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Showing posts with label Farmscapes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Farmscapes. Show all posts

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Back in the Country

Today, we sauntered a little over eighteen miles down the road to Yorkville, IL with a brief stop in Plainfield, IL for a Starbucks. We’ve travelled eighty-eight miles in the last four days, and we’re going to take a rest day hear to get ready for a seventy mile, three day leg coming up shortly.

My head was down counting off steps as we crunched through the gravel on the shoulder for most of the day. I admit that I was probably paying far too much attention to where my legs attach to my body because it was beginning to feel like they might just pop off.  I can just imagine the sound. Crunch, crunch, crunch, POP, Crunch, POP, whumpphhh. That last little sound was me unceremoniously plopping onto the ground and looking around wondering why I was laying there with a pack on my back.

Anyway, it’s good to be back in the country, and Dad seems to be enjoying the scenery. You’d think we’d get tired of seemingly endless farms, but they’re all unique with their own beauty.


Dad Feeling Good About Being Back in the Country - Yorkville, IL

On a completely unrelated side note, I’m going to need a competent hair stylist when we get done with this little stroll. I’m beginning to look a bit like Bob Ross, and I don’t even have the perm. I’m also having trouble keeping my ball cap on my head.  The poofy hair that’s finally been allowed to stretch its follicles after twenty three years of Navy related suppression seems happiest without any constraints.  It just pops the cap off my head and sits up there on the top of my head and laughs at me. Taming this mop is going to take a professional.

Sunday, April 21, 2019

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.