After yesterday's almost problem-free walk, I am encouraged. We have covered 135 miles with only about 45 to go. Joy has tender feet, but if they can hold out for three more days, we will be home free. Joy has been switching between her hiking and running shoes and she has her hiking boots on today. She is walking, but slower than usual. At the first break, she realizes that one of her boots is coming apart. It appears that the glue has melted. I tape it up but it keeps coming apart. Her other shoes are in the car that is still five miles away. She somehow manages to walk to that car. Like me, Warren has no real problems. As such, I have not been paying much attention to his state of mind. As a matter of fact, I have been too busy worrying about Melissa and Joy. He now tells me that he is finished with the walk and he is going home tomorrow. He tells me that he came to see if he can handle the heat and now he knows he can. I argue and plead with him but to no avail. He offers to take my Acura and leave his Kia for me to use. That is useful, but what I really need is a car with the driver. I know that parking cars 7.5 miles apart is not a viable option anymore.

As I walk the last few miles, I wonder if Warren is ticked off about something else. Sure, I may have irritated him, but I can't recall anything big. I did insist on all of us staying fairly close together during our walk. It is possible that he is tired of walking slower than he would have preferred and was fed up with the continuing problems of Melissa and Joy. On the other hand, a few years ago he went with a group to climb Aconcagua, a 22,000+ peak in Argentina. At one point, he decided he could not go on and returned home a few days before the rest of the group. After recalling that incident, I attributed his decision to stop walking to his personality rather than any animosity towards me. I then started thinking about how to solve the problem at hand. Warren will help us set up the cars tomorrow. If I can find somebody to help us do the same Friday, we can still finish the walk as planned.

Tonight, we are camping at Tecopa Hot Springs, a county campground just outside the park. On the way there, we stop at a store in the little town of Shoshone. I wander into the town saloon and offer $100 to a reliable-looking fellow to help us set up the cars Friday. He asks a few questions and then he agrees. He is willing to miss a couple of hours of work to make an easy hundred. I feel even more relieved when the bartender assures me that Jack is a pretty reliable person.

Dinesh's caption:
Joy's blister rate is about two per day. She now has 17 blisters.

Car Talk's caption:
"Hmm ... 'pain and suffering' ... each one of these ought to be good for 10 grand!"