The "Welcoming" party

The first time I walked for diabetes awareness I received more fanfare than I deserved. The walk began at the steps of Louisville's City Hall. I was given a framed certificate from the mayor.
When I had walked fifty miles I met the Governor of Kentucky on the steps of the State Capitol building. The local media where there for the hand shake.
I received a certificate in a frame.
At eighty miles I was scheduled to meet the Mayor of Lexington.
I walked that morning in a cold sleet that turned to hard rain. The rain did not stop until the middle of the day.
I met the Mayor of Lexington in a park by the City Hall.
I received a certificate.
Upon returning from the 160 mile round trip journey I was met for dinner by my family and the local director of the American Diabetes Association. He had coordinated the meetings, lodging and media.
We were promoting the ADA's annual Alert Week to draw people to free testing locations and events.
It seems I helped. Attendance was up.
His appreciation, meant more to me than any certificate.
Since then I have walked thousands of miles. Began and ended many walks.
It is about getting the word out to walk. The awareness to take charge, control and prevent diabetes.
A few days ago I reached another City Hall.
I was met there by dignitaries of some renown.
There, thankfully , was no fanfare. No certificate of achievement.
Their appreciation was just as satisfying as Governor, Mayor or Senator.
They know the devastations diabetes have wrought on their loved ones.
They appreciated the effort and gave the best reward...
I received a hug, from the heart, at Tampa's City Hall.

Siren of Tampa

Rolling the world along the walkways of Franklin Street toward Tampa City Hall, I locked eyes with a woman. She had ear-buds and was holding her phone on her hip.
I hadn't noticed she was singing to herself.
When I said "Good morning" to her, as I do with everyone, she took two abrupt steps to the side. She, now blocked my way, increased her volume and began singing to me. She finished her song and slowly marched in step with the melody that only she could hear. Using her arms and expressions of face and hands she poured herself into the song's finale.
Not missing a beat she sang to me, "I have a song for..." She motioned expressively with her arms toward the world. She marched in place, to her own rhythm, only breaking eye contact when I gave her an affirmative nod that I'd listen to her ode to the world.
Taking her phone from her belt, she scrolled for her song as she marched.
I am no musician, nor am I Ulysses, but this woman was painfully off pitch.
The lyrics were short.
The song was obviously her own..
I survived the quest...
We sailed away as she chanted,
" everybody's suffering".
Tampa's Siren's song.

The Daily Event...

Back at the plaza in Spring Hill the girls were happy to see us, especially Nice (the dog. They told me that they knew we would be back, but expected to see us early in the morning,
We had passed into Tampa Metro the previous day.
Our goal met, they knew it was a matter of time before we came back to what has been our home during the past four months.
They joked with me about returning to the daily events of the plaza, to the Florida version of the popular song "Hotel California"..."you can check out, but you can never leave."
We all watched the sunset before the girls left the plaza for home.
As darkness fell over the sky I sat alone and watched a rhino-beatle stuck in the inside corner of the building. Over and over it would attempt to climb and fall on it's back then struggle to right itself.
Then I heard the squirrel who had gotten itself stuck inside the mansard roof overhang weeks ago to escape a hard rain. He barked a desperate call to me from a hole in the metal ceiling over my head.
It was only a matter of time...

Fortune Calls

I awoke from a restless sleep with the thought that I had something I had to do, someone I had to meet. It was 4 a.m. but I was up and ready. My thought was to make the commute into Downtown Tampa, park the van, walk to City Hall then walk back to the van before the streets became too hot. I quickly made coffee, gathered my things, got Nice (the dog) in the van and we were off to the heart of Tampa.
When I got just past where we had stopped at the church the previous day I could see I had made the right decision. There was a drawbridge that would have been very dangerous. Then turning toward downtown all the sidewalks were narrow. Many were under construction.
It was not long before I was lost in a tangle of one way streets that sent me into the narrow backstreets. I was glad to see the old neighborhoods that I could not have easily rolled the world thru. I found my way back to the expressway after routing "city hall,Tampa" on the GPS. When I exited the ramp into downtown I was behind a patrol car and decided to follow him. It was shift change and he happened to lead me to an affordable parking lot by the bus station. If I hadn't lost my way I would not have ended up behind the patrolmen who unknowingly guided me to the perfect spot.
I inflated the world and was ready to get started as the sun broke over the skyline. I walked over to the brick-paved street nearest to us. We arrived at the corner of Fortune, just as a woman in an electric wheelchair rolled to the same corner.
She asked what I was doing. I gave her a quick explanation. She said that she was diabetic. I shared some examples of people I know who have hardly been able to walk to their mailbox, who now can walk miles.
I think I made an impression on her. One that might motivate her to do a little everyday. Become free from her chair. At least she was happy and smiling when I walked and she rolled away.
Coincidences such as these make my life rich. My pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. At the end of this little journey. On the corner of Florida and Fortune with bricks glowing gold from the sun.
She was the person I awoke telling myself I had to see.

"I awoke from a dream.
To the heart of the city,
it bade me go.
Of coarse I listened.
It's streets pulsed with life,
that without the dream,
I would never know."
WG

burning desire

We returned to the church with the van, where the youth pastor and the health and wellness counselor let us take shelter from the sun. The interviewer from the news had given us a ride to the van, after we had talked and gotten some footage of us walking the world by the road. There was a work truck on the lot, when we returned, and men preparing the parking area for blacktopping. One man had a gas-powered blower on wheels and was working piles of pebbles to the edges. Another used a two-wheeled-dolly and a sledge hammer to coax the concrete bumper blocks off into the grass. I was pretty sure if we stayed there, we would be in the way. Soon I would be surrounded by quick drying tar. I pulled the plug on the world and waited for it to slowly sag into an awkward pile of canvas.
Nice (the dog) and I were under the shade of the carport by the office door when a Postal delivery truck pulled in.
I haven't mentioned lately about Nice (the dog) and his search for a certain postal worker we met two years ago.
When we walked the Eastern coast of Florida we had met her on her daily delivery route in Jupiter Beach. Graciously she helped that night to leap-frog the van and world out of Jupiter. Jupiter Beach authorities were very strict about parking so we had to drive across town . Because I had to follow her to park for the night at her apartment complex, Nice rode with her in her pickup truck for a long while. With the logistics involved in getting the support van out of Jupiter the next morning he, again, rode with her while we conveyed the the van twelve miles ahead.
Since that day Nice has been a dog possessed.
Postal trucks or women with blonde hair driving a white Chevrolet pickup truck. Anywhere we have been, whether it was the coast of Oregon or the plains of Nebraska, Nice has been searching for her.
When the door of the postal truck at the church opened and a woman emerged with blonde hair Nice was again excited, then obviously let-down when she got back in the truck and drove away.
This happens all the time. So often that, I cannot deny the connection.
While waiting for the world to deflate I checked on Facebook and found that the object of Nice's affections will be on vacation until the end of the week. After all that Nice has gone through, I have been in contact with her to arrange Nice's moment in the sun, to see her again. Their reunion would have to wait a little longer. I loaded the World in the van and drove us back to Spring Hill where we have waited out the Spring season healing, to the loving arms of Nice's adopted mothers. Only an hour away by car we could have a cooler place to sleep. Four days of constant sweating, we had walked ten miles into Tampa. Technically we had reached our goal, but we had to wait a little longer to go to Jupiter and fulfill Nice's desire.

The Heart of Tampa

We fulfilled another goal and found the heart of downtown Tampa.
More Later...

faith

As the pavement quickly turned to an asphalt stove I received a call on my cell-phone. A Tampa reporter had heard of us and asked to come to us for an interview.
Needing to quickly get out of the sun, for the dog's sake, I looked across the road to the church. It had a welcome carport by the church office door. The reporter said she could be there in forty minutes so I asked her to meet me on the church grounds.
I crossed the road and rang the doorbell/speaker. I explained my self to the voice inside. She thanked me for letting her know why a man, his dog and a six foot world was outside.
There is always something around to reinforce faith, whatever label you place on it. Sometimes a look around is all it takes.
That's enough of that airy fairy mumbo' jumbo' outta' me for today.

A better example

We passed into Tampa-metro and by eleven o'clock we had walked seven miles. The pavements heated quickly and we found a shaded spot at the edge of a restaurant parking area. It was at the first major intersection in the county. The manager said we could stay there and let me lash the world to a palm tree. Then I called a man I had met a few miles prior who offered a ride. He arrived a few minutes later and drove us to the van.
When we returned to the shaded spot I discovered we were not alone. This shady area was where the local alcoholics would sit and drink after panhandling at the corner. They would "spaige" just enough for a six-pack of beer, or a small bottle of "fightin'oil" and sit under the trees, getting louder and more abrasive as the day progressed.
My newly found neighbors soon began to show the ugly side of alcoholism.
When they began throwing punches at each other I thought it better that I find another place to spend the night. A storm came rolling in, which gave me just the excuse I needed to fold the world in a bundle and drive to the next stoplight. There I found a quiet place to park. I would not have to worry about their drunken drama spilling onto my world or getting too close to Nice (the dog), who is is much less tolerant of a stinky drunk.
In this world of goals, I had said we were going to Tampa. We have reached another goal. The larger goal, reaching out for people to walk, as a means to prevent or control diabetes; is not so easily reached .
Tampa is a big place. If I stopped now I may not find a better example than the drunks and streetwalkers I found at its edge. I must go deeper...
Love yourself, go for a walk. Take a friend.

http://youtu.be/zl005muyttQ

Full Moon Fever

It was a day where I felt like a magnet. Everyone I met, though only a few because of the extreme heat of the day, was diabetic or had lost a family member to the disease. I sat on a shaded bench when a woman came to ask if I was homeless, she wanted to help. She shared that her mother had been diabetic over forty years and had recently shocked her physician, who had to decrease her medications because she had changed to a health diet and lost weight. She didn't do it alone. Her daughter, the woman I was speaking with, helped her make the change.
Several men approached to ask what I was doing then walked away fighting back tears after thanking me for bringing attention to this worldwide trend. They had lost parents to diabetes.
There was the woman who brought us water, was diabetic, and had lost her mother to to the same disease. We were taking in some shade and because there was no place to pull off the sidewalk lined road she walked an eighth of a mile to get to us, thankful for the reminder to be active daily. She gave us a ride to fetch the van at the end of the hot day of walking.
I have spent the past months, while Nice (the dog) healed from his surgery, dredging up stories of my journeys. I forgot the heartache and pain I meet everyday in the people I talk to of their struggle and loss due to diabetes.
I walk so I won't suffer the same fate as my Mother and Grandmother, my Uncle and Brother-in-law, teachers and childhood friends.
I awoke at four a.m. soaked from sweat.
The largest full moon in recent history hung in the sky.
Just a few more miles to this journey's end. Then another fever will infect me. I will soon forget the hardships and step out again...

Out from the Cold

The first day of summer, predictably, was much different than the daily event at the plaza. After four months there, I knew when all the shopkeepers would arrive, what time the first patron would come to the bistro for his oatmeal with a side of prunes and coffee to wash down the one pill he took each morning. I knew what time the pair of Dragonflies would troll for prey above my head at the inside corner of the "L" shaped plaza. As the sun would rise over the parking lot, I dutifully put the blanket out for Nice (the dog) to bask in the morning rays. Our first morning out was filled with new faces, personalities and wildlife.
The first person we rolled by was a woman sitting on a street bench by her bicycle, two small bags of clothes, a bucket with a few window cleaning supplies and squeegee. When I asked her how she was doing, she happily told me she was presently pleasantly surprised, thanks to me. I was a welcome sight to her normal morning events.
A few blocks further down three men came out to talk. One of them told me he had once weighed 450 pounds. He had been told he was on the verge of diabetes and rather than loose body parts he decided to loose weight. His two friends joked with him about how big he had been but it was obvious they were proud and glad of his accomplishment. We posed for some pictures and parted with smiles.
In six miles, a few hours, I saw bees and flowers, primates in cages and a turtle taking the Pinellas Trail. He walked as if its was his own personal highway. Nice found deer and boar tracks crossing the path and I collected another feather for my cap. On our first day out from the air conditioned comfort and safety of the plaza we were rewarded with sights we had never seen, met more interesting people than my slow writing can describe and had a few moments where the sound of the trees rustling in the wind was louder than the drone of US19, the hum of street lights or rooftop compressors.
The first hot day of summer was filled with warmth. From the first smile to the last man who pulled up to tell me his appreciation for the message. From the many I met, in just one day, who told of changing their ways and loosing weight to stave off diabetes to the woman on a quest to get the world to say hello to one another ; I am glad to be out from the cold air conditioning into the hot summer air.

The first day

We had to stop walking when we were in Tarpon Springs. We left the plaza early and began again this morning as close to Zorba's Restaurant as we could. The last stop back in February. Parking is hard to find in the heart of Tarpon, so we parked by the library. We are heading South on old 19.
More later. It is time to walk .

The Last Day

Nice (the dog) went for his final examination at UF Small Animal Hospital and the doctor gave him a clear bill of health. His bones have healed/bonded very well. Caleb Hudson, his surgeon, showed me the images from after the operation compared to today. He said Nice has built as much bone as many dogs do at six months. Three months after the surgery, Nice still has good muscle mass and has gained ample weight to build back quickly. Nice is to eat less and exercise more, building back to "normal". That is good for both of us. Without further...pause, we can finish the walk to Tampa. It was Caleb's last day at UF, he was on his final rounds before his "going away party" to a large private hospital in Houston, Texas. It's as though our timing was perfect, to have Caleb at the top of his game. Not only a fine surgeon and lecturer, a wonderful man.