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More Walking

A few decisions have been made about walking.

Last June 7th, minutes after walking across the state line into Mississippi and finishing my 122 mile walk from Kentucky,  I made one determination about walking. …..I wasn’t finished.

Some people, though interested and even intrigued about my walk, gave me that look and in some cases voiced it, that I did the ‘wimpy’, short kind of walk, (since Tennessee is almost 500 miles long), from Memphis to Bristol. I was OK with that. I had had a whole lot of fun and a great time meeting people.

So, I have decided that if God is willing to allow me to, I am now in the planning stages of going ‘East to West’ across Tennessee. What will that look like? For one, not an ‘all at one time’ kind of walk. That would be a 6 to 8 week trip. Since I am still a working man, I don’t think my boss will let me just take a two month vacation all at once.

I truly would love to say someday that I walked all the way from North Carolina to Arkansas, but that’s not going to happen. Last year, I spent hours and hours on Google Maps searching out just the right spots to walk, making sure I had either shoulders or sidewalks. I have checked every single route out of NC and every  one of them at one or more points, narrows down to one lane, a single 6” wide stripe, and a sheer drop off, farther down than I want to drop. So since I will still be pushing a 2’ wide cart, it would not be safe anywhere for the first 20 miles.

That is the same for the 40-50 miles across the Cumberland Plateau. So I hope to do this in three chunks, hopefully about two weeks at a time.

So, this coming late summer/early fall of 2020, I hope to walk from my hometown of Maryville to the Chattanooga area.  And sometime after that, I will start close to I-24 and walk US Hwy 64 all the way to Memphis, and if I can, across the Mississippi into Arkansas. So, I am walking as much as I can. As much as the wet weather will allow. (For you West Texas friends of mine, yes since Jan., I don’t think we have gone 3 days without it raining here in the foothills of the Smokies.)

And if you are wondering, my trusty and beautiful assistant has decided to not go along like she did last time.  My hopes? To contact churches along the way and get permission to camp out on their property if their church happens to be the closest one to where I need a stay for the night. I think that if I pulled off getting churches to actually find hosts to keep us for the night, that I can get permission to camp for one night. We will see.

And though I am letting y’all know of this on my old blog, I plan on doing something different this time. Either a more reliable blog, or Facebook, I’m not sure yet. But please, if you have any ideas, please comment about them below.

She shouldn't be walking, but is.

I walked into a Wendy's in south Jackson on day 7 and met Laura Ann and her husband. We had two connections, I have a daughter named Laura Anne and she had had blood flow issues that should have killed her.

Philospher and Artist

In downtown Medina, I took a break in the quaint little 'Main Street Grill'. While there, I met a man who had filled the walls of the cafe with his artwork and filled my ears with his philosophies on life.

(This is not his artwork, I don't think.

 But the two below are his. He simply finds 

junk and makes it into sell-able art.)

The Church with the Horse Carriage.

On day two I passed this country church and a not very typical lawn ornament, a wooden horse carriage, which was about 145-150 years old. 

Blount County Library (Final Reminder)

For those living close enough, here is a final reminder that I am going to share about my walk a week from tonight to the general public. Tues. Feb 4th, at 7 p.m. in the Sharon Lawson Room of the Blount County Library in Maryville, Tn. Hope to see you there.