Kunming is 20.6 miles away and we should be there tomorrow evening. We have walked 210 miles since we left Dali. Once we get to Kunming we will say goodbye to our little highway 320. Until today, the 320 has been a relatively quiet 2 lane rural road that occasionally creeps into a decent sized city. Today it dropped into a really industrial area and by the time we popped out the other side our little route 320 had become a split highway with 3 lanes going in both directions. We walked for a while against traffic on the opposite side of the metal guard rail but neither of us felt safe doing that.
Believe it or not, there are crosswalks in the middle of Chinese highways and Doug and I opted to use one to get off of the 320. We found a really nice alternative. A narrow little sometimes paved road that ran through some farm land where they were growing of all things, barrel cactus! The farm land thinned out and we found ourselves walking behind some homes. This road eventually dumped out onto a split highway that was still under constructon. Only one side of the road was completed and paved. We opted to walk on the unpaved side. When we saw city on our left, we took the first side street we saw and amazingly enough got back onto the 320 which was once again a 2 lane road. The 6 lane 320 only lasted for 5 or 6 miles.
We have seen all sorts of construction going on here. Rows after row after row of townhomes sitting empty. Wide roads that don’t seem to go to any destination at all. At one point we were walking along the 320 in the middle of nowhere and there were at least 6 overpasses crossing over our heads.
Once we get through Kunming we will be walking along the 324 until we get to Hong Kong! We will miss the 320. Everyone has been so kind to us here. These two ladies for example who pulled over and crossed the 2 lane road to give us a bag of peaches and offer us some water. We are constantly surprised by people’s interest and generosity. I hope they all know what their smiles, waves and thumbs up gestures do for us. They make my feet hurt a little bit less. .

We only managed 16 miles today but the last 6 were all up hill. We are now enjoying a nice dinner on the restaurant of our hotel. It’s a pretty lively spot and Doug was even offered a shot of local moonshine.
When we got here, the first thing we did was shower and do laundry. My freshly washed hair dried naturally and Doug commented on how out of control it was. He took this photo of me sitting in our hotel room. Yes my feet are that dirty even after a shower. Some of it is bandaging. Anyway, the point of the photo is this. Just try and tell me I’m not related to this man. Look at the third scrolling picture of my great-great uncle.

TWENTY-FOUR MILES

We had our lunch today at this nice family’s restaurant. Doug and I have been marveling at how we have not had a bad meal here yet. One of our favorite dishes is eggs scrambled and then cooked in this light and savory red sauce, tomatoes and a lightly spicy green pepper. After lunch today I have a new favorite dish. It was some sort of pickled cucumber served cold with sliced red chili pepper and pickled garlic. It was was tart and really salty which is something I crave because Doug and I both sweat buckets from the minute we start walking in the morning. We are also eating vegetables we have never eaten before. We are eating the stuff that you usually toss out or wouldn’t think to eat. I’m pretty sure that this morning I ate squash leaves and stems. Back home, you eat the squash or if you are trendy and hip you eat the blossom. Here, they boil up the leaves and those stems with the tiny little hairs on them in a light veggie broth with a little oil in it and then serve it over rice. It’s not super delicious or anything to rave about. It’s just interesting and kind of novel to eat a part of the plant that we would never consider eating. Just in case it wasn’t squash leaves and stems, don’t try making this at home until you fact check it. I don’t want anyone getting sick

There seems to be a very popular game people enjoy playing with us. The game goes something like this. We walk into a town and ask a person if there is a hotel. This person says “yes” and points to a building, We walk over to said building and ask for a room to which the person replies, “What??? We are not a hotel!”. So we keep walking and ask someone else if they know where there is a hotel and this person says, ” Yes” and indicates that we should follow her and be careful when we cross the street and hurry up, come this way… and when we finally get to this place that is supposed to be a hotel, we ask, “Hotel?”at which point the new woman stands there waving her arms about and talking louder and faster. Then both women go look at the contents of the second woman’s refrigerator. This is when Doug and I look at each other, shrug, walk away and look for the next player in that zany game called “Fandian?”

We walked our 15 miles today and checked into a hotel and talked about how we needed to turn it up a notch if we are going to make it to Hong Kong before our plane leaves on July 29th. We had another look at the map and where we are at and it seems that we still have another 1,029 miles to go. Maybe we should have taken room # 12

We just had dinner at this man’s restaurant. His name is Gong Lixiang and he is an account manager for a micro-finance organization called Chuxiong Farmer’s Self-Service. I asked if we coulk link the organization on our page and he said yes. Www.cfpamf.org.cn
Chuxiong@cfpamf.org.cn
This morning at breakfast he gave us several laminated photos of himself and his family. He didn’t speak a word of English to us and then he said “Friends”. Indeed.

This plant grows like a weed (pun intended)! I see it several times a day. In places where there are sidewalks you can find it sprouting up in the cracks.

Now that we have taken a day and a half off, our average of 15 miles per day has shrunk to a little over 12 a day. It was unavoidable. We we’re both physically tired and the sole of my right foot felt like it was tearing with every step. We shopped around at local pharmacies for more mole skin. Doug also needed deoderant and 2 different places showed him the same product so he bought it. He brought it back to our hotel and used Google translate to scan the Mandarin text that was inside the packaging. It turns out that the product was designed for amputees to use on the part of their skin that comes into contact with their prosthesis. He couldn’t find moleskin but he did buy this for me. The packaging has me feeling very optimistic.

This is Cherry, she works at Walmart and helped Doug with his shopping. She’s the best!! Thanks Cherry!