Taking A Walk

by Dwayne Phillips

This happened during the first week of the walk in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I cannot recall what town it was.

At the south edge of town was a large house shaded by large, old trees. There were rocking chairs on the front porch. In each rocking chair was a elderly person rocking (what else would they be doing in a rocking chair?). A small sign out front indicated that this was a nursing home. Now everything made sense.

We walked past dozens of such nursing homes on the 1,100 miles. Some were in old houses like this, some were in newer concrete block buildings and looked like motels. The old houses had much more character. I suppose the new buildings were cleaner and nicer inside.

One elderly gentleman was different in his rocking chair on the porch of this old house. He was smoking a cigarette. He looked to be 90 years old. He shouldn’t have been smoking as smoking is bad for you. Then again, if you are 90 years old you have outlived all your doctors who told you that smoking was going to kill you.

by Dwayne Phillips

This occurred the day I walked into Laurel, Mississippi.

It was raining – yuck. The north side (as route 11 goes) of Laurel is on “the other side of the tracks” –  literally on the other side of the tracks. The railroad cuts through Laurel with downtown, a mall, shopping centers, and all sorts of nice things on one side. This story did not occur on the side with downtown, a mall, shopping centers, and all sorts of nice things, but on the other side.

On this side of Laurel, Route 11 is a two-lane road with houses on both sides. The houses are small, old wooden houses. Small, old, wooden houses do not age well in the heat and humidity of Mississippi. People with ample resources (money and time) struggle to maintain this type of house. People on the other side of the tracks…well, the houses are not maintained.

I walked in front of a vacant lot. An old yet tall man was standing next to the open driver-side door of an old pickup truck. He had his right hand on the steering wheel and his left hand on the frame next to the open door.

He was trying to push the truck.

I set my umbrella down (yes, sometimes when walking in the rain I used an umbrella), walked to the old yet tall man and asked, “Can I help you push?”

I don’t recall his exact words, but he let me know that my help was welcome. I leaned into the back bumper of the truck while he steered. Thankfully, the pickup truck moved. He steered the truck under a tree that would block it from most of the day’s rain. My guess is that he was to work under the hood and a little shelter was welcome.

Then he did the unexpected.

In addition to saying thanks, he pulled his wallet from his back pocket and offered me a dollar to buy a soda for myself. Maybe I looked in need – there aren’t many people walking down the road in the rain in Mississippi unless they are in need.

I smiled and told him “no thanks.” Looking back, perhaps I should have accepted his gift. That dollar bill would have become a treasure. The soda purchased with it would have been the sweetest ever tasted.

This old yet tall man fit the outward description of what most of us would call “poor.” He was a generous man; he cared for other people. I think that qualifies him as rich.

It wasn’t often that I met rich people on the side of the road while taking a walk.

by Dwayne Phillips

This is the first of my stories from taking a walk.

I was barked at by countless dogs on the walk. I was chased by a few hundred of these dogs. Dogs are territorial animals. They bark and chase if you enter their territory. It was easy to tell the territories of the dogs I met.

Now there were a lot of dogs who were chained to a large object with a large chain. I have no idea of the boundaries of their territory. Given the looks of most of these chained dogs and the size of the chain, I am happy I didn’t learn such.

The most memorable dog chase was from a large, red bloodhound. Here is a link to Wikipedia’s description of bloodhounds. I like the look of these dogs – always have. Wikipedia describes them as having an “affectionate, gentle, and even-tempered nature.” I am happy with that one.

Anyways, I was in Alabama, it was afternoon, it was sunny, and it was hot. I was walking at my usual pace of three miles an hour when a large, red bloodhound starting baying. “Baying” is the term Wikipedia uses for that sound the bloodhound makes. It is an “arooo-arooo-roooo-rooo-roooot” sound. Like the hound has found the scent of a convict he is tracking or something like that.

The bloodhound trotted out to the side of the road, kept at least six feet away, and bayed at me.

I did my usual smile and started talking to the hound. “Nice dog, nice dog, now go on home.” This is what I always told dogs that came out to the highway to bark at me. My worst fear while walking was a dog chasing me down the highway, standing in the road, and being hit and killed by a truck. Then the owner would run out to the dead dog and cry and blame me for the death of their poor dog, and I would cry, and I would apologize, and everyone would feel terrible (everyone of course but the dog because the dog would be dead after a never-knew-what-hit-him instant death). I am happy to report that my worst fear never came true.

So the bloodhound is out on the side of the road baying at me as only a bloodhound can do. Then the bloodhound walked around me to the broken stripe in the center of the highway. Oh, no, my worst fear is going to come true. How could such a big, slow dog avoid being hit by a logging truck. The hound started chasing me at a walking pace in the middle of the highway.  Every few minutes he would let out one of those “arooo-arooo-roooo-rooo-roooot” sounds. I would give him my “Nice dog, nice dog, now go on home,” lines, and he would ignore me.

He slowly chased me in this manner for a mile. Every few minutes baying at me (I am starting to like writing that word – baying). This was the biggest territory of any dog in 1,100 miles.

All ended well. The hound reached his boundary limit, turned, and walked safely home. I continued down the road one foot in front of the other.

by Dwayne Phillips

To help me collect my thoughts and experiences from taking a walk, I will write (hi)stories from the walk. Some will be long and some short. I will attempt to write at least one story each day. Watch for them. They will be tagged as “Stories”.

Thanks

by Dwayne Phillips

The Shoes I Wore for a Thousand Miles

I did wear shoes while walking. I only wore two pair of shoes. The first just didn’t work for me. They were a pair of New Balance walking shoes. These are great shoes for walking around town up to ten miles a day. They didn’t, however, work out on Route 11. They weren’t solid enough for me when walking on the rough, uneven shoulders.

The shoes I wore for about a thousand miles are pictured here. I bought them at a local sporting goods store early in the walk. They are from Merrell. Vibram soles, Gore-Tex lining, and so on. I didn’t feel the bumps and bruises of the shoulder; my feet stayed dry walking in wet grass and in the rain. No complaints and a lot of compliments.

The precise model is the Merrell Moab Mid Gore-Tex XCR. I don’t understand all that, but there you have it.

by Dwayne Phillips

Many times I would be talking or emailing a friend and hear or read,

Wow! You reached there already?

I walk about three miles an hour. That is pretty slow in today’s world. Consider the distance that I would walk on a big day: 20 miles. A person could drive that route 10 or 15 times in a day.

I was talking to some gentlemen at a store one day in Alabama. I told them that I was heading for New Orleans. On man told me that New Orleans was about a nine-hour drive. I replied that it was about a four-week walk. Wow. What a difference – one day versus four weeks.

Walking is slow.

But walking is faster than most people realize. Covering 15 to 20 miles a day and walking six days in a week means moving

100 miles down the road in a week

That number surprises almost everyone (who isn’t doing the walking). That 100-miles-per-week pace hit me when I was in Virginia and saw a sign stating that Knoxville, Tennessee was about a hundred miles away. My first thought was, “100 miles! When will we ever get there?” Then I ran the calculations, and in a week I was in Knoxville.

Walking is slow, but if you keep walking in the right direction day after day, you cover a lot of miles in 65 days.

by Dwayne Phillips

My Eddie Bauer Backpack

A constant companion on all 1,100 miles of walking was my Eddie Bauer Trailhead backpack. I guess the correct term is a “day pack” as it is big enough to carry the things you need in a day hike. I carried food, camera, band-aids, sun block, bandannas, extra clothing, sometimes a computer, pencil and paper, spotting scope, (most important) drinks, and, well if I think long enough I can think of something else that I carried. (I seemed to always carry more than I needed.)

For me, the true test of quality on a backpack are the zippers. I zipped, unzipped, re-zipped the zippers on this pack half a dozen times a day. No snags, no slips, no problems of any kind.

I bought this pack on sale for $20 locally. One of the best purchases in my life when you calculate miles per dollar or something like that.

I looked at Eddie Bauer’s web site. They still sell this model of pack. I didn’t pay full price, but I would.

by Dwayne Phillips

There are a lot of name-brand pieces of apparel out there that people recommend for walking and other activities. Most of them are over-rated. Here is one that is not – the Tilley Hat.

My Tilley Hat

I bought one of these on suggestion of a friend. The money was more than worth it. I have a model T3. I’m not up on all the model numbers and what they mean. See the Tilley site for all of that. Anyways, here is a photo of the one that I wore for 1,100 miles.

My hat is made of something called cotton duck. It is a thick cotton material that holds it shape pretty well.

Anyways, the hat did what a good hat is supposed to do – keep my head cool on hot days, warm on cold days, and block the sun everyday. It is comfortable – the most comfortable hat I’ve ever worn.

So, the Tilley Hat. Yes, it is sort of famous in outdoor fashion circles. It isn’t over priced. It is a really good hat. Here I am wearing it at the end fo the walk.

Me wearing my Tilley Hat at the end

by Dwayne Phillips

Walking a thousand miles down a U.S. highway is a fairly unique endeavor. You learn to do some unique things very well. In other words, you become very good at things that no one else values.

One such thing area of expertise that I acquired was judging a quarter mile. I can see road sign from a quarter mile. I can walk a quarter mile in five minutes (three miles per hour). Now, I cannot read a road sign from a quarter mile, but I can see it. If the sign is farther away than a quarter mile, it blurs into the background. Closer than a quarter mile and I can sort of read it.

So, if you ever need someone who can look at something, tell you, “that is a quarter-mile away,” and be right over 90% of the time, give me a call. I am available for a fee.

by Dwayne Phillips

Perhaps this is the first installment of several on this topic. We shall see:

1. Most horns honking at me: Alabama
2. Most people per day stopping and asking me if I wanted a ride: Mississippi
3. Most southern accent: Alabama
4. Most non-American sounding accent: South Louisiana
5. Most buildings built in the 1700s: Virginia
6. Most dogs chasing me: Tennessee
7. Most red and orange trees in the fall: Virginia
8. Best Home-made cinnamon roll: Livingston, Alabama
9. Best foot bridge across a river: Beuna Vista, Virginia
10. Best Pawn Shop: Ft Payne, Alabama
11. Longest four-lane highway: Tennessee
12. Most Drive-In Movie Theaters: Virginia
13. Hottest day: 95 degrees in Alabama
14. Best High School homecoming parade: Collinsville, Alabama
15. Best Starbucks: Three-way tie among the three that are on 1,000 miles of Route 11
16. Best McDonald’s: Are you kidding? They are all the same.