Michelle Walks Across America.com

Well, the fourth week of walking has concluded! We are currently in Denver, Colorado. Not a bad city, actually. I’m really enjoying the area. So, I would say it’s on my list of possible places to move after graduation.

I walked the most miles on Thursday than I have all summer. 17 miles. I had to work up to it by gradually increasing my miles each day. I started with 8.5 miles on Monday of this past week. My feet (with healing blisters) needed to get used to a different set of shoes. We walked for about 12.5 hours on Thursday. A bit of a longer shift than usual. But, because we had to be in Denver on Friday for filming—we couldn’t get any walking done. So, poor night shift went out at midnight and walked until 4pm the next day! Talk about troopers!

On Saturday night in Denver after the Masses, one of the families in town had a bbq/party for us. One of my sorority sisters from my previous college, Katie, came to the party and then her and I went to hang out! It was awesome getting to see her. We went for Boba tea and then to her house to watch a movie. Earlier that day…the team went downtown with the film crew to get some city shots. It was a long and exhausting day.

The host family we stayed with in Denver was an awesome couple…who actually–the guy, JD, previously walked with and worked for Crossroads. So, it was really neat getting to hear his stories and experiences.

For the fifth week…Josh put me on night shift. I was pretty excited for this since I didn’t get to finish out my last chance of night shift a few weeks ago…due to those ridiculous blisters. Oh, by the way–as a team, we all gave up coffee for the summer. And actually–we don’t really consume much caffeine at all. So, we get our energy from prayers…and water!

Jessica, David, Chris and I walked. Normally, I don’t really fear anything. But, this past week in Colorado–the moon was MIA! So, it was absolutely pitch black near the Rockies…and to tell you the truth–I was petrified! It’s crazy to think that a bear or mountain lion could just pop out at any time! The best part…we have no clue how we’d handle it. So, we just keep on praying and chugging along. Miles go much faster at night…because all you think about is getting back to the van as fast as possible.

By the way…thanks to everyone for all the prayers. Seriously…without them–this walk would be so miserable. It’s weird how you can feel your body getting stronger. I actually didn’t think I was that weak before I came on this trip–but now, I realize how much more I still have left to grow.

Today is the 27th…and we’re spending the weekend in North Platte, Nebraska. Thursday of this past week was quite interesting. So, morning mass was a little bit later than usual–11:15am. So, on night shift…we had a longer shift to walk. Well, when we got to Mass–Father decided that we needed to go to the local abortion clinic and pray. So, we did. It was the smallest clinic I’ve ever seen. The coolest part: a pregnancy resource center was next door! Talk about contradiction. After the clinic, Father took us out to lunch. Yummy! Back at the church we had confession and met these awesome college students from Totus Tuus! We keep running into them wherever we go. They’re an awesome group!

Thursday night we slept in the parking lot of this church that looked like a log cabin! Night shift made it through the ENTIRE Rockies in like 14 hours. Talk about hardcore! At Mass on Friday morning, a random family asked us to meet them at their cabin for a pancake breakfast. Lots of needed breaks this past week! Friday we needed to get in as many miles as possible…and we were hoping to get to Loveland, Colorado…because we are about a day behind. So, we did a lot of running. But, on our breaks–we ventured down to the river where we climbed rocks! So much fun! Kelsey and I have decided that we love walking in the rain…because you just feel much more hardcore! haha. But, wet shoes are no fun.

We haven’t had any constant internet this past week…so, it has been hard to keep this updated. But, I got some fun pictures last week that I’ll hopefully be able to post within this next week. Right now I’m at one of the host family’s houses. We have three this weekend—so, we all got split up. North Platte is a small town…so, Jessica, Kelsey and I only have two masses to speak at this weekend! Whoa! Compare that to Sacramento’s 10!

Anyways, I better get back to the movie–we’re working on some team bonding tonight. Oh, I forgot—today was a lot of fun. Our host family took us out to play putt-putt and to ride go-carts. Something I haven’t done since I was like 8 or 9. Craziness.

Well, next week is the 4th of July and we’ll also be in Omaha/Lincoln…AND it’ll be 20 days until my 21st birthday! I think the guys may take me out.

Until next time, Michelle