Well, after heading out from Berkeley a few days ago, we’ve made more progress than I think Lindsie and I would’ve even imagined. We’ve already made it through Vallejo, and, thanks to someone we can’t thank publicly (because he might get in trouble for it), we had a very safe place to stay in Vallejo two nights ago. It was a little noisy at times, but we made it work and were up and moving again by about 7 a.m.

There are two things about Vallejo we want to mention.

1) When we arrived, there was a Pirate Festival going on. So that was interesting. We might try to upload some more pictures later, but here’s one just to give you a taste of the action.

2) A few hours before we stopped for the night in Vallejo, we came across one of our favorite road angels so far. We met Sharon Stone (not the actress) hustling and bustling outside of her business on Sunday. We were starting to get concerned because we weren’t sure about the area of Vallejo we were in, and when we asked the police for advice on dangerous areas to avoid, we were told “We can’t tell you that because it makes us liable for discrimination charges.” So…we couldn’t rely on the police to keep us safe. Which was weird and sort of unsettling.

Thankfully, we ran into Sharon and she offered us several bottles of water, some chairs to rest in, and a good 20 minutes of conversation that both lifted our spirits and eased our minds. She was an absolute blessing to come across and reassured us that we were on the right path, whether the Vallejo Police wanted to help us or not.

Anyway, after we left Vallejo, we put in SEVENTEEN miles (a new record for us) and made it to Fairfield, California pretty early in the day. We walked through about half of Fairfield before deciding to call it a night. We actually splurged and stayed in a hotel last night in order to get a good shower, wash some of our dirty clothes, and make good use of a wi-fi connection.

Besides writing and posting these blog updates, we’ve also been trying to contact churches along our route that may be willing to offer us a place to sleep or a congregation member who might want us to camp out in their backyards. So far we haven’t heard back from any, but we’re praying that at least one of the churches along the way might take an interest in the two Christians who are walking through their neighborhood as they travel across the country.

All in all, we’ve gotta get moving here in just a few minutes, and we’re hoping to put in another 14 or 15 miles as we make it up to Vacaville tonight. From there we’ll go through Dixon and, if we get an early enough start, we might even make it to Davis before we’re done walking.

If you are reading this and know of anyone in Vacaville, Dixon, Davis or Sacramento who might be willing to let us camp out in their backyard for a night, please let us (and them) know as soon as possible. We’d love to know there’s a safe place ahead of us to set up for the night, and if it means we need to readjust our route a little bit before we get there, that’s perfectly fine too.

We just look forward to meeting more great people and sharing our story with them wherever we go. This has already been an amazing week of walking so far and we can’t wait to see what’s on the horizon.