Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Last night in the tent turned out ok, and I stayed reasonably warm. It became cloudy during the day, and sometimes that keeps the temp up a little. I am almost sure during the night I heard coyotes again....either they're following me for the beef jerky, or MS has some of it's own. Anyhow, I was up at 6, and on the road by 645. Destination today is just keep moving toward Meridian.
Traffic early in the morning is usually a little heavy until everyone gets to work.....then it slacks off a little. Today was no exception, and with no shoulders on the road, I was constantly on and off the road. Within a mile I passed a very large Raytheon plant, and much of the traffic seemed to be going there. Shortly after passing the plant, a car pulled up and a woman asked where I was going and did I need anything. I told her I was fine, and mentioned the large plant I had just passed. She works there, and said they did lots of government projects. She headed to work, and I headed east. This morning was pretty cold, as the sun was still behind the clouds. I walked a while longer and soon was in a small town called Lake.
As best I could tell, there's not much in Lake. A gas station / store was about all I saw. But, I stay on hwy 80, so sometimes miss some things. I stopped in the convenience store to see if they had food (none I wanted), talked to a few locals for a few minutes, and headed out. The woman who stopped a while back told me I could get breakfast at a BP station near I-20, about 2 miles past Lake. Within 30 or so minutes I was at the BP, looking under tables for electrical outlets to charge some batteries. Found a table near an outlet, ordered breakfast, and hooked up the computer while waiting for breakfast. I was eating breakfast, and received a call from Bob Douglas, a State Farm Agent in Newton, MS.....about 8-10 miles east.
Bob was contacted by my daughter-in-law, Michelle, to let him know I was coming through town and be on the lookout for me. Bob read about the walk on the blog, called a friend of his, Andy Armstrong, and they called me to invite me to stay over the night in Newton. Andy has a guest house, and I could stay there. Also, the Baptist Church in Newton has a meal on Wednesday evening, and I was invited to that. Let's see......19 degrees in the tent with cheese crackers, or a warm guest house and a good meal with the Baptist. I'll take the guest house, thank you. So, after breakfast, I headed toward Newton.
Hwy 80 was better this part of the walk......not much traffic and a reasonable shoulder. There's lots of logging in this area, appears to be mostly pine trees. Logging trucks pass me continually, and also trains pulling cars loaded with the logs. I also passed through a small town named Lawrence, which appeared smaller than Lake. Around 2pm, I came into Newton, found my way to Bob's office, and was greeted by Tammy Meaders and Pam Blissett. We talked about the walk for a while, and Pam told me there are lots of coyotes in this area. Tammy called Andy, and he came down to take me to the guest house. I settled in, washed some clothes, and Andy showed me around his house.
Both he and his wife Dottie are retired teachers. Dottie is an excellent artist, and Bob does handyman stuff around their old Victorian home. Plus, he built a building for Dottie to teach art lessons in. Their house is filled with Christmas decorations, which must take days to put up and take down each year. They have so many projects going on, I don't see how they do it all. But their house is a showplace, both inside and out. In addition to all this, Andy has completed several long distance bicycle trips....one across the USA, and one from France to Hungary. Plus, they travel all over the world.
Soon Bob came by to take us to the church for dinner. I'm Presbyterian, and we always tease that the Southern Baptist look for reasons to have a meal......and I told them that. They forgave me for being Presbyterian, and were cordial and friendly. We had spaghetti and salad, and peach cobbler, ice cream, and cake for dessert. In fact, I was about the last one eating when the service started. We sang a few Christmas songs which was nice, and then has a short service. Their pastor is relatively young, but had a good message. After the service I talked for a while with some of the members, and then back to the guest house to relax and work on the blog. Andy is fixing breakfast tomorrow morning, so no truck stop for me. Although it was a relatively short walking day, it turned out really nice, and this is what the walk is about.
About the pictures:
Traffic early in the morning is usually a little heavy until everyone gets to work.....then it slacks off a little. Today was no exception, and with no shoulders on the road, I was constantly on and off the road. Within a mile I passed a very large Raytheon plant, and much of the traffic seemed to be going there. Shortly after passing the plant, a car pulled up and a woman asked where I was going and did I need anything. I told her I was fine, and mentioned the large plant I had just passed. She works there, and said they did lots of government projects. She headed to work, and I headed east. This morning was pretty cold, as the sun was still behind the clouds. I walked a while longer and soon was in a small town called Lake.
As best I could tell, there's not much in Lake. A gas station / store was about all I saw. But, I stay on hwy 80, so sometimes miss some things. I stopped in the convenience store to see if they had food (none I wanted), talked to a few locals for a few minutes, and headed out. The woman who stopped a while back told me I could get breakfast at a BP station near I-20, about 2 miles past Lake. Within 30 or so minutes I was at the BP, looking under tables for electrical outlets to charge some batteries. Found a table near an outlet, ordered breakfast, and hooked up the computer while waiting for breakfast. I was eating breakfast, and received a call from Bob Douglas, a State Farm Agent in Newton, MS.....about 8-10 miles east.
Bob was contacted by my daughter-in-law, Michelle, to let him know I was coming through town and be on the lookout for me. Bob read about the walk on the blog, called a friend of his, Andy Armstrong, and they called me to invite me to stay over the night in Newton. Andy has a guest house, and I could stay there. Also, the Baptist Church in Newton has a meal on Wednesday evening, and I was invited to that. Let's see......19 degrees in the tent with cheese crackers, or a warm guest house and a good meal with the Baptist. I'll take the guest house, thank you. So, after breakfast, I headed toward Newton.
Hwy 80 was better this part of the walk......not much traffic and a reasonable shoulder. There's lots of logging in this area, appears to be mostly pine trees. Logging trucks pass me continually, and also trains pulling cars loaded with the logs. I also passed through a small town named Lawrence, which appeared smaller than Lake. Around 2pm, I came into Newton, found my way to Bob's office, and was greeted by Tammy Meaders and Pam Blissett. We talked about the walk for a while, and Pam told me there are lots of coyotes in this area. Tammy called Andy, and he came down to take me to the guest house. I settled in, washed some clothes, and Andy showed me around his house.
Both he and his wife Dottie are retired teachers. Dottie is an excellent artist, and Bob does handyman stuff around their old Victorian home. Plus, he built a building for Dottie to teach art lessons in. Their house is filled with Christmas decorations, which must take days to put up and take down each year. They have so many projects going on, I don't see how they do it all. But their house is a showplace, both inside and out. In addition to all this, Andy has completed several long distance bicycle trips....one across the USA, and one from France to Hungary. Plus, they travel all over the world.
Soon Bob came by to take us to the church for dinner. I'm Presbyterian, and we always tease that the Southern Baptist look for reasons to have a meal......and I told them that. They forgave me for being Presbyterian, and were cordial and friendly. We had spaghetti and salad, and peach cobbler, ice cream, and cake for dessert. In fact, I was about the last one eating when the service started. We sang a few Christmas songs which was nice, and then has a short service. Their pastor is relatively young, but had a good message. After the service I talked for a while with some of the members, and then back to the guest house to relax and work on the blog. Andy is fixing breakfast tomorrow morning, so no truck stop for me. Although it was a relatively short walking day, it turned out really nice, and this is what the walk is about.
About the pictures:
Top is daughter-in-law Michelle at her desk in Forest, VA....with her walkingman "tracking" map behind her;
Middle is a marker for a historic Confederate cemetery in Newton.....hope you can read it.
Bottom is Andy Armstrong, handyman and adventurer; and Bob Douglas, State Farm Agent and good neighbor to a walkingman.
Good Move Jeff ! I think the Guest House is well worth the short walk but did look like you got about 15 miles on your U.S. Keds.( old tennis shoe brand, in case you forgot ).
ReplyDeleteHey, I thought of something I used to hear , back in the fifties. The old folk (grin) would talk of going places and always said they were taking the Dixie Highway. That's what they called Hwy 80 way back then.
Enjoy,
Mick