POST 1101; APRIL 20, 2013; TROUTVILLE, VIRGINIA

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The walk of SAM and ME has entered into a new phase.

Whereas nearly four years ago we set out alone on a mystical adventure daring to walk an old body across America.  We quickly found our stride, avoided injury, shaking the bushes as we walked and rolled...sharing that which we discovered...reaching our first goal...Key West.

Over three years have now passed under our feet and wheels...hundreds, the world over, sharing our euphoric mission.

We found that at least one - this one - old body possessed an attitude and strength to go far beyond the expected.

All this was done without the slightest injury...not even a blister.

Checking into an ER (Emergency Room) here and there, no doctor found any latent problem...even when most went berserk over our 1995 heart attack...so, we continued...pushing to find that moment when an old body might start to object to the stress...and yes, abuse...asked of it.

First signs showed up in September 2012, when an intestinal irregularity pounced...days in the hospital found nothing...even after extensive tests...the irregularity is still with us...on a two week cycle of constipation followed by looseness.  Medication is required to keep it under control...MY decision...not participated in by any medical "expert".  Cause?  ...as yet, unknown.  Possible cancer...possible 60-year daily sinus drainage messing up the digestive tract.  Effect:  nausea, cyclic bloating, some discomfort.  Appears to have little or no effect on our walking regimen

Setting off from Wilmington, North Carolina some two months ago, we immediately (within the first day on the road) noticed a "new" tiredness in leg muscles...requiring a "rest stop" every couple hours...(previously, we walked for 8 - 10 hours across mountains, deserts, and humid shores without rest).  Additionally, we experienced a massive release of sinus fluids from the forehead and face.  Like a broken dam, the lower body was flooded...cutting off normal breathing, filling the lungs and stomach, causing coughing and drowning-like symptoms...and nausea.  We were unable to continue to walk and roll for more than an hour or so, finding rest sitting on a guard rail post, lying over SAM's body.  Two times we were "rescued" by passersby, who carried both SAM and ME to local motels, where within a few hours we recovered sufficiently to continue...somewhat slower than our previous 4 mph, but we at least did finally reach our first destination...the home of Craig and Karen in Columbia, North Carolina.

For over two weeks we rested and recovered...then set off once again to complete our walk and roll to the Peace Arch, Blaine, Washington (State), some 3,200 miles distant.

The sinus flow slowed, but did not stop in Columbia.  Brisk walking has become the ONLY treatment - medication does nothing - of my runaway sinus problem (originating in my mind during the years 1945 - 1952 as the result of our Government intentionally releasing radioactive plutonium gas into the atmosphere of Eastern Washington State...creating a testing ground to measure the effect on living organisms...locally called DOWNWINDERS.)
This ill advised program may be researched by Googling. 

Each day...24/7...my lungs are filled with sinus fluid...making it impossible to breathe without body-shaking coughing to make room for oxygen and carbon dioxide to pass through the sticky fluid.  Nausea is constant. 

These two conditions...intestinal imbalance and sinus obstruction...has, in my estimation, caused a much more significant condition within this old body.

Nutrients and Oxygen are being obstructed from entering into the "red" blood cells for distribution to the cells of the body.  This has upset the "balance" required for normal cell manufacturing processes, resulting in disruption of needed energies to muscles, ligaments, and normal breathing.

We are asking a lot from this old body...intentionally so.  We may have found the looked for limits it can give...

From the cursory viewpoint, we are so completely pleased to have achieved the successes...far beyond any thought possible.  We are, of course, disappointed to become restricted from continuing as we have.

The past 4 or 5 days have been under considerable strain, pain, and emotional stress.  Pushing SAM up even smaller short hills has become a process of baby steps...perhaps 20 to 30...then STOP to catch breath and regain muscle strength to make another 20 or 30 steps.  Even relatively flat terrain has become difficult for more than an hour or so before another rest stop.  The vision of the waiting monster mountain hills of the Allegheny is quite impossible to accept as a reasonable possibility in our present condition.

I have elected to stay in Troutville, VA. for a third night, attempting to get some control on the sinus...clean up the intestinal tract...and gain some nutrients for our poor under-supplied cells and muscles.

I also take this opportunity to point out a growing concern around the world...one which has brought considerable loss to the USA.  We are beginning - in the past few years - to experience growing numbers of...and strength of...natural disasters; floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, deep cold, intense heat, continued drought...and most recently swarms of killer earthquakes.  These are not new to Earth.  They are new to man.  History indicates that we are entering a period of increasing numbers and intensity of such "natural" events.  Such events have happened before!  They will continue to happen again...and again...and again.  It is, in my estimation, not by accident we are seeing growing media (government) query:  is your emergency kit ready?

Walking over 17,000 miles in many corners of America, one constant is apparent...many are afraid...and know not from where that fear comes.  Look into any religious writing...listen to any indigenous story histories...the answer seems to be rather clear.

Some may be confused by my constant use of the pronoun "we".  I consider my body and spirit to be fully and completely separate entities; i.e., living cohesively together, but fully capable to endure one without the other...i.e. (therefore), I use "we", meaning my body and spirit work together as we go forward.  Yes, there is more than ample proof for this distinction...proof which is inappropriate here...but, oh, how exciting !

SAM and ME may, in fact, be unable to continue our current walk...with or without assistance.  The next days will determine that.  Whatever the present outcome, I am not finished with SAM and ME.  I am so very proud and so very humbled to be a part of that which has transpired...and look to the next corner...the next hill...to continue.