When you walk on little bitty ol’ roads. The big signs are on the freeway, but thank you regardless.
Hellooo Virginia! This was one of those moments I had envisioned many times walking through my old neighborhood over the last couple of years, and I was happy to walk into the state yesterday morning from Bristol. Interestingly, one side of downtown Bristol is in Tennessee, and just crossing the main street will get you into Virginia. I however was on a little road running mostly parallel and occasionally criss-crossing Interstate 81. This too is beautiful country.
Crossing into Virginia was also a milestone for me back in the late 1980’s, and I spent quite a lot of walking time thinking about it. Back then, I was a late twenty old making a living out of training horses and playing polo. For four consecutive summers, I drove from near Mexico City up to New York State. After crossing the border, and a couple of days of rest in San Antonio, the horses and I would head to Alabama, then up to South Carolina, and on the third day, into Virginia I came. I was always happy to get here, thinking I was getting closer to Millbrook, my eventual destination. I had a great place to stay with the horses in Charlottesville, friends at UVA, and life was good, really good. So it was fun to walk along I-81, thirty+ years later, under very different circumstances!
Then I got to thinking about the thirty years in between, and must say, all good thoughts. A lot of water under the bridge, highlighted by the birth and growing up of my three pretty incredible kids. Thomas will be 27 soon, Alex 24 a bit later, and Isabela 21 early next year. All solid, learning, growing, living. I’ve been very fortunate with all three, in that I’ve never had to worry about them, at least not for any extended period of time! And I thought about my work, the horses and little textile company, then the family business, and off to the US, corporate, some of which you now know. And the weekends, and sailing, and tennis tournaments. So call it reminiscing if you like… it was a nice little rewind, but also reinforced the very cool place in life I am today. All of that got me here in one way or another, and for that, I’m grateful for all of it.
Nice little detail from the Virginia welcoming committee. I wonder if they do for all their walk-ins? I wonder how long they stay?
Anyway, one thing I wish I had done before most all of this trip was to read up on the areas and their history. I know that I am walking some very significant trails and areas that have a ton of US History. I could have payed a bit more attention in class as well, but my last history class was in high school so it might not have made a huge difference. I know relatively little about the Civil War (I won’t say that aloud out here), but know its history was played out many of the hills and valleys I’ve crossed. Then there were factories, and farms, and things like Oak Ridge that most people outside of a couple hundred mile radius don’t even know existed. But I’m picking it up little by little, and next time I do this, I will have read up on everything I’ll ever need to know. But for now I continue on with my local ignorance.
And I continue happily, very. This walk has a very different feel than it did even a couple of days ago. It is cool, it is hilly, there are a lot of trees, everything is a little older (which I love) and little by little becoming more northeast than southwest.
Must report on initial VA wave response rates… yesterday was good, albeit about 12% less than prior state. Today was not, sunk to about 60% overall, and I’ll give them a pass, it being a Monday. But tomorrow is another day, isn’t it?
Sorry about the FedEx truck… I was taking a really cool picture of that really cool house when it pulled up, driver jumped out to deliver a package, and that was that… gotta move on. At least you got the top part of the house, the second story :-)