Today was a great day to start the pilgrimage. The weather was predicted to be cool but clear, and both Dad and I had gotten a couple of good nights’ sleep at the Beech Tree Inn and Cottage in Newport, Rhode Island.
We had a plan. We were going to wake up a little before five am, grab a quick bowl fo instant oatmeal, grab our scheduled Lyft ride down to our starting point, and catch the sunrise on the pebble beach just down the hill from “The Breakers” (the Vanderbilt mansion) near the end of Ruggles Avenue. At five twenty, I’d packed my stuff up and headed to the dining area of the Inn to grab some hot water out of the coffee maker for my oatmeal. A couple of minutes later, Dad joined me in the dining area to grab some hot water and some coffee.
He was just spooning a mouthful of oatmeal into his pie hole when I thought to ask about the room door. “Did you leave the door ajar?” I asked because the door locked automatically, and the last time, I’d seen the key it was laying on the dresser. He looked at me quizzically over the steaming spoonful of oatmeal. “I sure hope so.”
“Yeah, me too,” I replied as he headed through the dining side door to check. You can probably guess the end of the story, but I’ll lay it out anyway. The door was locked. I was checking the back windows to see if I could get in that way while Dad was trying to raise the innkeeper by knocking on the laundry room door. We didn’t know it was only a laundry room at the time. We’d learn that later, but since neither one of us had a phone, we were doing what we could.
Of course, the Lyft driver showed up precisely on time, and Dad tried to call the innkeeper to no avail. We stood in the dark for a few minutes scratching our heads until I finally decided to pay off the Lyft driver for her trouble and send her along. I didn’t think we were getting into the room any earlier than seven thirty when the innkeeper would arrive to prepare breakfast. Sunrise at the pebble beach? Totally off the table.
After the Lyft driver left, we sat around the dining area sipping coffee and reading books from the B&B library. Dad read a coffee table book that told the story of the significance of birthdays, and I read a chapter or two from a book on the dangers of fires in the era of the proliferation of plastic.
The innkeeper finally arrived in the dining area at ten till eight, and we were able to get back on track. Another Lyft ride by Cory to the end of Ruggles Avenue, I climbed down the hill to the pebble beach, snapped a few photos, and the Nike Running Plus application we’re using to track distance. The N2N-TCP had officially started at ten till nine in the morning.
Pebble Beach - Newport, RI - No Sunrise, but at least we started
After a bit of a rough start, we had a great day. The weather was good as predicted, and we made decent time. At around mile seven on the day, we experienced our very first “trail magic.” As we were walking along the sidewalk in Rhode Island 114 we were passed by a lady driving a hybrid. She turned into the next cross street, parked, got out of her car, and came up and introduced herself to us as Deb.
Deb said that she had walked across multiple countries and wold not have made it except for the kind help of others. She could tell by our outfits that we were walkers as well, and she asked us where we were going. We told the story of the N2N-TCP, and she offered to help us in any way that she could. Since we had just started, we were pretty good, but she told us that we should give her a call if we needed anything during the next hundred miles. She said she’d figure out a way to help.
Now, that’s trail magic!
Sometimes when we were planning the pilgrimage, I would question whether this was the right thing to be doing. Whenever I had those doubts, something like the trail magic that happened this afternoon would occur. I always felt like the Universe was sending a message to keep pressing forward, and that’s just what we did.
We ended the day with about thirteen and a half miles which was far short of our twenty mile per day average, but we had a good day. There’s some conditioning to be done, but we broke into double digits on the first day so that’s a great sign.
We grabbed some dinner, and I’m turning in early. I’m pretty tired, but feeling good. Tomorrow we’re meeting a guy named Greg for breakfast at Graziano’s 501 in Portsmouth, RI. We’re having a great time meeting interesting people and re-connecting with the country. We’re off to a great start!
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