say again?

IMPORTANT: Those of you who have emailed or left comments with kind offers to lodge me during my walk are hereby asked to email me with your names and addresses so I can plot your locations on a map and see whether a coherent path can be made out of all this information. Quite a few of you will very likely be excluded (no matter what path I walk through the Lower Forty-eight, I'm going to miss 99.9999% of the country!), and I apologize for that in advance.

After much thought, I've decided that opening the Walk up to individuals as well as to religious communities is only appropriate. One reason is that individuals in a private setting might feel more comfortable saying what they really feel one-on-one, away from the possible pressure of a group setting. Another, more selfish, reason is that it's far easier for me to make room-and-board arrangements with an individual than with a church, temple, etc. Because I'm allowing this option, the dots in my "connect the dots" tour can be closer together than they might be otherwise.

So send me your address if you're a reader and are willing to have me shack up at your place for a night or two (keep in mind that I might be there longer if we have nasty weather!). Also: if you know people along the probable path of my walk, people who would also be interested in talking religion with me, let them know about this blog and see if you can't persuade them either to get personally involved or to get their local church, mosque, temple, synagogue, etc., involved.

By the way, it would help if your house were equipped not only with a computer, but with one that has Google Earth. I've come to rely heavily on this amazing tool, and see no reason to tough things out old-school when something this handy is available. Being able to see the terrain I'll be walking through is incalculably beneficial to me. Thanks!

In other news...

Tomorrow I attempt my first thirty-mile walk, unencumbered. I view this walk with a bit of trepidation, but I'm confident I can do it, if for no other reason than that the terrain will be even smoother once I'm in Old Town Alexandria. The halfway point for a 30-mile walk that starts from my house is right around National Airport; I saw this today when driving Dad home from Walter Reed Medical Center (no worries; Dad simply got an injection to help with a persistent back problem). Having biked beyond the airport before, I know the bike path remains fairly smooth even after Old Town.

The only real question is whether my armpits will be able to withstand the chafing involved in a 30-mile walk; having solved the crotch problem with decent Spandex pants, I know I'll need something similar for my upper body. Come to think of it, I also need new shoes: my current pair, already a couple years old, have started to wear out thanks to the pounding they've received over the past three weeks.

Anyway, write to kevinswalk [at] gmail [dot] com, and put "ADDRESS" in the subject line so I know what your mail's about and can sort it accordingly. Feel free to leave other remarks as well.


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