Taking A Walk

by Dwayne Phillips

I enjoyed taking a walk for 1,100 miles or so. When asked about doing it again or doing another route, I reply that I would do it given finances and such. It was fun.

There were tough times in the walk. There were periods where the weather was either too wet, too hot, too cold, or too much of something else that made it quite uncomfortable. Weather seems to come in stretches of three days or longer, and I experienced several stretches of bad weather.

There were tough times in the walk everyday. Notably, the last hour or two of a day. The fluids in my body settled in my feet and lower legs making every step difficult. Sitting and stretching helped, but only for five or ten minutes. Sitting five minutes, walking ten, you don’t make much headway at that pace.

Then the doubts would enter my mind. “This is supposed to be fun. You are supposed to be enjoying this. Why are you out here on the road if you are not enjoying it? Quit for the day. Take a day or two off. Be reasonable.”

I found one thing that helped me in the afternoon – music. I would listen to the music on my iPod or iPhone. Pop songs, happy songs, songs that would encourage my feet to keep moving. Sometimes the beat would be too fast for a  normal walk, so I would shuffle my feet in steps that were short but quick enough to stay apace with the song. Yes, I looked funny when I did this. I would move my arms, shoulders, and upper body to the songs. That moved the blood around a bit, made me feel better, and yes again, I looked funny when I did this.

I would listen to music the last hour of the walking day. I forced myself to wait until the last hour. No longer than an hour. Somehow, this worked on my mind and kept me going the hour or two before the last hour. Music hour was coming. I was anxious for it to arrive. Something positive was happening in my mind.

Yes, there were tough times on the road everyday. Learning how to get through the tough times was part of the fun. Finding the music was a big part of the fun.