American Discovery Trail: Back to That Walking Thing

 

Today, we reached Bureau Junction, Illinois, which is a milestone for a couple of reasons. First, it is where we leave the Illinois River, which turns south from here toward Saint Louis, while we will head closer to straight west. Second, it is the end of another segment of the American Discovery Trail - 25 segments down, 43 remaining. Also, we are just over 1,500 miles along our path.

Jackie had knee replacement surgery on September 5, and I have been spending some of my time since then helping her recover. Because of that, everything is a little off - my sleep is out of whack, chores around the house are thrown off, my walking is impacted. I was going to take some days off of walking, but reality has been that Arlo still needs to go out, and although we took shorter walks at first to not be too long away from Jackie, by now I am back to long walks and spending hours away from her at bridge, and she is getting better. Since the 5th, I have walked about 8,000 steps a day, and the last couple of days have been back to normal.

Weather is getting cooler here, down into the sixties most days with rain every so often, so it's back to a jacket and a hat until next May or June, but these are great conditions for walking, and Arlo certainly does not mind.

Eighty more miles across Illinois, then a long trek across Iowa, then somewhere in Nebraska we hit the halfway point. Won't get there this year, but, you know, we will get there.