Day 6

Day 6

(Before I start my day, let me say one thing. I am getting very few comments. I would love tons of comments, just to let me know someone out there is reading these posts. Please???)

Ok, I put my kleenex away. I'm ok now. Now, onto a week-ending, kind of quiet day 6.

After a quiet, but fulfilling evening with a wonderful host family with five delightful kids, Judy got me back to the Medina McDonalds for day number 6. I could sense getting closer to a bigger city and we would sort of stay in and around Jackson, Tn for the rest of our time, though I would be walking everyday except for Sunday.

Day 6 update video found here 

The first two or three miles I would still see a lot of farming going on. I saw this field below being irrigated by automatic sprinklers. Childhood memories made me jealous of the owner of these fields, or maybe the children of the owner of these fields. There was no one out there in the searing heat. No one sweating. No one caked in filthy mud after spending hours picking up and placing the mud covered syphon tubes I worked with for many years of my childhood. NNNNOOOOO....., just the gentle  'whish' 'whish' sound of this system spraying water over hundreds of acres. Guy probably got up, went to the field, pushed a button and was now sitting at the local cafe with all the other farmers who were also not sitting out in the searing heat getting mud caked all over their bodies, having to watch the level of the canal so it would not overflow everywhere, or get too low, causing the syphon tubes to stop flowing.

click here for the gentle 'whish' 'whish' sound of modern irrigation in West Tenn.

Slam the keys down hard here for a taste of the irrigation I did in my childhood. And no, these men are not filthy and mud caked, but they will be when they have to move these tubes somewhere else.

Now, let's move on, down the road and away from childhood memories.

Near this field, I noticed this rather humorous mailbox.

 Cute, but about twelve feet above it, was the box for airmail.

I also saw this very sad remnant of what I thought was a several year old Easter Sunday announcement. 

A few miles ahead, after making a direct south turn towards Jackson, I ran into my first 'not too friendly' person on my trip. Up ahead, I saw a man picking up trash on his property and putting  it into a trash bag he was carrying. As I got closer, I heard the wonderful sound of his 'over the top' beautiful blue tick hound barking at me from behind a chain link fence. It was a friendly bark, not an angry bark. The man was still about thirty paces in front of me and I yelled at him, asking if it was OK to take a picture of his dog. He answered 'yes'. As I got closer to where the man was, I stuck my hand out, shook his, and introduced myself and told him what I was doing. I asked him if he might have a story to tell for my followers and he said 'no, I'm a little too busy for that'. 'Then", I asked, 'can I still take a picture of your dog and put him on my blog?" 

"No, I don't want my dog all over the internet!!" he yelled and off he stormed. Kind of strange, he went from friendly, to not interested, to angry in just about 12 seconds. I quickly walked off to a nearby store for a nice crispy chicken dinner break.

As I got closer to Jackson, I had my first break while sitting under a huge concrete overpass. It was to be my only one, really. I sometimes had to turn off my 30 minute alarm, which on my phone was a loud, raucous clucking rooster, and then spend an extra 5 or 10 minutes just to find a decent shady spot to rest. Sorry for those a little squeamish, but shortly after this, I saw this sad little creature. Though I never saw a live armadillo on my trip, pieces of 'dillos was probably one of the most common things I saw on my 122 miles. At least once a mile, I saw some kind of evidence that an armadillo had been there recently. I had thought they were mainly a Texas and New Mexico kind of thing. This dude was the biggest 'piece' I saw.

No more dead animal pictures, I promise. 

Along the way I met a lot of really nice people who, when I told them what I was doing, would give me a pretty mixed bag of responses. 

'No way, Jose. I could never do that. Wouldn't want to.'

'Well, that's cool. Good luck with the rest of your trip.'

'I could do that someday.'

'I'll certainly be praying for you.'

But just a few miles north of Jackson, I stopped at a convenient store and met a young clerk named Heather. When I told her what I was doing, she reached over the counter, yelled, 'way to go, dude' and gave me an enthusiastic high five. She couldn't get over what I was doing. I set up my chair on the store's sidewalk and rested for awhile. She kept coming out to ask me more about what I had already experienced. Every time a customer would drive up and come inside, she would be upset that she had to go inside. 

Like I have said before, I did a lot of Google Maps research for months before I ever started, to find out the best and safest route. I quickly found out that Jackson was just about the most 'un-walker friendly' place around. So many miles of streets in town with no sidewalks or shoulders. I got  to Oil Well Street which crossed Hwy 45 about a half mile north of Union University. The intersection was very large, and had no crossing lights, so it took me about 15 minutes of waiting for traffic to wane so I could cross to the west side of the Hwy. I finally did and took a break at the McDonalds. Then I wandered through a shopping strip center for about a half mile, thankful for the shade next to the stores.

I then got to the north side of Union University, after passing an Outback Steakhouse. The one I assume was the one my niece waited tables at while at Union years before. I then walked closer to Hwy 45 and came to the sad decision that at this time of late afternoon, I was not going to be able to safely make it back across the highway. So, for all you mileage 'purists', YES, I CHEATED ABOUT A MILE AND A HALF. SO THERE!!!

I then went inside an Arby's, called Judy to pick me up, and met my only interview couple for the day. I saw a nice couple a few years older than I sit down with their meal, hold hands, and offered a prayer of thanks. I later approached them, told them I was a Christian, and they kindly agreed to tell me their story of the wife's medical issues a few years ago. 

<Be looking for an upcoming video of Roscoe and Dale>

So, about suppertime, Judy and I made it to our Sat and Sun night stay, a motel really close to the Casey Jones Village, just south of Union, across I-40. More about Casey Jones later. 

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 6 map--South end of Medina to Union Univ. Jackson.