Day 7 - July 3 - Tuesday
It was extremely hot today. Three guest walkers (one young Tibetan teen make and two Westerners) joined us for the 11.9 miles.

For most of the walk today, the road conditions were quite dangerous. The walkers were forced to walk with the flow of traffic so they could not see cars coming from behind them. These cars were passing them at 60-65 miles per hour. Further, there was not much of a shoulder to walk on, and as a result, at times the walkers were in a driving lane. All went well though as the walkers were able to stay in single file with sufficient distance between them.

About 5 miles into the walk today, the walkers crossed the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge into Philadelphia. At the foot of the bridge painted in red, white, and blue and filled with patriotic symbols was an overpass with the words, “Welcome to Philadelphia” inscribed. Once in Philadelphia, a couple of walkers requested they wanted Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches for lunch.

The neighborhoods we walked through after landing in Philadelphia were quite run down and poor. There was trash everywhere, and as one walker remarked, the trash was piled up like a big snowstorm.

We stopped at a small neighborhood restaurant to buy the requested sandwiches. The manager seemed very friendly, but a bit pushy. He asked for a walk t-shirt and we agreed. He also asked for a picture with the walkers. While taking the picture, he made some offhanded remarks about the beauty of the young Tibetan teenage girls. A couple of the Tibetans were quite angry with this and openly shared their feelings. Some other remarks were made and then all of a sudden, the walkers began chanting, “China Out of Tibet,” “Free Tibet,” etc. The manager asked them to stop stating there was a Chinese take out restaurant across the street owned by his friends. This led to the walkers chanting even louder. The walkers left the restaurant and later ate their Steak sandwiches on the lawn of a nearby Church.

The manager gave them 31 free drinks. A couple of the walkers did not trust the manager. After thinking about the entire situation, Larry decided to call ITIM’s bank to inquire about the amount charged for lunch to ITIM’s bank account. Sadly, the manager had overcharged ITIM for lunch. ITIM will file a dispute with its bank to resolve this situation. When the walkers heard that ITIM was overcharged, they were quite mad. At first, they wanted to go back to the store and confront the manager. Then, it was decided a phone call would be a better option. Ngawang Norbu called the restaurant, but the manager was no longer there. Norbu explained the situation to the counter person who adamantly stated the manager would never overcharge a customer. In any event, our message was clearly passed on.

In the evening, we stayed at the Unitarian Society of Germantown in Philadelphia. This Church is quite magnificent. We learned from the two Church members who served as our host today that Martin Luther King Jr. had preached in this Church. Learning this, some of us thought it was very auspicious that for a couple of nights we had stayed in a Church connected to securing independence for the United States and then a Church linked with the civil rights movement. As a result, independence for Tibet surely must be coming soon, especially since we were to walk to Independence Hall tomorrow!

Geshe Monlam and Ngawang Sampten sponsored a great dinner for us tonight. All of us were real happy to eat tasty Tibetan food.