The Great American Journey

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VIII

Friday - October 3, 2008 Day 212 7.2 miles

Total Delaware miles - 21.2 Walking Days - 98

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6 Cumulative miles 1730.3

A little lower mileage today than I was planning on, but with
being ahead of schedule, and having a special guest walk with
me today, I changed my plans. Today also had some down parts,
but mostly it was a very upbeat day.

So we’ll start with the bad news first - After the whole mess
with Bonny’s purse being stolen and getting everything back
except a little money and her cell phone, we moved to
Aberdeen, MD, and somehow in the course of events I lost my
credit card. I retraced my steps in my mind, checked with
several places to see if anyone had found it at one of the places
where I had used it.

Taco Bell was the last place I had used it, but it wasn’t in their
safe which is where they put things like that. They asked all the
staff, and no one had seen it. I let Dave know and he called it in
and had it canceled. No extra charges had been made on it,
which makes me think that it will probably show up in my stuff
someplace. It’s a nuisance to have to go through all this, but I’m
thankful that no charges had been made.

Please pray that we can get through this walk with no more
incidents like this. I really can’t imagine what might have
happened with this credit card - I am always so careful with it.

Now for the good stuff - and there was plenty of that today. We
started out with breakfast at McD’s (no breakfast at this motel)
where we overheard a conversation of two men. One very
obviously was feeling in need of prayer, so when the other man
left, I told him I was in the business of prayer, and asked if I
could pray for him. He was so grateful, and shared his need
more fully with us. Then we stopped and prayed with him right
there, and he went back to his work at McD’s. Before we left he
told us he was feeling much better already. We’ve added him to
our regular list.

Then we went on to Wilmington, DE where we were meeting
Anne Foster at Starbucks. Anne walked with us the first month
of the Great American Journey in 2003. I had not seen her since,
and could hardly wait to see her today. After hugs and greetings,
and introductions of Bonny and Anne to each other, and a time
of prayer together, Anne and I started walking.

It was so fun to catch up on things with each other, and to pray
together as we walked. At one stop a man looked at my flag,
stopped and saluted, and said the pledge of allegiance to the
flag. I explained my mission, and he was just delightful.
William posed for a picture for me, making sure I could see the
wording on his shirt that advertised Champion Window
Cleaning where he worked.

When we stopped at Pat’s Pizza for restrooms we talked with
two employees, Carlene and Vickie, and explained about our
journey. They were really sweet, and special to talk with.

Now Anne lives in Bear, DE, but grew up in Newark, DE
where we were walking through. As we walked she shared a lot
about the history of the area. I felt like I had my own private
tour guide - it was wonderful! I took pictures of a lot of the
places she talked about and had her record some of the things
about it on my camera.

As we entered the town we stopped and prayed together. Then
walking along, Anne noticed two women sitting in a car outside
McD’s. She knew one of them, so we stopped to chat. This was
Jean Kay with her friend, Ruth. Jean Kay told me she was
a friend of Anne Louise. This was something new - I had never
heard Anne called Anne Louise before. Jean Kay and she had
gone to school together, and that’s what she was known by as
she grew up.

Soon we met up with Bonny, who had parked the car and
walked back to meet us. The three of us walked to the museum,
where Anne Louise took us in to meet another friend who
was working there, Debbie. Bob was also working there today,
and we spent time talking with them, and enjoying the small, but
nice museum.

Anne showed me the church, no longer a church now, where she
had come to know the Lord as her Savior many years ago. And
she showed me the church where she and her husband got
married, and where she and her 94 year old aunt still attend on
Sundays. We also got to see the house where her aunt lives.
Anne and I walked on through the rest of town, past the
University of Delaware, and many beautiful old homes. We
stopped to look inside the Deer Park Hotel which has been there
since the early days of this town.

A little further on we stopped for the day at the local Country
Club where Bonny was waiting for us. Then we all piled into the
van and headed back into town for some lunch. And after lunch
we drove out to Anne’s place in Bear to take a tour of her lovely
home in an Active Senior’s Housing Village. Six small homes
are all connected, condominium style, and surrounded by lawns.
It’s a beautiful home, and even more beautifully decorated
inside. She has a deck in the back with stairs that lead down to a
lawn and a walking path that goes all the way around the village.

Soon it was time to take Anne back to Starbucks in Wilmington
to get her car, and for us to head back to our motel in Aberdeen.
It was an awesome day with Anne. I have pictures of her with
Bonny, and even some with me.

Bonny and I missed a turn on the way back to Aberdeen, so
went out of our way about 5 miles before I realized it. I decided
I better put it on the GPS and get back quicker. That worked.
But with getting a late start back in the first place we were now
getting to our motel after dark. We made it safe and sound, and
were pleasantly surprised when we walked into our room by
a beautiful bouquet of flowers - yep, they were from Dave,
with two dark chocolate Milky Way bars attached. What a great
bouquet - with a variety of flowers in yellows and reds,
and some branches with fall leaves attached, and the candy
bars hung from these branches as well.

We quickly got to work getting ready for tomorrow, and taking
care of things on the computer. But now it’s late (11 p m) and I
need to call Dave before I get to bed, so good-night all.