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Maine – Friday, Oct. 5

As soon as I got up, I already knew what my donation today was going to be – I had been half-listening to the news last night as I was doing something on the computer, and I heard the tail end of a story requesting help with pet food for senior citizens and other people with disabilities who are sometimes forced to make a decision to buy food for themselves or their pets, and sometimes have to give up their pets. I didn’t hear the whole story, so I went to the website of the TV station and found a link, and did a little more research. So this morning I called the people at the Eastern Area Agency on Aging, and they told me they pass out a great deal of pet food to seniors and could always use some more. So I went shopping and got a bunch of canned and dry cat and dog food. I got the smaller bags of dry food so that the seniors wouldn’t have to cope with the heavy big bags. While I was out shopping, I noticed the signs for flu shots, and my daughters who are nurses had told me I should get a flu shot this year (I never have before) since I’m coming into contact with so many people, so I took care of that little detail too, although it took longer than I thought it would since I had to sit and wait to make sure there were no reactions. After shopping, I found the agency and carried everything in, and met some nice people. The receptionist wondered how I had heard about the program and found them, so I started to tell her my story, and then she called someone else in to listen, who in turn went and got their news intern who happened to be there. So we had a short interview and the news intern took some notes and pictures. Everyone was really nice, and the organization offers many other services like Meals on Wheels in addition to supplementing pet food for people in need. I liked being able to help because I’m such a strong believer in the benefits of having a pet, that it was really sad to hear that some of the people who benefit the most are sometimes forced to give them up, or have to choose between buying themselves food or buying food for their pet. So it was a nice morning.

Tula had been in the car this whole time, so I went to a big nearby park to do a little walking, and decided to contact AT&T about some problems with the cell phone bill. I was on the phone so long with them (things were eventually resolved) that I walked 2 1/2 miles while I was talking to them. Kind of nice to kill 2 birds with one stone though!

I was eager to start heading north, so we finally left the Bangor area in early afternoon. There are not many roads heading north in Maine and we took the freeway for a distance and it was a beautiful drive. The sun was peeking out from time to time (haven’t seen much sun in the last week) and the colors were pretty. It surprises me how many trees still have some green leaves. The colors look especially vibrant next to the deep green of the spruce and fir trees. There were signs warning about moose, but I still haven’t seen any. Most of the very small towns at the exits were indeed very small, although we stopped in one to do another mile and a quarter of walking. There was a scenic turnout place for a nice view of Mt Katahdin, which is the northern end of the Appalachian Trail, but the clouds had moved back in and covered up some of the mountains. We continued to the town of Houlton, and that was a great town for walking – an interesting historic downtown area and neighborhoods with long streets and sidewalks – we walked 4 and a quarter miles to finish off the day’s walking. I had stopped at the visitors center on the way into town, and since it was nearly dark when I finished walking, I went back there to take a look at the list of motels and campgrounds in the area. Since it was fairly mild out, I decided to camp (at a regular campground, not a state park) and it ended up being really nice – a big grassy site that smelled really fragrant from the pine trees bordering it. I got set up quickly and was going to do some writing in my Vermont journal, only to discover I seem to have misplaced or lost it, which is kind of sad. There’s hours of writing in it, and although I can probably re-create most of it, all the reciepts and ticket stubs were in there. I tried calling several of the places I had stayed at to see if they had it in any of their lost and founds, but as of now, no luck yet. I keep hoping that it will magically reappear or maybe I put it in a strange place, but those hopes are diminishing. Better to lose that though, than some of the other stuff I have!

Maine – Thursday, Oct. 4

(For some reason, the 12 pictures I put in here are duplicated – sorry!)

Since I was already in Camden Hills State Park, I decided to head out on one of the longer hikes. I started off on one trail, but ended up taking the Ocean Lookout hike on Mt Megunticook. It was rated a moderate hike, but it was a pretty slow go with some steep sections, and even though the temperature was right around 60, I was working so hard even my bangs were dripping sweat by the time we got to the top! I went around some of the bigger boulders instead of climbing up them, because they were still a little wet from yesterday’s rain, and I am trying to be extra careful and cautious! Tula’s like a little mountain goat on some of those trails. It took a while to get to the top, but what a glorious view! I could look back down at Camden, where I was yesterday, and the boats all looked so little in the harbor. I could see a long, sweeping view of the coastline, and could literally see for miles. I felt like the queen of the world! I was the only one up there, and we just sat and rested and enjoyed the view. It was beautiful. The trip down was almost a little harder than the trip up, but I just took my time. We began to meet other people who were on their way up (I had the advantage of being the first one since I had camped right there), and several of them asked how much farther they had to go. By then I was halfway down, and they still had a ways! I’m really glad I ended up on that particular hike. We only got 3 miles in altogether, but it was some of the toughest 3 miles I’ve done so far.

Then we got in the car for a short while, and continued the drive north. I stopped in the town of Belfast, which was a fun, hilly town to walk in – kind of an artsy sort of town with galleries, and music and crafts, and a variety of benches made of different sorts of Maine-like things. We got in another 2.2 miles of walking there. Then we hit the road again and came to Moose Point State Park – a very quiet, peaceful park right on the coast with some easy trails, and we walked another mile and a half, and then Tula took a quick dip in the water, and started to take a drink before she realized it was salty! At the beginning of the day, I had been thinking my goal for the evening would be Acadia National Park for a visit and another night of camping, but I still had miles to go and a donation to make. Perhaps I had been poking along a little too much up the coast, but there’s just so much to see! I began to wonder if I would make it that far.

By this time I was pretty hungry, and in the middle of nowhere I noticed a little restaurant by the side of the road with a big sign out front saying something about the being voted for the best fried clams. I had promised my sister I would try fried clams, and figured this would be as good a place as any – and she had told me to get the whole clams, not just the clam strips. I ordered a half-pint, which is the smallest size they came in, and also got fries and cole slaw. I got it to go since I didn’t want to “waste” daylight hours, and they were actually better than I thought they would be. I think my last experience with clams was clam strips at a Howard Johnson’s restaurant when I was a kid, and they didn’t make a good impression then! I don’t know how anyone could eat more than a half-pint though. Then we came to a really cool bridge – unlike any I’ve seen yet. It was a suspension bridge but instead of 2 spans, there was only a single span holding up a lane of traffic on each side. Too bad there wasn’t a sidewalk – I would have liked to walk across that one!

The next town we came to was Ellsworth, and while finishing up my walking for the day, I passed the Emmaus Homeless Shelter right in town – a tidy brick building with a sign about their upcoming 20th anniversary. I wanted to make a donation to them, so when I finished my walking and got back to the car, I called and the lady told me they had a wish list on their website, so I made a list from that. They needed personal care items like shampoo and conditioner, combs, deoderant and razors, and general stuff like napkins, paper towels, disposable silverware, garbage bags, tin foil and plastic wrap. And I was able to add in a case of ramen noodles which was on the food list. I took it to the shelter, and to protect the residents the door is always locked and I needed someone to buzz me in. A cute little boy came and opened the door, and the lady in the office was very happy to get the stuff. This shelter is set up to house families, or single men, or single women. And one never knows when someone might fall on hard times. It was kind of sad to see and hear kids there, but it was also good to know there’s a safe place for them.

While I was in Wal-Mart shopping for the homeless shelter, it began to rain again, and after I had dropped the things off, I knew I would have to by-pass Acadia National Park on this trip. If I went down there, I would not be able to make it up to northern Maine, and I still really wanted to do that too. I figured it was time to pull myself off the coast, so we headed inland in the rain to Bangor, where I got a motel room at the first place I tried, and I was very happy to be warm and dry as it rained all night.

Maine – Wednesday, Oct. 3

After a good night at the campground, I was almost packed up when it started to rain. I can finish up packing in the back in the rain though, because with the back hatch of the van open, I’m protected from the rain – it’s like a little awning. It looked pretty gray, like it was going to continue for a while, so I decided to do a food pantry donation today, because it takes some time to figure out which organization I’m going to donate the food to, and then I call them to see what they need, and then I have to find a store to shop at, and then find the food pantry. I was hoping by the time I was done with all that, the rain would be letting up. I looked up some possibilities on feedingamerica.org, and there was a Good Shepherd Food Bank in Portland, so I called them, and they said they could use peanut butter, cereal, boxed dinners and canned veggies. So I found a store and got a bunch of that stuff. It’s fun to see if anything is on sale, and stretch the dollars as much as I can! I also got some ham and cheese and yogurt for myself (being optimistic that I could camp again tonight.) Then I found the big warehouse location for the food pantry – this is the third time I’ve made a donation to a feedingamerica.org place and they are huge warehouses that clearly serve a lot of different groups. It’s kind of sobering that the need is so great. I think I’m beginning to prefer doing the food donations to the church food pantries although in the end, it’ll all help someone.

When I was done with that, it was still raining, so I just decided to keep heading north along the coast. I passed through the town of Freeport and saw the L.L. Bean flagship store. It wasn’t as big as I thought it would be – I was expecting something huge like a Cabela’s store, but it wasn’t that big at all. There were a lot of other outlet stores there, and for someone who likes to shop, it’d be a fun little town. I would have done some walking, but it was still raining pretty hard. I continued northeast on Highway 1 and even in the rain it’s pretty – so many coves and inlets and bays – sometimes the water doesn’t even quite seem like it’s the ocean. The rain began to let up and I decided to park in the lot of a lobster stand and walk across a long bridge. It was sprinkling, and the walk across the bridge was good, but the sidewalks didn’t really seem to go anywhere else on either side of the bridge, so we only got in a mile and a quarter there, and it started to rain again anyway. No one was at the lobster stand because of the rain (lots of them are set up with picnic tables and all – much better on a sunny day!) but I went over to check it out. I didn’t want a whole lobster meal, and they mixed their lobster with mayo on the lobster rolls. I have nothing against mayo, but would prefer just butter and lemon on the lobster and they couldn’t do that. So I just settled for some trail mix in the car and kept driving. The rain began to let up again, and we got out in Rockland to walk, but there was so much construction, and traffic was heavy, and it wasn’t very enjoyable, so we didn’t walk much. I wasn’t having a lot of luck today so far!

Then we got to Camden, and that was a really pretty seaside town, and the rain had let up, so we were able to stretch out and walk 3.2 miles all over town and down by the harbor and into adjoining neighborhoods – it was a really nice walk. I like seeing all the boats in the harbor and there were some windjammer boats there too.

It was beginning to get dark at this point – the morning donation and meandering up the coast and the long walk had pretty much filled up the day. It looked like the rain had more or less stopped, and I drove just a little farther north to see about camping in the Camden Hills State Park. They didn’t have too many people there, so I drove around to choose my campsite, and got checked in. I was able to walk another mile and a quarter in the park before dark, but I came up about a mile and a half short today, which I’ll make up as I’m able to before leaving Maine. I’m getting much more efficient and fast at getting set up for the night (and Tula usually is just waiting for that air mattress to get inflated!)and once everything was set, I fixed my ham and cheese sandwich and had a yogurt and an apple too for dinner. Since it was still pretty damp out, I just did a little writing and computer stuff (the state park had wireless service!) in the van before turning in.

Maine – Tuesday, Oct. 2

After breakfast at the motel, I backtracked 12-15 miles because I wanted to see what I drove through in the dark. plus I wanted to get on the road right by the ocean. So I drove back to York Harbor, and there I saw my first Maine lighthouse – the Nubble Lighthouse (named for the nub of rock on which it stands). It’s on a little island and is not accessible to the public, but the island is only a stone’s throw away so everyone can still see it well. It’s made of white cast iron, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a picture of this on a calendar or in a book! And there was a little basket sort of thing on a pulley from the mainland that maybe they use for supplies or something. There was a nice little park and a visitor center, and lots of people! They had a sign outside the front door asking for donations to help with upkeep of the lighthouse and park grounds, and I wanted to do at least one donation that was lighthouse-related because of all the rich history connected with them, so I decided to make that my donation-of-the-day. After I had soaked all of that up, Tula and I went for a walk in the neighborhood right near by, then drove back into the actual town of York and walked some more – both in town and out along the bay. The town is clearly a summer resort town, and it was very quiet on a Tuesday in October. It almost seemed a little forlorn with all the summer activities just a memory. It was very easy for Tula and I to get around – we covered 3 miles altogether in York.

Then I followed the coast up to Kennebunkport, which was absolutely crawling with people – such a difference! It looked like a fun town to wander through despite being very touristy, so we parked a ways away (too congested in town with tour buses and all their people) and wandered through town, and then found a road with a nice sidewalk leading out of town along the little bay. It was such a pleasant day and there were so many marinas and boats to see that we just kept walking. Then I could see the top of some grand building with flags, and figured it might be an inn or something right on the point and I wanted to walk up there to see if I could actually walk along the ocean. And sure enough – there it was! The homes along that part of the road were huge and spectacular and it was all so pretty we still kept walking. Just as I was getting ready to turn around, I saw an entrance to something – didn’t know what, but no RVs or buses were allowed, and I wanted to see what it was. I came upon the most beautiful open-air Chapel-by-the-Sea. So unexpected and so very peaceful it almost brought tears to my eyes. There was ocean on both sides and only a few people were around, and then they left, so I just sat down for a while and let the serenity soak in. It was a cloudy day, and the sun was trying to peek through, but it didn’t really look like the sun – it looked more like a peephole from above, and I had the feeling that my loved ones ‘up there’ were watching over me on my journey. The whole experience was very moving and very spiritual. Other people started coming in and someone asked me if I was from the area, and was this the Bush residence. I didn’t know, but I actually think it was. I started looking at some of the name plaques (either in memory of, or thanksgiving for) on the benches, and there were a lot of Bushes and Walkers. I hadn’t really noticed the large house or the little stone church that was way off to the side of the chapel-by-the-sea yet, and the house just had a couple of sawhorses by the driveway saying ‘private’ but the stone church was open to visitors. The church was built entirely by sea-washed stones and boulders and it too was very pretty both inside and out. I just had to make another donation – there was a discreet box inside the church and it had been such an unexpectedly beautiful afternoon that I wrote a little note thanking whoever for letting the public visit the chapel-by-the-sea and the little church.

The walk back to town was pretty and there were a lot of senior citizens sitting on benches enjoying ice cream cones in town (waiting for their bus I think), and most of them talked to or petted Tula on our way past – she was being friendly but I think she was really hoping for ice cream! We covered 3 1/2 miles, and passed the best scarecrows I’ve seen – dressed up as lumberjacks sawing down a huge tree.

It was getting to be evening and I continued to drive a little further north along the coast. I went through the town of Old Orchard, and like York, it had a somewhat abandoned air – empty shops; a little amusement park quiet by the beach (I could almost hear the echo of laughter); and dozens of motels with “vacant” lights on and no one there. I didn’t even want to stop at any of them because it would be kind of creepy to feel like I was the only one in town (there were a few people about, but it was so quiet). Luckily I came upon a big campground that had people around, and picked out a good site, and finished the mile or so of walking, and called it a day. A very special day.

Connecticut – Monday, Oct. 1

The first order of business today was to find a post office to mail off the military care package. I must say, technology’s handy to figure out where things are!

Once that was accomplished, I started heading for the northeast corner of the state to get myself in position for heading to Maine. I still had about 5 1/2 miles of walking to do – some left from last Monday, and a little still left from the rainy day. Most of the little towns I drove through weren’t really big enough for a long walk, and I didn’t see anything promising outside of them either. And then I came upon Mashamoquet Brook State Park, where all my walking needs could be taken care of! Tula and I ended up staying there almost 3 hours, and did all the walking we needed and then some. We walked in the mountains on the trails, and then followed a forest service road up past some youth campgrounds and up and up the side of a mountain. I liked the forest service road – it was like an extra wide path and no one drove by and I could let Tula off her leash. Then we turned around and came back down the way we had gone up. It was a cloudy day but a perfect temperature for a long walk. After a quick sandwich, I had to make a decision about my final Connecticut donation. I had 3 different donations in mind, and I liked them all, and I had no money left at the end of the week to make an extra donation (out of my starting budget for the week, I had $7.91 left, and put that in the gas tank!). In the end I decided to send in a donation to the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook where I had done a little walking on 2 different days (and I walked past it both days which is what made me look into it). It’s the only theatre in the world named for her, and it’s located in a building that was built in the early 1900s and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building was renovated to house a 250 seat theatre and work on a small museum is still in progress. The center is known as “The Kate” and the funds were raised through town efforts (she was their most celebrated resident after all!)and donations. As the former owner of a dance studio, it’s nice to do a cultural donation now and then too!

With final walking and donation taken care of, I pointed the car north, said good-bye to Connecticut and drove through Massachusetts and a little corner of New Hampshire and crossed into Maine – State #5!

Maine – Monday Oct. 1

It was about 5:20 when I crossed a bridge into Maine after taking a few hours to drive through Massachusetts and the corner of New Hampshire. It was still pretty light out, and my senses were immediately hit by a bustling waterfront, a big navy yard, and many many signs advertising “Fresh Lobster!” The signs were painted on buildings, shining in neon, and lit up every way imaginable. No question I’m in Maine! I followed the directional signs to the navy yard, thinking there might be a place to park and look at some of the ships or activity. Nope. And I’m not sure why I thought that anyway! The signs led right to the entrance to the naval base, and I had to do a quick u-turn to get out of line to go through the checkpoint.

I had come into Maine by the town of Kittery, and I found a place in town to park, and Tula and I were able to get almost 2 miles if walking in before it got a little too dark. I headed north on Highway 1 and it was a little slow. There’s construction here too. I continued north, worried that I was missing pretty scenery because it was now dark. I drove through the town of Ogunquick, which was full of people and bustling in the evening hours even on a Monday night. I stopped at numerous places to see about a room, but this was a crowded resort town, and prices were out of my range. A little farther north, in Wells, I came to a sprawling older motel complex run by an Irish couple. Their rates were good and they didn’t charge extra for Tula. I wish I had gone straight there instead if wasting time stopping at all those other places, but that happens! I was happy to find a place without driving much farther north. And so I settled in to get ready to begin the Maine chapter of the adventure.

Connecticut – Sunday, Sept. 30

Tula and I were up and out and got in 2 miles of walking in East Lyme before hearing from the Seattle gang (who are, of course, on Seattle time!). I headed over to Old Saybrook where we were initially going to meet up, and got another mile in, but then we decided to meet in Essex instead. I had been there and it was a fun little town, and figured they would all enjoy it too. So we all met up there (this time also with niece Kim and her boyfriend Adam), and wandered through the town and shopped a little. The old “curiosity” store has been in business since the late 1700s and is a former sea captain’s home. We also wandered down by the marina/boat yard, and saw that there was a little restaurant out in the marina somewhere – we had to take a very short little boat ride to get to a restaurant with a Caribbean flavor – and enjoyed a lunch before they all had to head to the airport, and I needed to be making my way north. All in all, it was wonderful to have some family time while out on my journey 🙂

My donation today was getting the things for my next military care package. This time I am sending a care package to a navy unit in afghanistan that is missing the little things. Their requests were for ketchup (it’s like gold); iced tea mix; cream and sugar for coffee (they’re happy to have coffee but miss the extras) and I also added rice krispie treats (wasn’t sure if they wanted rice krispies or rice krispie treats!), beef jerky, trail mix and Halloween candy. I was lucky to get it all in the box and I got the customs forms filled out, so I’ll just mail it in the morning.

I kept heading to the northeast part of Connecticut where I hadn’t been yet, and got out in Brooklyn and took a long walk out into the countryside on a quiet farm lane – passed a large pen of peacocks (or rather 1 peacock and lots of peahens!) It had been raining for about 20 minutes before I started my walk, but the sun was out, and sure enough there was a beautiful rainbow at the beginning of my walk!

That completed the walking for the day, and I had to drive a little west to find a place to stay for the night, and I ended the day with some microwave popcorn – not quite as good as the “real” stuff, but it still hits the spot!

Connecticut – Saturday, Sept. 29

Despite the continuing gray skies, the rain held off more or less, and Chris and I spent a few hours walking all around Hammonasett Beach State Park which is right on the Atlantic Ocean. We walked from one end of the park to the other and covered 4 miles, although some of it was a slow go because we walked along the beach all the way out to the point, stopping to look at seashells, crab shells, and an ugly robin fish just laying on the beach (it looked like it had little legs and a fisherman told me a seagull would come eat it). We climbed on some rocks and thoroughly enjoyed our time together. The gray skies kind of blended into the gray sea and it was still really pretty out. This part of the ocean is actually part of Long Island Sound, not that we could see any land or anything. Rick had just dropped us off earlier and we called him when we were back to the entrance, and he’d been driving around some of the other small towns in the area, and had found a fun place for some lunch. It was a dilapidated old lobster shack right on the beach which had been there for 130 years – they just patch things up after bad storms and continue on with business! The only things on the menu were lobster rolls or hotdogs, and the lobster rolls were awesome. Good rolls were toasted on a BBQ grill, and then overstuffed with a lot of lobster meat, and seasoned only with butter and fresh lemon. Mmmm!! (Again, it was a treat from my sister – she’s spoiling me!) The picnic tables were set up on a “floor” of shells and stones, and I imagine they’re usually just outside, but since the day was a bit chilly and damp, they had lowered some clear plastic tent-like walls and turned on some heat to keep us all comfortable. A great find! We walked into the other shack where the lobster boats drop off their catch and looked at some pretty big lobsters.

At this time we went our separate ways – Tula had been cooped up in the car all day so far since dogs weren’t allowed in all areas of the state park, and Chris and Rick had to go get ready for the wedding they were in town to attend. So Tula and I took a quick mile and a half walk in Westbrook, then headed to Madison (I had driven through some of these towns on my trip along the coast a couple days earlier, but hadn’t stopped to walk since I knew I’d be back.) We hadn’t gotten too far on our walk through the town of Madison when we passed a shop with a big placard out front saying they were accepting food donations. Although I’d had an idea what my donation-of-the-day was going to be, when I have to walk around a sign asking for food donations, I can’t resist, and I went grocery shopping. I had asked the ladies in the shop how long they would be there, and I only had about 40 minutes to get to the store, shop and get back, but we made it. I was gone for a while, and the ladies probably thought I wasn’t returning, but I was able to get a whole bunch of food since there were a lot of good sales (Campbell’s soup, Del Monte veggies and Chef-Boy-R-Dee spaghetti/ravioli was all on sale). I think I surprised them with how much food I had, and they seemed excited about what I was doing. Then Tula and I resumed our walk and covered another 1.8 miles. From there we moved to Clinton, the next town over, and we did a nice long 2 1/2 mile walk (going back out by the ocean and walking past the lobster shack – still doing business with a light or 2 on!). That gave me 9 1/2 miles for the day, so I made up a chunk of the walking I missed yesterday because of the rain.

And then, as luck would have it, as I started the drive back to the motel about 12-15 miles away, I passed a Roadside BBQ set up – offering pulled pork, beef brisket and chicken. I could see the smoke from the giant BBQ grill a good half mile away. They were getting ready to close down, but I was able to get a good pulled pork sandwich, and they were laughing when they saw Tula looking out the window, and I told them I’d share a little with her, and they said they would fix a little something for my co-pilot, and they gave her a little dish of the beef brisket! A happy day for both dog and human!

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.

Connecticut – Thursday, Sept. 27

I got everything packed up, then headed for the town of Mystic. Before we got there, I drove past Mystic Seaport, and although I didn’t go in (it deserved more time than I would have today), Tula and I still got out for about a 2 mile walk. It’s overcast, and I figured I better walk while the walking was good. We got sprinkled on a little, but nothing major. i decided I would head a little farther east to Stonington, almost to the Rhode Island border. It was another pretty little town which didn’t seem to be quite so touristy. It almost seemed to have a bit of a European flavor with narrow one-way streets and small shops all packed in together, and colorful houses built right next to each other and the sidewalks. Some of the homes had discreet little plaques on them giving a bit of historical information, and as I leaned over to read another little plaque, it said “on this site in 1897 nothing happened” – haha! I walked out to the harbor there as well, and we got a mile and a half in before I went to a small restaurant and got some homemade chick pea, spinach and tomato soup and a house salad – I was needing some veggies! I planned to head inland again today, but first drove through the town of Mystic (very touristy – I didn’t get out) and then I came to Groton. I was thinking this would be a good food-pantry-donation sort of day, so I stopped to look into that a bit, and the food pantry at the Niantic Community Church caught my eye. I called them up, and the lady I spoke with said they could use peanut butter, cereal, veggies and baked beans. So I found a grocery store, and got some of all of that. En route to Niantic, we went through New London and I couldn’t resist taking the exit marked ‘waterfront area’. There was a nice walkway right on the waterfront, passing small (and not-so-small) piers. I had to cross train tracks to get there, and enjoyed watching both a freight train and a passenger train go by. I was hoping to see a couple ships or boats entering or leaving the harbor, but no luck there. There’s a submarine base and a coast guard school in the area, so a life by the sea is nothing new.

Once we finished that walk, it was just a short drive to the church to drop off the food. I carried everything in, and they were all very nice and appreciative, and wondered how I had found them. So I started to tell them my story, and one lady called another lady to come in and listen, and then she asked if she could take some pictures and do an interview! Of course I had been camping the night before and had just finished a walk by the waterfront in the wind and was a bit grubby, but I guess that’s me more often than not these days – I’m outside a lot! She got some pictures of me by the food donations, and then we sat down to talk (she took a lot of notes!) and then she even went outside to get some pictures of Tula! They might print some of it up in their church bulletin.

From there it was time to head inland along the Connecticut River, and after looking at my Triple A book, I decided to stop in Essex to finish off the day’s walking. What sold me was the statement that sea captain’s houses still stand on Main Street. It was another pretty town – good for walking, and still seems to have a busy boatyard. In the late 1700s through mid 1800’s this river town seemed to be a hub of Connecticut sea voyages, and was the start of many long voyages around the world.

Once we had walked a couple miles, I found a laundromat outside of town (a necessary evil!) and got a couple of loads in the wash, and them went back to town to walk the last mile. So I finished the days’ walking, and all the clothes are clean again, and we drove a little farther to the center of the state for the night.