Day 190: A Little Deception

Okay, here’s the deal that I faced this morning when I started walking. What would you have done? There were two ways to where I wanted to go:

First, I could walk about 4.5 miles on a narrow windy two lane road with two nasty uphills and one nasty downhill (I drove it last night, so I know about the hills), or…

Second, I could stay on US 22 and walk about 4 miles in a straight line, in a construction zone (15′ walking lane with barriers between me and the traffic), and all level until the end where it had a slight uphill. The only problem with US 22 was that there was a sign saying no pedestrian traffic, so I would be illegal.

What to do? Normally I would have gotten on the narrow two lane and not looked back, but the road in front of me was pretty enticing. Here’s how I handled the situation. I left my walking stick in the RV, I put on one of my safety vests with the yellow reflective strips on it, and I put my cell phone in my left hand. I went out looking like I belonged and looked at the temporary signs, guard rails, and anything else I could look at. I picked up an empty can of spray paint and carried it. In about an hour and a half, I was safely on the road I was supposed to be on, and all those road workers were left wondering who that PennDOT inspector was and where did he go. I actually did inspect the guard rails and made sure they all had the required carriage bolts in the right places.

After all that, the rest of my walk went pretty uneventful. I walked through the town of Cresson, up the 2 mile uphill to Cresson Summit, and down the other side about 4 miles. Valda said she saw a 12% grade side on the downhill side, and I know it was steep, but I’m not sure about a 12%-er. I never saw anything out West above 8%. Anyway, we got near the town of Duncansville and it started raining so we stopped at 16 miles walked. Tomorrow I will pick it back up, walk around the south side of Altoona and then head toward State College, home of Penn State U.

We are staying the night at the Weimer’s RV Campground in Duncansville and we want to thank owner Carl Weiner for comping us a night’s stay. Thanks Carl, we certainly appreciate it.

Personal to Cheri W: yes that is Clark Gable’s (the actor) home in Ohio. I knew he was in some movies, but I didn’t know he was in Gone With The Wind. Are you sure that wasn’t Boris Karloff?

Pictures: The road I didn’t take, the road I did take, and a personal to my nephew Jeff Hammersley’s little boy, Jack who is known in the family as Jack Hammer.