After a couple of days of rich conversation, delicious food, and getting lost within Peachtree City's 90 miles of interconnected paved trails, Denise & Jim bid me best wishes as I continue on from their warm welcome. Thanks so much, Denise & Jim!

Just a mile down the road, and I receive a call from Denise that I forgot to return their house key. Yikes-- she's right! She was already on the other side of town, but her husband was nearby, so she told me to stop at the local Village Store, and he would meet me there. This ended up working out really well. Thaker Patel, the owner of the store, initiated a scintillatingly spiritual, meaning-of-life conversation with me. He ended up taking a postal address from me, to send me a couple of fascinating books on Eastern Philosophy. He told me to help myself to anything I needed within his store-- so, I grabbed some extra water. I love it when being forced "out of my way" results in something beautiful .

Siohvan, a local singer, stops to ask me about the Walk. We end up chatting for a few minutes, and, like the Davis Family, she recently found herself highly inspired to change her eating habits after watching the documentary "Forks Over Knives." Siohvan gifted me with a fresh sunflower for the rest of my day's miles

A few miles into the day, walking the rural roads outside of Fayetteville, Ms. Sarah Caldwell, a retired grade school teacher who used to read Peter Jenkins' best-selling "A Walk Across America" with her classes, stopped to chat for a few minutes. The book was published decades ago, and though she used to read it to her classes at the time, this was the first time she'd actually seen or met anyone walking across America. As her face filled with wonder, so did mine. Though I've yet to finish his first book, I've found my walk across America in so many ways similar to Jenkins'. (Contemporary technology is the major difference.)

I've been highly reliant on Google Maps to show me an adequate walking route from one destination to the next. While Google is accurate 99% of the time, occasionally roads will become dead ends, bridges won't exist, or other snafus will arise. Today, I became suspicious when some of the roads had "NOT A THROUGH STREET" signs posted, which in some areas means they just want local traffic only, yet in others can mean the road won't connect with any other. I marched forth though, and witnessed many rural America delights: song birds, the exclusive smell of the plants all around me, many moments of quiet and stillness, the earth beneath my feet ~

The Williams Family Warmly Welcomes me to Union City. All of their names begin with the letter 'Z'!

I've been looking forward to this for a long time. Today, I caught up with my cousin, Jennie, who lives south of Atlanta, Georgia. They live a few miles off my route, but have volunteered to transport me back & forth to today's stopping point at Buffington Road in Union City. It's been years since we've seen each other, and it's been great not only to laugh over all the fun childhood memories we all shared, but also to exchange stories of how our lives are moving along today. I've really enjoyed meeting her husband, Brian, as well!