Fall 2015 October 25 Sunday)

45 degrees this morning, walk 38:35 minutes

Cold weather (45 degrees, w/c of 40) caught me by surprise this morning.  Didn’t know where my walking gloves were etc. although it  turned out I didn’t need them yet and I was able to dress warm enough.  

Full moon this morning (or at least close enough) that it was almost like walking daylight.  I look outside and wonder who left the light on!  

When I lived in Memphis, a person who lived downtown commented about going outside in the morning and seeing a homeless person/s sleeping on her front porch.  

For some reason that memory goes through my mind every morning when I go out to exercise on the back patio, even though it is a fenced in rear yard and the possibility of a homeless person sleeping on the back patio is probably less than 0%!  

Strange are the thoughts that go through my mind in the early morning hours!  I actually  call it “in the midnight hour”, even though it is several hours past midnight, it still describes it well!

Started listening to a new audiobook, “Wild” about a woman who walked the Pacific Crest trail which runs up the west coast.  Too soon to really know if it will be good or not.  

I remember when I was in the Air Force in Virginia, the last year or so some friends and I discussed my plans to walk from Hampton Breach to Wakeeney, Kansas, where my parents lived.  It would have been the perfect time to do it, since I didn’t have to worry about a job, and this was a time I could do it.  

As it turned out, as time got closer, my plans mainly concerned what route I would take to drive!  Actually, one of the main concerns was one alternative was going to college for my Masters Degree and the timing wasn’t quite right.  

Actually, it was a memorable trip  I went through Washington DC (on the beltway) at rush hour, a hair raising experience to say the least, and drove the Pennsylvania Turnpike at night.  I stopped somewhere in the mountains.  

I don’t recall where I stayed the next two nights, but it took me three days to drive to Wakeeney.  I stayed in Wakeeney for several weeks and then just took off, in the general direction of Wichita (where I probably had been, I think, only one time).  I remember driving down Meridian Avenue.  I went to Wichita State University, where I enrolled for a Masters Degree in Political Science,

Actually, the one time I was in Wichita before, I actually landed in a Lear Jet from Omaha, I was in the Air Force and I was catching “space available” rides.  I had enrolled in some courses, one in Omaha for a week, and one in Colorado Springs for a week where I also stayed in base housing.

Anyway, I flew on a General’s Lear Jet to Wichita, where I couldn’t catch a flight out, so I hitchhiked to Colorado Springs.  I almost got stuck in Dodge City Kansas, but finally got a ride out of Dodge (so to speak) to Colorado Springs in time to attend the class.

As they say, God watches out for fools and little children!  I would certainly never try that now and the thought that I did that then, still makes me wonder what I was thinking!  

Of course, I know what I was thinking, I wanted adventure and I also believed that everything would turn out!  Luckily I was right.

I also went through Memphis on that trip (I actually went from Goose Bay Labador, to Boston, took a bus to Washington DC, than a flight to Memphis, than a flight to Omaha, then a flight to Wichita, where I hitch hiked to Colorado Springs, and then I believe I caught a flight to Washington DC, where I took a bus to McGuire AFB where I caught a flight to Goose Bay, just in time to avoid being considered AWOL!)

Such are the memories of things I hope my children or grandchildren never try!

That’s it for now Sunday, October 25, 2015.