MAY 8

We're in Colorado now and all three days here have been rainy and cold. But a good walk today into a city with all amenities. Beatrice and I go off to be adopted. A guy named Gary takes us home. His wife Lisa is pregnant and expecting in two weeks. They already have two darling daughters. Fine evening with them over a macaroni/sauce supper. Then they show we two happy marchers - now freshly showered - to the spare room upstairs all laid out with a big mattress on the floor. It's bedtime for Beatrice and Benedict.


MAY 9

We have a pancake breakfast with our hosts. Then Beatrice and I go off to explore the town of Grand Junction. We find a used bookstore and buy eight Shakespeare plays for twenty-five cents each. Grand Junction has a great health food store with its own bakery. Man, do I stuff myself with cookies and cakes, sweetbreads and pastry of all kinds. Rice Dream too and Amazake! Then the Great Peace March in a grand parade down Main Street. Music, clowns and crowds line the street. Colorado loves us! A big day, a long day, a happy day! And to top it all off Beatrice and I sleep side by side on that same mattress on the floor in that little spare room upstairs...


MAY 10

I get hit by a car today! Nothing serious. I am organizing my gear by the curb ("THE MARCH IS LEAVING!") when a car backs into me. Knocks me down, big pack and all. A few marchers rush up to me, soothing me with hugs and kisses.

First real sunny day in Colorado. Beatrice and I walk reading poetry to each other. At camp I work all evening on kitchen duty: cutting up big pots of boiling hot potatoes, mixing huge flats of vegetables, stir-frying, serving, cleaning up after.


MAY 11

Another brilliant sunny day, Mother's Day on the Peace March! At our lunch stop we transform a Colorado country road into an enchanted poetry scene, a lovely reading. Many of our women speak of their mothers, read and recite poems - Sarah, Katea, others. I get most of it on tape. In camp this evening an excellent panel discussion on the Soviet Union with Franklin, Lynn and others. What enlightened and progressive people we have on this Walk!


MAY 12

Still more gorgeous weather, more great walking. The three-hour radio show I did back home on operetta? - Beatrice and I listen to it together as we walk, singing along, of course. Also on this long lovely walk there is time to write a skit to salute the sanitation crew. We perform it in camp this evening: