DAY FIVE - WEDNESDAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING

As I shared in the Day Four post we had a late night going to the Huntingdon College basketball game. We were after 11:00 p.m. getting back to camp and to bed, therefore, day 5 was a good day to sleep in and have a later start time to walk. That is exactly what we did, after having breakfast, getting our vehicles positioned we started walking at 8:45 a.m. just east of Luverne, AL enroute to a finish at the east side city limits of Troy on Highway 29.

The only store between our starting point and Troy was a little over 4 miles into the day’s walk. We took our first break here and I think it was “Big Cat Convenient Store”. We enjoy taking our breaks near stores, because this give us more opportunities to share with people about who we are and what we are trying to accomplish. This stop was no different. We met Jim Free, owner of C&C Trucking out of Luverne. He has a small fleet of trucks and hauls groceries for Wal-Mart. We saw a tremendous amount of log trucks and Wal-Mart trucks on Highways 106 & 77. We learned that they were chatting back and forth on the CB radios about the hikers and they were all very courteous to move over as much as they could to give us smooth walking. Several of the log trucks made multiple hauls during the day and never stopping waving and sharing the road. All this talk about trucks reminds me of my work of over 25 years with trucking companies, and our favorite quote. Look around at your possessions, “If you have it, a truck brought it!”

As you can tell now this writing and all following writings are after the actual week of walking. We had several nights that we did not have internet available so our postings now are definitely after the fact. We have had several of you praying for us on this trip for us personally and the opportunities of the trip. I had shared with you in Day 3 of us meeting the Coggins family while having dinner. I have no doubt that was the work of God in answering prayers for us, to have us decide on Annie’s for dinner.

Now for another story here on Wednesday that will thrill your heart. Remember, this is Wednesday, day before Thanksgiving and we are headed toward Troy, AL. We are walking along as usual but David is talking with a friend on his cell phone (we really appreciate the calls, text, and emails that each of you sent our way), and a car slowed traveling in the same direction we are walking and pulled off the road and stopped. It was a lady driving the car and we could tell she was stopping to talk to us so we crossed. David was still on the phone so I started a conversation with her. She asked if we were alright and what was our destination. She specifically was asking about what our Thanksgiving plans were and I told her we were taking the day off and joining our families. She told me that she had met us driving to her home in Luverne and something kept saying to her you should check on those guys. She had almost gotten home and the voice was still tugging at her, so she turned around and drove back. While David was talking on phone and with her interest in us, I shared with her about our walk and how David makes mission trips every year to Mexico and him finding the orphanage last year that he has a real passion for and we have now placed it as our purpose to walk. So with a tear in her eye she said I know now why God was compelling me to turn around. I must do something to help the children and gave us a contribution for “Grace Place”. Thank you, Ms. Jackie Grima from Luverne, AL.

As we continued on with our walk we passed a cotton field and I made a picture of David picking some. We later stopped for a picnic lunch on the bank of Conecuh River approaching Troy. Lunch from the pack was good, the warm sun and sitting with boots off resting was a very refreshing stop.

Our next stop and break was by the radio station on the square downtown to look up a phone number of a friend of mine in Troy. Tried to call but he wasn’t home. We walked around the square to Byrd Drug Store that had a fountain and short order grill. We couldn’t pass it up and had to have an old-fashion milkshake. While we were being served a gentleman came in for what appeared to be his routine afternoon coffee and a piece of pie. Shortly another gentleman walked in and joined the first saying “I knew I could find you here for coffee at 3:00”. They were sitting a couple of tables from us and David got up and overheard one of them saying “Brooklyn”. Therefore, David said excuse me for interrupting and he started talking based on the Brooklyn comment. What a small world! We all started talking then because the second person that came in had roots in Evergreen. The first gentleman was a retired professor from Troy University that actually taught Cathy when she was a student at Troy. The gentleman from Evergreen was Robert Cary and I had worked with his sister the entire time I was with Poole Truck Line.
We enjoyed our extended break and conversation with them, but had to move on and walk a few more miles and push pretty hard to get to our finish point by 5:00.
We finished this day at Union Hill United Methodist Church with 19 miles bringing us to 85.8 miles week to date for this leg.

At this point we took a pause from our walk for David to go to Patsy’s in Opp, and for me to come home for Thanksgiving Day and we would meet up at Union Hill Church on Friday morning at 6:30 a.m.