Hello, for health reasons, in May and June of 2019, I completed an 11 day, 122 mile walk across Tennessee, from north to south. For those of you who may be new to a blog, try this. Scroll down to where you can see the archives on the right. Click on ‘May’ and read the very top article, titled ‘Post Updates’ which has two videos, one of why I walked, and the other is about my previous trips. Then click on ‘June’ and the first article is at the bottom, so work your way up the page.
Ok, so at about 2:00 on Friday, I finish my walk, and Judy picks me up and we head back north, first to Selmer. We stop at Smokey Joe's BBQ (which I don't have a picture of) ,
Wait a minute, yes I do, there it is.
Ok, so I technically didn't eat there on my walk, but an hour after it. I still walked right in front of it the day before, in a pelting rain.
I had planned on a dozen or so places I could have stopped and sampled their BBQ, but though some could be found on Google Maps, once I got there, it was obvious they had not been in business for quite awhile. Others, by the time I got close, they were three blocks away, and it was the end of a 90deg day, and I was too pooped to walk the extra three blocks.
So, here is the winner, Smokey Joe's on E Poplar in Selmer Tenn. Stop by when you are driving through. Not to say they had the best BBQ in West Tenn, but at least the best that I sampled.
Now, on to my 'End of Trip Surprise"
I told you earlier about the Casey Jones Village in Jackson. Judy and I had eaten there earlier in the week, but had not taken the time to tour the village shops. By the time we got back into town, some of them were already closed, including the RR museum we took the kids to 19 years earlier.
After we had finished, we were sitting in our car in the parking lot and all of the sudden we started hearing bagpipe music. (So, I am not all that crazy about bagpipes, but it is growing on me. I love the joke years ago about 'when do you know a bagpipe needs tuning?'
At first, we didn't know where it was coming from. Judy commented, 'hey, he's playing Amazing Grace.' To which I answered, 'well, duh. Amazing Grace seems to be the only song bagpipers know.'
We finally saw this man about 100 yards away at the end of the parking lot, standing next to his car, dressed in full kilt, standing by himself, playing his bagpipe. I couldn't pass this up, so we drove over to where he was and just stopped and watched for a few seconds until he finished his song.
He finished, and walked over to our car. We thanked him for his music and asked him what he was doing in a lonely parking lot, by himself, playing a bagpipe.
It turned out that he was a member of the Alvin C York unit of the US Army 'pipe and drum' corp. His sole job with the US Army was to honor our war dead by playing at their funerals. He sometimes played at 4-5 funerals a day in the Tenn/Kent/Mo/and I think Illinois area.
Astounded that there could be that many in one day, he said that there are an average of 1500 military veteran deaths per day in the US. At the height of WWII there were 12M troops, and also many of the Vietnam Vets are now reaching 70 and 75 years of age and many are also dying. The numbers were staggering to me.
In the conversation, he asked what we were doing and I pointed to my t-shirt and I said, 'I just finished doing this' pointing to my 'Walking across Tenn' shirt.
'Oh' he yelled out, ' I read about you a day or so ago in the Jackson Sun. He then stuck his hand through the window, shook my hand and said, 'nice to meet you, I am Dennis Dudley.
With a name like Dudley it can sometimes be years before I meet a Dudley I'm not related to. In 60 years, I have only met about 7 Dudleys I was not related to. What a shock. And what a privilege to meet one doing what he does.
Below are some random things I saw along my walk that just didn't fit into my daily stories.
So, a highway worker steps in concrete years ago, they don't fix, and then.....
Just a random, average, side of the road, empty infant seat. full of toys and stuffed animals. The question is, 'what happened to the baby when the seat was discarded'?
I met Sadie at a gas station.
Didn't know he changed his number? Wait a minute...He never had a number.
:) :) :)
I had a moment like that one day while in college. And it wasn't even in my car. I hope the passengers were OK.
Always willing to show off my home state.
Just kinda strange.
I am now sixty and I have had many friends talk about the damage beavers have done on their property. But I have never in my life seen a beaver that was not inside of a zoo, nor have I seen a beaver dam, and I think this is the first 'in the wild' evidence I have ever seen of a beaver.
If you've never seen 'Runaway Bride', well...you need to. Once you do, you will get the picture above.
Yes, this is a mailbox. Most likely owned by a UT grad, and not the UT in Austin.
Just junk I came across along the way.
There seemed to be train stuff all along the way. Nice trains↟, and ready for the scrap heap trains ↡.
Some poor kid's missing his castle.
A different kind of church sign.
And this one defies logic. The yellow 'bumpy' things, as far as I understand, is for either wheelchairs, or for anyone who may be handicapped. The two pads on each side make sense. The one on the upper right leads straight into a two lanes of traffic. There is no crosswalk here, just four lanes and a turn lane. I walked up to it, looked at it, and probably scratched my head and said, "Say Whuuuuut?"
And this is for my sweet sister who I'm sure has never set foot in a place like this. 😃 And these two are too funny.
If your Day 11 post turned out like mine, I apologize. I'm not sure what happened, but my email from Valarie was not readable. So here it is again.
First off, allow me to say that your story leaves
me in happy fears and giving God all the glory! I am a 36 year old who just survived
the widowmaker on 5/28/19. My aunt lives in Jackson and sent me this article
and I am feeling instantly inspired by you. I have had three open heart
surgeries, countless pacemaker surgeries, a donor valve, and a mechanical valve
before this. I have always had a fighter’s spirit and now I’m thinking of what
I can do once I’m well to honor the fact that I once again survived, especially
something of this magnitude. You sir, and your amazing supportive wife are
people who the world needs more of. I can feel your inner light shining through
as I read then reread the article. Good luck and safe travels on the rest of
your journey. I am attaching a few photos of the doctor who saved my life my
before and after surgery photos. Godspeed and prayers, Valarie.
What a fruit-basket of emotions I was when I woke up on what I hoped would be my last day. I was glad I was so close to fulfilling me several year long dream. I was also anxious about still possibly some rain messing up my plans. I was wanting to finish, but I was also thinking, 'It's almost over? Really? I have barely gotten started. I want to walk more than this.
And then came 'The E-mail."
As I did every morning, I got to my laptop and checked my email. In my inbox was the following email from Valarie, a total stranger. Here it is.
First off allow me to say that your story leaves me in happy tears and giving God all the glory! I am a 36 year old who just survived the widowmaker on 5/28/19. My aunt lives in Jackson and sent me this article and I am feeling instantly inspired by you..I have had three open heart surgeries, countless pacemaker surgeries, a donor valve, and a mechanical valve before this. I have always had a fighter's spirit and now I'm thinking of what I can do once I'm well to honor the fact that I once again survived, especially something of this magnitude. You sir, and your amazing supportive wife are people who the world needs more of..I can almost feel your inner light shining through as I read then reread the article...Good luck and safe travels on the rest of your journey..I am attaching a few photos of the doctor who saved my life and my before and after surgery photos...Godspeed, and prayers, Valerie
I was balling huge tears by the time I finished reading this. I went back and looked at the date, May 28th. That was day 2 of my trip. While I was walking peacefully between Martin and Sharon, Valarie was being rushed to a major big city hospital to have her heart opened up. And survived. Yes, technically you can say I had heart surgery, but just through an artery through my leg, and I was home by that afternoon. Nothing like what Valarie had just gone through.
I thought she was from the area and I wanted to see if we could drop by and see her. Well, turns out, Valerie's aunt lives in Jackson, Tn and had seen the article in the Jackson Sun and emailed it to Valarie. Valarie lives on Trinity Bay about halfway between Houston and Galveston Tx., just about ten miles from my family in Clear Lake.
I ask all of you, my followers, to please be praying for Valarie that she recover completely from this major surgery and that her doctors find ways to keep her from having surgery #4.
Thank you, Valarie in your encouragement to me on that last day of my walk. May God bless you in many ways.
Day 11 started back at Littlejohn's Monuments. Mr Littlejohn was already at work and Judy was able to meet him. After she left, Mr Littlejohn took me into his side shop which was a duck and turkey call factory. He makes some elaborate calls and has won many nation-wide contests for his craft.
While talking to Mrs Littlejohn, I for some reason mentioned the sad little town of Bethel Springs. She said that in the past, Hwy 45 had been built to bypass the town and sadly the town of Bethel Springs, in her words, just seemed to die. It was a nice place to live, (as the quilt sign says) and I'm sure it still is, just not thriving financially as it used to.
From Littlejohns, I walked straight south toward the Mississippi state line. Sadly, I didn't have 'stopping and talking' as my day's goal, but getting to Mississippi. And I did not have any interviews for the day. but a blog full of silly videos that I felt compelled to make as I got closer to my goal.
About halfway there, I did stop at my first Love's truckstop in Eastview. It had a full convenience store, a Subway sandwich shop, and full showers for truckers and travelers. I thought of William Smith, the walker I had heard about the day before, who I understand maps out his route along Loves locations.
The closer I got to Mississippi, the more excited and delirious I seemed to get. I don't know if it was excitement, or the extreme heat of the Mississippi summer bearing down on me. but my mind was playing games on me.
I kept on walking, and walking, sometimes in circles I think.
"I think I'm almost there" video can be found somewhere close around here.
Time to back up a few hundred yards. About two hundred yards from Mississippi, I noticed a car pull into the left turn lane and start to make a u-turn right at the state line.
Oh NO!!!!!!
Please tell me it's not the crazy guy from Day 8!
It was a small white car, not a large tan pick-up, but for a few seconds I worried it could be him. The car did make the u-turn and pulled over onto the shoulder and just stopped. When the man got out, I could tell it was not Day8 'crazy guy', but I was still too far away to know who it was or if it was even anyone I was supposed to know. It could still have been a total stranger, or mass-murderer, or.....?
I got a little closer and I saw the man lift his hand, with something in it and he waved it with a yell, 'hurry up, hurry up'. It was not a stranger or a mass-murderer, but Joel Littlejohn the monument and duckcall maker from Selmer. As I got closer, I noticed him holding a newspaper. And the closer I got, I could tell that I was on the front of that newspaper.
The Littlejohns had gotten their copy of the Jackson Sun earlier that morning with my article on the front page. His wife gave it to him and said, 'go find that guy walking and give him our copy of the paper.'
So at the state line, I had a welcoming committee of 'one'. Joel Littlejohn. Joel, what a blessing it was to see you and not a crazed maniac. You truly made my day. You were willing to take a 9 mile drive, and take 30 minutes out of your work day. And I think God orchestrated the timing of it so you didn't find me a mile away or two miles away, but right at the state line. Thanks so much, Joel.
No I don't think that is a 'state approved' sign at the bottom, but David Dudley sure approves of it. According to Google Maps street level view, it has been there at least a year and a half.
Let me say a big 'THANK YOU' to all of my 162 followers. I hope you have enjoyed this trip. I hope it encourages some of you to go out there and do something you have dreamed of for years. Yes, maybe make a long walk, or run, or bike ride. Or write that novel, long held deep inside your mind, waiting to get out. Or start that business you have been too scared to start. Or volunteer at that nursing home you visit your grandmother at. Or go back and finish that college degree you never finished. I hope my trip may encourage one or some of you to fulfill that lifelong dream.
And if you haven't made any kind of comment yet about my trip, go to the 'comment button' or 'no comment' button at the bottom of this post and fill it with comments, good, bad or stupid.
And, yes, I still have a few more posts after this. Different things along the way that just didn't seem to fit into a certain day's post. So, stay tuned.
Uh....there seems to be something I missed. What is it?....uh....Oh yeah, I forgot to actually cross the state line.
ps, I almost forgot, I have ten interview videos to come in the following weeks. Not academy award winning videos, but 'special to me' videos.
Comments are certainly welcome. If you have ever lived in or visited one of the towns I walked through, tell everybody. If you know someone I met along the way, tell everyone. If something really touches you, well....scratch it. NO, tell everybody. Let this be interactive. Make any comments at the comments tab at the bottom of each page on the blog. But you have to go to the blog. 60Trip.blogspot.com
sixtytrip@juno.com
Also, when you get to YouTube, hit the 'subscribe' button.
Day 11 map--Littlejohns Monument to the Mississippi State Line
Day 10 started back when Judy dropped me back off at Ada's. Just like many clothes stores in West Tenn, Judy left Ada's with a lot more chocolate and other goodies than when we drove up. My favorite, that I took with me, was the package of 'chex mix-like' peanut butter 'puppy chow' snack. Judy left with quite a bit also. I love Ada's.
My day started with the forecast of rain between maybe 10 to 12 o'clock, and then clearing off.
I went only about 15 minutes and for the second day, I stopped to wait out some rain. The clouds didn't look like it was going to clear off very soon. So....I pulled out the 'puppy chow' and started a mid morning snack. Somehow, I left with an empty container. :)
SO....I sat, ....and I sat.....and I sat. Until almost noon, I sat under the trees and my umbrella playing the pity party thing about the rain.
Would you believe I rode my bicycle 400 miles across Texas in 1978, 100 miles to a football game later that year, about 50 miles back from a summer camp job, and 400 miles into Louisiana in 1980, and not one day of rain, and not one flat tire.
Oh, pity party me. And then the thought came to me. My dear sweet 27 year old daughter, Jessica, who has been living in Germany for two years now, ... this spring, found out about, had surgery for, and got through the ordeal of breast cancer, and is now doing fine. Jessi, as I type this, is peacefully lying in a hammock in my front yard during a month long rest before she heads back to Germany. She is a dorm assistant at Black Forest Academy, for y'all who are curious. And I was playing pity party because of some simple rain. Shame on me. :(
After just a moment of thinking of her, I reached into my cart, pulled out my poncho outfit, and took off toward Bethel Springs. Yes, I sweated in it most of the day. Yes, my feet and shoes were totally soaked, and my hat didn't do much good except keep my nasty looking hair out of eyeshot of people I met. So I marched on south, and the rain barely let up all day. Sometimes it was really hard.
I got off of Hwy 45 and headed down Main Street toward Bethel Springs and Main Street (which later turned into Peach Street in north Selmer), so I stayed off of the main highway for almost 5 miles till I got to the south side of Selmer. But first, back to Bethel Springs.
My apologies to anyone who currently lives in, or has lived in, or is somewhat fond of Bethel Springs, Tn. Some of my comments on my videos are not too complimentary. At the time, I didn't know then what I knew later at the end of the day. So please forgive me. I was tempted to leave out any mention of Bethel Springs, but then decided against that. So, here goes.
My first hint of Bethel Springs, was an absolutely huge and gorgeous house which was the first home you come to off of the highway. Then about a half mile later, I walked by a shop of some kind. It turned out to be Vernon's Top Shop. I couldn't tell what they made there, so when I got close to a second building closer to the road, there was a worker just finishing a loud noisy job of some kind. He had been sanding something. He was close enough to the road, so I yelled, 'what do y'all make here?' He answered that they make cabinets and counter tops. Their FB page shows the very fine work they do.
My thoughts at that moment were, 'nice house, very nice house, good hard working men making cabinets,' 'I'm going to like this little town.' I made it to the post office and thought I would go try to meet the post master and interview him/her, but I got there just after the time the sign said they were closed for lunch. So off I walked.
About two blocks later, I came to what used to be downtown. (I must have been confused when I said Day9 in the next video, it was Day10)
I went another two blocks and found yet another abandoned building that had a three foot overhang that I found shelter under. I stopped and made me some peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. Some cars passed by, not many, and while there for about 30 minutes, I never heard or saw anyone except for those driving by. No one came in or out of a home, or other building, nothing.
Not long after I headed back out, I did see one woman standing on a porch talking to someone inside the front door.
Then I came to a cemetery, and crassly took a picture of it and titled it,
"Liveliness in Bethel Springs"
Once again, Forgive me!!!
At the edge of the cemetery, I came to Rowland's Monuments and stepped in to interview whoever was inside. The lady inside greeted me very kindly, but said she was not the one to interview, but Mr Rowland was just driving up with two co-workers. They were all four very kind and Mr Rowland offered me a large DrPepper which tasted so good a few miles down the road. Thanks Mr Rowland. I could tell they were busy, and didn't ask for an interview.
Just after leaving, I saw this sign
I thought back to Judy's quilt making days, and to my childhood watching my grandmother clear her dining room table out to put up her saw horses to hold her quilt frames. She would not buy batting from the store, but would take the cotton my daddy, or one of us kids, would pick out of our own fields. Then she would literally take days and days taking out all the 'trash' from the cotton with her carding paddles.
And...My bad thoughts of Bethel Springs were mellowing.
Bethel Springs, once again, forgive me.
And at the end of today's walk, I learned something else about Bethel Springs.
On toward Selmer I walked. In the rain, the never stopping rain. The only two places I walked through that I had ever been to before were Jackson and Selmer. 15-16 years ago, heading back to Texas, we drove the southern route to get to Memphis down Hwy 64 and probably drove straight through Selmer without stopping.
I had no pre-conceived ideas about any of the other towns I walked through, except Selmer.
I was entering Buford Pusser territory.
Many of you may know who that was, many may have no clue. Buford Pusser was the main 'real life' character of the 'Walking Tall' 'Walking Tall 2' and 'Walking Tall, Final Chapter' movies from the 1970's.
Buford Pusser grew up in McNairy County, Adamsville to be precise, and went off for a few years to be a professional wrestler. After retiring and coming home to run the farm, he ran for sheriff with a purpose of clearing out prostitutes and moonshine along the Tenn/ Miss border. Some of his justice came in the form of a baseball bat kind of big stick.
From what I understand, the locals at the time, either loved him or hated him. I will leave it at that.
(Warning- if any are interested in knowing more, the movies are in NO WAY kid friendly. Sometimes not even adult friendly, so you are warned.)
I did stand on an historic spot to take this picture though.
A block or two later, I stepped into the Independent Appeal, and did an interview. While there, I heard of William Smith, a man three weeks older than I, who walked through the area last January. He had been interviewed by the Daily Corinthian, just south of there in Corinth, Miss.
Will is on a walking journey from Florida and is currently in the Texas Panhandle heading to California. He can be found by a google search of 'Wills Walking West'.
As I left downtown, I walked toward the south part of town where more restaurants were. The rain picked up harder and I was sloshing through 3 and 4 inches of puddles by this time. I made a stop at Sonic for about 30 minutes, and tried to call Judy, but found no wi-fi. So I headed back into the hardest rain of my trip, through huge puddles, and made it across Hwy64 to the Selmer McDonalds.
By about 4 or 4:30, I was at the south edge of Selmer making my way into open countryside, and the rain had settled to a mere sprinkling. I seem to be mentioning cemeteries and monument companies often. With just more than 9 miles left until the Mississippi state line, I came to Littlejohn Monuments and Signs.
When I got Judy, she was in Jackson and was an hour away. Since Littlejohn's had such a nice wide porch to sit under and paved parking lot for Judy to park in while I loaded the cart into the car, I told her to pick me up there. Just minutes after talking to her, the rain cleared for the first time in hours, but not knowing what was ahead, I just waited it out there.
I did wonder many times on the trip if someone might see me in a certain place and call the police about a 'tresspasser'. It never happened. However, about 30 minutes after arriving at Littlejohn's, a truck pulled up, just like at Shelton's Rest. in Sharon. A man and lady got out and I asked, 'I'm sorta hoping you are the Littlejohns'. The man smile real big and said they were. 'Nobody called me in, did they?" 'No,' he answered, 'I just stopped by to get something at my shop,' and then kindly asked what I was doing.
I pointed to my shirt and told him my story. He then asked if I needed the restroom or a bottle of water. I refused the water, because I was halfway through the big DrPepper that I had gotten earlier at the Rowland Monument Co, in Bethel Springs. They stayed just a few minutes and left. And Judy picked me up about 6 to end the day.
Comments are certainly welcome. If you have ever lived in or visited one of the towns I walked through, tell everybody. If you know someone I met along the way, tell everyone. If something really touches you, well....scratch it. NO, tell everybody. Let this be interactive. Make any comments at the comments tab at the bottom of each page on the blog. But you have to go to the blog. 60Trip.blogspot.com
sixtytrip@juno.com
Also, when you get to YouTube, hit the 'subscribe' button.
Day 10 map--Ada's Kitchen to Littlejohn's Monument, Selmer
Even though I did mention in my last video that the crazy man from day 8 did cause me to wonder if I should finish or not, I am so grateful for my sweet wife that she did not try in anyway to make me give up my trip. There were several times along the way that she made it clear to me that she wanted to do whatever was necessary for me to complete this dream of mine. Thank you, dear Judy.
Before we drove to downtown Henderson, we went by the Chester County jail to talk to the dispatch office and explain to them what the outcome of my situation was the day before, and to also ask them to possibly send out an officer or two on 45S to make sure I was OK and to make sure the 'crazy guy' hadn't caught up with me.
However, the dispatch office was downtown at the....(can't tell you exactly where, I would have to shoot you all)....and while looking for a parking space downtown, Judy found one of her favorite things in life. A Little Free Library. These are usually just small boxes with 30-40 books in them and anyone can come along, find a book they want to read, and 'hopefully' place another book inside of it first, so someone else can enjoy the book you may have just read.
They are all over the world and locations can be found at www.littlefreelibrary.org
So back to Jackson Judy headed, and I headed south. (Did I mention that we came home with a lot more clothes than we left with?) Well, Judy did.
I headed south, and before I got out of town, I had a dog situation. Only one time in 122 miles did I have a kind of scary moment with a dog. One came at me barking like crazy and I had to swirl around my cart to try to keep it away from me. But not today. This was a happy dog.
He came up to me very curious, with a happy yip. He kept following, and following. As much as I would have wanted a companion, I knew he probably belonged to someone, so I tried to shew him away, 8 or 10 times. He kept following me. I even took a few minutes to go inside Bill's BBQ and get a sampling for my BBQ contest, and the little puppy was still outside when I came out. The little rascal followed me for about a quarter of a mile. I finally looked back and he was heading back home.
Day 9 was unbelievably quiet compared to Day 8, which was fine with me. Boring was fine with me after 'crazy guy'.
Boring to the point of looking at this and wondering if it was 'crop circles' or a really drunk farmer. In south Texas, we did everything in nice squares and straight lines.
At one point, I crossed the highway for a nice break under some trees. Just as I was crossing back over, I looked up and I saw a really skinny man, about my age, hobbling slowly up the highway with a cane, and carrying some Dollar General store bags. His name was also David and he stopped and talked for a few minutes, though he didn't want to be filmed. David's only means of transportation were his own feet. He had just walked from the Dollar store 8/10th's of a mile down the road. He told me his house was 1/8th of a mile farther down a side road from where we were standing. So, David was just finishing a two mile walk, to get just a small few bags worth of needed items from Dollar General.
In one of my earlier posts, months ago, I mentioned I knew that some people could never do what I was doing, which is taking a very long walk. Some people can not exercise like me because of either having their abilities taken away because of an unwanted disease. Other people can not exercise because of sudden accidents, such as car wrecks, or work related accidents. Others, sadly have been victims of serious crimes, leaving them maimed.
I however, by God's grace, have not been touched by any of these, so here I was making my walk passed a crippled, cane carrying David. And he wasn't griping. He simply was living life to his best abilities. My heart went out to David, and I honor him for not giving up and for making possibly a daily 2 mile trek just to get his staples in life.
Way to go, David.
A few minutes later, I got to David's Dollar General store, and like I had done in Sharon, asked if I could set up my chair in their entryway for a break. Across the street, I saw this sign announcing a very God honoring farm. I had to take a picture of it. Doesn't need much comment.
Thanks Jay and Tina, for honoring your Christ in this simple way.
To end my day on the very north end of Bethel Springs, which I didn't even know I was coming to yet, I waited for Judy at Ada's Country Store, a super nice store run by Mennonites. It was a store and deli. Full of cheeses, chocolates, essential oil items, wooden toys for kids to buy and/or make from kits, jams and jellies and preserves, home made breads, did I say chocolates?
Comments are certainly welcome. If you have ever lived in or visited one of the towns I walked through, tell everybody. If you know someone I met along the way, tell everyone. If something really touches you, well....scratch it. NO, tell everybody. Let this be interactive. Make any comments at the comments tab at the bottom of each page on the blog. But you have to go to the blog. 60Trip.blogspot.com
sixtytrip@juno.com
Also, when you get to YouTube, hit the 'subscribe' button.
(Change of pace here. Trivia question. $1000 first place prize, 'yeah right'. On my green 'day of trip' signs, like the one above, what does the small '5' at the bottom signify?)
Judy left me off at Youth Town to start my day. It really looked rainy, and about a mile into my walk, I took cover for the first time. I found a nice group of leafy trees, pulled out my chair and sat out a little bit waiting for the rain to stop. About another mile, and I got to Pinson. I noticed that my left tire was somewhat low, so I stopped at the only convenience store in town and luckily, they had an air machine, and I filled it up.
I had first noticed something wrong at the motel in Jackson and had filled it up Saturday night. Monday, though, it was fine.
It started raining again, so I stopped and ate at the store and waited out the rain for about an hour. While there, two men came up to me and asked, "Did we probably see you in Jackson yesterday?" "Yes, I'm heading south." "yeah", one of them said. "We thought your cart looked familiar." This was the only time this happened on my walk.
<<Corrrection>> On day 7, just after being photographed by the Jackson Sun, I met two couples, young and old, and grandbaby, in a city park close to the paper. Thirty minutes later, when I got to the Burger King to buy something for the homeless lady, there the five of them were. They greeted me kindly. (back to my story and the store in Pinson)
I left the store and realized my tire had gone down dramatically in the hour I spent in the store. I asked the owner if there was a tire shop close by and he said there was one about one mile south. I aired it back up and walked south at a quickened pace.
"A mile my foot." Nobody knows mileage these days. It was 1.8, almost double what he thought. In at least a half mile, my left tire was all the way flat. I found out it is extremely hard to push my cart on a completely flat tire. I finally got to what was a quick lube and repair shop, and I think the sign might have said tires, but I am not sure. I asked the man if he could fix it and he said the only tire fixes he does are plugging holes, and he didn't even have patch equipment.
I told you on Day 1 that I met William, the walker/biker guy from south Alabama? He offered me change, a hamburger and his hat, which I had refused? Well, what I did take from him was a tiny package of self-adhesive bike tire patches. Only 6 in the tiny package. And they worked. 15-20 minutes later, I was back on the road, never knowing that in the next 30 minutes or so, I would be calling the police.
I walked another mile and a half and stopped to sit under the shade of a car dealership. After I left there, I...well....I have to tell this one, not just type it. This next incident kind of rattled my world.
But before we left town, we took the advice of some locals and had supper. One of the best cheeseburgers I've had in a long time, and huge.
Comments are certainly welcome. If you have ever lived in or visited one of the towns I walked through, tell everybody. If you know someone I met along the way, tell everyone. If something really touches you, well....scratch it. NO, tell everybody. Let this be interactive. Make any comments at the comments tab at the bottom of each page on the blog. But you have to go to the blog. 60Trip.blogspot.com
sixtytrip@juno.com
Also, when you get to YouTube, hit the 'subscribe' button.
