If you’ve been following along, you’ve noticed that most of my miles have been made through the concrete jungle of Manhattan. I usually get out of the city more often, but these past 6 months have been odd. At some point in May, I went a little crazy and had to book a cabin just so I had a light at the end of the tunnel.

This past weekend was the wonderful moment when I was able to make it out there. I flew out to Utah, then my nephew and I took a trip up to Idaho for the weekend.

Please notice that there are no buildings or people or cars in this picture. Perfect.

So Robbie has officially joined me in my walk to Mordor. We hiked around a lake in the middle of the day in the middle of the summer. It was so hot.

This kid talked literally the entire time, while I was huffing and puffing away.

At one point we lost the trail and ended up scrambling over rocks for a while. It only got questionable once. Go ahead and name me Auntie of the Year for getting us back.

Spending a weekend living in this little cabin, helped me to relax more than I’ve been able to for the past few months.

When I was a teenager, my family went on a few trips to Lake Powell. The kids would sleep out on the top of the houseboat floating on the water. Each night I would look up at the sky and not go to sleep until I saw a shooting star. Sometimes it would take longer than others, but I always saw one. We did that this weekend too. Laying on a blanket outside the cabin, Robbie was able to see his first 3 shooting stars. Always the best way to end a day.

By the final morning, I was feeling great.

This is a relaxed Lizzie.

As you can see, my pace has really slowed down in the summer heat. I was expecting that. Hopefully I’ll be able to pick up the pace again once things start to cool down, but for now I’m just happy that I’m still moving towards the goal.

I’ve made it 300 miles now, but that’s still just past Weathertop. Frodo is still injured and we’re pushing forward to Rivendell. We’ll get there!