Things along the way.

For an 11 day walk across Tennessee, I spent many, many probably hundreds of hours poring over Hwy 45, on Google Maps, preparing for my walk. One thing I did was make sure there were adequate shoulders and sidewalks to safely walk on. 

There were several towns that had to be navigated around on 'not too traveled' side streets. After hours and hours of Google Maps, I did have the slight worry that I would somehow be too familiar with the roads I was looking at online and kind of be bored on the actual walk. 

Yeah right!!!

I've already told you of the 'important' things along the way, the people, the towns, my interviews, my wonderful wife who wonderfully helped along the way, one crazy emotionally disturbed man, etc., etc., . 

But what of the lesser important things I saw. I promised weeks ago that I would have no more dead armadillo pictures, nor any other road kill kind of stuff.                     So I won't. 

But I will mention that armadillos were one of my biggest surprises on my trip. Growing up in Texas, I thought Armadillos were truly a Texas kind of thing. In San Angelo, Texas, in the late 70's and early 80's our Fiesta del Concho every year would have the 'World Championship Armadillo Races'  The race was only about 12-15 long, but exciting. But I do ask the question. Who let the dillos out?

This is no exaggeration, but at least once a mile, all 122 of them, I saw evidence of an armadillo. A dead one, that is. Sometimes several times a mile. Sometimes it would be just a small 3inch square of shell, others almost a full body of shell. They are easy to spot. I'm not sure how so many of them walked across the very few bridges crossing the Mississippi River, but they did at some point. 

So, what else did I see along the way?

Beer cans. Sadly, they outnumbered the Coke, DrPepper, Mt. Dew, etc. cans

And styrofoam cups. By the thousands. 

Parts of old shoes. Maybe there were a lot of others walking like I was, though I never saw them, just William the biker, and former walker mentioned in day one. 

Random clothes items. I know I didn't undress in anyway along the way leaving myself open to losing any clothes items. 

And one thing that was almost as numerous as Armadillo parts and beer cans???

Bungee cords. 

Not these. 

But these. 

The industrial/farm kind of bungee cord. The kind that would hold the real heavy kind of stuff on the back of 18 wheelers and farm trailers. Which begs the question. If I saw dozens and dozens of them(and most of them were cut in half, that's why they fell off) then where were the barrels of stuff, the piles of hay, the stacks of logs, the wooden boxes, etc that they had been holding up?

I also saw hammers, screw drivers, and other just random weird stuff. Yeah, just one boot. Was it a one-legged guy that lost it?

 
But there were a few things I noticed were almost totally absent from my route along Hwy 45. Deer. Yes those lovable four legged, horned friends in the woods.

Twice, while training here in town, in Alcoa, I saw deer. Once about 5 wandered through the woods. Another day, One startled me by jumping in front of me about 30 yards away. 

And nearly every day there were squirrels along the greenbelt. I love squirrels and deer. 

But sadly on my walk, there were maybe a dozen squirrels I noticed along the way, and a total of ready for this...........One, single deer. On day 5, halfway between Medina and Three Way. Yes, one lone deer in 122 miles.