After a time I entered the tiny hamlet of Reva and then entered the just as tiny roadside Reva Market shortly thereafter; a tiny haven of cool solace in that already blazing day; a place where no standard tokens of kindness or generosity were offered, and yet the sign on the fountain clearly stated that […]
“Walking – when it’s done right – causes absorption. Walking interminably, taking in through your pores the height of the mountains when you are confronting them at length, breathing in the shape of the hills for hours at a time during any slow descent, soaking in the swaying trees and the dazzling sunshine and even […]
I got into a pretty smooth groove at some point that mid-morning, letting my strides grow long while mumble-humming my own higher-meant version of the Shema*, when Sargent Richards (of the Madison County Sheriff’s Department) stopped by to make sure I was okay and then to wish me well & safe-travels for the rest of […]
After Sgt Richards bid me farewell I didn’t have to walk too far to enter the outskirts of Leon, where I pulled in to a roadside Citgo station to rest on its outside bench. A few miles earlier I had passed another Way-walker on the roadway (my first & only other fellow pilgrim encountered on […]
Onward I fluidly flowed to the outskirts of Madison, where I came across Our Lady of the Blue Ridge Catholic Church. I was very thirsty at the time (and the Catholics had admittedly been quite openly kind to me during my walk across Europe in week’s previous) so I headed down to the church’s office […]
Madison proper proved to be a typically disheartening experience – at least as far as American cities were concerned, with local businesses being uniformly uninterested in even hearing about my Walk and the encountered leader of a local church (Pastor Dan of the Madison United Methodist congregation) refusing to offer even the most meager tithe […]
My sandwich gratefully eaten and my shoes freshly tied, I proceeded onward down Highway 231 into the now gathering gloom. Traffic was pretty oppressive at the time, and there wasn’t much of a shoulder to walk on to avoid getting run over by the same, so I found myself thankfully and quite willingly pulling into […]
I ended up remaining at Yoder’s Country Market for several hours of rest and thought I would be able to remain there after the Sun had set and get some great sleep on their outdoor lounge chairs, and yet sound sleep was never forthcoming thereafter so I rose after only an hour or so of […]
I woke very early again this morning and headed peacefully back out onto The Way (with Highway 231 being still almost completely devoid of traffic at the time), ambling along in the wee morning stillness, walking peacefully “alone with God” under a scintillating blanket of stars overhead. I entered and passed through the town of […]
It’s true that I was indeed pretty tired at this point, and yet not really tired enough to continue sleeping. And yet it is just as true that gorging on hummus sandwiches outside a Walmart in the very wee hours of any morning will tempt one indeed into a secondary slumber – and that is […]
I woke and rose after just a few hours of sleep on the antique store bench and headed back out onto The Way. Things sooner began to get lighter out as I walked along, and traffic began to pick up as well, and yet I was still able to easily flow against traffic on the […]
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