The Great American Journey

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!!