The walk out of Ellicottville was long, and seemed to draw on forever. The first three miles from The Birdwalk were liberating and I felt a strong sense of freedom. My family, friends, and my black lab Hunter all left behind, to worry and cheer me on as I began my challenge across this huge and rich nation.
I was excited to see all that America has to offer. This walk was a chance for me to experience the best food, history, beer, people, stories, and landscape through America.
As I proceeded to walk down 219 southbound into the village of Ellicottville, I passed my Chef buddy Jack; he flagged me down, on my way into the village. He asked me to come over for breakfast before I left. It was one of the best omelets I’ve ever had. I then walked East Washington street and cut through Balloons and the Ellicottville Brewing Co alleys to Monroe St then gave my old apartment on the corner overlooking Washington and Monroe street one last nod, and down the road I went.
The walk down Farmers Market road was my first alteration to my route. I was filled with energy and ready to tackle this walk. A couple of miles down that road, a woman stopped her car ahead of me, and honked on her horn. I nearly crapped my pants and jumped about a foot in the air, after a car stopped in front of me and this lady laid on her horn to get my attention! When the woman got out of her car and handed me a bag of Ritz crackers, yogurt, a Sky Bar, and a peach. As she drove off and I walked away, I started crying. They were tears of joy and relief.
I felt so touched by the kind act of the woman, whose name was Carol and her generosity that I just started crying. It was the first time I had cried since my grandfather passed away three years ago. He called me “Sport”. He called all his grandkids “Sport”. There are a lot of us.
I think of my grandfather often. I remember a lot of things from my childhood, and times with him are good memories. He loved to go fishing, it was his favorite sport. He came out almost every summer on Rushford Lake and fished from our dock, but rarely caught anything while my cousin Tony caught tons. He swears that there are no fish in that lake.
Walking into Salamanca was relieving because I knew I had walked fifteen miles and only had five more to go. It was also nice to be walking in such a beautiful valley, up into the hills of Allegany State Park. The foot hills of the Appalachian; it was my first mistake, taking the Allegany State Park route into Bradford, PA. I should have taken the 219 S to Bradford, but wanted to camp out in New York State one last time. I had only been wearing one pair of socks on each foot, I hadn’t doubled em’ up.
The walk up the hill into the park was grueling and long. It was three or four miles uphill to get to the first set of cabins in the State Park. I set up my tent and kept it hidden in front of some cabins along a tree line because the park was closed for camping without a permit, and I had forgotten (of course) to apply for one, and wouldn’t want any snags on my first night out. That first night as I lay in my tent under the stars, I watched as the night sky was illuminated with stars. It felt so peaceful to be up there by myself.
The next morning I took my tent down and walked into the showers to get ready for my walk into Bradford, where I was to be a guest of the American Legion for St Patricks Day. After my shower, a State Park crew came up to change the garbage in the bathrooms, and I overheard a woman telling he coworker “ya know, every time I come up here, I swear it smells terrible.” I almost laughed out loud and had to put my hand over my mouth. I had destroyed the bathroom with the two slices of pizza and the three egg omelet I had eaten the day before.
After the women left and I stopped laughing, I started my ten mile walk to Bradford PA. The first song I heard on my Ipod shuffle was Tom Sawyer, by Rush followed by Van Halen’s Jump. I jogged at a brisk pace down the hill into Red Lake. I realized later that it was a huge mistake, because I was setting myself up for blisters. It was in the high 70s and sunny all day long. When I finally got to interstate parkway rd in PA it was all downhill.
I was about three hours from reaching Bradford and my feet were aching with blisters. I was walking down the hill like the Pink Panther- Stepping here and there, haphazardly as to alleviate the pain in each foot. Every step that I took my pinkie toe on each foot swore at me. I had never been yelled at by pinkie toes before, but with each step the pain got worse. By about the middle of the way down the hill into Bradford I had the realization that my water bladder in my pack was empty. I had no water and the sun was killing me. The next hour and a half sucked.
As I strolled into the town of Bradford and met up with a young woman and her friend…her name was Delicious. Yes, Delicious. I spotted a Dairy Queen and made my break for it. I had walked past a hospital and decided not to rush in there and ask for some water. Even though I was dehydrated I didn’t go in. I had read on my Google map that there was a Dairy Queen in the distance, I turned into the Dairy oasis and Delicious kept on her way. When I got into the Dairy Queen, I ordered a cherry ice. The woman on the other side of the restaurant, sitting with a young girl my age asked if I was the guy on the news walking across America. I responded “yeah”, and was surprised to see that Bradford had Buffalo news stations.
She asked me where I was staying that night, and I admitted that I wasn’t exactly sure. She told me her name (Lee) and gave me her phone number and asked me to call her and told me I could stay with her and her niece that evening. I knew I would be a guest of the American Legion and when I arrived at the Legion at 5 pm, I was greeted with green beer and corned beef and cabbage. The bar officer gave me a ride to Walmart and bought me some Magellan gel insoles. I was touched that this guy cared so much that he would go out of his way to help me. I then called Lee and was dropped off at her house. Lee was very helpful. She gave me a tube of sunscreen, because I was about as dark as a Lobster from walking in the sun for the first two days. The next morning, I headed out for Johnsonburg early on day two.
I will be updating more and more of my walk via this blog every two days or so. I wanted to get past DC before I got all this info posted! I have time and the weather to Florida looks nice!!!
