A Very Soggy Day!

Connecticut – Friday, Sept. 28

I knew it was raining overnight, and was hoping it would clear by morning, but no such luck. Clouds were gray and heavy with constant rain. I dawdled a bit in the morning, hoping things would change, but then I headed out.

The first thing I decided to do was go visit the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, one of the few (perhaps the only) guide dog training facilities in New England. This place was recommended to me by the therapeutic riding lady I met back in Vermont. They were located northwest of Hartford, and I had a little trouble finding them, but then I sloshed in and made my donation and was introduced to one of their search-and-rescue dogs. I only saw a couple dogs – they were both the long-hair shepherds. Some of the dogs were out with their trainers, and the public can’t interact with them anyway. As I was heading back to Hartford, it looked like the rain might be letting up a little bit, so I found a country lane with trees arching overhead, and thought that might help keep us dry as we tried to squeeze in a short walk. That wasn’t really a successful plan, and the rain kept coming down, so Tula and I were both pretty wet before the end of the first mile. I just decided to carry on – I couldn’t get much wetter and it was in the upper 60s so it wasn’t a cold rain. So we walked into and around town, and I’m sure people thought I was nuts to be out walking a dog in that rain, but there wasn’t any thunder or lightning, and with a baseball cap to keep the rain out of my eyes, we just trekked on, and covered 2.5 miles. The towels were all clean from doing laundry the night before, so I dried Tula off as best I could and we both sat on towels, but were still a soggy mess. Then I had the idea of finding a shopping mall to do some walking in a dry spot, and actually headed for a big one west of Hartford, but the traffic was already so bad on the freeways that I couldn’t imagine what they’d be like after I’d spent some time walking and it would be getting close to rush hour. So I abandoned that idea – walking in a shopping mall when there’s so much else to see didn’t sound that interesting anyway.

I started heading south again, knowing that my sister and her family were in CT after a red-eye flight and they were needing a little sleep. When I got down by the Connecticut River again, I came to 2 towns connected by a cool bridge over the river, and there was a pedestrian sidewalk. It was only misting out, so I put a sweatshirt on over my damp clothes, and a different jacket, and set off to walk across the big bridge and back. Tula stayed in the car. It was a pretty walk, and I was glad the rain let up enough to get a little more walking in.

I continued to head south, and came to Deep River – a town with a lot of long sidewalks. It was sprinkling lightly, and since Tula was almost dry, I left her in the car again. I got almost another 2 miles in, and got back to the car about 5 minutes after it started to rain hard again. At this point, I headed to my motel (one of the only times I had made a reservation a day in advance) to change into dry clothes, and then headed to the B&B my sister Christy and her hubby were at. It was an old sea captain’s home and she showed me around – a wonderfully big and charming place with lots of nooks and crannies and nautical decor. Once Rick returned with niece Ashley and grand-nephew Kaleb, we all headed out for a nice dinner at a place near the ocean. My sister treated me to a swordfish dinner, and it was the best dinner I’ve had on my journey! We enjoyed getting caught up, and then called it a day – a long travel day for them and a wet walking day for me. It rained on the way back to the motel, and then let up long enough to get another 1/2 mile in, and then I started to see lightning, so I knew I was done for the day. It was the first day I didn’t get the whole 8 miles of walking in – but I was happy to get in 5.8 miles. I should be able to make up the remaining couple miles in the next few days.