Day 39 Mile 500-519

Parma to Caldwell

Woke up and showered with Shampoo!!! Walked back along Route 20 about 5 miles to see the part that I missed when Jeanise drove me into Parma. I’m in Idaho now! By noon I was in Parma again and as I walked in I saw the sign that said the Lions Club had their meetings at noon on Tuesday. I didn’t really know what the Lions Club so I went in to check it out. When I entered the hall, there were over 60 people sitting down to eat and I just said hello to the first person I met, John Murphy. Turned out he was the right guy to talk to, he is the reverend at the church and the Tail Twister of Parma’s Lions Club. He invited me to be his guest at the meeting and lunch. I introduced myself to the group and explained a little bit about Walk For Progress, and I thanked them all for having me as their guest. They served a great meat-loaf meal and potatoes, salad, greens, and desert. They have these meetings every week where they discuss their community service efforts and bring in guest speakers to talk on issues related to the community. This week the guest speaker was the County Commissioner and a former Lion. He told jokes and spoke about the cross-sectoral initiative among the tribe, ranchers, BLM, and recreationalists to protect 2.4 million acres of Canyon County. He played a video of the State’s representative going before congress to propose legislation protecting Canyon County. The Lions held a raffle and the winner got half off the proceeds while the rest went to support their community efforts. Lions Club works to ensure that anyone that needs glasses can get them. Parma has a population of 1,800 and the Lions club has over 100 active members with these weekly meetings regularly bringing in over 60 people. That is an extraordinary achievement for a community this size and they do great work. After the meeting I hung around and cleaned tables and put dishes away with Yoko, Angie, Freeda, Melba, and Rubie. Melba had had a Persian son-in-law and she was so excited to talk about tea and taddik and Sabzi with someone who knew just how good life can be:-) At around 2:30 I headed out to Caldwell which is the first city over 50,000 I’ve been in since Albany. As I got into town I walked along the boise river and a trail that let me by-pass Interstate 84. I walked along main-street and Kevin and Julie offered to drive me around before it got dark so that I could find a place to eat and meet people. I ended up going into a local pub near the Albertson’s College of Idaho, which is I guess one of the premiere liberal arts colleges in the West. Chatted with Ryan Upson and his buddies who all tried to convince me that I would get eaten going across the continental divide. It was quite an endeavor to convince Ryan that I was not just full of BS and that I had actually walked this far. I guess the shower I had had made me look to clean to have walked over 500 miles. He kept asking me “WHY??? are you doing this” met another fellow Nate who runs a landscaping business and he let me camp out on his yard for the night. Since leaving Nyssa, I have sensed that people are not as secure as the other people I have met on my journey. There is more fear in their mentalities. People tell you to watch out and to be careful. There is a belief that bad people are out there and will get you. I don’t know if this is a result of recent shootings in the media or because of the cultural diversity in an area that has seen extensive immigration of farm workers in recent years, or if it is a result of Boise’s rapid growth, but what is clear to me is that people here are just as kind and safe as any other. Fear is just a perception and one that over time only creates that which is feared. The only thing to fear is fear itself... so I continue on my way... positive affirmative in my mind and with my walking staff clearing the way of all opposing forces... what we encounter is a mirror of our own perceptions.