TESTED BY THE UNIVERSE - WAS I REALLY SERIOUS?
CHAPTER XX #7millionsteps
On day 5, while walking with Debbie, she warned me about wild dogs!
She described graphically, what I should do to protect / defend myself if I was ever attacked. To be honest with you, I dismissed her warning, as I personally had no real life references for such an occurrence. In Australia we have strict laws for dog control and most stray dogs are collected by local rangers. It had been probably over 50 years, since I had been threatened by an unleashed dog! Kelly and I arrived in Gallup New Mexico, the beauty of the backdrop of magnificent cliff / rock faces that boarded the RV Park we were staying in was truly breathtaking. Gallup is the centrepiece of 3 Native American Indian Reservations that surround this remote historical mid-western City.
Kelly had planned several routes for me to walk in and around the city. My first day walking was through a local reservation, near the RV Park. It was the first time I had encountered “menacing dogs”, two charging at me from their front yard, aggressive and threatening! Their teeth bared, I was being defensive yelling at them to stop, I removed my bright orange backpack, swinging it at them. Frightening them off, I resumed my walk, confident in myself that I could handle any problem dogs I encountered. I was to find out 24 hours later how wrong I was!
The following day Kelly dropped me 22 miles into a second reservation. It was a beautiful day, warm, clear the road had large shoulders, the traffic was constant, I felt happy, relaxed, contented, truly confident that I would enjoy a stress-free day of walking. I loved seeing a steady stream of traffic, it was a busy road, making me feel safe, my ideal road!
The only downsides were the shoulder I was walking on, was littered with broken liquor bottles and used syringes…
About 6 miles into the walk I heard dogs barking, I looked to my left noting a high escapement at least ? mile in the distance from me, the barking seemed to be coming from the top of it! The dogs were so far away I didn’t really think anything of it! As I walked the sound of barking was getting closer! Not overly concerned I noticed a fence on the side of the road, thinking to myself they won’t come through it!
To be safe, I crossed the road, putting a little more space between me and the two very angry, threatening dogs. At that moment in time there were “NO CARS”, which was strange considering the road had been so busy. The dogs broke through the fence, snarling, and growling at me. They raced toward me teeth bared! By now my confidence had evaporated, morphing into total terror! I was screaming at them to stop, mentally yelling at myself “don’t fall over, don’t fall over!”
I was so frightened, there were still “no cars” on the road, it was simply me and the two dogs and I didn’t like my odds!
Although I carried mace it was too windy to be effective, I had my backpack off threatening them with it, nothing was going to stop them, they obviously fancied my lightly tanned legs!
I was every so slowing walking backwards, watching the dogs as they raced toward me, at that moment in time, I have never felt so hopeless, so alone, so frightened! My left foot nudged against something, I quickly glanced down and noticed the neck of an alcohol bottle sticking out of the sand, quick as a flash – keeping my eyes on the wild dogs racing toward me, I pulled the neck, the bottle came out like it was in oil! With no time to waste, I lobbed a strategic left handed shot in front of the snarling enemies! Landing in front of them, smashing glass fragments all over them. The dogs seemed to evaporate into thin air, as fast as they approached me they had simply disappeared! In that instant, I must have closed my eyes, thinking the dogs would tear into me! There was still no cars!
Realising there was glass all over the road, I stooped down to remove the larger pieces, after which collapsed on the road shoulder shaking in fear! Ringing Kelly, close to I was close to hysterical. Mumbling “I don’t want to die I am done!” At that moment in time there were still no cars, it was like the traffic was stopped somewhere waiting til it was safe form them to resume their respective journeys!
This encounter with the dogs rattled me to my core! At that moment in time, the danger I faced in these remote locations was “reality” for me, I was done!
I realised how much I loved my precious family and finally, reality for me, I was simply risking my life / wellbeing for people I hardly knew, for a cause few truly believed in! I can honestly say I was ready to end the Walk!
Prior to this event in Gallop, I had built up a fair degree of confidence over the past nearly seven weeks of walking, always very vigilant especially walking on my own, this encounter truly gutted me! In those few minutes after the dogs had disappeared, I truly questioned myself, why am I doing this, daily putting myself under all this physiological and physical stress and danger? The overriding question in my head was, “does anyone really care”?
Over the past seven weeks, every day, there was a new challenge and Kelly and I had worked them out, but this was a significant challenge for me to deal with, as if that bottle hadn’t been there, I would have been badly mauled maybe killed by these two wild dogs. Around 20 minutes after I called her, Kelly arrived on her hand cycle! She immediately encouraged me to start walking! I questioned her saying are you F#6king kidding me, I nearly was seriously injured, this area isn’t safe! Kelly was calm to my near hysteria – she repeated “start walking!” Realising I had no choice I had to return to her car - I started walking.
At that moment, if it wasn’t for Kelly I think I would have ended the walk then and there! Looking around I found another couple of empty bottles, grabbing them up, I started walking towards the safety of Kelly’s car about 4 miles down the road!
As I walked, I thought back to when Josh was first injured. I remembered the first time he was dressed, which was about a week after his operation; the nurses were getting him out of bed and they were using a Hoyer lift …
Each time they moved him higher he got very dizzy, they would put him back flat in the bed.
Every time they did this they would ask him if he wanted to stop, Josh insisted they keep trying! It was about 20 minutes into this exercise the nurses in frustration said that’s enough we’ll try again tomorrow.
Josh was adamant, “no” he insisted they keep trying saying, “I need to be able to master this as if I can’t I will never get out of bed!”
Finally he was elevated enough, he was managing the dizziness, and very quickly he was sitting in the wheelchair…
Yet there was more to come, the stress on all the lifting back and forth caused Josh to he a bowel movement, soiling his clothes!
This was the last straw for us both, what more indignities could he bare?
Josh was devastated saying to me “I am 18 ? years old and I just shat myself.”
“This is too much!” Then, in an instant his attitude changed, he said “well Mum, we can’t give up now. If I can’t beat this problem I will never be able to continue to improve!” And the rest is history!
Applying my son’s never give up, never be beaten principles, if I couldn’t get over this dog attack, I would not be able to continue the Warrior Momz Walk.
Arriving back at Kelly’s car she was waiting for me keys in hand! I said I’ll keep walking I can’t let this beat me! Kelly had a huge smile, saying how proud she was of me!
We chatted for a while, while I rested by this stage I was over my fears and started walking, finishing the 22 miles as planned…carrying two empty beer bottles with me.
From Kelly McCall “I remember that day well. We were only in NM, so there was a long ways to go”.
Kelly commenting on the day I came close to ending my journey
“I knew you had to make some kind of adjustment in order to be successful. This was an amazing road through beautiful country, and I wanted to keep riding. I waited for you at that Indian jewellery place and was prepared to ask you to come pick me up at the place we'd agreed on earlier. Thinking this would give you time to think about what to do, what adjustments to make. I had you choose an Indian warrior painting to stand in front of, one you could relate to, and you chose this one. Then I proposed that I keep riding and you pick me up later, and you said "No, I'm gonna keep walking." I was like "What?! I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!!! THAT IS THE BEST NEWS EVER!! GOOD GIRL!!!!!!" I knew then you were going to make it, that you had it in you to actually walk across the country. And you did”.
It was much later, as I thought about that “horrific” experience, I realised the “event” was completely set up, this was a test from the Universe for me, to see if I was really serious about completing the Warrior Momz Walk, I am confident that I was protected, the bottle was strategically positioned, nothing was left to chance, the lob I did with the bottle was positioned perfectly, instantly the dogs disappeared …
There were no cars until I had time to clear the larger glass fragments from the road, I am blessed! Thank you Universe for trusting me giving me the strength I needed to complete the WMW.
A few days later, I found a long piece of steel which became my preferred “weapon of mass destruction”, although plagued by dogs throughout the southern states I never had a more frightening experience than I had in Gallop!
Bernice Louisiana
I was walking towards Bernice, Louisiana, it was very lonely and remote area, the morning was extremely cold and foggy, about 8 miles from town I heard barking dogs! Looking over to my right there were 8-9 hounds heading towards me, that terror came to me instantly I was screaming, fortunately the property owner was there he called the dogs back. As I neared the town I had 2 more encounters with unleashed dogs in both cases I managed to scare them off. By time I arrived in Bernice I was exhausted.
Arriving in Bernice I was sitting outside in the freezing cold, demolishing a hamburger when I was approached by a local journalist who had heard about me walking into town. She sat down with me, in between eating my burger she interviewed me. I asked her “what’s with the dogs here?” She explained there are no leash laws in the State and there are packs of dogs that roam the town…
Really!!!!
I called Kelly, our original plan was for me to walk back the way I had come, not knowing the area I had no clue where I was going. I arranged for Kelly to collect me on the outskirts of the town, I would keep walking until she arrived. I was about 2 miles from town and 2 dogs approached me from the right, they were snarling and howling at me, I spotted their owner who seemed oblivious to what was going on! I called to him to call his dogs off, he ignored me, by this stage I was panicking, I was now yelling at him to call his dogs off, all of a sudden there were 2 dogs coming from the left! I was swinging my iron bar around screaming at the guy, I have no clue why he wasn’t helping me! Next thing I see Kelly’s car, she does a U turn throwing the passenger door open, yelling at me to get in… It was like a scene from the Wild West! Off she drove to the other side of town putting me on a road that would allow me to finish my 22 miles in relative safety…We had a good laugh about the Kelly to the rescue moment!