, the final leg to Buckeye. There are many roads out here called "baseline", so i asked a man why. Seems when all this land was originally surveyed, certain roads were laid out to be the baseline for all other roads. Made sense to me, so I accepted the explanation and moved on. After walking what seemed to be long enough to be in Buckeye, still no evidence of a town. Alan asked a guy how far to Buckeye, and was told a "couple of miles." Well, we walked a couple more miles, plus some, and still no Buckeye.
Another thing we saw along the way, miles and miles of cotton fields. Being from the South, I remember cotton being grown in NC, SC, and other southern states.......but no more. In fact, my grandfather had a farm and grew some cotton for a while. Very labor intensive work at the time. But it's out here in AZ by the mile. All irrigated by big wells drawing from the massive amounts of water under AZ.
A woman in a truck stopped to ask if we needed water or anything. "Nope, but how far is it to Buckeye?" "Another 5 miles," she suggested. So we walked another 5 miles, plus some, and still no Buckeye........is it moving? I saw a big, modern, Budweiser building, and decided to stop there to ask 1 more time. "How far to Buckeye?" And the reply, "another 5-10 miles." I almost dropped to my knees, just couldn't accept that the town could pick up and move faster than we could walk. "Are you sure?" "Yes, just go up here another 5-10 miles, turn on Miller Rd, and it'll take you right into town."
Nothing is more discouraging to a walkingman than to think you are near the destination, when actually you are not.......and we get this every day. No one seems to know how far something is, or how to get there......is this because of GPS in cars? I told her we couldn't chase the town any more, it won, and we were going across the street to the Shell station and drown our sorrows in Gatorade.....which we did. We sat there at least an hour or so, trying to decide what to do for the night.
I finally called my daughter-in-law Michelle, who is our best locator, and told her I would send out a signal on the SPOT device and maybe she could tell us where Buckeye had moved. I did, and she called back and said it was a mile or so down the road with lots of restaurants and stuff. Alan was really suffering with foot problems, but with the promise of a steak waiting a mile or so away, I convinced him to walk to Buckeye. We put all the gear on the cart so he wouldn't have any weight on his feet and moved on.
We finally reached town, rested a while, and wandered into the Wild West Steak House......reported to have the best steaks in town. Alan got his steak, me some ribs, and before long, things were looking better. A young man who had seen the sign about our walk on the cart, came over and offered to be our "weather man" for the entire walk. He would track our progress, and report what weather we could expect. It was hard to turn down, but I declined the offer, choosing to just tough it out.
We still didn't have a place to stay for the night, so wandered around town for a while (it was dark by now), and Alan said he wanted to stay in a motel because of his foot problems. We found an inexpensive one, and soon were in a cool room on a soft bed.
A footnote about the distance/direction problems......I think people sometimes confuse miles with minutes. The last woman we asked, Buckeye was probably 5-10 minutes from her building. So, if you ever encounter a walkingman, decide if he wants miles or minutes before you reply. You might save his sanity.
We finally turned onto Baseline Rd, the final leg to Buckeye. There are many roads out here called "baseline", so i asked a man why. Seems when all this land was originally surveyed, certain roads were laid out to be the baseline for all other roads. Made sense to me, so I accepted the explanation and moved on. After walking what seemed to be long enough to be in Buckeye, still no evidence of a town. Alan asked a guy how far to Buckeye, and was told a "couple of miles." Well, we walked a couple more miles, plus some, and still no Buckeye.
Another thing we saw along the way, miles and miles of cotton fields. Being from the South, I remember cotton being grown in NC, SC, and other southern states.......but no more. In fact, my grandfather had a farm and grew some cotton for a while. Very labor intensive work at the time. But it's out here in AZ by the mile. All irrigated by big wells drawing from the massive amounts of water under AZ.
A woman in a truck stopped to ask if we needed water or anything. "Nope, but how far is it to Buckeye?" "Another 5 miles," she suggested. So we walked another 5 miles, plus some, and still no Buckeye........is it moving? I saw a big, modern, Budweiser building, and decided to stop there to ask 1 more time. "How far to Buckeye?" And the reply, "another 5-10 miles." I almost dropped to my knees, just couldn't accept that the town could pick up and move faster than we could walk. "Are you sure?" "Yes, just go up here another 5-10 miles, turn on Miller Rd, and it'll take you right into town."
Nothing is more discouraging to a walkingman than to think you are near the destination, when actually you are not.......and we get this every day. No one seems to know how far something is, or how to get there......is this because of GPS in cars? I told her we couldn't chase the town any more, it won, and we were going across the street to the Shell station and drown our sorrows in Gatorade.....which we did. We sat there at least an hour or so, trying to decide what to do for the night.
I finally called my daughter-in-law Michelle, who is our best locator, and told her I would send out a signal on the SPOT device and maybe she could tell us where Buckeye had moved. I did, and she called back and said it was a mile or so down the road with lots of restaurants and stuff. Alan was really suffering with foot problems, but with the promise of a steak waiting a mile or so away, I convinced him to walk to Buckeye. We put all the gear on the cart so he wouldn't have any weight on his feet and moved on.
We finally reached town, rested a while, and wandered into the Wild West Steak House......reported to have the best steaks in town. Alan got his steak, me some ribs, and before long, things were looking better. A young man who had seen the sign about our walk on the cart, came over and offered to be our "weather man" for the entire walk. He would track our progress, and report what weather we could expect. It was hard to turn down, but I declined the offer, choosing to just tough it out.
We still didn't have a place to stay for the night, so wandered around town for a while (it was dark by now), and Alan said he wanted to stay in a motel because of his foot problems. We found an inexpensive one, and soon were in a cool room on a soft bed.
A footnote about the distance/direction problems......I think people sometimes confuse miles with minutes. The last woman we asked, Buckeye was probably 5-10 minutes from her building. So, if you ever encounter a walkingman, decide if he wants miles or minutes before you reply. You might save his sanity.
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