I awoke this Thursday morning in a comfortable bed– first time that’s happened in a few days. Good timing too– for as I made my first effort to rise and shine, I felt serious muscle soreness throughout my body. No surprise here– I’ve walked just shy of 60 miles these past three days, making it from Ocean Springs all the way to Mobile.

The map told me that I had over 22 miles of walking ahead of me, yet what I took little time to investigate was road quality. A handful of street views of the internet map showed a two-foot shoulder throughout most of the rural miles, which isn’t ideal, but is definitely better than no shoulder at all. Normally, once a metro area is reached, roads expand, sidewalks appear, and a much different feel arrives as each and every mile is filled with homes & businesses. Many of the fast-food chains that I’ve totally avoided eating in for many years suddenly feel welcoming with their McBathroom’s, water, ice, and sometimes wifi. (I typically don’t buy anything– all the endless $ I spent there years ago is now paying me back, I figure.)

En route to Mobile, I passed through the small towns of St. Elmo, Irvington and Theodore. Once I reached Tillman’s Corner, the outer edge of the Mobile metro area, the line of businesses began and Hwy 90’s shoulders disappeared. There were no sidewalks to replace them– Yikes!! Hwy 90 continued this way for several miles, and I had very few sidewalk opportunities between Tillman’s Corner and the home of Robin, who is hosting me on the west side of Mobile. I often just timed my walking with traffic flows. Stop lights lined the miles, so I often just proceeded forward for quick 30-60 second bursts before pulling my cart off the road for another wave of speeding automobiles. To my good fortune, the weather was good, the road had been freshly paved, and occasionally frontage roads or neighborhood side streets would loop out for me to retreat to. I had to reroute the final 3-4 miles due to poor pedestrian conditions.

I didn’t arrive to Robin’s till about 10 PM, long after I’d hoped, but as I’d stayed in touch with her throughout the afternoon, she remained very welcoming and met me on the street a couple of blocks from her home, to easily guide me in. Robin is a truly wonderful person with a shining heart and an energetic 10-month-old Irish Setter resembling dog, Odie, who anyone could fall in love with instantly.

I’ll remain at Robin’s for two nights before shifting over the home of Kenneth, another Mobile CSer who has invited me to spend the weekend at his place. I’m excited to spend a few days in Mobile before continuing east!

After a long, tough day on the road, how refreshing to be greeted by puppy love!!