The Great American Journey

The Great American Journey is the story of three West Coast women who decided to make a difference in the world by walking and praying their way across the country after the devastating terrorist attacks of 9/11. From Washington State to the Florida Keys they passed through fifteen states, following country roads and made friends in countless towns and villages.

If you have yet to read this wonderful story we invite you to purchase a copy.

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VI

Wednesday - August 27,  2008  Day 175   0.0 miles

Total Connecticut miles - 21.8     Walking Days - 87

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6   Cumulative miles 1545.8

Moving day - always a long, busy day, but no walking. First we
went to Bellingham, MA where I was to pick up a prescription
refill at Wal-Mart, but their fax hadn’t worked so they didn’t get
it. There’s more to it than that, but it was a bummer. I couldn’t
wait there until they contacted my doctor today because of the
time difference. To complicate matters my doctor is retired as of
this Friday. Oh well. I figure if I really need this prescription it
will work out somehow.

Oh, the Wal-Mart in the town where we moved to doesn’t have
a pharmacy. Maybe I really don’t need this prescription
anymore???? I really do think I can do without it as long as I
am walking - it’s for my blood pressure, and when I’m walking
like this my blood pressure is usually good. I’ll keep tabs on it at
places where they have the blood pressure monitors.

Now I got that all out of my system, so I’ll get on with the
journal. I drove the fast way via main roads to the point
where we stopped walking yesterday. Then Norma took over the
driving while I navigated us through the next two day’s worth of
walking route. It is quite a route - beautiful, but lots of turns,
many that come up on you all of a sudden. I find myself trying
to look at maps, watch the road, look for key spots to note for
Norma on the maps, and mark the maps. Wow! I get tired just
thinking about it.

And, of course, Norma has to drive it and try to predict which
way I am going to have her turn in time to actually do it. She
also has to try to remember which is her left and which is her
right - like many of my friends she frequently wants to go right
when I say left - or left when I say right. We do have a lot of
good laughs. Poor Norma has to put up with me, and sometimes
that can be interesting, to say the least.

We finally got to the area where we had to start looking for a
motel. After some searching and talking with motel
managements, we found one that would really work with us on a
price. We’re at a very nice place with micro and fridge and
Wireless Internet. The gentleman at the desk was ever so kind,
and quite delightful. He went above and beyond the call of duty
to get us just the right room for our needs. We’re in the town of
Guilford, Connecticut - not too far from New Haven,
Connecticut.

Once we got settled and set up my office area we asked about a
coin laundry and a Wal-Mart. We decided to do laundry Sunday
afternoon - too late tonight - so we went to find a place to eat
and the Wal-Mart. Pizza was our dinner, then to Wal-Mart. As
we drove out of the Wal-Mart parking lot Norma said,
“Starbucks,” and pointed across the street. We had been looking
for a Starbucks all day and hadn’t found one. Now we have one
close to our motel! I did get one, which I am just finishing up as
I write this. So I’m a happy camper now.

Back to our room to get this journal done, answer e-mail, phone
Dave, do some text messaging, and get ready for tomorrow, and
to bed. Have a great night wherever you are.

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VI

Tuesday - August 26,  2008    Day 174   21.8 miles

Total Connecticut miles - 21.8     Walking Days - 87

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6   Cumulative miles 1545.8

Today wasn’t nearly as exciting as yesterday, but it was still a
good day. We drove to our start point at the Rhode
Island/Connecticut border. After walking the first 1.4 miles I
came to a road on my route that had a sign saying, “No through
traffic.” Hmmmmm, not a good sign. And you never know if it
is because a bridge is out, or they just don’t want a lot of traffic
going through.

So I called Norma and told her we need to drive a section to see
if I can walk it. In a few minutes she was there, and we drove
down the road to find that indeed a bridge was out and we
couldn’t get through.

Now we had to backtrack to find a way around this. It wasn’t
hard, and within a few minutes we had our new route for that
portion settled. Back to the road where I had turned off so I
could walk around our detour.

Within the next hour I was back on the regular route. One thing
I noticed right away was that Connnecticuns (is that what they
call a person who lives in Connecticut?) are very friendly.
Almost everyone waved to me when I waved to them. Some
saluted (that usually means we are near a military base), and a
few honked. It was great.

My prayers went up for everyone of them, as well as for the
homes I passed by, the businesses, the schools, churches, and
leaders of the communities I passed through. I spent time
praying for my friend who had a biopsy on Monday, and another
lady going to the hospital tomorrow for something serious.  My
prayers also went up for the upcoming elections and our
presidential candidates, for our senators and representatives.

When I’m out there walking there is plenty of time to think, and
that thinking usually turns to praying.  People often ask me if I
get bored while I’m walking. My answer is a very definite “No!”
I enjoy the beauty everyplace I walk - the beauty of the trees and
flowers, the beauty of people of many races and ages, the beauty
of cities, towns, and villages. There’s even a beauty in people in
the poorest parts of our cities.

Well, today’s walking was mostly in the country on roads with
lots of trees (and poison ivy as well), a few dead critters
(including a large snake), and some delightful flowers. Some
roads had a fair amount of traffic, and others had very little.

One place I heard a lot of shooting, and concluded it was people
doing target practice.  I was happy to get past the noise. I also
had lots of hills today, but that doesn’t bother me much
anymore.

Our lunch today was at Hanks Restaurant in Brooklyn, CT (at
least I’m pretty sure that’s the town we were in at that point). I
had a cabbage and sausage soup that was out of this world, and
we both had barbecued beef tips for our main dish. That was
really good.

When Norma and I were driving back on Brooklyn Turnpike (a
small country road, by the way) we saw a couple of turkeys in
the road ahead of us. We paused to let them cross. Then another
emerged from the weeds, and another, and another - seventeen
in all. There were several youngsters among the group of
turkeys, and the adults made sure the young ones got safely
across.

The drive home was long, but fun as we listened to our CD’s
and talked about the day. Back at our room we heated up some
leftovers for our dinner, showered, and headed to bed.

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VI

Monday - August 25,  2008     Day 173   20.2 miles

Total Rhode Island miles - 20.2    Walking Days - 86

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6   Cumulative miles 1524.0

Wow! What a day! It really was awesome. I love Rhode Island,
or at least Glocester Town.  I met so many wonderful people in
this town, which includes a few villages such as Chepachet.

But before I tell you about today I need to go back to tomorrow
and tell you about a detail that I forgot. How could I forget
this??  When we went to dinner at Chili’s yesterday the hostess
commented on our flag scarves. I explained that we were on a
prayer walk along the whole east coast, and that we are heading
toward Washington D.C.

Now Rebecca was really interested in the fact that we were
prayer walking. She told us she had just returned from
Washington D.C. herself where she had gone for “The Call.”
The Call is a prayer time that goes to different cities where huge
crowds gather to pray for our nation. Lou Engles heads this up.
Some of you may remember that I was on a prayer walk in 1995
with a group headed up by Steve Hawthorne where we walked
to all 21 California Missions. Lou Engles was on this walk for
the first part of it. So I was really excited to hear Rebecca say
that she had been at The Call in D.C.

Now back to today. We got a little bit of a late start this
morning, but not too bad. I started out a little slow - pretty
typical, but before long began to step it up a little faster. That’s
the way I like to do it since it helps to warm up a little slower,
then start going faster until I get up to my speed of between 3
and 3.5 miles an hour.

As I came into Glocester Town a man was pulling out of a
driveway, and called to me. I went over to talk with him. He
figured I didn’t want a ride, and that I was walking for exercise.
So I explained to him what I was doing. He was great to talk
with, and I got his picture.

The morning went well with quite a few people waving and a
few honking. At the second segment we stopped in Chepachet,
RI. This was a mail drop for us and I was looking forward to
getting my mail. I knew I had two packages and a few letters.
Thanks everyone for your letters. I really appreciate the notes.

I was really excited to see the packages - I knew what was in
both. One held two new pair of walking shoes - badly needed.
The other was a new magnet for the car - one that has a picture
of the book on it and the map of our 2003/2004 walk across
America with a few details about that. We had three of these
large magnets before, but two had fallen off someplace in Maine
during the rain and wind storms.

The clerk who waited on me was excited to hear what I was
doing. I mentioned that I take prayer requests, and she
immediately gave me one to add to my list. It’s times like this
that I know that I am in the right place at the right time.

We made a couple other stops in this cute little village. One at a
computer place where I got a copy made of one of my maps for
Norma. There I met Josh, Teresa, and Madison, and had a
delightful conversation with them before heading on. We also
stopped at the Town Hall for restrooms - better than the woods
with all the poison ivy.

As I walked on down the highway I heard a voice calling, and
turned around to see a man trying to get my attention. He was
walking also. I stopped to talk with him, and Lloyd told me he
had seen me earlier when he was driving. Now he had to know
what I was doing. I told him about the GAP Walk, and he was
very interested. I walked with him as far as his house, where I
took his picture and talked a bit more. He told me of a great
place to eat our lunch called Shady Acres.

Walking on I passed a house where several children were
playing outside. Some of them were looking my way, so I waved
to them. Then I continued walking, but heard a child’s voice
saying, “Hey, person.”  I turned back with a smile to see two
little boys waving and calling to me. I didn’t see an adult
around, so I didn’t go up the driveway to talk with them.

A little later I came to a produce stand. I asked the lady there
how much it would cost to buy one peach. She weighed one and
told me seventy-five cents. I purchased that peach and told her
what I was doing. She said she knows that God answers prayers
because she just had a big one answered about right timing for
her husband’s shoulder surgery. Terri then gave me a ride in her
electric cart to the store back in their 17 acres. There I got her
picture, and she gave me a jar of raspberry jam - looks delicious.
Back to the road where I continued my walking.

Before long I saw a young man shoveling near the road in front
of his property. Justin told me he was digging out the poison ivy
because he was sick of getting it on him. I heartily agreed with
his passion to get rid of the poison ivy, and told him about my
walk and how often I find the dreadful stuff working its way out
to where I’m trying to walk.

Soon after I left Justin I found Norma waiting for me alongside
the road. It was time for our lunch break. I told her about the
place that Lloyd had told me about. We drove to find it, but to
our dismay it had closed for the day. Looking at the times it was
open we saw that it was open all day until 8 p. m. every day
except Mondays - then it closed at 2 p. m. Well, today was
Monday, and it was 3 p. m. Now time is kind of lost on us
during this walk. We stop after three segments, not at noon. We
both have good snacks to keep us going until our lunch time.

There really was nothing else around, so we headed back toward
where we needed to start walking again, looking for a good
place to pull over and eat a lunch from what we had in our food
box. As we drove we saw Pray Hill Road.  When we saw it I
knew that was on my map to walk today, so we drove down it
back to Chepachet, realizing that we had missed this portion
somehow. We had stayed on 102, missing the turn onto
Chestnut Hill Road.  This drive took us to a good spot for our
roadside picnic.

After we ate we went on down this route to see what we had
done wrong. When we got back to 102 we saw that the Chestnut
Hill Road sign was well hidden among the branches of a tree,
and I hadn’t even noticed the little street there as I continued on
102. Now I had walked almost to 101, our next turn, on 102, so
I said I would just continue that route.

Route 101 took me up and down some good hills, for which I
hardly slow down anymore. It added just 1.4 miles to my route,
which put me over 20 miles at the Connecticut border. Once at
the border where Norma was waiting we took pictures of each
other at the Welcome to Connecticut sign, and also the big
Rhode Island sign since we hadn’t had a real sign at the
Massachusetts/Rhode Island border. While we were at the
Rhode Island sign a man stopped to ask if we’d like a picture of
us together at the sign. Of course we said yes. He said he was a
mailman and had the route that goes by this sign, so he often
stops and takes pictures for people. I think his name is Jeff, and
he told us he will be 56 this weekend. We wished him a happy
birthday, and told him our story. Thanks, Jeff, we appreciate you
taking the picture for us.

Jeff also told me that I had just come over the highest spot in
Rhode Island a mile or so back. Suddenly I remembered seeing a
sign about that, but I had been so intent on getting up the hill
and down to the border I had hardly paid any attention to it. So
we drove back to that sign so I could get a picture of it. By the
way, the highest point in Rhode Island is 812 feet.

We drove back to Milford, MA and stopped at our favorite
restaurant there, Acapulco for another Mexican dinner.
Delicious. Then to our room to shower and do this journal, call
Dave, and get to bed at last. Great day!!

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VI

Sunday - August 24,  2008     Day 172   0.0 miles

Total Massachusetts miles - 69.1   Walking Days - 85

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6   Cumulative miles 1503.8

Today was a simple day with a wonderful church service in
Hopedale, MA - the Union Evangelical Church (United Church
of Christ). It was a small church with very friendly people.
Pastor Christopher Dodge gave an excellent message from
Matthew 16 about taking up the cross to follow Christ - or
persistent sacrifice.

After the service we stayed for the coffee hour and visited with
quite a few people. It was a really incredible time with these
wonderful people.

After church we went to get gas, then to Wal-Mart and to Chili’s
for lunch. After we ate we went back to the motel and I did
bookkeeping, downloaded pictures, and talked with Dave, and
miscellaneous things.

Finally I finished with stuff, and fixed our popcorn, and watched
a bit of TV, and then headed for bed.

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VI

Saturday - August 23, 2008 Day 171 21.4 miles

Total Massachusetts miles - 69.1 Walking Days - 85

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6 Cumulative miles 1503.8

Awesome day today - weather was perfect with sunshine and
not too hot, then we ended right at the state line between
Massachusetts and Rhode Island at 5 p m, so you see it was
really a great day.

Back to the beginning of the day when we left the motel. We
drove toward our start point thinking that we had a very direct
route and there would be no detours to get there. Knowing it
was 9.1 miles back to the start once we were on Hwy 16, we
were both wondering what was going on when our odometer
read over 11 miles - and now things weren’t looking familiar. It
turned out we had made our own detour.

Finally we figured out that when Hwy 16 went off to the right
where we were supposed to go straight on Hwy 126, we had
followed 16 instead. Back we went, and then we finally got
back to the right road. We made a quick stop at an “On the Run”
Convenience store for a restroom. I talked with the man in
charge for a bit explaining what we were doing. I told him, “I’ll
be back soon as I walk this way. When I come back I’ll pop in
and say hi, and buy my candy bar at that time.”

Soon we were at the start and I got my gear on and headed out.
About twenty minutes later I arrived at the “On the Run,” and
went inside. I bought a mint flavored Mars Bar. Very good. I
asked Victor a few questions about the area. He has lived in this
area his whole life. I asked him if people who live here really
appreciate the rich history of the area. He told me that in this
particular area they really do. They take it very seriously, and
work to preserve it. But he also told me that in some of the areas
nearby many did not appreciate where they lived. Some of what
he told me made me wonder if that was why I don’t get as many
people waving and honking in some of the places I’ve just
walked through.

As I continued I prayed especially for Victor, and for the area I
was walking through, as well as the whole state of
Massachusetts. It has been a awesome state in many ways, but
I’ve seen much of what Victor was talking about - that not
everyone cares that much about their history, or wants to
understand it. Yet there are many who do, and I’ve seen that as
well.

Now I continued on to Holliston where I stopped at another
service station and talked with Andre for a bit. He was very
pleasant and appreciative for the prayers.

Next I continued to Milford - the town where we are based for
this week. The route did not go by our motel, but went into the
downtown area. I took a picture of the Town Hall, and helped
Norma find her way - she actually found her on way back onto
the route, but wasn’t sure how she did it. I got in the car and we
drove on through the town so she would feel more comfortable
with it. I walked on through Milford, and Hopedale, and into
Mendon where I met Norma for lunch at a Subway Sandwich
place where we ate our lunch.

Looking at the maps I told Norma I wanted to get to the MA/RI
border today. And, as you know now we did make it. Norma
waited for me at Hill Road, but somehow I got past her without
either of us seeing the other. There were whole lines of cars
going by at times, and chances are that was when I walked by on
the opposite side of the street. It was quite awhile later when I
got the phone call asking where I was. I told her I was only a
few streets from the border, and I detailed the one big turn she
had to make to get to me. Then Norma passed me by and I soon
crossed the border, but no Norma. She was still looking for the
sign that wasn’t there.

Realizing that there was no state welcome sign to Rhode Island,
nor a farewell sign from Massachusetts, I found a Welcome to
Millville, Massachusetts sign and knew this had to be the border
area. It fit the details of the map I was using, so I felt
comfortable with that. Norma came back, and we took pictures
of each other at the border, then headed back to Milford and our
motel.

You should know that Norma is doing a great job as my driver.
I’m really impressed with how well she gets the mileage right
on, even after making wrong turns and having to backtrack. She
takes her job seriously, and I really appreciate it. For each driver
it’s different - depending on their own abilities. I really
do appreciate each one’s different abilities for this job.

After I showered we ate the leftover Chinese food from
yesterday’s lunch. I heated it up in the microwave so kindly put
in our room at the motel. I enjoyed this second part of my meal
better than I did when it was fresh yesterday.

Finally I did the journal, and called Dave. Then I watched some
of the last portion of the Olympics mainly the men’s marathon. I
have started setting up my office area beside the TV where I
can’t see it, but I can hear it. That way I hear what’s going on,
but am not tempted to look at it. This has really helped me get
my work done and to bed at a more decent time each night. So
tonight when I watched the Olympics I actually got to see what
different things looked like - such as the flame, and the Birds
Nest, and other things.

Near the end of my route today I saw a sign at a furniture
manufacturer’s place that said, “Revive us again, O LORD.” This
is from Psalm 85: 6 and 7. And that is my prayer for our
country. I hope you’ll join me in this prayer. Good night all.

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VI

Friday - August 22, 2008 Day 170 21.9 miles

Total Massachusetts miles - 47.7 Walking Days - 84

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6 Cumulative miles 1482.4

It was a long day, but good. We went to Friendly’s for our
breakfast where Alex, true to his word, bought it for us. Thanks,
Alex. Getting there was a bit of a hassle because of a new detour
set up this morning when we came to Holliston. This one took
us way out of our way, and as often happens they take you to a
certain point, then say end of detour without taking us back
where we needed to be. While it wasn’t too hard to figure out
what to do, it would have been helpful to have a little more
direction.

After breakfast we headed on for our start point without further
difficulty. As I started walking I was feeling a little tired - this is
not unusual for me as I start out. Once I’m walking I begin to
feel better, and my strength kicks in. It was a beautiful day.

I walked past the stables we’ve been driving by each day. The
horses were grazing, except for one that a gal was washing
down. They looked so pretty in the pasture.

A lot of my route today had no shoulders to walk on. However
signs were posted along the route for cars, pedestrians, and
cyclists to share the road. This was good, and indeed all three
were sharing the road today. I saw several cyclists, and a few
runners and walkers besides myself. That was great. My only
discomfort was in seeing the poison ivy all along the way.

I walked through Concord, MA; Sudbury, MA; and
Framingham, MA - all rich in history. I took a lot of pictures of
beautiful old buildings, and signs that told of the history of the
area. It was awesome to walk through these incredible places,
some of them dating back to the early 1600’s. Norma was
enjoying seeing these things from the car as well.

When I walked through Sudbury I was pleasantly surprised with
a wonderful walking path the whole way. It did switch from one
side to the other at times, but always with a well-marked
crosswalk, and the drivers here know to stop for pedestrians in
these crosswalks. Other places later on had good sidewalks as
well.

At one place on the path I stopped suddenly because a snake
was stretched out across the way. He seemed to be a little
perturbed that I was there, and hissed at me as he curled up. I
passed by quickly, then went back to get a picture. After I took it
he hissed one more time, and I left.

For lunch we went to a Chinese restaurant. Our meal was big, so
we each took half home to have for dinner. I walked one more
segment after lunch, an ended in Ashland, MA on Pond Street at
the Market Basket Plaza.

We’re only nine miles from Milford, MA where we are based
this week, so tomorrow we should get through it, and maybe
into Rhode Island. I had originally thought we would be walking
through Rhode Island tomorrow, but we had to add some
mileage with the detours, and somehow it just didn’t happen. Oh
well - Monday.

I spent a lot of time praying for the people in this area so rich in
history. I hope people here appreciate what they have, and I
hope they understand the true history of our nation.

Well that’s it for today.

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VI

Thursday - August 21,  2008   Day 169   21.6 miles

Total Massachusetts miles - 25.8   Walking Days - 83

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6   Cumulative miles 1460.5

This was an interesting day - to say the least. We got away from
our motel in pretty good time, made a stop for a restroom at a
Friendly’s Restaurant in Sudbury, MA, and made friends with
the staff instantly. They want us to stop by again for a free meal,
so we’re planning to go there for breakfast tomorrow. What neat
people. The people around here really are great!

We drove the route to our start point, and we knew there would
be several very difficult sections for Norma to navigate. For me
it’s a lot easier as I can stop and look around and compare my
route map with the roads and highways around me. For Norma,
she has to watch for traffic, one-way streets, and for signs that
aren’t there. I don’t know how anyone finds anything here.

We finally got to our start point, and I got my gear on and began
walking. I prayed for Norma as I walked - as I do every day as I
start - that God will wrap His arms around her and the car, keep
her alert to all that’s going on around her, and help her see the
roads she needs to see.

Soon I saw a young man painting one of the fire hydrants in the
town of Methuen. I complimented him on the good job, and
began talking with him about it. He has taken this on as a
summer job for the city to paint the fire hydrants here. I gave
Nicholas my card and explained what I was doing. He was
delightful, and said he would pray for me. I took his picture,
then walked on down the street seeing many of his masterpieces
as I walked.

I came to a Dunkin’ Donuts that we had stopped at earlier, and
went in to use the restroom. When I came out I stopped to talk
to the staff and thank them for the use of the restroom, as I often
do when I use a restroom without buying anything. I told them
about the walk and they got really excited. They gave me a nice
big cup of ice water, and wished me well. Later I realized I
forgot to take their pictures.

Norma met me alongside the road between Methuen and
Lowell, MA. We talked over the section coming up and looked
at the maps to be sure we knew what we were doing. Then I
continued on. I figured it would be a longer segment because
there really weren’t too many places for her to stop. It was a lot
later when she called me to ask where I was. When I told her,
she said, “Oh, no. How did you get past me?” It turns out she
had stopped in Lowell and was waiting for me. I had already
gone through Lowell, and was on the outer edge where I was
expecting to see her. Oops.

Since I had already passed through some of the tricky parts, I
gave her detailed directions to get onto the street I was now on.
We had missed each other just before a section that had one way
streets. I had planned to walk on the route she had to go, so had
stayed on that side of the street. She had parked just before the
one-way section on what would normally be my side of the
street. Oh, well.

We finally met at an ice cream shop where I found her with an
ice cream cone. Not to be left out, I also purchased one -
decadent chocolate!

Now we continued on after going over the maps once again. In
this last segment there were several hard-to-find streets, so we
ended up keeping in close touch by phone, often with me giving
her as specific directions as possible.  Through this area I had a
young man pull up in a car asking directions to the very street I
had just turned off of, so I could give him clear directions all the
way back to Lowell where he needed to go. I told him I was
from California, but I just happened to have walked from where
he wanted to get to. He asked, “Did you walk all the way from
California?” I told him I had in a round-about way, and went on
to explain about this walk and the others I’ve done. Victor let
me take his picture, then we each went our own way.

I ended up at the junction of Maple St. and Highway 225.  This
was a beautiful section with ponds filled with lily pads, purple
flowers growing in abundance, and lots of trees - and poison
ivy. I’ve had a lot of poison ivy to watch out for lately. It creeps
right out to the shoulders where I walk, and sometimes clear
over the shoulder. I am very cautious around it since I am still
getting over my most recent contact with it. I still have it on
both legs - the knees are especially bad - and some on my torso.
Ugh! Not much itching left, since I’ve been very dedicated at
cleansing it thoroughly each night with Tecnu, and then
covering it with Calagel. That does a good job.

I guided Norma in by phone to where I was at the end. What a
trooper, and not a complaint from her. Of course, we both have
the same complaint for Massachusetts and its cities - they need
road signs! It was kind of fun figuring it all out though.
Tomorrow may be more of the same.

From the end point we drove back along our route, making a
few mistakes along the way, but always finding our way back.
We have one detour we will both have to make where a bridge
is out. The detour doesn’t take us too far out of our way.

In Sudbury we stopped at Starbucks for my treat, then on
through the other towns on our route and back to Milford. We
stopped at the same Mexican Restaurant as last night for some
nice Mexican salads with chicken. We both liked the enchiladas
from last night a lot better.  Still it was good.

Back to our motel to get ready for bed and take care of evening
chores.

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VI

Wednesday - August 20,  2008  Day 168   0.0 miles

Total New Hampshire miles - 44.0   Walking Days - 82

Total Massachusetts miles - 4.2

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6   Cumulative miles 1438.9

Well, here we are in Milford, Massachusetts, and all set up for
the next week. We tried to drive our route from where we
stopped yesterday to this town. A few places are still real
sketchy, but I bought a local map that’s more detailed and I
think that will help us a lot. I will be marking it tonight since the
portion in question is a segment we have to do tomorrow.  It is
through the town of Lowell, MA.

Many of the towns we drove through today have so much
history. Of course, the whole east coast has a lot of history, but
some towns seem to have more than others. It was sunny all day
today, and quite comfortable - good walking weather, but we
weren’t walking today.

While I’m thinking about it I left something out of the journal
yesterday. I didn’t talk about our weather at all, and that is an
important part of each day.  In the morning we had showers off
and on, then the sun came out and stayed out the rest of the day
along with wind. The wind kept it cool and comfortable.

Back to today - once we got settled in at our motel, we went into
town to have an early dinner since we had not stopped for lunch.
We ate at a nice Mexican Restaurant - ummmm, very good.

Back at our motel we got laundry started, then went back and
forth between our room and the laundry room. I got some e-mail
taken care of, and some odds and ends done that needed to be
done before tomorrow.

Now I’m through with laundry, so I’m gonna call Dave, mark
my maps, and head to bed.

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VI

Tuesday - August 19, 2008 Day 167 21.9 miles

Total New Hampshire miles - 44.0 Walking Days - 82

Total Massachusetts miles - 4.2

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6 Cumulative miles 1438.9

It was a long day today with quite a bit of driving to scout out
the streets we had to take. New Hampshire and what we’ve seen
of Massachusetts so far do not have signs at street corners.
They may have the name of a street at one or two places, but if
you come into the street anyplace but those places you never
know for sure what street you’re on. How do people ever tell
visitors where they live?? We wasted a lot of time trying to
figure out the system.

We finally got it figured out as to what we would do, but now it
was getting late. I really wanted to get into Massachusetts, so we
made a decision. Tell you about it in a bit.

Starting the day we pre-drove the first 7.5 miles to be sure we
would both be on the same page as far as the streets are
concerned. That went fine, and it was a beautiful walk through
historic Danville, NH which was originally named Hawke.
There were so many fascinating things in this section that I kept
stopping to take pictures. It is full of some incredible history.

When we turned onto Hwy 111, I got some nice wide shoulders
and more traffic, but not bad. I walked on this for 2 or 3 miles to
Hwy 121. Then we had to go down a couple of smaller streets,
then onto West Side Drive where we stopped for lunch. We
drove back to a coffee shop that had nice sandwiches, ate, then
headed back to scout the next section. This is when we ran into
trouble. We kept trying different streets, but couldn’t find the
one we were supposed to be on. Finally we decided to just take
the shortest of these routes, which is the one I believe that Russ
meant for us to take - we just couldn’t find a name on some of
the crucial streets.

The decision we came to that I mentioned above was for me to
walk this last segment in reverse in order to save time. It was 9.1
miles, but if we went back to where I had stopped it would be
too late to do it all. By walking it in reverse I would have plenty
of time to do it. So Norma meant me in three different places in
case I needed anything, and I just did a power walk and finished
just after 7 pm.

About half a mile from the finishe a lady walking her two
Scottish Terriers said to me, “I saw you back in Danville this
morning, what are you doing?” So I went across the street to
explain to her. She was delightful, as were Tori and Bonnie, the
two dogs who are sisters. They turned one year old yesterday.
Katie agreed that they don’t have good signage for their streets,
and she has lived here all her life. She also told me that across
the street from where we were standing is Salem, NH, while on
the side we were standing is Atkinson, NH.

Then I walked the last half mile to the end, got in the car and off
we went to Starbucks in Epping, NH on our way back to Dover
and our motel. We walked into Applebee’s at about 8:30 and got
a quick bite to eat, then back to our room to take care of the
nightly chores and get to bed.

Tomorrow we move our base.