Irish Dancing....Can I do That?

We spent our second rest day in a row here in Syracuse watching my nephew compete in the Central New York Feis, an Irish Dancing Competition.  He crushed it placing in four of the six events that he chose to compete.

Killing it on the dancefloor.

I had never even considered the possibility of taking up Irish Dancing until today, but I caught myself thinking from time to time throughout the competition, “Can I do that?”  

It looked challenging and graceful and fun.  

“You’re way to old for Irish Dancing.”

“That’s what you told yourself about yoga, but once you started you wished you hadn’t waited for so long.”

“You’d just embarrass yourself.”

“Probably, but you said the same thing about walking and yoga until you started to practice.  Were there some embarrassing bits? Sure, but seriously, no one is even really paying attention to you at all.”

The debate went on throughout the day, but in the end, I decided I didn’t have a reason not to give it a try once the walk is complete.

Irish Dancing here I come….at least for a lesson or two.  That’s one of the things I’m loving about the pilgrimage. I’m getting to see, experience, and contemplate things that I never even considered.  My life is becoming richer for it day after day. Thanks for the the inspiration, E! I had a great day!

Syracuse Rest

We’ve had a restful day in Syracuse.  I woke up at 7:30 and didn’t have to think about getting back on the road, and my feet and legs were happy.  We casually ate breakfast, I worked some non-walking phone calls and business related paperwork, and we ate lunch at Tully’s, a sports pub next to our hotel.

Tully’s - Claimed home of “the best chicken tender on earth."

Tully's claims to serve the "best chicken tenders on earth." I've been forced to sample them twice to test this assertion, and they are really good.  I'm just not convinced they are better than Foosackly's based on my extensive market research and fact finding missions during my shipbuilding days to the Mobile area of Alabama.  That's a bold claim that would require some additional evidence, but these New Yorkers are giving the Southerners a run for their money. This is just one minor example of the fun and uplifting experiences we’ve had on this pilgrimage.  Completely unexpected and unplanned, but at the same time, just fun, fulfilling, and tasty.

I’m really looking forward to seeing my sister, her wife, and her son who is going to be performing in an Irish Dance competition tomorrow at the New York State Fairgrounds.  Once again, it just feels like the Universe is putting both Dad and I in the right place at the right time to have just the experiences that we’re meant to have.

This was a completely unplanned coincidence, and just a week ago it was not clear that we were going to be able to make the miles in order to watch my nephew dance.  We covered over one hundred and sixty miles on foot, and here we are….waiting out a pretty bad rainstorm in relative comfort, enjoying a much needed rest day, and getting a chance to let Amazon resupply some of our harder to get consumables.

I don’t want to make too much of this, but it really seems like the more we step out in faith, the better things start to click into place.  That’s counterintuitive for me, and I’m not completely comfortable with this faith based approach to letting the trail deliver that which is needed.  It’s hard to argue with the results, so I guess we’ll keep doing that which continues to work.

Here I go again, finally

I'm posting from the Country Inn & Suites in Syracuse.  Josh and I took a small divergence from our US 20 route to attend my grandson Ezra's Irish Dance competition at the NY State Fairgrounds on Sat Apr 27.   He's quite good, and this provides us our first opportunity to see him perform.  It's remarkable how the Lord orchestrated this opportunity.     The "pilgramage" is, and has been, the adventure we desire:  it's physically challenging,  emotionally gratifying, requires much more daily planning than we anticipated, necessitates great flexibility to adjust to "events" as we encounter them, -- and the delight of making acquaintance with myriads of most pleasant, cheerful and helpful people!!   And, oh yeah, the hills in MA and eastern NY are a force to be reckoned with.       Life lesson:  one can categorize people  into three groups,  1) strangers,  2) acquaintances,  and, 3) friends.  Generally, strangers encountered exhibit some reserve toward each other.  But we're finding that simply introducing ourselves (usually first name only) moves us from "stranger" to "acquaintance" with a noticeable lessening of reserve and opening up to much more relaxed interchanges.  We continue to be pleasantly surprised at the friendliness, enthusiasm, encouragement, willingness to share local knowledge/insights, and recommendations about our way forward.   Given opportunity, we could move from "acquaintances" to "friends" with many of them.   We count OVER a hundred acquaintances (by name) we've made since commencing in RI.  And we've encountered ONLY two who behaved "curmudgeonly".  (They may have just been having a bad day.) I find that borderline amazing to the positive.  The staff here at the Country Inn have been friendly and helpful, and have made us feel right at home.  It's been a good recovery day -- busy -- but, our bodies needed some restoration after 8 days of walking.  More later.    Jay/Rory

Finding a Restroom....Just in Time

I’m not gonna fib to you.  I’m glad we’re in a hotel in Syracuse, and we don’t have to think about getting up tomorrow morning and putting in some miles.  I’m tired. Dad’s tired, and today’s fifteen mile slog into Syracuse wrapped up eight days in a row where we averaged just over sixteen miles a day.  We arrived a day early, and tomorow they are predicting rain. I’m glad we’re not walking in it.

Dad outside the Cross Creek Nursery...These fine folks saved his bacon when he found himself in dire need of dropping a deuce.

Though it was a challenging final push into Syracuse, more things went right than wrong.

- We had plenty of rest and sleep last night.

- We had plenty to eat this morning and all day.

- We were able to carry light water loads.

- Dad found a restroom just in time to avoid...well, a mess frankly.

- We’ve got an extra day of rest because we pushed hard enough to get here early.

- Dad’s Amazon order, new shoes being the most important part, arrived on time and intact.

- We’re making progress toward hitting the required pace to finish the N2N-TCP.  We’re not there yet, but we’re getting better.

Every day out here on the road has proven to me that there are definitely more good things than bad in the world.  Even the tough days have so many things going right it’s impossible not to be grateful.

I’m looking forward to a rest, but I’m also looking forward to getting back out there and seeing what the Universe has in store and we make our way west on this incredible journey.

The Universe Speaks

Early in this blog, I think I talked a little about some of my reasons for planning and eventually striking off on the Newport to Newport Transcontinental Pilgrimage, but it’s probably worth addressing the reasons again.

“Take a Walk - Still not Done” -- The Universe

Way back in 2012, I was a having a tough time at work and in my personal life.  Hey, it probably happens to all of us, but for me, I was just ready to escape. During this time, I thought about taking a long walk.  Walking would allow me to shrink my world to about the meter around me. It would allow me to slow down and actually see things instead of just rushing past in a blur.  No matter what happened, I believed I could always just walk.

Things got better as they often do, but the idea of taking a long walk just wouldn’t go away.  I told my Dad about it to get rid of the idea. It worked. He called it a little crazy and irresponsible.  Two weeks later he called back and had decided it might be an adventure.

We both started to train.  Hours out in the sun and rain and snow.  Sore legs and blisters. Nothing would make the idea of a long distance walk go away.

I finally decided that the Universe had sent me this idea for a reason, and the only thing left to do was to make the idea a reality.

Today, jut outside of Madison, NY, the Universe sent us another message.  “Take a Walk - Still not Done.”

I have no idea why some graffiti artist decided to paint that phrase on a barn alongside US Highway 20 in central New York.  It doesn’t make any sense, but there it was today. I’m left to conclude that the Universe is still sending us a message.

“Take a Walk - Still not Done”

                   -- The Universe

We read you loud and clear.

Morning at Chittning Pond

This morning I awoke to the honk of geese, the twitter of birds, and Dad saying, “time to get up….we’re burning daylight.”  It was five forty-five.

I blinked open my eyes and thought, “Damn it’s cold in here.”  I was toasty warm under my down sleeping quilt that had been snugged up around my neck with a drawstring, and my head was covered under my fleece stocking cap.  I did not want to get up and face the chilly morning of our campsite on the banks of Chittning Pond in Sangerfield, NY.

Regardless of what I wanted, it was time to wake up and face whatever the day had in store.

Mist on the water as the sun peeks over the mountain on Chittning Pond.

I grabbed my frigid shoes, slipped my formerly warm feet into the icy togs, and unzipped the tent flap.  I noticed that the character talking about burning daylight was still tightly wrapped in his own sleeping quilt.  No movement out into the cold for him quite yet.

Nevertheless, I stepped out into the morning and was greeted with a glorious sunrise.  Mist had risen over the water, and the sun was just beginning to peek over the hills to the east.  I tucked my head back inot the tent to grab my camera knowing that I wouldn’t be able to capture the moment in the way that it really made me feel.  It was one of those morning that you just had to experience.

The cool dampness of the air nipping at your cheeks while your breath added clouds of vapor to the mounting morning layer of fog.  The geese honking softly as they swam across the pond, and the birds twittering softly in the surrounding woods getting ready to greet the day.

I’m grateful the old man woke me up.  It was a great way to start the day.

Important Milestones

I’m writing this entry a day late due to limited connectivity last night, but the events described all happened on Monday, 22 April 2019.  

We hist some milestones today.  We crossed the three hundred mile mark late in the day on our push to our campsite at Chittning Pond near Sangerville, NY.  It was the second day in a row where we covered over nineteen miles. We received an offer from the Fire Chief in Brooksfield, NY to camp on the grounds of the Volunteer Fire Department.  Someone bought us lunch for the first time.

Of all the things that happened, one of the most important events was our trip to the Post Office in West Winfield, NY.

Dad taking care of business in West Winfield, NY.

You may be asking yourself….A post office being the most important event in a day filled with milestones….What’s so important about a post office?

The post office in West Winfield allowed up to get rid of almost three pounds of excess weight we’d been carrying.  Dad got rid of an external cell phone battery, a camera, a UA base layer top, and UA baselayer tights. I added a pair of socks and a UA baselayer top to the package.

Three pounds may not seem like a lot, but you can feel every ounce after three hundred miles of walking.  Getting rid of excess weight becomes a real moment of celebration.

The second best part of the day was finding a great camping site on public land that didn’t appear to prohibit camping, but that’s a story for another day.

Farmscapes, Skyscapes, and Fortunes

At the end of an almost twenty mile day, we pulled into The Village Motel in Richfield Springs, NY, dropped off our packs, grabbed our laundry for the laundromat, and went down Main Street to grab some Chinese food at Foo Chow’s.  The food was pretty good, and at the end of the meal, I broke open my fortune cookie and look what popped out.

Fortue from Foo Chow’s in Richfield Springs, NY

At every turn during this journey of planning and now execution it feels like the Universe is behind me all the way.  In addition to the fortune that seemed to be written just for me, we had the best day to date with scenery while we walked scenic US Highway 20 from Sharon Springs to Richfield Springs, NY.

Farmscapes,

Skyscapes,

And even the US-20 tourist traps were spectacular today.

Even though we had a long day, we had a really good day.  We talked about the experiences we both had purchasing our first homes.  We talke about the things we knew, thought we knew, and wished we knew during that process.  We talked about our reasons to buy rather than rent, and how we felt about those decisions in retrospect.  We talked so much we managed to climb a fairly long hill out of one ot the endless valleys in this part of the country without it seeming like the hard work my legs knew was going on.

We’re coming up the learning curve, and our time on the trail is clearly starting to pay off.  I’m tired tonight, but I’m not exhausted. We have long days coming, but I have confidence we can tackle them.

Slowly, but surely we’re taking the small steps required to reach a distant goal.