I woke up early. My alarm was set for 9:00 a.m. but I couldn't sleep past 6:00. I immediately got online and saw that the Gaston Gazette article had been posted! It looked good. The video of me walking was a bit awkward. I looked a little bit more like a stubby gnome than a noble explorer. But, I've learned to come to peace with my weird appearance.
They had done a great job with the general information. Just before I left to walk to Belmont, I received an email from Diane (the reporter) saying that her editor was having a hard time with the math. I'd said I'd traveled almost 8,000 miles. But, he wondered how that could have been done in fifteen months. I sent the travel log numbers for the Manifest Destiny Journey, and explained (again) that these were not all walking miles. Two of my three day long train trips covered at least 2,000 miles, and with all the buses and the walking it did add up to over 7,500 miles. There will be a travel log for the Living Magazine Journey at the end. The nice thing about this project is that everything is documented, including travel. I made a decision early on to make careful note of everything I did, because I knew that people probably wouldn't believe a lot of it.
I took some last shots of the room and then headed out...
Looking down Cox Road toward Franklin. Walkers had made their own "sidewalk";
consequences of a civil engineering oversight, but also
proving that I was not the only person to walk around the area.
I went into Walgreens and bought a paper (only $0.75--even *I* could afford that). It was their last copy. This would be sent to my editor and publicist, Fay, who arranged the interview and will probably be setting up more of them. Having a front page is what I'd been waiting for...
Happy as a clam at high tide, I walked on to Wal-Mart to see if I could find more papers. I did, and bought three more to send out. I wasn't near the post office, so I jammed them into Saggy and waited to mail them until I got to either Belmont or Charlotte.
This was my last chance for a big meal at the Dynasty buffet. I'd saved up $10 for it and was looking forward to loading up before no more food money would be available. They charged me the senior discount, and I got a water. All told, I had a salad, plenty of sushi and other items for under $7.00. That left some change for a drink in Belmont at the McDonald's and coffee the next morning...
Taken upon leaving. I will miss this restaurant and this town.
A grassy shoulder walk. Good for the heel. Not so good for the ankles and calves.
Ever wanted a fence pole? These guys had a few.
There's a Big Al's in Maine. I wondered if they were related?
Cramerton and Belmont rest between two rivers. No matter how many times I took this shot, it turned out blurry--sorry about that. This is the first river, just before Cramerton...
This is a floating island of junk from upstream caught on the bridge column below.
Deer prints. It was obvious to me that he/she couldn't decide whether to cross the road or not.
I knew the feeling!
I think one of you might have mentioned this place.
Looked good, but I was already full of sushi.
Belmont was finally reached at about 6:30 p.m. I went into the McDonald's there, bought my drink and got online. Folks had been so supportive of the article and this blog by posting very kind comments at the Gazette's site. It was heartening to see. And, the readership increased by about a dozen new people. It had been a satisfying day. No new donations came in, but there should be a lot more publicity to come. New readers often will get hooked on these posts and eventually give a little money toward the effort.
I found a green patch of woods on Google Earth and left to check it out. The walk into Charlotte the next day was supposed to be simple. I would discover that a wrong turn made it much less so. Charlotte would be the biggest city I'd been in since New Orleans. I had to readjust my thinking back to "city mode" in preparation of being there for a few days.
For tonight though, my sleep spot worked out wonderfully. It was the second time I'd slept on ivy. Makes for a clean bed. There were leaves around too. And even though I was very close to the street, the row of pine trees kept the place in a permanent shadow...
The temperature was going down rapidly. This trend would last for several more days; with nights going below freezing. I sleep especially well on these colder nights as long as I can zip the sleeping bag without having the zipper split. On this night, it wasn't a problem.
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