June 23, Blisters for Jeff

Of course, Jeff left early from Jan and Don's house. I got up and got everything together. Well, not exactly. Once I got up and had my coffee and shower, I heard them outside working in the yard. So I went out and had a morning chat with them. They were awesome to let us stay there! Of course, we could have gone back there tonight, as well, but as tempting as that is, it is backtracking almost 40 miles. So, here we are on the side of the road.... But back to what I was saying. I interrupted my routine this morning. When I broke camp, I forgot to dump the tanks. I noticed earlier that the black water was fine, but grey water was close to full. Seeing as how we are on the side of the road for probably the next couple of nights, that was tactically significant! Not to worry, though, I did find a public dump station in Shoshone.

Here is a bit of information from Jeff regarding the state of his feet:

"Well today I sort of performed an experiment today. Results were a bit worse than expected. I can't even count the number if places on my feet that hurt. Little blisters everywhere. Amazing what a little change can do. I am still running dry feet, no lubes or powders. 

Ok, just about every toe is sore. The ends and the pads both. I have only been running up hill for two days. I have days to go before I have any down hills. I also have blistered the hollows of my ankles. My feet hurt everywhere. Such is life. I will be in a city in just six more days. I could hit one in four if things get worse, not that going into a small city will gain me access to anything of value.

I think my real problem is that we have a great afternoon tail wind. My feet get sort of numb after right hours and I feel no pain and I run the hardest of the day the last few hours. My feet are moist by then and when running in stride I am comfortable. Too comfortable probably.

Two socks, I survive just being sore with my " existing" blisters. Single pair, like I had been doing until I changed brands of shoes three days ago, and my Hoka ones killed me. Same brand that made my feet feet bleed in Tennessee. Am I a slow learner, or what?

I guess I need to think about shoe shopping, but I arrive in town Sunday night and leave in the dark Monday. Can you say schedule change? Probably will look at a route change as well".
He is not complaining, though! I am going to set him up with an Epsom salt soak here in a few minutes...

Today was much of the same, really. High desert, with crops and ranches, for as far as you can see. And the highway is quite busy with large trucks. I did my couple of miles, and one of the hay haulers created so much wind that it almost knocked me over! At least it seems we are out of the crop area, and it is pretty much desert. And, it was mostly up hill today! Jeff is happy we can now see the snow capped peaks off in the distance, perhaps the Tetons?

We did pass this really interesting ranch, with great drive up appeal! And they even had a bear!

 

Jeff also stopped at the local fire station in Shoshone while I was out looking for a place to dump the tanks. He even got a brief tour inside.

 

Then just as the day was winding down, Jeff ran into Scott. Scott is riding his bicycle across and around America. He talked and talked. Must be lonely, I guess. I found them on the side of the road, and pulled over. They walked over to the coach, and Scott was quite animated. I was interested in the fact that he was only about 2 years older than Jeff, but I swear he looked much older than that.... he has recently lost his wife, and I guess that will do a number on you. But, the really interesting thing is, just how Jeff finds little interesting or weird stuff on the road, so does he. But, where Jeff finds pennies and spent bullets, this guy finds Rolex watches and diamond rings! Go figure. As Jeff said, we need to try new roads!

Shoshone also had a couple of interesting things. To begin with, there is no reason for the town to exist except fort the railroad! And it is a railroad town! We ate lunch in a diner there (nothing to rave about!) and it was all about the trains, too. The second hand store had some interesting items, and there were some pretty interesting buildings, too!

The local sheriff stopped by to see what we were up to. Law enforcement folks have been wonderful!

Once again, the road ahead. However, it is slightly different than the roads yesterday. Each day has enough variation to keep it interesting!

In fact, I had to take a pic of the RV sitting on the side of the road, with absolutely nothing else in sight!

As the sun sets in the distant west, I will leave you with the mailboxes of the day! And go see to Jeff's feet....