Barefooting Bulletin Board

A couple weeks ago I was in Ontario, California to make a delivery. I had never been to the place I was going and had some time to kill, so I decided to walk down the street and see if there was room to park nearby. Funny thing about rigs is that you can't park just anywhere. Anyhow, I got directions to where I was going, and on the map it was only a half-inch or so away. So I set out on my way.

One thing I noticed right away is that there aren't many sidewalks in that area. I guess they figure nobody is going to walk in an industrial park. This was both a good thing and my downfall at the same time. The good part was that it left me with only the cool, freshly-cut grass to walk on most of the time. I still had to cross streets and driveways, and there was the occasional sidewalk, but there were few really aggressive surfaces to walk on.

It took nearly three forevers to get where I was going. I hadn't looked at the scale of the map and had greatly underestimated the distance between the truckstop and my destination. The bad thing about walking to a place is that it leaves you with no way to get back other than walk. My feet were a bit sore already since this was far more walking than I'm used to, but it was tolerable. I set out on the return trip. This is where I made the biggest mistake. I took a different route to see if it was maybe a little quicker. Unfortunately, this return route had a lot of concrete and asphalt and it was beginning to warm up in the afternoon sun. It didn't take long for my feet to start protesting the treatment they weere receiving. I had to adjust my gait slightly to avoid the sore spots, and took every opportunity available to get back on the grass.

I finally made it back to the truckstop and hobbled into the restaurant for lunch. The walk back to my truck seemed a lot longer than it had been just a few hours earlier. Once safely back "home", I checked my feet and discovered the damage was less than I'd anticipated, just two raw patches on two toes. I had thought my feet were tough enough after several months of walking barefoot on concrete and asphalt at work. But, there's a big difference between walking a couple hundred feet then resting and going on a 10-mile 3.5 hour urban hike. It took a few days treatment with Neosporin and Bandaids to heal my toes, but I learned my lesson. Feet don't toughen up just by being barefoot, you have to stress them regularly and build up a tolerance.