Queens, NY 9-14-08

Miles since last blog:  34

It's been a few days. Well, the good news is PFEE and I got our first press, both print and TV. Woo hoo! Also, I am in NY, NY, which was my goal and it's a pretty cool place. . . to be stuck.

Yes, I have had a few problems. I've been mildly sick, which erupted in a 2am oral pressure release (aka, vomiting) last night, but then I was able to sleep. Also, my computer continues to suck egregiously and not let me use it, and while I do get to use my friend Mimi's, it does not let me do navigation for walking for no apparent reason. All this is of course beside the point since I my shoes were either stolen or thrown away while drying in the sun outside the local bakery during breakfast. So, I have a pair of $3 slippers I bought, but that's about it. My knee injury still persists and the hives on my feet seem to be "chilling," nothing seems to persuade them to leave or become stronger, I suppose at some point I could name them.

Nevertheless, I am periodically in high spirits, after all, I am among friend in a great city which feels homey in a similar way to the way Prague did. Last night I even got to go to a Burcak festival at the Bohemian Beer Hall nearby. This is a Czech festival for the new wine they hold in a beer garden. It was strange being in such a familiar situation in such a new place, I kept expecting someone I knew to walk into the garden. It made me a little homesick for Prague and friends.

The plan for tomorrow, a feverish and intense search for a shoe sponsor.

Old Greenwich, CT 9-11-08

Miles since last blog:  37.5

Last night after I arrived I had walked 37.5 miles. My feet hurt, in spite of or because of, my new insoles. I have small bumps all over my feet, I think they may be hives. A tendon in my ankle felt like it had been hurt badly after I got my shoes off for a minute. As per normal, the back of my calves were splotchy and molted like a rash and I couldn't get warm for a little while after I stopped walking. Glamorous, no?

I have the day off again today to rest and recover and this gives my time to think. I haven't yet talked about the charity in my blog, so here it goes.

37.5 miles. At the end of the day it feels like a great accomplishment. After all, I'm in a pair of 3 year old running shoes, pushing 90 lbs of equipment, just a paper with scribbled directions on it and often I run out of water for periods. Meanwhile, cars pass me all day long. They have GPS, they have AC, they can accomplish what I take all day to do in a mere half an hour.

This is how I feel about our education system. I was lucky enough to be a car, with all the tools and gadgets. I went to good public schools and my parents always checked to make sure that that was true. That 37.5 miles, that's learning to read. I breezed right through it, something many of of take for granted and do everyday. For children in underfunded, under-resourced schools where the faculty is constantly inexperienced and shifting off to "better" schools, learning to read is not that easy. For them it is like walking that 37.5 miles. It is a great accomplishment, that is incredibly difficult.

PFEE.org is committed to finding community based educational programs and schools that need help. Whether that help is funding or resources, PFEE is dedicated to leveling the playing field for millions of children who are falling through the chasms (they are no longer cracks) in our educational system. The simple fact is that the system will not fix itself. A large protion of funding for public schools comes from property taxes and thus the rich schools continually are improved while the poor schools continually degrade.

Please visit PFEE.org and donate.

Milford, CT 9-9-8

Miles since last blog: 22

Mmmmm, another day off. I'm really spoiling myself now.

It's raining out, not to jinx myself, but not a drop has hit me since I began my walk, both days it rained were my days off so far. And what a day off this is, I'm staying in a very nice Connecticut home with my own bed and bathroom, laundry, food, a big screen (which I haven't turned on) and even foosball. This is not your normal couchsurfing experience. Last night I had salmon for dinner, I guess this is the karma for all that roughing it coming back in spades.

Still waiting on my first news experience which I believe should be sometime today and then I'll use the day to take care of various other things I neglect on walking days, like insoles for my 3 year old running shoes and new moleskin to keep me from getting any more than the three blisters I already have.

Thunder, pshaw, I'm inside, get it all out before tomorrow sky because I got 38 miles to go then.

Wallingford, CT 9-08-08

Miles since last blog:  81.3

We will call days 5, 6 and 7 the Phoenix. On Day 5 I was a mere 7 miles from my place to stay that night, the front axle on my carrier broke. After a few phone calls I just had to submit to the only choice I had which was to balance it on the back two wheels for the remaining distance. This would have been easy if it had been flat, but it wasn't.

I tried to Jerry-rig a new axle at a local hardware store, but it still wouldn't stay on. Finally I made it to my couchsurfing destination and passed out after doing some work on my laptop. When I woke up on Day 6 my computer no longer worked. This wouldn't bother me in everyday life, but here it meant no navigation, no contact, no blogging, no looking for sponsors, no tracking my movement, etc, you get the picture, I need a computer.

Eventually I got my computer on long enough to get directions to REI so I could get my wheel replaced. Watching the weather after it was talking about the storming conditions we could expect the next day from what used to by Hurricane Hanna. I looked at my notepad I use for navigation, 30 miles. There are times when I feel like there are things actually working against me.

On the morning of Day 7 I had to lay in bed an hour longer than I planned, I couldn't get up. I headed out at about 6am to ensure I could make it to REI before it closed that day. There was no rain. The new jerry-rigged axle seemed to be working. I was moving faster than I had the whole trip. I still had no place to sleep for the night but I was going to reach REI with plenty of time to spare at this rate and I felt pretty good. So, I made a decision. I called the person I was supposed to surf with the next night and asked if I could show up tonight between 10 and 11. He said sure, so I had a place to stay that night. It would mean a total of 54 miles that day.

Immediately after the call, my makeshift axle busted, still 4 miles away. I wheeled it on the back wheels. It hurts, it hurts your hips, your arms, your back and it tires you out. I got to REI and exchanged it. I needed directions to my next destination so I was calling friends and trying to get my computer to work. Eventually, one of them came through.

I surmised that in order to make it there on time I would have to make 4 mph the whole way, 24 more miles. Almost a marathon. So, I started jogging. Between walking and jogging I started to pull ahead of my time and evetually it went from a countdown of miles to a count down of half hour periods.

Around 9 pm I got lost for about 10 minutes and ran out of water. The lead I had built was blown. I went from trying to keep pace, to just trying to keep going by the final 15 minutes. Of course, I made it eventually and it was actually just the sort of day I needed. After problem after problem all week and feeling trounced by this process to come back and destroy 54 miles, 4 of which I had no front wheel on my 90 lbs of crap for, it was empowering. How do you spell man? S K I P, and there may be an M in there somewhere, I can't rememebr I think my body ate my brain.

Dayville, CT 9-04-08

Miles since last blog:  26

It is night in Dayville and I am . . . tired. There seems to be an arguement between my "magic stick thingy" (which is a device that uses satelite GPS stuff to track me and tell me how far I've gone) and the map program on line. Online believes I travelled 26 miles today, while the stick thingy says 43. I know which one it feels like . . .

As an add on to this, I hate hills and mountains. Wheeling around 90lbs worth of crap is fine. Actually, it's even ok going uphill, but holding it back while going down for extended periods of time is a torture even to excrutiating for even Sisyphus. I also need to eat more, more frequently. Time to pass out.

Providence, RI 9/3

Miles since last blog:  31.9 (on route)

I get a lot of questions like, "Where do you sleep?" and "What do you eat?" and "you're crazy." Okay, that last one isn't a question, but I do hear that a lot. Well, I'll try to answer a few of those now.
Where do I sleep? I must ask myself this 1000 times during the time it gets dark and the time I know the answer. Invariably at that time, the answer is "oh, here."
The first night I slept on a patio behind a bar, at the suggestion of the bartender. The second night I slept in a cemetery in North Attleborough, MA. Tonight I am sleeping in a house, couchsurfing in Providence.
If you don't know what couchsurfing is, find out, it's easy, it's on the internet, I'm not going to tell you about it, but it is really cool.
What do I eat? Honestly, I'm still trying to figure this out a bit. The first day I didn't eat enough and then I felt terrible the first half of the second until I forced myself to eat a bunch of candy and then I felt great the rest of the day. I have since stocked up on various sugar and fat laden snack foods and try to eat at least one meat heavy ,meal a day because I think I need more protien. The plan now is to buy a huge vat of peanut butter.
You're crazy. Hmmmm, yes perhaps I am.

Canton, MA

Miles since last blog:  24.1 (by the route)

First day tally:

43 miles
3 flat tires
1 return of the flat tire: super flat
Many, many wrong turns
2 pairs of socks ruined with holes
2 beers, mmmmmm
2 new friends, Brie and Ari (sp?)
1 bar to sleep behind tonight
1 I put the "severe" in perseverence
1 marriage proposal
1000+ Donut shops passed, seriously MA, what's the Dunkin; Deal?

we'll see how my legs feel tomorrow . . .