The Great American Journey

GAP WALK JOURNALS - V

Monday - July 21,  2008  Day 138   26.2 miles

Total Maine miles - 26.7 Walking Days - 65

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6   Cumulative miles 1030.1

Another record day for me. By the way, yesterday was my
record lowest mileage day. But today was my record highest day
for this walk. Today I walked a marathon!

Connee walked with me for segments one through three, then
rested for segments four and five, and walked again on the sixth
segment for a total of 14.9 miles. I walked still one more
segment after that - a total of seven segments today. I really
enjoyed walking with Connee. We laughed and we prayed
together, and took quite a few pictures.

We were able to start walking at around 7 a m today. The route
took us through Madawaska and Frenchville this morning, then
we turned off of Hwy 1 onto a small back road.. Much of the
route today was on dirt roads - oh, such fun. What incredible
beauty. There were lots of good hills - I’m feeling muscles I
haven’t yet felt on this walk.

At our lunch break after the fourth segment we actually had a
picnic table to eat at. It was at the top of a hill overlooking a
beautiful area. Russ and Connee had purchased some lunchables
for us to have this week since we are not even close to near
anyplace to get food while we’re walking.

After lunch we took time to drive some more of the route ahead
so I could get a better idea of where to turn for the rest of the
day. In the morning Russ had placed some small flags in the
ground at each turn so I knew where to go. When Connee was
with me she knew the route pretty well since she and Russ had
scouted the route out together.

Soon after I started walking after lunch I glanced ahead to see
some critters heading my way. Hmmmmm, I wasn’t sure I
wanted to meet these critters too closely - it was a family of
skunks. I glanced down to grab my phone to call Russ to let him
know what I was confronting. When I glanced back up the
skunks had disappeared. This worried me a bit, but then I saw
them again. They had gone up a little side road, but as I talked to
Russ I saw them turn my way again. It was a momma and four
young ones - oh my. Now these skunks were not slow, and they
seemed to be running straight toward me. I decided to speed up
a bit. They crossed to my side of the road, and as I started to get
my camera out they dove into some bushes and disappeared
completely. I never saw them again. I sure do wish I could have
gotten a picture of them. It was awesome.

We’ve all been waiting to see a moose or two, but so far none.
There are lots of birds and a few chipmunks, but that’s about all
we’ve seen other than the skunks.

Hills were a part of every segment, and I suspect they will be a
part of my walking for a long time to come. I finally came out to
Highway 11 where I walked a little further until Russ and
Connee came into view. As I walked to the car, Russ got out to
take a picture of me as I finished, then told me I had just walked
a marathon. I was delighted. As I was getting my gear off and
into the back, a policeman stopped to see if we were ok. Russ
told him I was walking and he was my support driver and that
we were fine. As I came around the car, the officer gave me a
thumbs up and a big smile. That was nice.

We drove back to Madawaska and into a big rain storm. It
poured so hard we could hardly see, but it did clean our very
dirty car up a little. We went to a pizza place for dinner, then
back to our room to get our showers and other stuff taken care
of before getting to bed. Great day!