Day 3 (Monday, 9/12) - Elizabethtown to Radcliff
I woke up ready to tackle another day and another day's walk. Today would be just slightly less than 15 miles and less than the day before. I had assured myself before starting this trek that I could walk 20 miles (and more) in a single day; I just didn't know if I could do it day after day. I had planned the initial days to be under 20 miles. Knowing how much trouble the last few miles yesterday presented, I was beginning to doubt that I was ready for a full 20 miles.
I took my time getting ready to leave. I enjoyed the included breakfast at the Hampton Inn and decided, reluctantly, that it probably was a good thing that this was NOT biscuits and gravy day. I repacked my backpack, but left a few things out. It had seemed like a good idea to carry along some brand new Lincoln books due to be published during my trek. I had Elizabeth Smith Brownstein's Lincoln's Other White House and Joshua Wolf Shenk's Lincoln's Melancholy but my losing battle with the forces of gravity the preceding day convinced me that these two items and some other unneeded paperwork and photographs would travel on ahead of me via the U.S. Postal Service. The post office was just a few blocks away. It featured one of the friendliest postal workers I ever met; he seemed to know half the customers by name and he went out of his way to make sure I got the best deal on mailing my package. I left with a backpack three pounds lighter than on the day before.
I did check out a local Wal-Mart before leaving Elizabethtown, and probably would have bought something to wheel my backpack. I had figured one of those carts that golfers use for their golf bags would do the trick, but the store no longer sold them, so I decided lugging it on my back a little longer would build character and maybe even build up my strength.
Today's walk was pretty boring. As I left the post office and started up the sidewalk that would eventually bring me to U.S. 31, I looked to my right and saw a stretch of wild flowers and other vegetation that could well have characterized the path the Lincoln family traversed when they decided to leave Kentucky in 1816 and start a new life in Indiana. However, looking forward, all I saw was a customary sidewalk and road as far as the eye could see.
It was hot, but not too humid; I could feel the heat of the highway through my walking shoes. U.S. 31 is a fourlane highway with a grassy median and wide breakdown lanes on either side - nice, safe walking. Elizabethtown and Radcliff, a military town serving Fort Knox, both seem to be reaching out to the other and the highway connecting them has commercial development almost along the entire route. Radcliff proved to be another city where I crossed the border miles before I came to the hotel I planned to stay in.
I didn't see a lot that made me want to take out my camera. A garden statuary store along the highway with a lifesize trumpeting elephant at its gate was one exception. I also had to get a shot of a gas pump with its 99.9 cents price and then a shot of the forlorn abandoned station behind which hadn't seen any business for years. And the street sign with the deliciously ironic intersection of East Lincoln Trail Boulevard and Dixie Highway had to be photographed!
I arrived at the hotel around 5 pm and I knew that another day of similar distance would be well nigh impossible. I had always maintained that I would redesign the trek as I went along if it wasn't working as I had originally envisioned it. When I got to my hotel room, I ran some cold water and then dumped a bucket of ice in the tub to soak my feet. Next a hot bath relieved the pain in my back from the lighter but still not light enough backpack, and finally a shower washed away all the salty perspiration from the day. I rinsed out my shirt in the sink and then heeded the hotel clerk's recommendation for a nearby Chinese restaurant. Slowly a new plan was forming for the next day.
I took my time getting ready to leave. I enjoyed the included breakfast at the Hampton Inn and decided, reluctantly, that it probably was a good thing that this was NOT biscuits and gravy day. I repacked my backpack, but left a few things out. It had seemed like a good idea to carry along some brand new Lincoln books due to be published during my trek. I had Elizabeth Smith Brownstein's Lincoln's Other White House and Joshua Wolf Shenk's Lincoln's Melancholy but my losing battle with the forces of gravity the preceding day convinced me that these two items and some other unneeded paperwork and photographs would travel on ahead of me via the U.S. Postal Service. The post office was just a few blocks away. It featured one of the friendliest postal workers I ever met; he seemed to know half the customers by name and he went out of his way to make sure I got the best deal on mailing my package. I left with a backpack three pounds lighter than on the day before.
I did check out a local Wal-Mart before leaving Elizabethtown, and probably would have bought something to wheel my backpack. I had figured one of those carts that golfers use for their golf bags would do the trick, but the store no longer sold them, so I decided lugging it on my back a little longer would build character and maybe even build up my strength.
Today's walk was pretty boring. As I left the post office and started up the sidewalk that would eventually bring me to U.S. 31, I looked to my right and saw a stretch of wild flowers and other vegetation that could well have characterized the path the Lincoln family traversed when they decided to leave Kentucky in 1816 and start a new life in Indiana. However, looking forward, all I saw was a customary sidewalk and road as far as the eye could see.
It was hot, but not too humid; I could feel the heat of the highway through my walking shoes. U.S. 31 is a fourlane highway with a grassy median and wide breakdown lanes on either side - nice, safe walking. Elizabethtown and Radcliff, a military town serving Fort Knox, both seem to be reaching out to the other and the highway connecting them has commercial development almost along the entire route. Radcliff proved to be another city where I crossed the border miles before I came to the hotel I planned to stay in.
I didn't see a lot that made me want to take out my camera. A garden statuary store along the highway with a lifesize trumpeting elephant at its gate was one exception. I also had to get a shot of a gas pump with its 99.9 cents price and then a shot of the forlorn abandoned station behind which hadn't seen any business for years. And the street sign with the deliciously ironic intersection of East Lincoln Trail Boulevard and Dixie Highway had to be photographed!
I arrived at the hotel around 5 pm and I knew that another day of similar distance would be well nigh impossible. I had always maintained that I would redesign the trek as I went along if it wasn't working as I had originally envisioned it. When I got to my hotel room, I ran some cold water and then dumped a bucket of ice in the tub to soak my feet. Next a hot bath relieved the pain in my back from the lighter but still not light enough backpack, and finally a shower washed away all the salty perspiration from the day. I rinsed out my shirt in the sink and then heeded the hotel clerk's recommendation for a nearby Chinese restaurant. Slowly a new plan was forming for the next day.
posted by Bob Willard @ 2:00 PM
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