Friday, May 16th

Today, John and I started at the Casa Malpais RV Park, with the Arizona/New Mexico state line as our goal. Off we went and we soon crossed over the Little Colorado River, which is formed by snow melt in the White Mountains. On we walked, through Springerville and beyond. We climbed our first steep hill and had a great view of Mt. Escudilla, the 3rd highest peak in Arizona, part of the White Mountain Range. We could see patches of snow near the top. The road was very straight and the weather was cool. Then came the highlight of the day. Helga stopped. Helga pulled her car over to the side of the road to see what two guys dressed in orange were doing walking on the highway. The first thing we noticed was Helga's companion. He was a dummy, sitting shotgun and she called him Mark Twain. Helga was "only 76" as she put it, was from Germany and had a job as a nanny in Long Island, NY. She saved her money, quite her job, bought a car and started traveling the US and Canada. She had an embroidered flag that she showed us. She had embroidered the route of all her trips on the flag. There must have been 4 or 5 trips represented on the flag and the trips went from coast to coast and included Canada. We gave her a Habitat brochure and wished her a safe journey. She wished us the same and was off for more adventures. We walked on, thinking we should come to the state line anytime.

We finally did. We made it to New Mexico! We walked 16 miles today, tired but happy we had made it to New Mexico. Today I found a sweat shirt jacket, a screwdriver, a socket and .28 cents. John and I have a friendly competition to see who can find the most money in each state. He beat me in California, $1.89 to $1.64, but I won in Arizona, $5.17 to $3.17. Stay tuned ...