The Great American Journey

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VI

Saturday - August 16,  2008   Day 164   20.2 miles

Total Maine miles - 385.3     Total New Hampshire miles - 5.6

Walking Days - 80

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6   Cumulative miles 1396.3

What a fun day. I will tell you the tales of Norma’s woes, and
the fun we had finding each other. Now that should get your
curiosity up, but you’ll have to wait for the end of this to find
out just what happened.

Our day started out with me feeling a little sluggish, so I walked
a bit slower. Soon I saw a lady with a beautiful black dog. I
asked if I could greet the dog, and she recommended I put down
the walking stick. Her puppy (4 months old) is being trained to
be an attack dog because she has been attacked twice. Wow! I
put down my stick, and took off my glove - my glove was
attacked by a dog one day, so I figured I’d better not leave it on.

Maximus let me pet him after he sniffed my hand and decided I
was no threat to Tammy. We talked awhile, and then I got a
picture of the two of them.

A little later I saw a man sitting on his lawn leaning against a
stump. He said he had arthritis in both legs. He wanted to know
where I was walking to. He looked like he had no teeth, and his
smile was delightful. When I asked about taking a picture he
told me “No.” I guess I looked a bit disappointed, because he
had a change of heart telling me I could take a picture, but he
hoped he wouldn’t break my camera. I got my picture and said
good-bye to him before walking on.

Then came the forest that Norma and I both wanted to get
pictures of. This particular forest was already changing color,
and several trees were a beautiful red. Norma had stopped to
take pictures too. It was beautiful.

Time for lunch at Minor’s Seafood Restaurant. Now neither
Norma nor I care much for seafood, but there were plenty of
other things on the menu.

When we sat at our table, a couple at the next table greeted us
and we talked quite a bit. I got a picture of Robert and Eleanor
before they left.

As I started what was supposed to be the next to the last
segment after lunch the sky was clouding up, and thunder was
booming. We’ve been having a lot of thunder lately with no sign
of lightning, and thus was the case today as well. The
temperature was comfortably cool. I grabbed a couple of zip-loc
bags to put my camera and phone in if the rain started. I left my
rain jacket figuring everything else would be ok if the rain came.

With the cooler temperature I walked swiftly. All of a sudden I
realized I was coming up to the “Welcome to New Hampshire”
sign.  I stopped to take pictures, then continued on. Real soon I
came to the big curve to the right where I was to turn left. I
thought to myself, “I wonder if Norma will remember this turn.
Should I call her?” We had driven it two or three times, so I
decided she will certainly remember it. Wrong.

As I walked down Eastern Rd. I kept wondering about Norma,
thinking I should have seen her by now. And then my phone
rang, and I heard Norma’s voice at the other end saying, “Lyn,
I’m lost.” I laughed, and asked where she was.

Fortunately it wasn’t too far away, and I knew the area well
enough by now that I could tell her what to do to correct it. I
told her not to worry about the mileage for now. We could go
back at the end of the day to check out the last segment. She told
me it was starting to rain. Later she told me it just poured
buckets, and she could hardly see anything.

I continued walking, and sure enough here came the rain. I
quickly put my phone and camera into the zip-locs, and kept
going. Soon I was at Columbus Rd. and Summer Rd. Columbus
is also Hwy. 125, and Norma should be coming down that soon.
I was walking fast, and seemed to be staying ahead of the worst
of the rain. In fact, the rest of the day I seemed to be staying
right at the edge of the storm, so I only got a heavy mist.

Soon my phone rang again. Norma told me she was at 125 and
Summer. Good, I told her where I was, and she came on down
my way. We got together, and I told her where to meet me for
the end of the day - or at least an approximate area. She stopped
again a little later to see if she was in the right area. No, not yet -
a little further.  She moved on, and soon I came to where she
was sitting in the parking lot of Dunkin’ Donuts. A perfect place
to start on Monday morning. Dunkin’ Donuts are on almost
every corner along the east coast states. Maybe we’ll have
another chocolate eclair Monday before we start our day.
Ummmm, they are good.

Finally we drove back to the restaurant where we had eaten
lunch before the “Lost in Rochester” experience. Oh, yes, the
town we were moving through was Rochester, New Hampshire.
The mileage for that longer than normal segment was 6.3 miles.

It helps to have a good sense of humor at times like this, and we
both do. Now it was time to go to dinner. We chose Chili’s for
tonight. Our waitress was a delightful gal named “Kat.” We
talked with her quite a bit, told her about our walk, and she told
us about her time in India.

Every night when we get dinner we both look at the menu, then
without telling the other what we’re getting we both order the
exact same thing. It’s nice that we both like the same things.
Sometimes we get just one meal and share it.

Now we’re ready to get to bed, so I’ll bid you all farewell.