July 5. Day 8 Walking.

Awake at 6:40.

Start 9:05 – finish 16:00

Very broken sleep on a couch of the church community hall. My muscles ache. I sensed during the night that taking the pill in the day desensitizes me to the ache and then it feels worse at night when I don’t take the pill. I have two options: stop them all together and get used to the discomfort, or take an additional pill before bed as prescribed. For now, I think I know what I’ll do.

The three windows on the left are the hall we stayed in and had all to ourselves.

Once again, the weather was phenomenal to begin the day.

We started in Oslo (bottom of map) and are headed to Trondheim (top of map with red dot). We were at my finger today!

2.3km gorgeous white church. It sparkled in the sun. The region we are in is Østre Toten (pronounced too-tin). Tee hee. They are known for growing potatoes and onions.

5.6 km break at a bench overlooking the farmland.

At noon, we stopped at 10km for a lunch break in Lena and to get blister supplies.

1:15: walking again

12.6 km Hoff Kirke and the 474km milestone

As we walked away from the milestone, Chin-Yu, my eagle-eyed, Asian math wizard walking partner asked me, “According to the milestones, have we gone 1/4 yet?”

Earlier this morning, she told me we would reach both 1/4 time and 1/4 distance today, so I replied, “Yes.”

She responded, “Give me proof.” You see, Chin-Yu has already discovered one of my greatest weaknesses and is graciously attempting to help me strengthen my math skills. When I went to pull out my phone for the calculator, she told me, “You can’t use your calculator.”

Oh. I tried so hard! I just can’t picture numbers. I can make up stories and ask tonnes of questions and create dialogue in my mind, but simple math is out of the question. After I finally figured out 643 divided by 4, and moved on to 643-474, I had forgotten 161 (don’t even think that I could include decimals!) Anyway, after a solid 15 minutes, I got the answer. At that point, we were 9km over 1/4 (8 at the milestone and 9 by the time I figured it out). We all have our strengths. Mine don’t include math.

16.1km We stopped for a little break at a bench near Kapp Kirke. It overlooks the largest lake in Norway, Mjøsa (117km long/15 km wide).

18.2 km according to my phone, we arrived at our destination. A beautiful property with a house that has been in the owner’s family for over 100 years.