DAY 21
October 25, 2006

This morning I didn’t start walking until 9 a.m. We parked the RV in front of abandoned restaurant in Hatch because it was the only place we could get a television reception. We heard that President Bush was going to do a live press conference about a change in policy in Iraq. I was excited. All the walking had gone to my head and I thought that he might actually announce a change in policy in Iraq. He didn’t. He did, however, stop saying “stay the course.”

Now he says “achieve victory.” Personally I find it sad and disturbing that the war in Iraq had been boiled down to the U.S. winning and the Iraqis losing. (I assume he’s speaking of the Iraqis since they are by far the majority of the insurgency.) I would prefer Bush to say something like “achieve a compromise.” Working together with tolerance and compromise brings peace and stability, not winning or victory.

Of course Bush will argue that the Iraqis hate freedom and they don’t want democracy. This isn’t true. They just don’t want the democracy that we wanted them to want. That’s the danger of letting people decide for themselves.

At this point, I was frustrated enough to kick something. Instead of hurting my foot and possibly breaking something in the process, I opted on a long walk. How convenient.

Matt LaPlante and Rick Egan from the Salt Lake Tribune met us after Bush’s talk and walked the whole day with us. They’re good guys and they kept up the pace really well. Rick was excited when it started to snow during lunch.

It was coming down like a snow globe in a paint mixer. Rick got some dramatic photos. As soon as he was done, the storm blew over and we had beautiful weather the rest of the day. This whole trip the weather has been fascinating. It has rained, sleeted, snowed, and yet, it has never been bad enough to make us stop. It has always cleared up just in time for us to continue.

We stopped outside of Glendale. My legs were tired, my feet were sore and somewhere along the way, I’d completely lost the frustration and disappointment of the morning. Maybe I lost it in the snow.