Day 145 - The Day Before The Last Day.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Last night was restful, being inside in the utility building. The woman who runs the business, Cathy, came by Burger King while I was still there, and said I could stay in any of the buildings.....so I got an "upgrade" for no extra charge. I walked over and was looking through each one when Jack Bradshaw called, and we had a good laugh about the buildings. Turned out they were not cold like the bus, so that was good. I read the paper for a while, but soon was asleep due to lack of sleep the previous night. The family is coming down today, and I will spend one more night in the tent before seeing them tomorrow. My goal today is just walk a few miles, find a camping spot, and get ready for tomorrow.

The first stop was at Burger King for breakfast and the USA Today paper. Hung out there for a while and started walking toward Swansboro. News about the walk has been in the local papers, so lots of people waving and tooting their horns. A guy came out of his house and crossed the street to talk. Introduced himself as James Baggs, a resident of Swansboro since 1946 (or of this area). He was quite an interesting guy and we must have talked 30 minutes or more......what's the hurry? The mayor of Emerald Isle, Art Schools, stopped by to check how things were going, and he stayed and talked a while. I eventually headed out, with much more knowledge of the area than I had before meeting James. I passed by the historic district of Swansboro, and snapped a few pictures. then crossed over the White Oak River into a small community named Cedar Point.

I saw some young people working on a project near the waterfront, and walked down to check things out. Turns out they are students from UNC-W, working on a project to determine the right size to build artificial reefs for oyster beds. The students introduced themselves as Mark (it was his project), Katherine, Anne, and Luke. They were shoveling shells into baskets, and going to take the baskets out in the water and create an oyster reef. Nice students, and an interesting project. While I was there, a reporter for WITN, Channel 7 out of Jacksonville, Amanda Paul, came and did a story about the walk. Amanda was a pleasure to talk with, and did a great job with the interview. It was supposed to be on TV this afternoon around 5-6, but I didn't get to watch it. Maybe it's on their website. If someone finds it, pls comment with the link.

You know, I've driven these roads for years, but it's amazing the things I'm seeing today that I've never noticed before. I have about decided to not go on the island until tomorrow morning, so started looking for a place to camp near the bridge. Frank Rush, Emerald Isle Town Manager, called and I told him I might camp over here. He suggested somewhere near the Visitor's Center near the bridge. I went in there and introduced myself to Mary Licko, and her husband Bill. If you're ever a walkingman, Mary is the kind of person you look for along the roads. She was ok with me putting up the tent there, and even suggested I could use the facilities at the center. I set the tent up in the back of the building, and about that time things started getting crazy......in a nice way.

People starting coming in to visit me, phone calls from both friends and reporters, and about everything else. Two women from the Swansboro Area Chamber of Commerce came in, introduced themselves as Donna Hammond and Sherri Hitchcock-Hutson. We talked a while and before long they were inviting me to lunch at a great little place in Swansboro, Church Street Deli. I had soup, a ham sandwich with cheddar and horseradish, and bread pudding for dessert. A great meal and good company. While there, a woman came in with 2 children who wanted to see this man who just walked across the USA. They had lots of questions, and we had fun talking. Mary from the visitor's center called and told us there was a photographer waiting there to take some pictures. He was from a sister paper to the Gaston Gazette, and both papers will run the article. (I said it was crazy today.)

Frank Rush stopped by to say hello, and he had lots of questions. Frank is an outdoors person, so was interested in the walk. Denise Ziegler of Emerald Isle stopped by and brought her two daughters, Abby and Addison, to visit the walkingman. We had fun talking and Denise took a couple of pictures. They left and soon it was time for Mary to leave, but she left me with one piece of advice: "there's a dark side to being a celebrity, so don't fall into that trap!" I knew when I first saw her, Mary was going to keep me out of trouble. The family has arrived now, and I've been hiding from them until tomorrow.....plus, those Cooley girls could be most anywhere. My daughter Julie spotted my hidden tent almost immediately, and sent me a text message, "i c u"......so much for hiding. So instead of being in a nice house on the beach with them, it's the tent for me tonight.

So many people have called over the past few days, some I had to cut short the conversation, others I couldn't even answer. But, I'll call you back soon and we'll talk. Also, Kevin Ellis of the Gaston Gazette called to give me some info about an article. He's done several great articles about the walk in the Gazette. Kevin just recently lost his wife after a battle with cancer, so I'm certainly been thinking of him the past week or so.

About the pictures:
Abby and Addison Ziegler, and the Walkingman, in front of the last camp site....taken by Denise, their mother;
Anne, Luke, Mark, and Katherine (l-r), shoveling shells;
Swansboro historic marker