OK gang - forgive the blog headline. A guy's head can turn to mush after 150 miles of walking!
The Blue Ridge Mountains in April were beautiful alright, but nothing like the beautiful oasis the skyline of Charlotte provided. It was good to finally arrive Wednesday at our first major city since leaving Asheville over two weeks ago. And the crowd on The Green Uptown could not have greeted us better. There is a real momentum in the air these days. The Charlotte media came out to cover Kathy and me arriving – WSOC-TV, KATT Radio, and 96.1 FM among them. The video with this post captures our day quite well.
On stage, an eclectic mix of community leaders, sports personalities, Charlotte Bobcats cheerleaders, local Charlotte types, you name it, greeted us warmly and asked for stories from the road. Our rally was a fun-spirited event.
That night we all went to the final Bobcats game of the season, our campaign video was played on the big screen, and Kathy and I were introduced at center court, all while basketball legend Michael Jordan sat just feet away. Now all this was pretty cool... but you know me. My sights are already on the lights of Winston-Salem, just four to five walking days to the north.
That's how you do it here on a 600+ mile walk. You don't think about the distance. You take it a week at a time and a major city at a time. You do the math: 12-mile days times 6 days per week of walking equals more than 70 miles a week. It adds up, doesn't it? And with any luck we'll see you in Winston-Salem on Tuesday for another rally!
Posted by Gary Marino on April 18, 2008