4-Day Walk - Day 4

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After a miserable night’s sleep of waking up every hour or two, and feeling cold often, I was awake and ready to go before 9am. My wife took me back to Landrum, at the intersection of I26 and Hwy 14, about where I would have reached yesterday, if I hadn’t gone in the wrong direction. Today I wasn’t carrying my backpack, just my fanny back with two bottles, so the 20 plus miles to Lake Lure shouldn’t be too bad. I turned onto Red Fox Road, walked a mile or so and realized I should have used the restroom back at the gas station where my wife dropped me off! I knew there wasn’t any gas stations or stores for quite a few miles, but when I spotted a church, and realized it was Sunday, I figured I was in luck. Sure enough, they were holding a meeting of some sort and graciously let me use their restroom. Aaaahhh!

The first place on the route to take a break and get water, etc., was almost 10 miles down the road! I made it okay, but had a lot of long and/or steep hills along the way. I stopped at Deb’s Mart at the intersection of NC 108 and NC 9N, to refresh, take my shoes off, and have something to eat. Although all they had were prepackaged sandwiches, they did have a couple of tables with bench seats. I relaxed, ate my sandwich and drank my fruit drink. Not as refreshing as iced coffee, but good for me. I tried to text my wife so she’d know where I was, but unfortunately I was so remote my phone couldn’t get a signal for about 15 or 20 minutes after I left the store. The next leg was almost another 10 miles, with the only place to stop, about 9 miles down the road at a Dollar General. By the time I got there I was half dead, but still had 1.7 miles to go in order to meet my waiting wife at Lake Lure. I made it, but man was it rough!

Tomorrow we head back home. I’ll try to upload this along with photos and some editing then, since both the wifi and cell service are spotty at best here at the campground.

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