Tales from the Trail #10: On the LOVE of Linton & Leslie …
I had been dropped off by kind-hearted Jimmy at the Panera in Frankfort that morning*, and I waited there awhile to get started – eventually hitting The Road at around 9am. And this later start was anything but recommendable, seeing as how it was already a true scorcher of a day, even at that early hour. Indeed, it would have been just the day to try and “AC Hop” again like I did back in Somerset, and yet the majority of Frankfort already lay behind me, and my route (now along Highway 60W) headed off into far less-populated regions of the state. As such, all that was left to do was to walk-hobble my way along the roadside, moving from shaded driveway to shaded parking lot to shaded portico, just to keep out of the heat as much as possible. And I was indeed able to make a bit of headway using this steady tactic, making it at last to the tiny subsequent township of Bridgeport some 5 miles onward, where I thankfully happened upon yet another roadside Dollar General store into which I quite gratefully limped …
And here is where the next bit of “Meanderer’s Magic” came to light, for I wasn’t in this particular store for more than a few minutes when customer Linton approached me, said he had read my smock, and asked what my Walk was all about. And once I told him a bit about the same, his draw dropped open a tad and he practically demanded to buy me whatever I wanted in the store to help me on my way. Now this level of raw generosity had not been seen by yours truly much at all on the Walk so far, and yet I recovered from my initial shock over his swift generosity and allowed him to buy me the two things I was craving at the time – potato chips (I think for the salt) and a few vegan Cliff Bars.
Now what proved to be extra special about this particular encounter was the number of people who chose to listen in to Linton & my conversation about my Journey – how I had structured it, what had generally happened up to that point, and how I intended to continue onward. And this is when Leslie, the Lay’s Potato Chip delivery lady who happened to be there at the time, chimed in and starting asking questions about the Walk as well. And that was when she too became openly enamored with my efforts and similarly almost demanded to buy me something as well (whereupon I gratefully accepted her offer of a rain poncho and some batteries for my flashlight – the latter of which would prove critically valuable in less than 24 hours’ time). Melanie, the Dollar General employee who had kindly allowed me to rest for awhile in the store at the start of the whole affair, then commenced asking questions about how I survived and wasn’t I scared and wasn’t it dangerous and where did I sleep and how did I survive without money when I couldn’t ask anyone for food (etc etc etc). And then she turned out to be moved as well and came outside (to where I was resting shortly thereafter and eating my Cliff Bars) to give me a whole quart of orange juice. And then a customer who had seen the latter portion of all these interactions walked past me to his car and gave me a cold Mountain Dew and wished me well on my Way, and then Leslie came back to me one last time and gave me a bottle of the pain meds (Ibuprofen & Acetaminophen) she herself was using for the physical trials & tribulations she was experiencing on her own job. In short it was nothing short of a showering of sustenance upon me – a true cornucopia of caring from these lovely people, and I ended up walking onward later that early evening with a fully renewed spring – in my Soul as well as in my step.
*Jimmy had seen me resting in a DQ Grill n’ Chill in the town of Harrodsburg, had read the back of my smock, had asked me about my Walk, and then had purchased me two large orders of French fried before offering to drive my limping legs a bit further up the Road.
;