On the move

Goodbye Chattanooga. We are on the move once again. We left Chatt. last Wednesday and drove about 50 miles north to Dunlap, TN. My employer, Southern Cross Corp. wanted me to do a 5 or 6 day gas survey in Dunlap and had me stop here on the way to Indiana. On Thursday, it rained all day, so Valda & I spent the day (our 38th anniversary) in the motorhome watching it rain, and cat-napping.
I'm not sure what you get each other for the 38th, but I think it is laminate. So, we went to The Huddle House, and I handed Valda a laminated menu and told her she could have anything on the breakfast menu...Happy Anniversary.
Neither Stump nor I died from the bite on my left leg. The Health Dept. gave me the okay to leave the area, and I guess Stump got paroled. I believe there may be a grand jury convened about Stump, so I don't know if he's out of the woods yet or not. The leg is healing, but still very sore. I walked 3 miles at work on Friday and was sure glad when the day was over. So it goes.
Valda's leg is feeling better (Sciatic nerve) and she is bouncing around a lot better lately. For a while, we had only two good legs between the two of us...good for a sack race, I guess.
A couple of the attached pictures show some of the scenery around here.
Next time I'll tell about the police action that I was almost in the middle of.

Recuperating...somewhat

Well, the leg is healing, but it sure hurts when I walk, or stand, or sit...
Actually, it's doing pretty good considering. The Health Dept. called me last week and said Stump's shot record was out of date and that he was being held without bond for 10 days. They asked me not to leave town till he makes it through his quarantine. So, here we sit until the 25th, then it is on to Dunlap, TN for 5 days of work, and then somewhere in Indiana for the rest of the summer.

It will be good getting out of Chattanooga. It is always good to come here, but it is also good to leave. It makes you feel like things are progressing when you can attach the car, start up the motorhome, put Willy on (On the Road Again) and head on out.

I've been told that I need to explain the blog title to my readers. It is actually quite simple. I'm planning on walking across the USA, and my grandkids call me Popeye. The 'with' part is you all following along as I tell you about the months leading up to the walk, and the actual walk itself. Hence, Walkin' With Popeye. I think it'll be fun.

Can you say 'rabies'?

This was a week I'd just soon not have had to go through. Monday through Wednesday was okay, but on Thursday, doing my routine job of inspecting gas meters, searching for gas leaks, I was ambushed by a Pit bull. He was actually chained and staked to the ground, and behind what I thought was a secure chain-link fence, in another yard. I had actually visited his yard just moments before, and talked with his owner. After leaving his yard and moving next door, he was totally out of my mind. However, I apparently wasn't out of his.
He came under the fence and had enough slack in his chain to nail me in the left calf as I walked away from the neighboring gas meter. What a surprise! It hurt, it bled, and it made me mad. But, what do you do? After calling 911 and being tended by EMT's (or is it EMS's), I had to go to a Doc in the Box for treatment. It was either that or the ER. Actually, they were very thorough and attentive. They got me fixed up and on my way. The next day, I got news that the dog (appropriately named Stump) was in a ten day quarantine for outdated shots. As of this posting, Stump is still with us.
Anyway, it was a minor setback to my walking regimen and a minor blow to my morale. Monday, I'm back on the job, and unfortunately, I have to pick it back up next door to Stump's doghouse. Glad he's in dog jail.

A little background

In the 1990's, I had talked a lot about walking the Appalachian Trail. It was something I wanted to do the year I turned 50. Well...for one reason or another, it didn't happen. The thought of it never really went away though, and a few years later, I saw a documentary on PBS or somewhere about this guy who hiked the AT and filmed it. After seeing that, the thought of me walking the AT definitely went away.
But, I still wanted to do something on that order. I walk a lot in my job, doing safety inspections on natural gas systems, and am happiest when I am walking across country inspecting gas transmission lines. It is usually just me and nature, with my wife Valda moving the car along the route. I started thinking about walking the AT again. However, it just didn't hold the same feeling it had ten years earlier, probably because of that documentary I had seen. But, the walking I did in my job made me realize that I could probably walk highways. They are all usually on a walkable grade, and also provide a place to drive the car. That's when I thought about walking across the country. When I turn 60, it will also mark the 5 year anniversary of my colon cancer surgery. If I have no further health problems, the walk will be on. If you keep reading this blog, you can join me along the way.

12 month countdown

Well, a year from now hopefully, I'll be somewhere east of the Pacific Ocean, walking along some highway, wondering what in the world possessed me to want to do what I'm doing. I'm sure Valda will have been wondering the same thing too. I can't really answer that question yet, but as of right now, it is just something I want to do. A month into the walk, I may not feel that way. Who knows? Right now, I'm getting a bit more psyched up for it, realizing that the next 12 months will probably bring ups and downs in my mood, thoughts about my sanity, and maybe questions about my ability to do it. All I can do right now though is prepare for the 3200 or so odd miles, and wonder just how I'm going to get through Pennsylvania.