March 26th

We walked 13.7 miles today. We walked from Beaumont, California through Banning, California and beyond the casino on the Morongo Indian Reservation. Everything was going great. We walked through Beaumont and Banning, there was a nice breeze at our backs and the sun was shining and the road was level. Then we had trouble. The road that we were looking for wasn't there, or at least we couldn't find it. So, there just happened to be a California Highway Maintenance building right there, so we went inside and talk to a very nice man and told him what our problem was. He said that the Morongo Indians don't allow anyone to walk on their land. No exceptions. But he did give up an alternate route. Just cross over Interstate 10, where the sign says no pedestrians allowed. Across we should find a hole in the fence and on the other side of the fence is a service road that no one uses anymore. Well, we did what he said and sure enough, we had a two lane road all to ourselves for about 2 miles. Then as we were re-crossing Interstate 10, we came across 3 homeless men sleeping under the overpass. We told them about Habitat and they said that they knew about it and Jimmy Carter. We pressed on passed the Indian casino, just after John had a strawberry sundae from McDonalds, crossed over Interstate 10 once again and walk down several miles to the Rolex sign. That's where Carol and Ruth finally tracked us down. Tomorrow is moving day. We leave Lake Parris State Park and will stay at Yucca Valley RV Park. I found one socket of undetermined size and .17 cents. I put 13.7 miles on my New Balance 817. Stay tuned.