DAY 6 - OXNARD AND VENTURA

DAY 6 - We set off to walk through the towns of Oxnard and Ventura.

LOCATION UPDATE:  Tomorrow (Monday), we'll be walking through Carpinteria and into Santa Barbara. / Tuesday we'll be walking through Santa Barbara.

DAY 6 - We began in Oxnard and soon came upon a Mormon church.  We showed them our sign (REVOKE 8) - Valerie filmed them watching us - and we moved on.

We received a mixed reception - some finger wags and "you're number ones" but also some honks, waves, and thumbs up.

Around mile 6 or 7, Tracie couldn't walk any further.  Even with new shoes (or because of), her 2 small toes were just huge blisters.  She waited while Valerie, as we pledged to one another... in sickness and in health, set off to finish our route.   As Valerie set off alone, and feeling a little more vulnerable, she quickly had a woman tell her "I've been reading about you!  I'm behind you 100 percent!"  And as she moved on, she ran into Das, who 4 years ago lost his partner of 22 years.  He told her that he and his partner did the "in sickness and in health...'til death do us part for 22 years and we just want to have our unions treated like everyone else."  Valerie explained that it was difficult for her to do this part of the walk by herself, but after meeting him she was so glad she did.  They hugged and he said "keep on walking."  Valerie finished off Ventura with a purpose... walking for Das and his dearly departed.

Once Valerie came back for Tracie, they drove out to a stretch of hwy 1 that branches off of the 101 and Tracie shadowed Valerie in the car as she walked.  That brought Valerie's total to about 13 miles of walking.

On the way to our hostesses house for the evening, we stopped by a little place called Tony's Pizza.  Tony was a kind and generous soul.  After making our pizza for us and hearing our story about march to the Supreme Court, Tony refused to accept any money and insisted he was contributing fuel for our journey.  Thank you Tony, you are a true gem.  Here we are with Tony in his kitchen with our pizza.  We neglected to get the other guy's name - he told jokes from the time we walked in until we left.

We then arrived at Monica's apartment.  She graciously agreed to put us up for an evening - even though we just asked this morning.  She helped us work through routes, uploading pics, etc.  Thank you for your hospitality and generosity.   (we'll upload a pic of Monica tomorrow)

We also just want to thank all of you that have emailed, blogged, waved, honked, fed us, given us a bed, and otherwise encouraged us on this journey.  You are all truly moving and inspirational.