The Great American Journey

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VII

Saturday - September 6,  2008 Day 185   13.2 miles

Total Connecticut miles - 148.2    Walking Days - 93

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6   Cumulative miles 1672.2

An interesting day to say the least. Not a lot of walking as you
can see, but it got us through the state of Connecticut, and that
was my goal today.

I walked through Stamford and Greenwich, and Cos Cob,
Connecticut, and then to the border of New York and just inside
that great state.

As most of you know we are expecting Tropical Storm Hanna in
the area where we are staying tonight, so our plan was to be
through by early afternoon so we could do some shopping and
then get to our room early enough to settle in before the storm
hit. As often happens things didn’t quite go the way we planned.
But I’d best start from the beginning of the day.

We ate breakfast at the McDonald’s where I had stopped
walking yesterday. While we were in there three policemen
came in and got their breakfast. Then Norma and I finished
eating and went to the car so I could get my gear on. As soon as
we stepped outside to feel the “heaviest” air I have ever
experienced. The humidity is VERY high here, and feels
absolutely suffocating. It’s a very weird feeling.

Now Stamford is a beautiful city with some awesome buildings,
parks and statuary. But, like most cities, it also has its poorer
areas. Of course, I walked through both. Many men and teens
hung out on the corners, and as I walked through (they are
usually standing where you must walk through) I looked them in
the eye and greeted them. Most of the time they greeted me in
return. One man called from across the street, “God bless
America.” I loved it.

Then I came to the beautiful grounds of the Hyatt Regency in
Greenwich. The plants were awesome, and I took a couple of
pictures. Then I walked past and on into more of this well-
known city. At a service station I met a young man and a young
woman (not together). The man was quite interested in what I
was doing and asked lots of questions. He allowed me to take
his picture, but chose not to give me his name. He said he
doesn’t let anyone take his picture, ever, but since I was praying
for our country he would let me take it for my own memories.
He was very nice.  The lady wouldn’t even let me take her
picture, and that was fine.

Moving on to where Norma was waiting near the Cos Cob Fire
Company #1, I refilled my water and then kept on walking. A
few minutes later I met a man walking toward me. He asked if I
knew where the library was, which, of course, I didn’t.  He told
me he was from Maine and had left his car down the street to
get new tires. He now carried a Dunkin’ Donuts bag and coffee.
I noticed his hat said “Korean Veteran,” and commented about
it. We talked about his time in the military, and I thanked him
for serving our country.

Bob said many other things as well. He was quite interesting to
listen to, and I did, of course, share about the walk, and we
talked about that for awhile. I gave him my card, took his
picture, and he was very happy to speak into my camera for me.

After I left him I called Norma to ask her to stop when she went
past me so I could get some more cards. I don’t like to be
without when I’m walking. A few minutes later I called her back
to let her know I had to cross the street (this area keeps
switching the walkway from one side to the other) so she
wouldn’t miss me. She told me she might not see me right away
as she had run the battery down, and was now calling AAA.
It wasn’t long that she had to wait, and soon she was stopping
around the corner to give me some cards.

I was back and forth from one side of the street to the other the
rest of the morning. Crossing the street in these New England
states has been very interesting. When they do have a walk
signal, there is usually only one button to push on a corner. It
didn’t take too long to figure out that they stop all traffic for
pedestrians to cross.

Most of the places this seems like such a waste to me, because I
am usually the only one crossing. So when the walk light comes
on all traffic is stopped and every eye is on me as I walk across
and continue on. Maybe I should just walk up to every car while
they are stopped and hand them my card, or at least take a bow.
I do feel a little self-conscious. If the street is not too wide I
just walk with the traffic, but often I must use the walk light.

I passed by some beautiful OLD churches today, and took a few
pictures of some. Before long Norma called to tell me she was
waiting at the border of New York for me. About fifteen
minutes later I was at the border myself. Some Canada geese
had formed a corrider for me to walk through as they stood on
each side of the walkway. I took their picture, but then they left
quickly without waiting for me to pass through. I was
disappointed.

I took a picture of the “Welcome to New York - The Empire
State” sign at 12:06 p m, then looked around for Norma. She
had told me she was on the New York side of the sign, so I
walked on a bit looking for her. My phone rang, and a familiar
voice said, “Congratulations on getting into New York.” It was
Dave - he had just chaperoned me on my phone and saw I was
crossing the border. Now that was sweet.

We didn’t talk long, and Norma called right after he hung up to
ask what happened to me. I told her, “I’m looking for you,
where are you?”  It turned out she was in a center island of the
highway where a service station had closed down right across
from the New York sign. Back I went, and soon we were on our
way back to our room - with a stop first at Starbucks!

After getting our drinks we headed back out. As Norma pulled
out onto the street a siren came on and her instant reaction was
to turn to the right to get out of the way. She hadn’t noticed the
curb and managed to hit it in such a way that it literally tore out
a piece of our front passenger tire leaving a big hole, and of
course causing the tire to instantly go flat.

Pulling into the next parking lot we realized we were right
across the street from where she had called AAA earlier. Poor
Norma. She knew that it would be the same tow truck coming
out to rescue her again. And sure enough it was. When he saw
her he said something like, “What happened this time?”

We decided that the best thing would just be to tow the van to
Mavis Tire Company since we’d have to replace the tire
anyway. We spent the rest of the afternoon there watching as our
tow truck driver brought in another car, and as many others were
coming in for tires as well. They were a very busy place. As we
sat there wondering why this had to happen, we realized that
perhaps God had saved us from something worse.  I did end up
getting all four tires replaced as they were wearing down and
would have to be replaced before I get back to California
anyway. As we paid the bill we told the man in charge what we
were doing, and he was quite intrigued. I gave him my card, and
he promised to pray for us.

Finally we were on our way again, but now the rain was starting.
We needed to get to the grocery store yet, and ended up stopping
at Trader Joe’s for some water, and frozen dinner for tonight
and a few supplies for tomorrow. As I came out of the store it
was pouring down pretty heavily.

Back to our room to have our dinner. As we were going into the
motel another lady was also going in. She told us she had just
found out that the motel we’re staying in is closing down next
Friday. Wow, our timing was good being here, and the fact that
it’s closing explains several things that are lacking here.  A sad
situation for the people affected by this closing.

We’re back in our motel now watching the weather reports, and
being as alert as possible. There are tornado warnings just north
of us in places where we were the last few days. The rain and
wind is expected to be at its worst a little later, and we’ll be in
storm and flood warning until 2 a m. We should be fine here,
but we do want to be alert.

And now I’m gonna close this and check e-mail and relax for
awhile.