Day 6 – 7/4 – Muncie to Marion, IN – 32 miles
A timeline of the day, as it unfolded: 4:45am – Alarm. Roll out of bed, pack clothes (all successfully dried), electronics. Tape up heels. 5:00am – Out the door. 5:10 – Pass a Maverick gas station. Get excited about the possibility of drinking coffee. But then, for some reason, convince myself that it would be […]
Day 5 – 7/3 – Blountsville to Muncie, IN – 15 miles
Note: For full access to everything from the walk, check out my Patreon and Instagram pages. I slept marvelously well under the shelter at Blountsville’s Cardinal Greenway trailhead, and then strolled merrily through the shortest walk of the trip thus far, arriving in Muncie before 10am. Once in the center, I split from the Greenway (and the ADT), in […]
Day 4 – 7/2 – Richmond to Blountsville, IN – 27 miles
When one thing goes wrong, it’s annoying. When two things go wrong, it’s infuriating. When three things go wrong, it’s a comedy. Today’s walk was thoroughly relaxing. I woke up rejuvenated, ate the cold spaghetti that was left over from last night–I really need to stretch out my stomach asap; I ate shockingly little for […]
Days 2 and 3 – 6/30 to 7/1 – Miami Whitewater to Oxford, OH to Richmond, IN – 59 miles
Note: For full access to everything from the walk, check out my Patreon and Instagram pages. When one day is pretty easy and the next one is far more demanding, it’s easy to fall into an analytical mode, working to derive judgments about what contributed to each outcome. After all, clarity on the differentiating factors just might–if one were […]
Day 1 – 6/29 – North Bend to Miami Whitewater, OH – 15 miles
Note: For full access to everything from the walk, check out my Patreon and Instagram pages. I knew exactly what this post was going to be about. The idea had crystallized in my mind in the days leading up to my departure. In resuming my walk, I decided not to start back in the center […]
The Road Ahead
It’s a transitional moment for me, as I’m departing my school of 13 years, and potentially leaving the teaching profession forever. I don’t want to get too maudlin about it; I could break my foot next week and suddenly need quality health care and something to do other than walking. Life plays funny tricks on […]
It’s Time: Resuming My Walk Across the USA
In 2019, I set out to walk across the USA on the American Discovery Trail. Well, really, I set out to walk across the USA one-and-a-half times. The ADT splits between Cincinnati, Ohio and Denver, Colorado, so my plan was to follow the southern route through Missouri and Kansas in the fall, then fly to […]
Day 7 – Batavia to Cincinnati, OH – 32 miles
19 months and another world ago, I walked out of Cincinnati. Today, some 2650 miles later, I walked back into it. I probably could have found a more direct route. But we’re all working hard and sacrificing a lot to get back to where we were. ——————- In Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, Kublai Khan and Marco […]
Days 5 & 6 – Seaman to Batavia, OH – 43 miles
Wednesday’s story was one of fear. OK, that’s a little strong. But the weather forecast was certainly concerning. Thunderstorms were on the docket, striking sometime around noon and then lashing the region throughout the afternoon and evening. Those tempests would then yield to a wind storm. While a full-blown tornado wasn’t yet in the forecast, […]
Day 4 – Elm Grove to Seaman, OH – 29 miles
You learn a lot of valuable lessons from walking, but one of the biggest is this: the first problem is never the one that really messes you up. A blister on your heel, an aching knee, a bit of tendonitis where your leg meets your foot… none of those are fun. However, it’s rare that […]