DAY SIX (c), Saturday, September 10th! of Trey's Trek cont..... 

While walking up Linden Road, David and I were 'getting our feet under us', meaning that we were working out the kinks in our sox and getting our shoes adjusted just right... not too tight or not too loose.  That is important while walking, especially on extended treks!  


Today the first leg of our trek would be right at 10 miles so understanding the distance and preparing yourself mentally is essential to actually reaching your goal at the end of the day.   You 'prep' yourself mentally so that discouragement doesn't set in especially when the road is just flat and straight!  You can become mentally tired just walking along without the sense of accomplishing anything because you "feel" that you are not moving!  


There would be some times when I would have to look to the left or to the right so as to judge myself in that I was really going forward!  I would focus on a fence post and then on an object like a tree or a cow or a bush or something that was 'out a ways' and actually see that I was moving along.  I would purposefully encourage myself that progress was being made in spite of what I felt by looking down the road where from my perspective the road and the trees and the sky would all come into a pinpoint and disappear into a spot so tight that I could not focus anymore!   With that view I would find myself just moving along slower and slower like an old steam engine coming into a train station and eventually stopping!  


Linden Road that we were walking on, paralleled I-75 going North and as we walked along we could hear the car tires on the pavement humming by but yet we were in the country side where there were beautiful farms.  Where there were no houses, there were rich, luscious corn fields with   the ears of corn still on the stalks!  It was a sight of abundance... a real blessing of God!


Right as we were walking into Linden, there was a Farm Store that we stopped at for about 15 minutes.  The 'stick' that I had for the flag that I purchased in the Flint area was not really strong enough to hold up the U.S. Flag that I had attached to my back pack.  The photo above shows the new 'rod' that I found in that farm store.  It was actually a fiberglass rod that was one yard long that people use to drive down into the ground at corners and places along their drive ways so people who are pushing snow will stay in the road.  It was only a couple of bucks and was strong enough to hold up the new flag that I purchased and held up the flag quite nicely!   That purchase gave us a few minute's rest and then we trekked on!


If I remember right, it was in Linden where we ran into our first stop light after leaving the church at Mt Morris.  That gave us a minute to catch our breath too!  Then just North of that intersection in Linden, the terrain turned into more woods than fields with small houses along the way.  Then past Willard Road the farming resumed with fields that seemed to have already been harvested.  


But by this time we were getting close to Burt Road which is just South of Birch Run!  At the intersection of Burt Road and Linden the road expanded into a 4 lane with an area to the right that used to be a golf course.  When we saw that we knew that we were really close!  That felt really good!  It was in Birch Run that we were going to stop and eat at the WORLD FAMOUS Tony's Restaurant.  

Then as we approached Birch Run there was a nice sign on the right side of the road...

Both David and me posed by the sign like we were world travelers!  Actually, as I stood there, I was pondering the distance that I had come since leaving Dearborn and not an inch of it had been in any motorized vehicle on this trek North.  I could hardly believe that I was standing here on my own feet knowing that those feet, one step at a time, brought me here!  Of course I had been here many times before in my car but now I was here and I got there by walking and not riding!  Amazing!  

After taking these photos, walking to the restaurant seemed like another trek from there!  At least I was excited because I was hungry and knew that shortly we were going to be eating!  I know David was hungry too but what he was to encounter there was something that he will never forget!  The size of the sandwiches that Tony's Restaurant serves is massive and David could not believe what he saw when they brought out our food to us.  We took about an hour there before we continued on!  It was midday and still another 8 to 9 hours were still in front of us!


With my feet on the Ground!
(and my heart in the air!)


Simply Trey