The Great American Journey

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VII

Tuesday - September 30,  2008 Day 209   11.2 miles

Total Pennsylvania  miles - 50.2   Total Delaware miles - 2.2

Walking Days - 96   Washington D.C. miles - 4.6

Cumulative miles 1711.3

Well you can see we made it into Delaware today. I expect to
finish Delaware this week, then Maryland is my last state. And
I’ll have a few miles in Washington D C to take me back to the
Lincoln Memorial.

Today’s adventures were different - as they are every day I
guess. Since I’m walking so little mileage each day we’re taking
things slow in the morning, with time to enjoy a little longer in
our Bible and prayer times, eat a relaxing breakfast in the motel
dining area, talk with staff and then get moving out to the van to
hit the road.

This morning we had a fairly short drive. Every day takes us
over a different bridge crossing of the Delaware River. We’ve
done the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, the Commodore Barry
Bridge, and tomorrow we do the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
The latter is the one we usually come back to our motel on.
These bridges are big and beautiful.

Our start today was at the WaWa Market. Much of the day was
spent walking through heavy industrial areas. There was the big
Boeing Plant, and a large area where mangled cars are dumped,
and it smelled like a garbage dump for awhile in one area. But
the biggest areas were the oil refineries - lots of them!

Most of the day I had sidewalks to walk on - a real plus. But
there were a couple of places where it was a little tricky for short
distances. On one of those I had to cross to the other side of the
road where they had a tiny bit of sidewalk, and using my
walking stick for balance I could walk okay on it. A few times
the weeds had grown out enough that I had to walk in the street
itself. At those times I just waited until no traffic was coming,
and then walked it real fast. At least the traffic in these sections
was pretty light.

Walking toward the traffic I had a lot of people waving and
honking - lots of truckers were honking. It was a very friendly
bunch today. There weren’t as many people to talk with today
since I was in so much of an industrial area.

However, when we took our first break at a convenience store
where they so kindly let us use the employees restroom, we met
Patricia, an employee at the store. She saw the signs on our van
and wanted to know more. It was so interesting talking with her,
and she did ask us to pray for her son. We were able to pray
with her right there, and this family will be added to our list.

Patricia had lost her keys, and while she was talking with us her
husband came out of the store to say they had been found, and
he was going to get them. She felt that God was answering that
prayer request before Bonny and I even knew of the need. She is
a Christian, and it was truly a delight to talk and pray with her.

I sat in the van with Bonny to eat a messy treat I had just
purchased in the store, and after finishing it my phone rang. It
was my niece, Kim. What a surprise, and what a delight! We
had a nice talk. She has been keeping up with us through the
updates, and just decided to call me. I loved it!

I continued on heading toward Delaware. My walk was basically
on Routes 291 and 13, and took us through the towns of
Chester, PA; Marcus Hook, PA; and into Claymont, DE. We
ended the day at Burger King in Claymont, and took time to eat
lunch there.

Before we went in to eat, my phone rang again. This time it was
my granddaughter, Brenda. Another fun conversation. She was
working on our Christmas getaway plans with her family and
Josh’s family. This was a really fun time for us last year, so we
had decided to do it again this year.  Of course we talked about
other things as well, such as Owen, their almost three-year-old
son - our great grandson. I’m really looking forward to seeing
him again - it’s been many months since I’ve seen him. Oh, yes,
I do look forward to seeing Brenda and Josh again as well.

After eating, we drove tomorrow’s route to get another preview
of it for Bonny. It’s pretty direct again. We ended at Starbucks,
and, yes, I got my chai tea. Then we went to Wal-Mart for
water, and to Pilot for gas. There are two gas stations near our
motel that seem to be having a gas war. Every day it is lower.
We paid 3.099 today, and in nearby areas it is still 3.389 and
higher mostly.

After getting the gas I had another phone call - this one was
returning a call I had made a day or two ago. It was Anne Foster
from Delaware - remember her? She walked the first month of
the walk across America with us along with Judi and JoAn who
also walked that first month.

Anne and I talked for awhile, and made plans for her to walk
with me through a part of Delaware on Friday.

Now it was shower time, dinner time, and computer time. So
there you have it - another day with Lyn and Bonny on the GAP
Walk.