When I wake up and inspect my feet, I only see one big blister. That’s not too bad after walking about 30 miles in a day. In the Netherlands we have a yearly walking competition called Nijmeegse Vierdaagse in which people walk about 25 miles in a day, four days in a row. I still have respect for those people. I have walked enough for now and will drive back to my grandparents today. It’s a joy to drive my car and move forward without having to do any effort. As I drive to the east side of Glacier I see the mountain range I climbed yesterday. I shake my head and laugh. I’ve done some crazy things and now I can add this one to the list.
The east side of Montana is less spectacular to drive, because it’s all farm land. I think about how things are so different here than in the Netherlands. In America it’s normal to drive for a couple of hours to get somewhere. If you do that in the Netherlands, you’re already out of the country. I remember the first time I came back from America seven years ago and how everything looked so small and close to each other back home. It’s just over three hours driving to my grandparents and I arrive in the beginning of the afternoon. Grandma is home and I tell her about the adventure and show her the pictures. She has a nice surprise for me, this afternoon we go to a pizza place where you can eat unlimited pizza! I’m excited, especially because I didn’t have dinner yesterday so I’ll make up for that today.
The pizza restaurant is very nice and we eat a lot. Grandma also introduces me to rootbeer float, ice cream floating in rootbeer, very nice. My grandparents make fun of me, because I walk slower than them with the blisters on my feet and the soar muscles. I get my laugh too when grandpa tries one of my pizza slices (pepperoni + jalapeños) and suddenly needs a lot of water to cool his mouth. I like my pizza’s to be spicy, probably a bit too spicy for him. We have a fun time together and then go back home. It starts to rain very hard and I’m glad I went to Glacier yesterday, because then the weather was fine and now it would absolutely not be fun to hike or walk outside. I feel that my body needs some rest, so I think I’ll sleep in tomorrow and have a slow day.
