For now, in spite of the thoroughly enjoyable company we've kept over the last two days, we're ready to get back on the road...but that may not be as immediate as we would like. We left North Newton this afternoon and drove back to an RV park near where I last walked, but the forecast is for some really nasty thunderstorms tonight and the weather is such right now (eerily calm) that we suspect the forecast may be accurate. So we fastened the tarp over Nessie and have started catching up on our card playing. There is a storm shelter here at the park so that gives us a bit of comfort, but if it's going to storm we'd rather it would go ahead and do it and get it over with so that we might be able to salvage at least part of tomorrow. As much as we covet and enjoy the opportunities to speak with whatever groups will lend us an ear, we're both anxious to get to Kansas City and beyond and hoping there won't be too many instances of weather delays between here and there.

No one in Newton had the right size tires for Nessie, so we're driving very carefully and hoping that there will be some place in Emporia where we can get the two tires we need - and that the two that are experiencing premature balding will remain round until we get there. 'Tis a grand adventure indeed.

P.S. Our new webmaster, Duncan, is just about ready to trot out a new, improved website.  Hope you'll all like it.  Until I figure things out from my end, he'll be posting my journal entries for me, and I may not update the Route page for a few days until I'm confident I can do it without screwing anything up.  Let us know how you like the new look.

April 22: The wind was even stronger yesterday than the day before and for most of the walk it wasn't too bad of a problem as it was a tailwind. But about 6 miles of the walk was along route 54, west to east, and it was a direct crosswind - and it was grueling. Deb from North Newton caught up with us in the afternoon and walked about the last four miles with me, then we followed her to North Newton where she and her husband Wes and their two children and two Labs shared their home with us.

As has so often been the case, it turned out to be a good day to take off today. I told Jonna this morning that for the first time since we began I believe that had we not already planned to take the day off I would have anyway. I woke up feeling really bad this morning - drained and tired and aching - and don't think I could have done a productive walking day. But I was in good enough shape to attend services at the Mennonite church in North Newton with Wes and Deb and their family. We met many wonderful people and got a chance to talk to then about what we're doing and why. If you're familiar with the Mennonite tradition at all you'll know that we were warmly welcomed and graciously received.

Finn and Spoof made a couple of new friends of the Labrador variety, although Sable, their older dog, makes it quite clear he is no longer possessed of an age where he thinks romping and playing are a good idea - sort of the curmudgeon of the group.

Wes has a doctorate in Old Testament studies, so we've already had some good conversations, and he gave me a slim volume he's authored on the sacrificial edicts of Leviticus and their application to modern society. I've already read part of it and may pass on some of his insights here in the near future.

At the worship service today we met Brett, who is also a professor at Bethel College here. He asked if we'd be willing to speak to his class tomorrow and again, since this is a major part of what my walk is all about, we gladly accepted. So this means I probably won't be back on the road until Tuesday morning, but that's alright - the walking must always take a back seat to the dialogue.

I'm feeling a bit better than I was this morning, but I think both Jonna and I are going to spend a good part of the day just sleeping. If I can get this posted soon I may do another entry later today - otherwise you'll be hearing from me again tomorrow evening.

April 20: I was really kind of hoping that I could make it all the way to El Dorado today, but the elements - rather than my feet - interfered with that plan. It was a nice enough and warm enough day, but once I passed Augusta the tailwind turned into a crosswind, and it was quite a bit stronger even than yesterday. It's hard for Jonna to drive Nessie in this kind of wind and it's hard for me to walk, and I probably should have stopped sooner than I did. But we got pretty close to El Dorado and then drove on ahead to El Dorado State Park, which we have nearly to ourselves at this time of year. In fact, the park supervisor had to come out and turn the elctricity on for us because they hadn't yet powered up the camping area.

Deb from Newton will be coming out tomorrow afternoon to walk with me for a while, and it seems we may be taking the day off on Sunday to return with her and meet with folks from her church. That's what we're all about in the first place, so it will be a welcome break.

And now for an open letter:

Dear Mr. McCain:

I must confess that I heard your little "joke" before - the alteration of the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann" into "Bomb, bomb, bomb - bomb, bomb Iran". The last time I heard it was from the mouth of a dittohead I knew. But I really never expected to hear it from someone who aspires to be president. Then, as I understand it, when a reporter asked if some might not find it insensitive, you replied, "Who? Iranians?"

Well, yes sir, Iranians - for a start. Followed closely by Iraqis, Afghanis, North Koreans, Russians, Germans, French, Canadians, Mexicans, the entire rest of the civilized world outside of our borders, and finally, those within our borders who are perceptive enough to realize that we do not live in a vacuum and that the words of a contender for the presidency of these United States are taken very seriously by pretty much everyone on the planet.

Let me ask you, sir, how you suppose our country - our leadership in particular - would react if the leadership or serious contenders for the leadership of foreign nations would make a similar "joke" at the expense of America? I do not think it is too far fetched to envision that our "terror alert" status would immediately be raised several notches, diplomats would be called home, embassies would be put on high alert, our DefCon status would be raised, and politicians all over the country would be calling for condemnation of the speaker of those words, economic embargoes of their home country, tighter surveillance of any foreign nationals from their country visiting ours and every other knee-jerk punitive action they could imagine.

Somewhere along the road from military hero and justly decorated veteran to presidential aspirant, you have lost it, sir. You have come to believe that Americans are free to operate under a different set of rules than the rest of the world. You have come to view the world as "Them" and "Us" or, perhaps more accurately, "Them versus Us". You have entered into the realm of nationalistic arrogance that causes the citizenry of other nations around the world to display reactions ranging from a dread-filled shudder to a sad shaking of the head - all of them wondering fearfully what their once friendly - but now seemingly psychotic - Uncle Sam is going to do next.

It seems to have escaped you, sir, that ever since the advent of nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles to deliver them we have been living in a global community. We no longer have the luxury of demeaning, dismissing, vilifying or demonizing foreign countries - even if they are halfway around the world - because distance is no longer a factor and every country is our neighbor as surely as if their borders touched ours.

Bomb Iran. Two little words. Perhaps it is possible that you have become so one-dimensionally focused, so oblivious to overall reality, that those two words have, for you, only one single, sanitary vision behind them - the removal of a potential threat to the United States. Let me suggest then, sir, that those two little words say much, much more to many inhabitants of this planet. They say death and destruction and the snuffing out of innocent civilian lives on a nearly incomprehensible scale. They say more of our own valiant sons and daughters thrown into the fire pit of political paranoia and incompetence. They say decades - generations - of repercussions, reprisals, hatred and bloodshed until the final tally of those two little words ultimately reaches millions and the wounds and scars left behind further propel the downward spiral of international relations toward a point of no return. They say America's leadership, so blinded by fear and anger, has finally lost its collective mind.

For me, sir, much as I admire the service you once gave to your country, much as I am willing to forgive the unintentional slip, the errant word, I am sad to say that in this case there is no redemption. The fact that someone in your position could have (a)heard this somewhere and thought it "funny", (b)let it pass from somewhere in the back of your brain onto your lips, and (c)dismissed it as something lighthearted and trivial tells me that you have now gone too far down the path of arrogance, insensitivity and recklessness to be qualified in any way for the presidency.

Others may be more willing to forgive. So I would suggest, sir, that you have an immediate responsibility, which is:

To apologize to the people of Iran for your crude, loathesome little joke;

To apologize to the citizens of other foreign countries around the world and try to convince them somehow that you really do consider them to posses actual human worth and don't view them merely as potential targets;

To apologize to the citizens of this country for making us, by implication, complicit in your mad arrogance.

Unless and until those apologies come, I will no longer simply view any further pursuit of the presidency by you benignly - but I will work actively in whatever way I can to ensure that your political career skitters rapidly to its sad and inglorious end.

Sincerely,

Bill McDannell

April 19: It appears I may have some company for my walk this weekend which will be great - it will be the first time since El Paso that I've actually had anyone walking with me other than our granddaughter. I got a call early this morning from a lady who lives north of Wichita who has been following our efforts and she says she's going to try to get a group together to come down and walk with me over the weekend. I'll probably know more tomorrow.

The walk was pretty routine today; beautiful weather except for a strong, persistent wind. It was at my back, though, so it didn't impede me at all. We're camped at the same spot as last night - a beautiful little place outside of Augusta called Santa Fe Lake. Only eleven bucks a night. No water and no dump station, but we filled up the water tank yesterday before we came out and we'll dump at the next available location. The guys have had plenty of opportunities to romp, so they're quite happy, and having herons and snow geese for neighbors is really nice. This early in the year there are very few campers out so we often are sharing an entire park or RV park with nobody or at most a couple of other campers.

Jonna has been reading "Bush on the Couch". While I am skeptical of the lasting value of remote psychoanalysis, some of what the author sets forth is pretty self-evident. I've told Jonna on more than one occasion that fifty years from now people are going to be looking back on this period in history and wonder what in the world we could have been thinking and why it took us so long to wake up and take action.

That's it for tonight. The internet connection has been really iffy out here - I was up until after 1:30 in the morning last night trying to get things posted and emails answered - so I'm going to try to put this all to bed earlier tonight.

April 18: We didn't have to wait until tomorrow to see what happens next. About ten minutes after I finished last night's entry, we heard a loud sort of a "Thud!" and suddenly the generator quit. I grabbed an umbrella and went out to see what was wrong. I got the generator started again right away, but shut it down until I could figure out what had happened. I walked around to the door, and Jonna was inside looking aghast as smoke began coming out from the cabinets under the sink and the oven. We got the fire extinguishers and stood ready as I opened the cabinet doors and more smoke came rolling out - but I couldn't find any place where anything was burning or smoldering or even hot. We had lost our 110 volt power since the generator had shut down but still had twelve volts for the lights and such.

I spent the next hour trying to find anything that was smoking or hot or might suddenly burst into flames, but couldn't find a thing. To make a long story a bit shorter, we spent the rest of the night sort of taking turns sleeping, with a hand on the fire extinguisher all night. Nothing else happened and nothing else seemed to be wrong.

In the morning I decided that since nothing else seemed to be amiss I should put in a shorter day walking and then find an RV dealership where we could possibly discover what new calamity had befallen us. I made it to Winfield, then we motored on ahead to Augusta, which was the nearest place that we could find with an RV repair shop.

It turns out that the power converter - yes, the same power converter we had just replaced back in Denton on the 30th - had fried on us. The good news is that we should eventually get the price of the converter back under its warranty. The bad news is that we had to shell out almost another four hundred bucks that we couldn't afford right now - and won't recover the cost of labor for putting another one in.

Some years back we had friends who farmed all of their lives. During the summer and fall they would stock up on all their produce, and they had a huge freezer that they'd fill with chickens, turkeys and every imaginable part of a pig. The wife told us once that they would never worry about anything over the winter and early spring until they roasted the last turkey. At that point, it was time to worry. And that became a standard phrase around their house - which we adopted. When things looked bleak, they'd say, "Well, we haven't roasted the last turkey yet."

Ladies and gentlemen. we have now roasted the last turkey. Today we sent the last $2,000 of the money we had available for this trip to our bank back in California in order to cover the expenses we encountered today and the bills we have yet to pay for this month. When that's gone, the last turkey will not only be roasted, it will have done its duty as turkey supper, turkey sandwiches, turkey salad and turkey gravy. We will have only a wishbone left. If we had the five grand we paid the ne'er do well for the first camper we bought we would probably be fine - but since the courts have no real way of enforcing the judgments they hand down, we may not see any of that for a long, long time.

So once again, and more pointedly than ever, we come before you with hat in hand. If you can help, please do. More importantly, if you can do some public relations for us and let whatever media you can think of know we're out here, please call on any contacts you have - because that is the surest way for us to tap additional sources of income to keep Nessie's wheels rolling.

As I've said before, I will complete this walk no matter what, and we have contingency plans that we don't want to employ - but will if we have to. We think that what we have left will get us through Missouri. At that point, we'll be at our daughter's place in Hannibal. If we can't come up with additional resources by then, we'll return to the Tucson-to-El Paso operation; Jonna will stay behind with Nessie and the guys in Hannibal and find some employment, while I continue on to Washington on my own. We reallyreallyreally don't want to have to do it that way, but will if we must. Your help can make it possible for us to complete the journey together. Thanks.

April 17: My walking day was cut a bit short today by rain - not the blowing-the-cows-across-the-highway that one can sometimes encounter in this part of the country at this time of year - just light, gentle rain that settled in and is forecast to stay with us through the night. While on that subject, I should mention that as we passed through Ponca City, I saw at least half a dozen shops along 177 that specialized in repairing automobile hail damage. That tells you something you probably really don't want to know if you're considering putting down roots in this area.

At any rate, I still managed to make a respectable walking day, as the rain didn't start until mid afternoon. It was obvious to us that we'd have to get Nessie's new bonnet rigged up quickly, so we stopped at a roadside marker commemorating the Cherokee Strip at the edge of Arkansas City and I began fastening rope to the grommets on the tarp while Jonna stood below and connected them to bungee cords and attached them to Nessie's undercarriage. We got enough of them done that when we did finally stop for the evening, before the rain settled in completely, it didn't take long to do the rest and cover Nessie's roof. This may turn out to be one of the better brain drizzles I've had in a while (remember, I don't do brainstorms - more than I can handle). Since we only need to worry about leaks when we've stopped for the night that's the only time we need the extra coverage for Nessie. And I think that with the way we have the tarp secured it will stay in place even through a decent storm. And, lo and behold, it turns out that the ten foot by twenty-four foot tarp we bought for the purpose precisely fits Nessie's length. I'm surprised because I was under the impression that Nessie is a 26 foot camper. It's possible that she is, but only if you measure clear up to the nose, and I thought that such a measurement applied to the living space and did not include the cab. Anyway, our eighteen dollar fix for Nessie's roof leak problems seems to be working elegantly.

As we passed though Ponca City yesterday Jonna was quite taken with the Pioneer Woman Museum located there - and terribly disappointed to discover that it's closed on Mondays. I'm sure she would very much liked to have returned and visited it today, but didn't mention it. We took some pictures of the outstanding - and huge - bronze statue of a pioneer woman and her young son that stands in front of the museum - will try to post one when I get the time.

For tonight we're encamped in a tiny park in Arkansas City - I think it's called Walnut Park, but there's also a sign at the entrance that says "Aunt Sally's Landing", which caused us to wonder who Aunt Sally was and under what circumstances she landed here. There are no hookups in the park so we're running on generator tonight, but the price is right for us at this point - free. The more of these sort of places we can find along the way the longer we can stretch our resources. We've sent out press releases to the Wichita and local area media but have had no response yet. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

April 16: Today was a milestone day for me - the 100th day of walking since I began in November of last year. But outside of my own little world here, we mourn for the victims in the Virginia Tech shooting, and for the world in which such things happen. Because of that event and the fact that I know all of us need some time to process and deal with it, I'm not going to write much tonight; only enough to observe that we made it as far as Newkirk today and will leave Oklahoma and enter Kansas tomorrow. As always, I wish you all peace - and pray especially for peace for those who are directly impacted by the tragedy in Virginia.

April 15 (P.S.): I neglected to mention that Lt. Col. Holmberg is a 78 year old fellow geezer who has gone into training so that he might be able to walk the last 50 mile leg of my journey with me.  I will be deeply honored.

April 15: Right away tonight I have to tell you that my vigilance paid off today. I had just crossed the bridge over the Cimarron Turnpike when I heard a sound above me very much like the chattering and chirping of parakeets. I looked up and saw not one, but four scissor-tailed flycatchers - and they seemed to be doing a group form of the sky dance I had read about yesterday. Two of them would fly toward each other and suddenly arc upward, meeting at the top of the arc and then tumbling downward until they spread their wings and soared around to circle the others. I watched as they continued their dance, slowly migrating eastward over the highway, then turning back westward and sky dancing until I lost sight of them in the distant fields. I had hoped I'd see another one - I never expected to see four together and certainly didn't expect to witness their sky dance. I only wish Jonna could have been there, but she was several miles down the road. What an incredible treat!

Meanwhile, back at the war: If you will recall (if you don't, you can go back to my home page and check it out), when I began this, I said that - since we are not in fact at war - it is necessary to immediately redeploy our military personnel in a fashion that is consistent with the fact that we are not at war. I also acknowledged that I am not possessed of the personal wisdom to specify exactly how that should happen, but would have to leave it to wiser heads than mine to determine the mechanics of bringing this mess to an end.

I am hearing from some of those wiser heads now, and would like to introduce you to USMC Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Bill Holmberg, who has been awarded the Navy Cross, the Purple Heart, and Lord knows what other bright, shiny hardware. Bill, as is the case with so many highly experienced military officers, realizes that war as we know it has become an anachronism: it is no longer capable of achieving its historic objectives and has now become no more than a profit venture for the military/industrial/political complex and a disgustingly cynical method of boosting the economy. He maintains that it is long past time to rethink the entire concept of war and develop strategies that will actually accomplish the objectives of war in contemporary societies.

He described to me a tool that has been in use for years by the Marine Corps, is currently in limited use in Afghanistan, and may be the solution to the mess in Iraq. I hope I can do the concept justice as I lay it out for you here and hope that Bill will correct me if I have misinterpreted any of this. The tool was originally called a Combined Action Platoon and is now called a Provisional Reconstruction Team. If I understand it correctly - and to boil it down to its essence - it seems to be something on the order of a CARE, VISTA or Peace Corps team with teeth. That is, it is a small contingent of volunteers who, teaming with local residents, go into a small village or neighborhood and work to reconstruct, rehabilitate and educate the citizens - and they are accompanied by a squad of Marine or Army ground troops who are there specifically to provide protection for the people and the work in progress. Let me give you some of Bill's own words about how this was employed in Vietnam:

"The nation building (reconstruction is the term now in use) precursor used in Vietnam was the Marine Corps Combined Action Platoon (CAP) – a squad of Marines, a hospital corpsman, and 40 some villagers, teaming together to build a nation from the bottom up. CARE International joined in by providing a wide range of simple community building materials, only what was needed – no feasibility studies, policy development, legal authorities, etc. But rather chickens, books, seeds, pigs, medical supplies, foot-powered sewing machines, pumps, etc. Funding came from Marines CARE, with Marine families, friends and supporters contributing freely. 96% of the CAPS held during the TET offensive. The other 4% were reconstituted within a few days. These villages held while the nation weakened.

There were just over 100 CAPs in Vietnam involving less than 1,500 Marines. If there had been over 5,000 CAPs involving less than 100,000 American troops, we could well have prevailed in that war and saved a great deal in lives and treasure."

Bill is suggesting that this sort of program, slightly revamped, could still result in a stable, democratic Iraq and Afghanistan - and I believe he may well be right. There is another aspect of this idea as well, and that is to team up Iraqi cities and neigborhoods with American cities, much along the lines of a sister city program, where a given American city could be called upon to voluntarily provide the resources necessary in the reconstruction and development of its Iraqi sister city.

There are a number of reasons why I think this could be an incredibly effective approach. First, it completely dismantles the current, mindless "war" against "terrorists". Military combat operations would finally and actually cease, as the Opportunist Occupying the Oval Office told us they did many years ago now. Any military personnel remaining in Iraq would be there specifically and only to provide protection for the reconstruction efforts in progress. As long as that is and remains the specific mission, I personally have no qualms about it.

Second, this administration has gone to incredible lengths to keep their "war" as distant from the general public in this country as possible. They would much prefer that you didn't think about it, didn't talk about it and went about your spending as if nothing was going on. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain - and just wave your flag and keep on sending your sons and daughters so we can use their blood to gain our "victory". I'm not sure whose mind-bogglingly stupid idea this was, but I cannot envision how it could have ever possibly been successful. Wars are no longer fought directly for territory - they are fought for the hearts and minds of the people, because winning there is the only way you are ever going to establish any sort of lasting victory. We have specifically been asked to invest nothing of ourselves into this situation, and with no investment on the part of the people of this country, the people of Iraq cannot possibly feel that we care about them in the least, nor that we have any compassion for their suffering or desire to see them safe, secure and competently governed. In fact, this is the area where "terrorists" have it all over us. How do we think they are able to infiltrate the society (as most of them by far are coming across the borders into Iraq and are not native to Iraq) and turn locals against us? They are doing it by showing compassion, by providing assistance, by relating one-on-one to people in dire situations and showing concern for their needs. You won't here that from anyone in our government, because we're supposed to believe that terrorists are purely evil, with not one shred of redeeming value. They may be - I can't say - but they're also smart, and they're outsmarting our leadership at every turn. If our citizens were called upon to step up to the plate in a hands-on, directly involved fashion, I expect they would - and the people of Iraq would see a dimension to us that has purposely been kept hidden up to now. It is this dimension that I think will be necessary if we are going to "win" anything in Iraq.

Third, the implementation of such a program would involve a much smaller military contingent who would be serving in a much saner and safer environment, and even if the government stepped up and paid a decent wage to every civilian volunteer in such a scenario, the cost of stabilizing Iraq would be several orders of magnitude less than the self-defeating, insane course we are currently pursuing.

I was living in San Diego when George the Lesser stood on the deck of one of OUR (not his) aircraft carriers and pronounced that major combat operations in Iraq had ceased. Had he been telling the truth then, and had he (or any of the megalomaniacs behind him) had the wisdom to put a program such as this in place at that time, I sincerely believe that we would be living in a world today where - despite the fact that he lied and manipulated us into executing a pre-emptive strike on another country for no other reason than his desire to do so - he would now quite possibly be the most popular president in American history and people would be crying for a Constitutional amendment to allow him to serve yet another term. The thought frightens me personally, but I don't think it's too far fetched.

Another thing I've said from the beginning is that what I'm doing is not a political statement - and I stand behind that. True, I think the Republican party is light years behind Democrats when it comes to caring about things we should actually be caring about - such as people and the planet - but if any politician of any stripe ever acquires the guts and the backing to actually try something on this order, he or she has my support. Because I think that what Lt. Col. Holmberg has envisioned is the new face of war the world needs to adopt - not a scenario of death and destruction and blood shed for inches of real estate, but a war truly waged for the hearts and minds of people - a competition of caring and compassion to lift those ravaged by nature, by disease or by inept government out of their dire circumstances and welcome them as fully equal partners in a progressive world society. It can be done.

April 14: The rain stopped very late last night, but it remained cold and windy through the day so in addition to the jacket I had to revert to gloves again for the first time in a long time. Still, most of the walk had either sidewalk or a broad shoulder and body heat keeps you warm on the road, so it wan't a bad walking day. It's been a bad few days for Jonna, though. She's quite sensitive to the lack of sunshine we've experienced for the past several days - it really gets her down. It also looks like we have a real shortage of RV parks for the next few days until we get near Wichita, so we may have a few nights where we find an isolated spot in the countryside and fire up Nessie's generator. I'm just hoping we're done with the rain for a while. I suspect that most of the leaking we had last night is coming from the area around the air conditioner. Since I don't know when I'll have the opportunity to do more work on the roof, we stopped at a farm supply store this afternoon and picked up a tarp large enough to cover Nessie's roof. Leaking is only a problem when we're stopped and water has a chance to accumulate, so we can cover the roof with the tarp if it's raining or we're expecting rain and secure it with bungee cords. It may not look classy, but it ought to keep us dry through the spring anyway. Right now, if we're forced to take a day off it really bothers me - for some reason I've been thinking of Kansas City as a significant milestone and I want to get to and through there as soon as we can. Nothing special to report about the walk today. I thought we might encounter some of the students or teachers we talked to yesterday along the road since it was Saturday, but we didn't.

There was a special moment at the end of the walk. Just as I was writing down coordinates before getting into Nessie, a bird came and perched on a fence post about a hundred feet away. It was a little larger than a finch, mostly black and white with a bright orange breast. But the extraordinary thing about this bird was its tail - probably a bit longer than the bird itself, I noticed that when the bird flew to perch on the wire running along the fence it spread its tail into a V - and it was black on the outside and white on the inside. I quickly called Jonna so she could see it and we both watched it as it would hop from the wire to the ground, spreading its tail every time it became airborne. It was quite beautiful, and although I'm fairly familiar with a decent variety of birds I had never seen one like this in my life. When we got settled for the evening the first thing I did was look it up on the internet, and it turns out that it's Oklahoma's state bird - the scissor-tailed flycatcher. It apparently does a really stunning "sky dance" as well, though we didn't have the pleasure of seeing that. I'll be on the alert for more as I walk the remainder of Oklahoma. One of the great things about life is that, if you're open to it, there is something new and wonderful to experience every day.

A male flycatcher bringing home breakfast

April 13: Once again circumstances turned out that on a morning when we had something other than walking scheduled I couldn't have walked anyway. The rains started coming down yesterday evening and have not let up yet. Late last night was your basic Oklahoma storm - you know - the kind where maybe there will be a tornado and maybe there won't. There wasn't thank heavens, but the poor guys are pretty much beside themselves this evening. You have to understand that they're southern California dogs, and before this trip they had heard thunder maybe three or four times in their lives and seen lightning maybe once. Last night they made up for lost time, and spent the night jumping on top of us and not being terribly convinced when we would pet them and tell them everything was going to be alright.

The thunder and lightning has pretty well subsided, but the rain has not - and we're discovering that while the roof repairs I did seem to have accomplished the task, Nessie has several more leaks I need to deal with as soon as the weather dries again. So we're sitting here tonight with pans in various places catching drips, and new ones sprouting every once in a while, and wondering how we're going to find some dry spots to sleep.

We thought the morning went very well. I think we were supposed to talk to the class for about twenty minutes, but I believe we went over an hour. A number of the other teachers in the school came in to sit in on the discussion and Jonna and I wound up doing kind of a tag team thing, alternating in taking up where the other left off. Most of the questions came from the adults, which was not surprising as these were 9-12 grade students who are not prone to asking questions. Even so, I think that the students were really absorbing what we had to offer, which felt great. When we were finished we stayed and talked with the teachers and a few of the students for a while longer. As we were leaving, one of the teachers handed us a donation that they had obviously collected for us, which was deeply appreciated. Apparently they got in touch with us through the reporter at KSBI in Oklahoma City, who asked them to take some pictures so she could do a follow-up story. Outstanding!

We are always excited to have the opportunity to talk to students. It seems that they are a group in particular for which the whole subject of government and democracy has become an abstract and removed thing - some big mechanism over which they have no control and in which they have no part. This is the very perception that, if not corrected, leads to a general feeling of helplessness in the face of bureaucracy and ultimately to the apathy that permits unscrupulous politicians to accomplish their personal agendas without proper direction from the real government of this nation - the people. As with the issue of terrorism, the solution to our nation's governmental failings is to address the problem at its roots and work on ways of correcting it there. To the extent that we focus our energy on one particular incompetent or self-serving politician, we do the same thing our leadership is currently doing in the "war" on terror - we're picking the blossoms in the field of dandelions...and we can do that until the cows come home and all we'll have to show for it is more dandelions. Our young people need to learn that they have the power to run this nation as it has been Constitutionally mandated, and that, unless they cede that power through frustration, apathy, indifference or ignorance, it will always remain in their hands.

Since it was obvious I wasn't going to be able to walk today (and probably not tomorrow either according to the forecast), we headed west of town to Lake Carl Blackwell Park, otherwise known at the moment as Mud City. By the time we got done hooking up, containing all the leaks and so forth it was too late to call the woman from United Methodist Reporter, so I sent her an email letting her know I'd be in touch on Monday. Or at least I hope so. We also had extreme difficulty last night getting online, so yesterday's journal entry - which wasn't much anyway - didn't get posted, but it's below. I just hope I can get this on tonight.

We have re-entered the land of bugs. For those unfamiliar with the San Diego area - particularly the foothills where we lived - you need to know that there are no bugs there. I'm not kidding. No bugs. Personally, before we moved there I didn't think there was any place in the world that didn't have mosquitos, flies, gnats and other nasty little noseeums everywhere. But in most of the San Diego area you can leave your windows and doors open year round with no screens or anything. You might see half a dozen or so flies during the course of a year, and the occasional bee, but no mosquitos, no gnats, no bugs. True, there are teeny-tiny little ants that invade your home every April and will find any food you left out anywhere and form a conga line clear through the house to get to it, but they leave again in September...and they don't bite, they just annoy.

But we're back in the land of bugs, and sometime during the night the other night, one of them bit me just above the wrist. I have no idea what it was - probably a spider of some sort - but it left a cherry-red pea-sized lump on my arm that still hasn't gone away. It itched for a while, but now it's just sitting there looking very red and raised. I am not happy about this development. To my knowledge, I did not do anything to the nefarious little critter that warranted its biting me, but bite me it did. It all seems quite unfair. Hey, I told you San Diegans were spoiled.

April 12: These stretches of road where there is for all intents and purposes no shoulder make the walking tough and treacherous, but I got through it all the way today to Perkins and happily discovered that tomorrow's route - at least into Stillwater - has a nice, broad shoulder and plenty of places for Jonna to park Nessie. Not much to report for today - Jonna was desperately in need of some sunshine which resolutely refused to appear. Tomorrow morning I'll be speaking to the high school civics class at one of the Stillwater schools and we're looking forward to that. It is possible that the United Methodist Reporter - the house organ for the United Methodist Church - may do an article on us in the near future. We'll be talking with the reporter tomorrow and hope they can do an article. We're deeply grateful to the UM and UU churches in Arizona, New Mexico and El Paso for all they did for us as we passed through - as well as the opportunities that were afforded us to speak to groups of people - and hope we might see more of the same down the road. That's it for tonight folks. Time for bed.

April 11: We had one of those in-between days today - a bit too warm to wear a jacket and a bit too cool to go without one. I chose to go without, knowing that my body heat would make up the difference, but even with that , a fairly persistent dose of wind still kept it from being less than the ideal walking day. Still, the sun was out after yesterday's rain and the countryside was gorgeous, so it made for an overall nice walking day.

I made it to where route 177 passes underneath Interstate 44 and had a good, wide shoulder all the way. Looking ahead, though, the shoulder suddenly disappears north of 44 and tomorrow's walk - regardless of the weather - isn't going to be much fun.

We've now encountered a chronic problem with Nessie that is quite a mystery. I don't remember if I mentioned it, but a couple of weeks ago the refrigerator stopped working on gas, so I figured we had run out of propane since we hadn't filled it in quite a while. So I stopped at the nearest place where I could fill the propane tank and discovered it only took a bit over 6 gallons - we were nowhere near empty. Once the tank was filled, however, we switched the refrigerator back on and it dutifully began refrigerating again. I gave the matter little more thought until this morning, when the refrigerator stopped working again (fortunatey, there's a light that tells you this). Since that last incident, we've been running the refrigerator almost exclusively on gas, fearing that there might be a problem and we were better off keeping it where we knew it would work, and we've used the stove quite a bit, so I thought for sure this time we'd run out of propane. We stopped to fill up, and once again it took exactly the same - just a bit over 6 gallons. And once again the refrigerator resumed working merrily away. When there is still plenty of propane left in the tank, why would the refrigerator decide to stop working when the level gets down to about 2/3 of a tank? The guy where we filled it up, which was at a regular propane distributor rather than a gas station, said that it is possible, although highly unlikely, that the tank could be filled two-thirds of the way with water, which would produce this result...but we still had full pressure when he filled it, which wouldn't be the case if the remaining content of the tank was water. If anyone has a clue about this I'd appreciate a little insight. For now, we simply have to operate as if we only have a 6 gallon propane tank available.

Website traffic remains up since Michael Moore's site has posted us again, and we thank Mr. Moore's crew and welcome all the newcomers. We hope sincerely that you'll find some worthwhile insights here once in a while, scattered amidst the ranting, the travelogue and the general goofiness. Our son Jay also put an email out to his colleagues today describing his father's - um - out of the ordinary journey and welcome those among his acquaintances who may have found our site as a result. I will confess that Jay and I are very much alike in many ways, but I do hope you won't hold that against him.

Speaking of Jay, have I mentioned lately how very proud we are of all of our kids? No, I'm afraid I haven't. But it's true. They are now scattered literally all over the country, and they are all very different one from the other. They are all experiencing varying degrees of success in the material aspects of life, and some of them have graciously provided us with grandchildren to spoil. But despite their many differences, their strong points and weak points, they are all - every one of them - caring, compassionate, thoughtful people who, each in their own way, spend considerable of their mental, physical and emotional energy working to make this world a better place not just for themselves or their families, but for the sake of humanity in general and the planet as a whole. And because of that we are inordinately proud of our children. I know, I know. I've talked a lot more about the dogs than I have about the kids - in fact, we just spent the last ten minutes trying in turn to distract Finn and Spoof while we scarfed a few chocolate chip cookies (I tried, "Look, guys - the abominable snowman!" - but they didn't buy it), which is a completely hopeless task when the four of you are confined in a 26 foot camper. But believe it or not, we are not of that ilk who confuses our dogs with our children. We would give up anything we own for the sake of our dogs (actually, at this point that really isn't saying too much). But we would give our lives for our children.

April 10: It was an iffy day all day - a constant threat of rain with the occasional light mist had us wondering how far we'd be able to make it, but I managed to get to the intersection of route 177 and Interstate 40, so it was a productive day. We're not too sure what it's going to be like tomorrow, though. There's a storm front going by right now and we're hoping that it will be past us by morning. All we can do is wait and see.

It seems that Michael Moore's website picked up the KSBI report from yesterday, so we got an always welcome bump in internet traffic. We also received a request from a teacher in Stillwater to stop there and speak with his civics class - the very sort of thing that we are all about. We hope to make Stillwater by Friday or Saturday but will be happy to drive on ahead - or backtrack - to visit the classroom.

Jonna's cold seemed quite a bit better this morning but progressively worsened again through the day, so I suggested a motel evening - which she thought was an excellent idea. So we're at the Motel 6 north of Shawnee tonight, have had a nice, warm bath and are settled in for the evening. It's also one of those rare times when we have TV available which, sadly, only reminds us that we haven't been missing much.

It's pretty nice having this journal - I can babble on about pretty much whatever comes to mind, although I usually make some effort to keep it topical. Tonight I wanted to offer some musings on the topic of security, for what my musings are worth. I suppose that to gain some insight about my feelings on security, it's necessary to tell you a few things about my background, which I'm certain heavily influences my perceptions. My father died at the age of 52. Somehow, his death at that age fostered an assumption within me that I should not expect to live any longer than he did. I lived with this coloration on my life for the next two and a half decades. I am now over five years older than my dad was when he died. Once I passed the age of 52, I guess I acquired the assumption that however much time I have left on this planet, it is sort of a bonus. To be honest, I think I'd love to live to be be a thousand or more as long as I remained healthy and capable, because there is so much world out there to explore and learn from and enjoy that even a thousand years could only scratch the surface. Even so, having for many years geared myself to an "expiration date" that has now passed, I cannot but be thankful for what I have - rather than be fearful about the eventuality that it will at some point come to an end.

This personal makeup I think has also created within me a more or less jaundiced view of the topic of security. By and large, security - particularly as we define and perceive it in this society - is first an illusion. At some level I think we all know that, but we do our best to pretend we don't. If someone really wants to break into your home, they will probably succeed, no matter what you may do to prevent it. If someone wants to steal your car, they will probably do so, despite whatever devices you've purchased to prevent it (actually, to make it more difficult). And if someone is intent on taking your life, they probably will. We are finite, mortal and extremely vulnerable creatures. There is much chaos of every sort in the world. Sometimes we escape it. And sometimes we don't. But when you get right down to it, the very best we can do is slightly increase our chances of survival in a fairly orderly environment. If that environment goes up for grabs - and sometimes it does - many of us will quickly learn our very last lesson...that everything we've put in place to ensure our safety and security is ultimately useless. Security, as we tend to think of it, is an illusion.

Secondly, security is a commodity. We are being sold security on a twenty-four hour basis. Insurance, guns, alarm systems, locks, retirement plans, stocks and bonds, exercise equipment, cars, vitamins, even toiletries all attract our business by claiming - in one way or another - to make us more secure. Some of these things may, at best make us feel more secure, but none of them can actually provide meaningful security in the long run. Some of them may be able to provide some degree of reduction to our overall vulnerability in certain situations, but none of them can guarantee either our health or our continued existence. Nevertheless, selling security is effective, and now our government has discovered just how effective it is and has jumped on the bandwagon. But they can do no better than all of the other salesmen out there, and in their eagerness to jump into the game, I believe it is quite likely that the actions they have been pursuing will in the long run make the nation as a whole less secure rather than more.

Finally, security - or the pursuit of the illusion of security - can be a terrible obstacle. I cannot tell you how many people have told me how much they admire me or have commented about how brave I am or what an extreme action this is since I began my walk. It always surprises me and takes me back a bit, because I simply don't think of it that way. I am doing what I believe I ought to be doing - no more, no less. In this case, what I ought to be doing turned out to involve selling pretty much everything we had, leaving our jobs and all sources of further income, and walking across the continent. Many people have confessed to me that they could never do something like this - and many of those have wistfully added that they wish they could. I can perfectly understand where they're coming from and cannot say there is anything at all wrong with being in that place. But I would like to offer that there are many, many of us who are so bound up by our illusion of security that it often prohibits us from doing what we know or believe or feel we ought to do. Again, I realize that my situation is by most standards a rather extreme one, and I don't mean to give the impression that I'm suggesting that everyone needs to be able to do the sort of thing I'm doing right now. But I am suggesting that many of us pass up opportunities to explore, to expand our horizons, to learn, to live - because we are so bound up by fear or so wrapped in our (ultimately worthless) cocoon of security that we dare not risk. And when security becomes such an obstacle it is a very sad thing.

Perhaps the thing that finally allows me to be where I am and doing what I'm doing is that on several other occasions in my life - sometimes intentionally, sometimes by sheer circumstance - I have wound up in a place where essentially everything I thought I had to ensure my safety and my future and my security suddenly evaporated. And each and every time I not only survived, but in the long run both grew and thrived. I have been taught, not always purposely or willingly, that the safe choice and the comfortable choice is not always the best choice. When faced with choosing between possibilities and realities I have tended to go with the possibilities; not by any means because the realities weren't good, but rather out of the understanding that much of what most people - including myself - perceive as realities are nothing more than comforting illusions.

I guess if I'm leading up to any point or any words of advice here it would be to ask my brothers and sisters out there to embrace your own mortality. If you think speaking out will put you in more jeopardy than you're in, it won't - it may mess with your illusions a bit, but those illusions are only illusions. If you think taking action might put you in danger, then you need to stop driving, stop visiting your bathroom and stop eating, because all of those are far greater dangers - and they won't expand your horizons or make anywhere near the kind of impact on your community that taking action on your convictions will. We really do only go around once, and if we spend it locked in our air conditioned boxes, mesmerized by the phantoms wafting across the screens of our televisions, we will simply have occupied a very, very small space for a very, very short time. I feel extremely privileged, in a way, to be possessed of this glitch in my personality or my brain or my spirit that has permitted me to do what many would label extreme, many would consider dangerous and some would judge insane: by doing so, I have already had a wealth of glorious experiences I otherwise would never have had, I am in the process of meeting many new people and making many dear friends clear across the country, and - I think - am doing something positive and constructive for my country and those I love. But perhaps the thing that means the most to me out of all of it is the very real possibility that because I have chosen the path that so many would call outrageous, my grandchildren - and perhaps even their children - will know my name. And that, at least to me, means a lot.

One last word. If you have a partner and if and when you do elect to step outside of the mirage of your safety zone, please give extreme consideration to your partner's ability to cope with such action. You may only go around once, but you don't do it in a vacuum. As for me, I am extremely fortunate to have a partner who is at least as crazy (or willing to deal openly with the finite reality of life - you choose) as I am.

April 9: We thoroughly enjoyed our day off. We lazed around the camper and did absolutely nothing. Well, I had to check Nessie's radiator. And fill the water tank. And fix the liner on one of the drapes. And send out a bunch of press releases. And walk the dogs. And plan the next day's stopping place. And check the website. And empty the black water and gray water holding tanks. And Jonna had to make a nice Easter ham dinner. And convert the dining area into a bedroom. And back again. And do the dishes. And clean the floor. And feed the guys. But for us, that's a day doing nothing.

The place we stayed for Saturday and Sunday nights was the Catfish Roundup RV Park. Yes, you read that right. I am accustomed to the idea of rounding up cattle, even though I've never done so, nor have any desire to do so. And now as I am becoming a well-rounded continental traveler, having visited the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup, I can even bring myself to imagine the rounding up of rattlesnakes - although I would want to personally participate in the process even less than that of rounding up cattle. But I just can't seem to wrap my head around rounding up catfish. I can't imagine any reasonable way of doing that and really don't want to hurt my brain trying. Nevertheless. we stayed there - at the Catfish Roundup RV Park - and it was really a very nice place. There was a herd of deer there. Maybe they use them to round up the catfish...no, never mind. There were snow geese. And there was a humungous field where the guys could rip around and run the ever-lovin' spit out of each other. I told Jonna that I think there are very few sights in this world that I enjoy more than watching Finn and Spoof tearing through a bright, green field at full speed chasing each other in circles. There is such pure joy in it on their part, and the sight of these two beautifully marked Shelties romping in a lush field just dazzles the eye. Jonna has noticed that when we let them out to run in a field near a highway, traffic along the road will actually slow down to watch them play. It's really quite something.

Saturday and Sunday I had sent out press releases to all the Oklahoma City and nearby local TV stations and newspapers and some radio stations. This morning we got a call from Kealey McIntire, a reporter from KSBI in Oklahoma City, who wanted to come out and interview me. She and her cameraman caught up with me just a few miles south of Seminole and we did a fairly lengthy interview. She seemed very attuned to what I was doing and I hope the report reflects that. It should air some time this evening. They actually drove right by me the first time when they came out. I'm sure they were looking for someone with signs and banners and all that sort of stuff. By the time they got to me I was only a few hundred yards from where Jonna was waiting for me, so they followed me up to Nessie and Jonna was asked for her very first interview. She obliged, but she's come down with a terrible cold today, so she's worried about how she'll come across on camera if any of that footage actually makes it to the air. Oh well, I hope someone will call or email and tell us because, as I've said before, we don't have a TV in Nessie.

It was cold today, but with a jacket it was pretty nice walking weather so I managed my first twenty mile day in some time. Tomorrow we should be in and through Shawnee and on our way straight north past Interstate 40 toward Stillwater. By the way, I always hate to mention this because I'm so lousy at it, but it is crystal clear now that our own personal reserves will not take us all the way to Washington. We probably have enough left to get us through Missouri if nothing major goes wrong with Nessie, but that's about it. Don't worry - we'll make it all the way if we have to beg, borrow or steal to do it. Well, beg or borrow, anyway. But contributions have ebbed down to nearly nothing again and we need everyone's help to get the word out in order to acquire additional avenues of support. If you've been following my walk for a long time, you'll know that we won a judgement back in February against the turkey who sold us the first motorhome when we started out on the road. If we had that money we would be breathing much more easily. But while he didn't appeal the judgement, the guy is now pleading poverty and asking the court for permission to pay us in monthly installments which will spread that income out for nearly a year, so it makes a significant amount of the money we thought we'd have to accomplish this unavailable to us. I've said it before, but we really and truly appreciate each and every contribution. A few weeks ago we got a contribution of $1.40, which was gratefully received as much as the larger donations - because it was all the person who sent it had. We've had enough visitors to the website now that if each one gave as much as that person did we could not only easily make it to Washington, but would have enough beyond what we need to surpass what we had when we began and make it possible to get started again where we left off when this is all over. But again, all we care about is getting to Washington. The rest, we truly believe, will take care of itself somehow. Thanks for your help.

April 7: Mykah is home safe and sound, and after a nearly 400 mile round trip yesterday Jonna and I got back and simply collapsed. And we woke up this morning wondering where spring went. Today was nasty cold, but as long as I'm walking it isn't too bad. I was able to make it a good chunk of the way to Seminole today, then we drove on ahead to stake out a spot in an RV park. I had written recently that I have yet to take a day off "just because". Well, that's going to change tomorrow. I'm taking tomorrow off just because it's Easter. No business that must be attended to, no repairs to be made to Nessie and no rain or other walk-prohibiting weather (so far). We're just going to sit right here in the park tomorrow, have a nice Easter dinner and veg out. Well, we'll probably actually work on getting some press releases out, but beyond that it's just going to be a day off. So there.

And now for something completely off topic:

Men are pigs. Women have been saying this for a long time, and we men have been staunchly trying to deny it, but let's face the facts - men are pigs. And from what Jonna reports, women aren't far behind, and are doing their level best to catch up. I make this observation because while we're on this rather out-of-the-ordinary jaunt across the continent we have had more than our fair share of encounters with public restrooms, and we have had more than our fair share of encounters with sanitary conditions that go beyond disgusting into the rare atmosphere of causing one to be perversely impressed with the sheer ingenuity of humankind when it comes to inventing ways to demonstrate graphically to the world that we are not - and never will be - house trained.

I will spare you the details...and I will also not launch into a rant about the wide array of evidence we have had to deal with. My rant instead will be about technology. Yes, technology. You see, if you ever wanted proof that the old saying that technology for technology's sake is never a good thing, you need look no further (although I guarantee you wouldn't really want to look) than the state-of-the-art public restroom.

These are the restrooms where the toilets and urinals have no flush handles, but rather are equipped with a malevolent red electronic eye staring intently at you whilst you are doing things that you would prefer no eye - not even an electronic one - should witness. Then, when you have walked away, this never-blinking red eye causes the appliance to flush for you in an almost reproving fashion. You can fairly hear it sigh in distaste at having once again to clean up after an uncouth human.

These restrooms also have left the dispensing of paper towels to a near relative of the malevolent red eye, who waits until you wave your hand in front of the dispenser, then - Abracadabra! - dutifully rolls out an invariably too short length of brown paper towel. Many of them now even have water faucets that automatically turn on when you place your hands in front of them and turn off again when you remove your hands. How cute. How 21st century. How annoying.

You see, in our collective and growing experience, we've discovered that roughly one quarter of those flushing red eyes don't - and a similar proportion of their paper towel dispensing relatives won't. Likewise with the automatic faucets. And the kicker is that when they don't or when they won't - there is no alternative way to accomplish the task. This winds up producing a situation where a restroom designed specifically to protect us from our slovenly selves winds up becoming a graphic example of the reality that we were born not in barns, but have indeed arisen - barely - from the steaming, stench-drenched muck of some anonymous pool of primordial slime.

From the instant one of these little red eyes decides to take a vacation, the sanitary environment of the average restroom can be measured in single-digit heartbeats. And the part of this that elicits a rant from one who would at least like to pretend that he has climbed a rung or two above his porcine nature is that there is nothing I can do about it. If I would like to flush away the gift left by the previous tenant, I can't - because there is no means to do so. If I would like to wash my hands, there are no knobs to turn - either hot or cold - when the mechanized valet ignores me. If I would like to dry my sodden hands before encountering others of my species again, I am completely frustrated, because that nice, dry roll of brindle-brown toweling is sitting snug and safe behind its smoked-plexiglas showcase, smirking condescendingly at me while its electronic guardian resolutely refuses to disgorge a single inch.

This sort of modernization of restroom facilities is truly an example of technology for technology's sake and, as I said, it is never a good thing. Were it not designed specifically to show off its technology - rather than to most effectively deal with the perennial problem of restroom cleanliness - such a restroom would naturally provide for the contingency that its technology just possibly might one day fail, and would provide alternative - if not so technologically advanced - means of causing the various appliances to carry out the functions for which they were actually designed in the first place. Like flush handles on the toilets. Like levers on the towel dispensers. Like knobs for hot and cold water.

The fact that you never see an electronically operated device in a restroom with a manual back-up leads me to believe that the people who design such systems are not at all interested in restroom cleanliness. They know their electronic gizmos will fail - it is only a matter of time. And they have to know what conditions will ensure when that failure occurs. Their true mission then is not to provide clean and sanitary conditions for visitors, travelers and patrons; their mission is much more subversive and sinister. They are, at the base of it all, out to prove to us beyond any hope of denial that men are pigs. And women aren't far behind.

But we already know that.

April 5: My walking day was cut short today due to the fact that the route took me through the middle of Ada and there were several business hours stops we needed to make as we passed through town. We've been looking for a veterinarian so we could get the monthly flea/tick/heartworm pills for the guys, we needed to make arrangements for the rental car for tomorrow, and there was some shopping that had to be done. Possibly one of the greatest changes living in the camper has made to our daily routine is the far more frequent trips necessary for groceries. In San Diego we had an ancient commercial-type freezer that sat behind the house under the carport roof, and we always did our grocery shopping on a rather massive scale, taking advantage of whatever sales we could find. Now, with a tiny refrigerator, a tinier freezer and very limited pantry space, we seem to run out of things on a pretty constant basis.

It was not a great day for walking anyway, and according to what we've heard tomorrow, when we drive Mykah back in to Dallas for her flight home, the weather is supposed to be even nastier. Not rain apparently, but unseasonably cold weather and nasty winds. So I guess tomorrow will be a good day to take off. Don't worry if you don't see a post tomorrow - I have no idea when we'll get back and we'll probably just hit the sack when we do.

We're a bit disappointed that Mykah didn't get to walk with me more than she did - not that she didn't want to, but the road for the past many miles has had almost no shoulder and many ups and downs, so it just wasn't safe for her to be out there with me. In fact, Jonna wasn't too happy with the fact that I had to walk these roads, but ya take what ya get and ya work with it.

It's time to start watching Finn's diet. When we stopped at the vet's today she weighed both the guys, and Finn is about five pounds heavier than he really ought to be. It's understandable - he was used to herding sheep on a regular basis and we've always made sure we get out and walk with them pretty much daily. But now they wind up spending most of the day lounging around Nessie. We try to make sure we stop at least one place every day where they can get out and romp, but it still doesn't replace the regular exercise they're used to. It really isn't a problem Spoof, because he's our picky eater - when we put his supper in his bowl there's often still a bit left there from breakfast. But Finn is a world-class chowhound. He would eat as long as there is food available...it took us a while to train him not to eat what Spoof leaves in his bowl. We've had both kinds of dogs at various times in our lives and have never been able to figure out why you encounter these two extremes, but in this area Finn and Spoof are polar opposites. If we give them treats, Finn will inhale his and wonder exactly what it was afterward - not that it really matters to him. Spoof will sniff the offering, perhaps (and perhaps not) grasp it gently in his front teeth, then lay it on the floor for further examination before he decides whether or not he actually wants to eat it. We don't train the dogs with treats, by the way. We train them with praise and affection. People are often surprised when they hold a treat up for one of the guys, ask them to do one of their commands, and get no response other than the dog looking at the treat. They don't associate food with performance, so we have to show people that they need to put the treat away and then give the command - and afterward, make sure to tell them "Good dog!" The treat can come just as a treat.

Well, enough for tonight. We have to get up early tomorrow and have a lot of driving to do before the day's over and we're back in Ada again. By the way, I haven't had a chance to menton it, but my early reports of the effectiveness of our cellular modem adapter were a bit premature and a bit optimistic on my part. It is often a struggle to get - and then keep - a solid internet connection, which means that many days it's all I can do to get the journal and route updated. This is why I haven't been able to respond to everyone's emails individually and also individually acknowledge each contribution. Not only that, but it makes our efforts to research and contact various media and peace organizations next to impossible. So, as always, I need your help. If you know of media outlets or peace groups along our path, please, please feel free to contact them and let them know we're headed their way. Remember, you are our PR team, and your efforts on our behalf are not only deeply appreciated, but also critical. Thank you - very, very much.

April 4: The weather turned cold and windy overnight, so today's walk was an uncomfortable slog - the first time I've had to wear a jacket in a long while, and a continuous lean into a direct headwind. The road here also has a very narrow shoulder, if any, so safety precluded Mykah walking with me at all today. I think that's just as well with her, though, because she and grandma get in a number of games of Gin, Flinch, Uno and various others while waiting for me to catch up.

Last night we celebrated her birthday a few days early at the Pizza Hut in Ada. We had borrowed their phone book to look for RV parks (there aren't many around here) and when our waiter asked about it, Jonna told them what we're doing. This brought an invitation from the staff to park Nessie in their parking lot for the evening, which was very nice of them. No water or electric hookup, but we can manage fine on the generator and the holding tanks. Of course, we waited until the restaurant was closed to fire up the generator so the noise wouldn't disturb anyone.

Still tinkering with minor problems with Nessie. There was a small leak in the gray water holding tank and I think I managed to fix that last night in the parking lot. We also have to watch the water temperature closely because she has overheated on a couple of occasions. I think it's probably a thermostat that isn't always funtioning properly but haven't had the time to get that checked out. She did it again this morning but settled down after stopping and letting her cool down. After we had the plugs and wires replaced in Denton her oil gauge didn't work properly anymore, but that also seems to have corrected itself. I commented to Jonna last night that, with the exception of the constant worry about something breaking down (and the semi-comfortable sleeping arrangements) I'm getting quite comfortable living in such a small space. She agrees - and tells me she's already thinking about what she'd like to have in our next RV. Uh-oh.

A couple of quick explanations about Mykah's journal entry from yesterday. We met the "posing horses" just outside of Denton. There were two of them, on a lush green bank beside a pond, standing in classic oil-painting poses and so still that Mykah thought they were statues. They held the pose for quite a while, and I think she was genuinely shocked when one of them finally moved. As for the furry cows, I believe she's referring to the several llamas we've seen mingled right in with herds of cows along the way. And as for the weird grandparents - I have absolutely no idea who she may be referring to.

I wanted to get as close as possible to Ada today and, considering the inhospitable walking conditions, I think I did a pretty good job. Tomorrow I'll be through Ada, then we'll have to take Friday off to get Mykah back to Dallas for her flight home. As I mentioned earlier, we're going to rent a car to do that because I'm sure it will be both cheaper and quicker than driving Nessie all the way back into Dallas again.

Every day now I'm reading more and more articles written by people who are saying the same things I've been saying for a couple of years now - and publicly since the beginning of November. It feels quite vindicating to see this happening, but also frustrating that it's taken so long. I know there are many people who won't stand up and speak out until there is a sufficient body of supportive rhetoric out there to afford them a certain degree of comfort in becoming vocal - I only hope our own little effort will help contribute to providing that cushion of comfort as soon as possible.

I've even read some, shocked at how far this administration has been able to warp our democracy, who propose that perhaps times have changed enough that we need to completely revisit our Constitution. That point of view alarms me, because the Opportunists would like nothing better. They have nearly perfected the art of midleading large masses of the American public with their sloganeering, flag-waving and bullying tactics. What makes anyone think they wouldn't use precisely the same techniques to their advantage were we to put our fundamental documents on the table? If it ain't broke, don't fix it - and our Constitution, ladies and gentleman, is not broken. What IS broken - and what MUST be fixed - is an executive branch that is doing everything possible to create an old-fashioned monarchy, and a legislative branch that seems to be both ignorant of its duties and responsibilities and too concerned about personal political fortunes to take appropriate actions to preserve, protect and defend our republic. Perhaps one day we will come out of this a stronger nation than we were when we went in and - in a perverse way - we'll have the OOOO to thank for that. But in order for that to happen, we can't allow the egregious excesses before us to be swept under the rug, to be excused or ameliorated. We can't allow benchmarks and timetables to assuage our growing realization that what we're doing is WRONG and must be STOPPED. If we are ever again going to be in a position where we ask any segment of the rest of the world to behave in a sane, ethical, civilized fashion, then we must first demand the same of ourselves.

April 3: We have a special guest journalist this evening - our granddaughter, Mykah. Before we began the walk, we made the decision not to identify any of our grandchildren by name, but at Mykah's request and her parents' approval, we're making an exception. Without further introduction, here's Mykah's contribution:

Mornings tend to be funny with my grandparents. We always try to keep grandma happy - "If grandma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy," as grandpa says. I guess I could say that they like to pick on each other.

Well, enough about them. My name is Mykah (MEE - kuh) and I am currently 10 - April 20 is my birthday. I have seen a lot so far. You know...posing horses, furry cows, lakes, rivers, ponds, you name it - but the wierdest of all was a Cattle-lac. It was when we were still in Texas. There was a green car with "Cattle-lac" painted on it and colorful painted-on hooves and with statues of cows on it - one on the roof, one on the back and one on the front of the car. My grandpa thought it was so cool he decided to take pictures of it.

It can get strange around Nessie (the camper) and my grandparents can get pretty goofy, but when it all comes down to one thing, being with my grandparents has been my favorite thing to do on this trip.

P.S. from Bill: Happy Birthday, Sis!

The Cattle-lac. Ah, how we'll miss you, Texas!

Rear view. Now you know what happened to the guy who designed the Edsel.

April 2: It was a beautiful but windy morning so, as planned, I spent the early part of the day up on Nessie's roof, scraping and cleaning. We had left the park and found part of the Tishomingo National Wildlife Reserve near where I had left off to do the work. We parked beside a lush green meadow and the guys had a blast chasing each other through the meadow until their tongues were hanging down around their toenails. Jonna and our granddaughter got out a chair and a blanket and sat reading and relaxing while I scraped the old gunk off Nessie's noggin. It didn't take as long as I had feared it might. I only did the section from a few feet in front of the rear door to a little over halfway across the back, as that's where the leaks were. There are other areas that need to be done soon, but I think think puts us in good shape for now. I got the new gunk all caulked into place and we feel much more confident about facing the next rains to come our way.

I wound up with enough time left to make it the rest of the way into Tishomingo, then we backtracked to find a camping spot since, at least according to the locals and the phone book, there are no RV camps ahead until we get to Ada. This time we settled in at Little Glasses RV camp (named, I'm sure, for Little Glasses Creek - but who knows what the creek was named for?). It has a nice view of the lake, but is really nothing special beyond that.

The radio interview with NPR this morning went well, I thought, and Mr. Brown promised he'd be checking back in with me again in a couple of weeks. All in all, despite toiling in the sun on the roof for several hours, it was a very enjoyable and rather relaxing day.

You should know by now that my petition - my purpose - is not in the least politically motivated; in fact, I've attempted to lift the entire issue of the "war" and the balance of powers out of the arena of politics altogether and address it from the point of view of a moral, ethical and American principles issue - which is exactly what it is, after all. But I certainly do have my own political point of view, and I know some of you may at times wonder where I stand on issues such as impeachment. So tonight, for what it's worth, I'll tell you how I feel about impeachment.

I am puzzled. I am puzzled because I'm wondering what ever happened to all the strict moralists in Congress who, like a pack of rabid wolves, were so bent on impeaching a previous president for the dastardly crime of lying about an illicit affair. What happend to them? Where did they go? Are they still out there, resolutely scanning the horizon for the next person in high office who would have the audacity to sully the virtue of his or her position? If they're still on the hunt, I'd like to ask them a few questions:

How many lies to the nation, in such vaunted forums as the State of the Union address, does it take to equal one "I did not have sex with that woman."? How many people does one have to torture - and then attempt to amend our legal code and subvert the Geneva Conventions to make those acts acceptable - to equal one soiled blue dress? How many flag-draped coffins returning from an illicit war does it take to equal an adulterous encounter? How many in-your-face perversions of our system of justice, attacks on our Constitution and outrageous manipulations of the American people does it take to equal a debate on what the definition of "is" is?

This administration has managed to weasel its way very, very close to the place where they have constructed an Imperial presidency - so close that if and when our legislators finally wake up and set about doing something about it, they are going to have a very difficult time - because in many ways these people have already maneuvered themselves either outside of or above the reaches of the law. If that doesn't frighten you, it should. It certainly frightens me to realize that, no matter what this administration does, it is at this point almost untouchable. But the key word there - fortunately - is "almost". We still - barely - have the republic we inherited. It is time to use it or lose it.

In other words, O noble guardians of the moral fabric of our country - what in the world are you waiting for?

I know the answer well enough - you don't have to tell me. The answer is that it is not politically advantageous to pursue impeachment. Were this not so, the Opportunist Occupying the Oval Office and his cohorts would have been seeking employment elsewhere (probably in Saudi Arabia) a couple of years ago - because the offenses are there, they are obvious, and they are many.

So there we are again. As with the war, as with restoring the balance of powers, the only thing preventing our leadership from finally doing the RIGHT thing about the question of impeachment is the political consideration. We are living in a moment when politics trumps everything, and it is long past time when we should recognize and correct this situation. We are now years behind on pulling our troops off of foreign soil, on restoring the balance of power to its Constitutional framework, and on impeaching those guilty of high crimes against our nation - which means against you and me. It's time for us to catch up.

April 1: Two days in a row of outstanding walking weather, but I cut the day just a bit short - one of the things about Nessie that has needed attention is a couple of roof leaks, but we haven't had decent enough weather to even think about it until now. With two days of dry weather and skies looking like they might cooperate for at least another day, we called it off early so we could get parked and I could get to prepping the roof while we still had some daylight. Tomorrow will also probably be a short day, as I'll get up early and spend the first part of the day finishing the work on the roof. If all goes well I should still be able to get some walking in tomorrow, but it's particularly important to get this done as soon as possible and while we've got the weather to do it.

Nessie has a tin roof, which is good news, because it means if the roof is going to leak anywhere it will be along seams and wherever there might be a screw hole - but we don't have to worry about cracks and such. On the minus side, it seems that previous owners figured that the way to seal leaks was to plop new gunk on top of the old gunk which, while giving the water something to do as it meanders down through the layers, really doesn't stop the leaks. So I've got quite a bit of old gunk to scrape off before I can put new gunk on. The guys at the repair shop in Denton gave me some good tips and pronounced Nessie's roof in pretty good overall shape and even recommended the appropriate gunk to use (Dicor, if anyone's interested), so I picked some up a few days back at the RV shop so I'd be prepared when the opportune time came. So I scraped off old gunk until I lost my light this evening and will be at it again early in the morning.

Two things a lifelong midwesterner transplanted to San Diego comes to miss: the fresh greens of spring and the smell and feel of grass. Yes, there's lots of green in San Diego, but there's a particular yellow-green of spring that you really don't see there. And yes, there's grass - in places - in San Diego, but it's short, coarse stuff that rarely gets mowed and in which you really don't want to be wiggling your toes. I haven't done any toe-wiggling yet, but the soft, green grass is here and the spring greens are here - southern Oklahoma is much more lush than I expected it to be - and it's turtle season.

When Jonna was serving churches in central Missouri she'd encounter whole herds (flocks? hordes? gangs? armadas? packs?) of turtles crossing the highways every spring. It isn't quite as bad here, but I've come across a number of road kills and today saw about eight turtles sunning themselves in the culverts and creeks along the way. Turtles are neat. I never mentioned that one of the couples I stayed with in El Paso kept a clutch (pride? school? bevy? swarm? batallion?) of turtles in their back yard. They could only find one to show me, as it was February and they were all still keeping safe and warm in their various hidey-holes, but I thought it was a wonderful thing to do.

Walking through Madill today I had one gentleman pass by who obviously knew who I was. It felt good. I would often get honks and waves of recognition along the freeways, primarily from truckers, who often have satellite radio or get to various larger cities and have had the opportunity to read or hear what little exposure my walk has gotten. But out here in rural northern Texas and southern Oklahoma, it's been a long time since anyone clearly knew who I was.

Speaking of that, I found out today that Michael from Denton called the Stacy Taylor show and talked to him about meeting me on the road and the time we spent together. Thanks, Michael - that was a really nice thing to do. And thanks, Soozy, for letting me know about it.

We're tucked away at the Texoma state park again tonight - it was pretty enough and peaceful enough and cheap enough - and wasn't much of a back-track - that we decided it would be a good place to spend another night. Everyone's getting bedded down for the evening, so I guess I'd better finish up and get this posted - I have an early start again tomorrow.