the final mile

Yesterday was a very interesting day. It was cloudy and cool, and everything was wet and damp and growing and smelling wonderful.

Slater dropped us off at the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Bloomfield Boulevard. We walked 7 miles to the Recreation Dog Park in Long Beach. There we met with our parents, and Slater, and Kait’s uncle Rick and cousin Sarah, and Lacie and Travis, and a lot of other people.

this was some of it.

The Recreation Dog Park Association was kind enough to sponsor a pet fair to honor the end of our Walk. Our good friend, Lacie, coordinated vendors and press and pulled a really fun afternoon together in no time flat. Porky’s Pizza provided lunch, and Best Friends had a booth representing No Kill LA.

We mingled and the dogs got to socialize in the cool morning. We were interviewed by The Pet Post, and we gave an awkward little talk about ourselves, the dogs, and the walk, and everybody was very nice.

Quincy from the Pet Post

Rob showed up!

Rob surprised us all when he walked up to the park. He wrangled a car and drove from Utah to meet us for our last day. He really was the cherry on top of a significant day in our little timeline. After our speech or sermon or whatever it was, we took off to walk the last 2 miles to Rosie’s Dog Beach, where we would find an ocean. We were joined by family and friends on our walk, and dogs galore.

Dog Parade!

And we rounded the corner, and turned onto Granada Avenue and there it was, stretched out in front of us.

shoes off.

We walked down to the water with our little gang, let the dogs loose, and finished what we started back in Delaware.

victory!

There was some more awkward as all of our family and friends assembled on the beach and snapped a ton of photos of us in the water. Justin Rudd, who was spoken of highly by everyone we met that afternoon and who I understand is responsible for the existence of Rosie’s Dog Beach, offered to take some shots of us with my camera. I handed it over.

Justin, Jenny, and some dog

the team

Kait and I felt weird. We still feel weird. It’s good, mostly. A little sad, too. Overwhelmed. Short of words. Introspective, and a little strange-ed out about the whole experience. It seems very big in scope – a large accomplishment, a significant passing of time and exertion of energy; but it is also a very small thing in many ways, a relatively minute and thin sliver of the experiences to be had in this country, world, and universe. A toe, dipped most briefly into the ocean of life.

As we stood in the tide and tried to think thoughts about all of this, the dogs frolicked as they are prone to doing. I don’t know if they understand what we have accomplished, but they knew something was going on – and they were excited. The Brown Dog even chased a seagull! She didn’t catch it.

no idea why she looks so weird in this one.

a group shot of everyone who was on the beach with us. pretty cool party.

We have a lot of people to thank, but it is a list that deserves its own entry.

Today was a good day.

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