The Great American Journey

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VI

Wednesday - August 20, 2008 Day 168 0.0 milesTotal New Hampshire miles - 44.0 Walking Days - 82Total Massachusetts miles - 4.2

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6 Cumulative miles 1438.9Well, here we are in Milford, Massachusetts, and all set up for the next week. We tried to drive our route from where we stopped yesterday to this town. A few places are still real sketchy, but I bought a local map that’s more detailed and I think that will help us a lot. I will be marking it tonight since the portion in question is a segment we have to do tomorrow. It is through the town of Lowell, MA.Many of the towns we drove through today have so much history. Of course, the whole east coast has a lot of history, but some towns seem to have more than others. It was sunny all day today, and quite comfortable - good walking weather, but we weren’t walking today.

While I’m thinking about it I left something out of the journal yesterday. I didn’t talk about our weather at all, and that is an important part of each day. In the morning we had showers off and on, then the sun came out and stayed out the rest of the day along with wind. The wind kept it cool and comfortable.

Back to today - once we got settled in at our motel, we went into town to have an early dinner since we had not stopped for lunch. We ate at a nice Mexican Restaurant - ummmm, very good.

Back at our motel we got laundry started, then went back and forth between our room and the laundry room. I got some e-mail taken care of, and some odds and ends done that needed to be done before tomorrow.

　

Now I’m through with laundry, so I’m gonna call Dave, mark my maps, and head to bed.

　

　　

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VI

Tuesday - August 19, 2008 Day 167 21.9 milesTotal New Hampshire miles - 44.0 Walking Days - 82Total Massachusetts miles - 4.2

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6 Cumulative miles 1438.9It was a long day today with quite a bit of driving to scout out the streets we had to take. New Hampshire and what we’ve seen of Massachusetts so far do not have signs at street corners. They may have the name of a street at one or two places, but if you come into the street anyplace but those places you never know for sure what street you’re on. How do people ever tell visitors where they live?? We wasted a lot of time trying to figure out the system.We finally got it figured out as to what we would do, but now it was getting late. I really wanted to get into Massachusetts, so we made a decision. Tell you about it in a bit.

Starting the day we pre-drove the first 7.5 miles to be sure we would both be on the same page as far as the streets are concerned. That went fine, and it was a beautiful walk through historic Danville, NH which was originally named Hawke. There were so many fascinating things in this section that I kept stopping to take pictures. It is full of some incredible history.

When we turned onto Hwy 111, I got some nice wide shoulders and more traffic, but not bad. I walked on this for 2 or 3 miles to Hwy 121. Then we had to go down a couple of smaller streets, then onto West Side Drive where we stopped for lunch. We drove back to a coffee shop that had nice sandwiches, ate, then headed back to scout the next section. This is when we ran into trouble. We kept trying different streets, but couldn’t find the one we were supposed to be on. Finally we decided to just take the shortest of these routes, which is the one I believe that Russ meant for us to take - we just couldn’t find a name on some of the crucial streets.

The decision we came to that I mentioned above was for me to walk this last segment in reverse in order to save time. It was 9.1 miles, but if we went back to where I had stopped it would be too late to do it all. By walking it in reverse I would have plenty of time to do it. So Norma meant me in three different places in case I needed anything, and I just did a power walk and finished just after 7 pm.

About half a mile from the finishe a lady walking her two Scottish Terriers said to me, “I saw you back in Danville this morning, what are you doing?” So I went across the street to explain to her. She was delightful, as were Tori and Bonnie, the two dogs who are sisters. They turned one year old yesterday. Katie agreed that they don’t have good signage for their streets, and she has lived here all her life. She also told me that across the street from where we were standing is Salem, NH, while on the side we were standing is Atkinson, NH.

Then I walked the last half mile to the end, got in the car and off we went to Starbucks in Epping, NH on our way back to Dover and our motel. We walked into Applebee’s at about 8:30 and got a quick bite to eat, then back to our room to take care of the nightly chores and get to bed.

Tomorrow we move our base.

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VI

Monday - August 18, 2008 Day 166 20.7 miles Total New Hampshire miles - 26.3 Walking Days - 81Washington D.C. miles - 4.6 Cumulative miles 1417.0A beautiful day - sunshine, a breeze, friendly people, and the strength to walk, and the freedom to smile and wave with enthusiasm. What more can one ask for?Needless to say I had a wonderful day. As I started out this morning a group of about 20 cars was headed my way. I breathed a prayer to be able to hold my arm up for all of them, and I did. Whew - try waving to that many people without putting your arm down. Much to my dismay only one responded, and I thought this was not going to be a great day of waving. I said a prayer for all those people anyway and asked Him to bless them with joy and safety for the rest of their day.

And then came the next group of cars - from that point on my waves and smiles were met with many return waves, smiles, horn honking, and plenty of enthusiasm.

I was on Highway 125 all day, and the cars came in large groups the whole time, so I was busy. But this is the kind of busy I like.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures today, but my favorite of the day was an American flag on a stand out in the middle of a pond. It was surrounded by lily pads and water.

After the third segment we stopped for lunch at Telley’s Restaurant in Epping, NH. Our meal was delicious and we enjoyed a good rest before going back out on the road.

The final segment would take us to the town of Brentwood where we needed to scout out the next segment before walking it. I told Norma to just meet me there and we would check it out before going further.

Walking through Epping I noticed a sign for a Wal-Mart SuperCenter (we needed to do some shopping, so I made a mental note of this place), and on the other side of the street I noticed a Starbucks (I also made a mental note of this).

As I walked that last 5.9 miles I had a car pull up beside me to ask directions to the gun makers shop. I told the couple I was from California and didn’t have any idea where it was. The man asked, “You came from California to walk here??” I explained what I was doing, and gave them my card. They wished me well and headed on.

Then just as I was coming to where Norma was waiting for me, a car pulled up behind me, and the driver said, “My curiosity needs to be satisfied, what are you doing?” I laughed and told him about the GAP Walk, gave him my card, and managed to take his picture. He told me he had been driving the last garbage truck that I had waved to a few minutes earlier. He was thankful for my prayers for the country and wished me well on the rest of the journey.

Then I got in the car with Norma and we pre-drove the start of tomorrow’s route. We’ll drive it again tomorrow morning before I walk it so Norma will have a better idea of where to turn. This section has lots of little turns. This is where we leave Highway 125.

Next we drove back to our motel via Wal-Mart and Starbucks. A perfect ending to our day. Using our GPS we drove the rest of the way via a different route than we have used before. This took us through a part of Dover with some beautiful old buildings. I noticed the welcome sign for Dover said that the town was founded in 1623 - wow, that’s the oldest one I’ve seen yet. Awesome.

At our motel we took our stuff upstairs, then went back to the dining room for dinner - chili and nachos tonight. Back to our room after eating to shower, and get ready for tomorrow.

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VI

Sunday - August 17, 2008 Day 165 0.0 miles Total New Hampshire miles - 5.6 Walking Days - 80Washington D.C. miles - 4.6 Cumulative miles 1396.3Our day of rest and worship. Today we went to Grace Community Church in Rochester, NH. We didn’t know a lot of the music, but the words to the songs were great. It was a lively service, and we could tell this was a very active church with lots of outreach opportunities.This church has three services, plus an Indonesian service in the afternoon. One project they have coming up on September 20 is called “Go Tell it On the Mountain.” On that day there will be Christians all over New Hampshire climbing 50 high peaks in the state for the very specific purpose of praying for our nation and the presidential elections from these peaks.

Pastor Bernie Quinn preached a great message about the woman of Sidon asking for her daughter to be healed of demon possession, and Jesus’ response that taught the disciples a lesson on faith. This was from Matthew 15: 21 to 28.

After church we drove the short distance to Portsmouth, NH to see the Tall Ships that are in the harbor this weekend. It was pretty warm and we weren’t able to park very close - ok for me, but harder for Norma. On the way back I had her wait at the Visitor’s Center while I went to get the car to come back to pick her up.

Then we came back to Dover, NH, where we are staying, and had a late lunch. Starbucks is across the street from our motel, so we went there after lunch and got our drinks to take back to our room with us.

I spent the rest of the afternoon downloading pictures, e-mailing some to Connee that she wanted, and talking on the phone to Coni Harris, and Dave. I may still make another call or two before I go to bed, but for now I’m ready to close the computer down for the night and get ready for tomorrow, then relax a bit before bed.