After a meal of buffalo meat the team had settled in for the night at Terry White's residence. Some of the younger people had asked Terry about swimming in the small pond on his land. '" Sure... you can go swimming... I did as a boy... but I don't anymore"... "Why?" they asked him. "Well... there's just too many water mocassins and snapping turtles in there for me anymore... but you go right ahead if you want to"... I asked when I caught back up with them today... not one of them decided to go swimming after all.

They started this day off really early. It was thought that since we are in Oklahoma now and the humidity is so high and the chance of afternoon showers greater.. that perhaps the Walkers should be up and packed and start walking by 6 A.M. It sounded good at the time ... but it didn't work out too well. Their tents still had heavy morning dew on them when they were packed away before sunrise. And only a few miles from Terry's home they ran into some really thick fog and had to stop to wait for it to clear off for the morning. We're still hearing about those mildewed tents days later..... so now it's been decided that we will wait for the sun to rise to start our day. We have our breakfast and Talking Circle and then pack away the tents and the 'camp kitchen' after everything is dry. It seems to start the day off better when we make time for that Morning Circle. Gets us focused and helps us to be strong and do what we need to do for this Walk in a good way.

Today's Walk was about 40 miles. There wasn't constant access road near the interstate.... but enough for us to walk safely. The Walkers made the distance from Erick to Clinton Oklahoma and arrived in the early afternoon. We were being hosted this evening by Jerry Wayne Roman Nose. He's the Cheyenne-Arapho Mentoring Co-Ordinator with Multi-County Youth Services. This program is under the direction of Edward P. Wilson - the Cheyenne District-3 Representative. We thank both Jerry Wayne and Edward Wilson for their support of the Journey of the Sacred Hoop.

We had a beautiful camp-site... off to the side of the Youth Services Building. There were plenty of trees.. but enough sunlight to dry out the tents. Many people stopped by to see the Walkers. And there were several 'sweats' in the area... and our people were invited. Several of the Walkers accepted the invitations and were gone until late in the evening for these ceremonies. We have several on the 'injured list' this afternoon. Nothing so far that a little rest and some ice packs won't cure.

Jerry Wayne came back in the evening and brought us a delicious dinner of chicken and all the trimmings.. including veggie platters with dip. The food was wonderful and the conversation was enlightening and easy. We had a lot of fun here at the Youth Services location. We were even treated to showers and a jacuzzi at the YMCA in Weatherford (a near-by town) ... courtesy of Bill Rogers - Director of the YMCA in that area. Thank you to all of the people who came by to sit with us and check on us while we were camped here.

One of our trusty relay vehicles was also in need of repair by the time we arrived at the camp-site. Vonna Thomas has been a God-send to this Walk ... and we sure will miss her while she's in Oklahoma City getting her car fixed. But.. you know... even these things seem to happen at the best of times. Vonna was scheduled to meet up with some of her family members in Oklahoma City the following day anyway...so she just went in one day early... got her car fixed and was ready to spend time with the family.

The Hoop seems to take care of all sorts of situations and problems for us ... and just like our day going better when we begin with a Talking Circle ... the Journey goes better when we remember that 'we are not taking the Hoop across this land' Instead.... "the Hoop is taking us"