DAY 21 - Caldwell, ID - Zero Day! (still 404 miles from home)

What we say at Liberty Walks: The Walk keeps Walking. In order to manage 2800 miles in just five months, we need to keep up a nearly continual pace of 20 miles a day. That means that if any given Walker needs a rest at any point, we nonetheless keep moving forward. So - while both Bob and I have taken rest days before - nonetheless, we made up the mileage that day either by having just one of us on the road, or by having Libby "walk" for us (she walks a bit faster than we do, however, given those round steel and rubber feet of hers!)

But today was a genuine Zero Day - built into the schedule. One of only seven we'll have in the whole five months. Woot woot! Party day for the pilgrims!

So, naturally, the day began with sleeping in - all the way to 6 a.m., in fact. And then, while the boys ran some errands, I toddled off to the fabulous Flying M Coffee in Caldwell and had the most stupendous & ginormous hunk of foccaccia I've ever eaten. Bacon, jalapeño, cream cheese - perfectly glazed with olive oil - crunchy and soft and warm. You get the idea. And then my dear friend Sidney Buffington joined me. Sidney and I are 'dharma sisters' in fact - along with Carmelita Thomson and Robin Weil, we became Zen Buddhists together 20 years ago... Now Sidney lives in Boise, and with insane love and grace she agreed to shuttle me around Nampa and Boise for a hiker's holiday: namely - stocking up on some essentialis... From Home Depot to pick up our new Starlink mini (I'm not happy to get 'musky' - but we've realized that reliable wifi on the road is essential for safety and community) - to Best Buy to pick up our Jackery 290 (a portable power station) - and then to REI to get a couple new pairs of sneaks. Oh and to exchange a pair of pants. Oh, and to get new tips for my trekking poles (asphalt likes to eat aforementioned poles.) These moments were each kind of absurdly gratifying - but my favorite remains checking out with the lovely Jenkins at Best Buy. When I shared my excitement about the Jackery he literally said: "Huzzah!" Huzzah??? Way to ring up a former Shakespeare prof, Jenkins!

Sidney insisted on treating us all to lunch, and showing us the Boise that she loves. An extremely memorable meal at Ansot's... where we ate astounding Basque chorizo and pork belly, bocadillos and patatas fritas and croquettes - toasting each other, the loveliness of road friends and dharma friends, and the gorgeous good fortune of a crisp IPA on a brilliantly sunny Gem State day.

Ansot's is another family-run business. We've seen quite a few in our three weeks on the road. Owner Dan Ansotegui shared his family history with us - offering at the same time a brief introduction to the broader Basque history of the region. In the early 1900s Basque migrants came out west to work the sheep. Like other immigrants in our nation's history, where one son or daughter of a family found needful work and a reasonably welcoming community, other siblings, cousins, neighbors soon followed. Boarding houses, connections with particular ranchers, particular townships, arose. Agents in New York helped shepherd the shepherds out west - Basque often working for Scottish shepherds, who themselves were eking out their own relationships with cattlemen on the open plains of the Great Basin region....

And then back to St. David's for our second night, and a sweet goodbye with host Sylvia. Sylvia's from Mississippi - with both the drawl and the southern hospitality to prove it. She herself is a recent transplant in Idaho - coming to Caldwell not long ago, by way of Arizona, to be near her son after her beloved husband Geoff's health began to fail. Next time, Sylvia, we're holding you to your promise of biscuits and gravy. Big hugs and blessings from the road!

Huzzah, Jenkins!

The joy of new tread.

Sidney, the guys and me at Ansot's.

With Dan Ansotegui.

Sylvia Huffington.