We drove out to our starting spot, grabbed some breakfast, and then got to steppin. We would be on Route 1 all day. Our destination was the New London train station where I could take a train back to our car and then we could have the option to go wherever we needed to go to sleep for the night. Route 1 is special to us. It is basically our home. We started at the southern terminus of it and are finishing at the northern terminus. We have been on and off of it the entire trip. If I were to get a tattoo of all of my walks I would incorporate the Route 1 North sign into it. Today it had a good shoulder and we were grateful for it.
The first part of our day went quickly. We walked 6 miles without stopping, except to talk to a few people who stopped to say hello and/or donate to help us out. One woman told us about a country market up ahead that would be a good stop for us. Little did we know that she was a messenger for something much greater about to happen….
We were sitting outside of this Country Market after a friendly local had just bought us lunch and a woman comes to sit with us. She is a former physician who lost it all to addiction and is now rebuilding and healthy with 2 years in recovery. As we were chatting with her, an 18 year old boy comes to talk to us. He has had prior stints with opioid use and knows how close he came to throwing it all away. He is now doing great and will be going to college in August. We were all 4 talking when a man walks up and looks at the cart in silence. He fought out the words, “I just lost a son to this two months ago.” We all acknowledged the seriousness of this moment and him and I went away to talk and to cry. After a long hug, he handed me a picture of his son Marc with a poem and his living dates on it. I immediately noticed that his son Marc and my sister Brittany have the same birthday. We had no words other than, “let’s stay in touch.”
It was powerful for all who witnessed this. What is even better, is that the woman who told us to stop here had just pulled right before this happened and had seen the whole thing. We were all supposed to be right there, right then. Thank you Brittany.
It was an emotional afternoon after that. I was crying like a little girl while walking. I was listening to inspirational speeches on Spotify (I do that a lot instead of music – I’m weird, I know). My emotional walls were down and I was feeling them all and it felt good. I needed all that. I was getting tired though.
We stopped to grab a quick bite to eat and then I switched to music. Spanish music of course (I like it and it also helps me learn the language). We were walking machines at this point in the day. Just going out of sheer purpose. We came into the town of New London and turned our music off to hear the sounds of the city. The people were interesting. One guy was riding a bicycle and half of his buttcrack was showing, plumber style. Stick and I made some funny jokes about it while waiting at a crosswalk an extra rotation to let the guy get farther ahead. Neither of us had interest in seeing more of that full moon.
We got down to the train station and were both in awe. We couldn’t believe that we were here. It was nice being right in the moment. New London is a beautiful and very old town with a lot of history. We had about an hour before the train came so we walked around and explored. Yes, even after walking 20 miles to get there.
I jumped on the train, got the car, drove it back, and then we loaded up and drove to a cheap hotel where we booked two nights.
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