Well, the journey has begun. What a terrific first day. I left at noon, after packing more than I should have into my plastic tucker tote. Here I am with my daughter Diana, seconds before leaving:
After two hours I reached my generous friends Simon and Miriam in Summit, and shared a cup of tea with them.
They are the ones who supplied me with the stroller I’m pushing. It’s an Urban Mountain Buggy, made in New Zealand and was discovered by Simon in the Summit dump. It appears in the astonishing list of Summit cast-offs Simon has recovered over the years.
Another three hours of walking brought me to my first overnight stay with Chris, another former colleague (and my former boss!) from AT&T Labs Research. Imagine my surprise when I arrived and a dozen more AT&T friends poured out of his house, including Simon and Miriam! We had a wonderful evening together — just a terrific send-off for my journey. Thank you so much Chris and Christine!
Total distance for Day 1: 14.96 miles.
Well done you! This is an exciting challenge and I look forward to reading your tales from the road. How about a nice graph at some point, just for old times sake?!
I’m hoping that my talented son Matthew will do something along those lines with the GPS tracking data I will be sending him each day.
Looks like day one was a smashing success. Hopefully there were some Trap Rock beverages at hand for the end of the day. Godspeed good buddy!
There were indeed. Thanks, Russ.
bon chance!! Praying for you as you go. Excited that you’re blogging 🙂 I’ll be keeping up with it.
Allan, this is great.
I’m 400 k from Toronto perhaps I should do the same.
Marnie
If I can do it then you surely can.
Hi Allan
I don’t know if you remember me from a couple of summer internship in 1995/1996 at the Labs. Chris Volinsky post made me aware of your walk and blog. This is just so inspiring and I wish you the best in the month or so, may the observer’s walk be pleasant, full of curiosity and fun, smooth.
I’m happy to see that you must be still in great shape and health and spirit. I always remember you and your colleagues as among the best professional and human examples I could find, as I went about beginning my own work life.
Take care!
I do indeed remember you Claudia. I do wonder if I’m in good enough shape to complete this project; I certainly have the determination, but it remains to be seen if my body will cooperate. Even though I’m quite tired after just two days, I’m absolutely loving it. So much to see and I haven’t even made it out of the congested part of New Jersey. Thanks for your kind words.
hi uncle allan!
this is amazing!!! wish i could walk some of it with you! :0)
di’s face is priceless in the first photo… haha
loads of love from nz xo
your niece,
(wee)fi
Sounds like a very touching take-off. Glad to hear it. Good to be with friends as I’m sure there will be some lonely times ahead of you; keep the chin up and know that we’re all right behind you!
Thanks Phil. I’ll keep looking over my shoulder in that case.
So the principal of the school I teach at got wind of your walk and now I’ve been given some bulletin board space in the hallway so all the grade 6-8 students can follow Allan’s progress. The students are pretty excited for you dad, they all believe in you. They truly love your stroller, that is the highlight detail for most of them.
Excellent! I will take some extra pix of it that you can share with them.
Cool
But I would walk five hundred miles
And I would walk five hundred more
Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles
To fall down at your door
– The Proclaimers
Sorry I missed the AT&T surprise party in Morristown. I had a thing in the city that evening. But now I am following the blog to read about all your adventures and see your pictures. Good luck!!
I definitely missed you on Wednesday, David. Thanks for following!