DAY 9 ~ 9/23/21

I felt great walking today!! No issues with feet and overall the body felt like walking. It was probably due to the wonderful Wisconsin Badger Trail we got to walk on today!! It was gorgeous!! Such a welcome surprise and needed break from the pavement. I clocked in 17.1 miles total today, walking through Belleville and Monticello. Joan walked the first 9 with me, and then around noon we called Clarence to pick her up as her knees were hurting. In order to make it to our arranged stopping point for lunch and to get in the amount I needed to do today, I continued on walking what I thought would be the 1-2 additional miles. After I left, we learned that Clarence for some reason was 35 miles away and eta to Joan was 50 minutes. I decided to just keep going as long as I could. There was a paved road beside the trail that was running parallel so I decided to hop off the trail and get to the road because it would be easier for Clarence to pick me up from. At 12.6 miles, around 12:50 I hit my max. I passed a mailbox and looked up the road to see how far away the house was. I was actually considering going up to the house to ask if I could sit down until Clarence arrived! I couldn’t see the house from the road and there was no access back to the trail so I marched on. The very next mailbox I again looked up the road. This time the house was close and there was an access route back to the trail so I knew this would be the one. I was really going to do this! I turned up the driveway but was met by two barking German Shepherds!! Uh oh I thought, this could be trouble!!! I easily won over one of them but the other was still protecting the house with fervent barking. I decided to see what would happen if I continue to approach. Luckily, as I did, the second German Shepherd retreated. He was protecting the house, but didn’t know what to do beyond that. I walked up the steps of the porch and knocked on the door. There was no answer. They had beautiful patio furniture with padded seating so I daringly decided to sit down for the 15 minutes until Clarence came. I can’t believe I did that!!!

The evening was capped off with my sweet friends Larry and Vern from Madison driving down to join me for dinner in Monroe where our RV site is for the next three nights. We had a wonderful meal sharing conversation that included laughing and crying. What absolutely wonderful human beings they are!!