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Today I had two goals. I needed to buy another pair of walking shoes. At ten miles a day I am lucky to get three months out of a pair of shoes.

I found a nice pair of walking shoes at Johnson & Murphy. Unfortunately, they did not have my size. However, they offered to have the correct size mailed to me. I took up their offer and I should have the shoes early next week. I then went to the train station and bought my round-trip ticket to New Canaan.

My second goal was to walk from Downtown New Canaan to Darien by taking Route 124.

After lunch my wife drove me to the Springdale Train Station, and I took the train to New Canaan. The train took ten minutes to arrive in New Canaan.

The nice thing about the station is that it is right in the town. Walking 100 feet you are on Elm Street with lots of shops and restaurants.

I did not linger as I wanted to get to Darien before it got dark. I walked by Mead Memorial Park. You should visit it if you are in New Canaan. It is less than a five-minute walk from the train station

 On my walk I crossed over the Merritt Parkway and traffic was moving slowly not bad considering it was the day before Thanksgiving.

Arriving at the Darien Train Station at 3:30 I saw that my train the 3:42 was going to be 15 minutes late. I ran over to the bus stop and caught the bus to Stamford.

So, the train ticket I bought was never used. The conductor on the ride to New Canaan was not able to get to me to punch the ticket.

Altogether I walked twelve miles today. Tomorrow being Thanksgiving I will be hard pressed to walk six miles.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

I thought my afternoon walk would be the usual. Six miles of walking up North in Stamford.  Maybe seeing an interesting animal or bird. The walk turned out to be most surprising.

The walk started at Planet Appliance on High Ridge Road where we had just bought a stove.  They had it in inventory, and we will get it next week. Nice Surprise. The salesperson mentioned thundershowers later in the afternoon. I thought probably just a chance.

I caught the bus up to Stamford Nature Museum and started walking up Scofieldtown Road. At the park I decided to go right on Sunshine Road instead of Rockrimmon Road. As it turned out that was a very good choice.

My next surprise was I saw a nun jogging on the road. She was very nice and blessed me as we passed each other.  I assume she was from the convent at Villa Maria. Another nice surprise.

The weather was starting to get ominous.  I reached High Ridge Road and turned North on the road. The rain was getting stronger, and I made a dash for the last bus stop on High Ridge which has a shelter. Got there just before the torrential rains came.

It was nice watching the thunderstorm pass by.  Lightning strikes were close by. Usually less than two seconds when I counted.

After 30 Minutes I was able to start walking again.  This time south on High Ridge. As usual I found some change on the road.  I am always mystified why people throw money on the road.

Then my last surprise I found a wallet on the road.  I picked it up. Usually if I find something like a wallet it is empty and has been thrown out. This wallet had no identification. It did have a half-torn credit card and cash in it.  Why would someone throw it out on the road? Why empty it but leave cash in it? The finding of this wallet is a complete mystery and quite a surprise.

Today’s walk is one of the reasons I enjoy walking. You never know what surprises are waiting for you.

That is how my journey on Thursday October 7^th felt

I started the walking part at Old Saybrook and ended the walk at New London. When I crossed the Connecticut River, I decided it was time to leave the old route, the Post Road and walk a new route Rt 156. Finally, I broke my old record of walking 19 miles in one day and set a new record that day of 23 miles. I hope that I never break that walking record ever again.  23 miles is more than enough for one days walk.

The days journey started at 6:30 at the Stamford Train Station. The first light of day was starting to show.  Sunrise that day was around 7:00 am. It took two trains to get too Old Saybrook.  Stamford to New Haven and New Haven too Old Saybrook. The train left Stamford at 6:40 am and I arrived at Old Saybrook at 8:55 am. I was able to look out the front window of the train to Old Saybrook the entire way. It was quite a different perspective from usually looking out the side of train.

The walking part started at 8:56. I followed the Post Road to the Connecticut River where it joined I-95 to cross the river.  I have driven over the bridge many times, walking over the bridge gives you an idea of how big the mouth of the Connecticut River is.

After crossing the bridge, I chose the new route. The post road was going to go north of the I-95 and I wanted to see more of the shoreline.  My phone GPS told me it was fifteen miles to the New London Train Station.  However, I knew it would be more as the road meandered quite a bit. If I knew the walk would be 23 miles that day I might have turned back.

The road was less traveled.  I did see the waterfront from time to time. The Amtrak train line would intersect with the road in spots. Mainly it was just me and the road.  I did see some small signs off fall on the road.

Finally,23 miles later I arrived at the train station in New London

My Journey on Wednesday started at the Union Train Station in New Haven. The best way to describe the journey is, urban to suburban to rural in ten miles.

After leaving the train station the Post Road goes under the giant I-95 I-91 interchange. It was quite noisy walking under all the concrete.

It was nice seeing all the tugboats working in the New Haven Harbor.  I assume New Haven is where most of the gas and diesel for Connecticut is off-loaded.

The next two miles the Post Road parallels I-95 but then it veers to the south of I-95. At this point we left the urban and started with the suburban and entered Branford.

It took a long time to walk thru Branford. When I was south of I-95 there were many stores.  Once I crossed over the I-95 the stores disappeared and it was mainly a few houses with lots of open space.

I am not sure when I crossed into Guilford but all of the sudden there were farms and of course pumpkin Patches.

I have discovered that Dunkin Donut’s is the fast-food store to Connecticut.  I must have seen at least seven today on my walk.

Total mileage for today’s walk is 17.6 miles and 65 miles  for four days

The first day of the journey is done. I started at the Government Center in Stamford at 8.15 am. I have walked the route thru Stamford many times but always the other way. It was a pleasant surprise going East instead of West.

The first day ended at the Southport Train Station 17 miles from the start. My total walking milage Saturday was 19.9 miles far and away my longest walk ever.

The towns I walked thru Saturday were, Stamford, Darien, Norwalk, Westport and Southport. The Post Road is the major commercial artery thru these towns, and I was somewhat disappointed. Mainly just stores and commercial space.

I stopped at Stew Leonard’s for lunch. Stew Leonard’s is a private Grocery Store and is a fabulous Place. They know how to market and sell great food.  I had a hamburger, fries and soda for under $7.00 dollars.

It was a little tough to start the trip after lunch.  I had walked ten miles at that point. However, I was able to put my tiredness aside and continue my way.

My last seven miles was uneventful.  I had to cross the street many times as sidewalks would just come to an end.

The first day’s journey ended waiting at the Southport Train Station.  It was very nice riding the train home to Stamford. My total mileage that day was 19.9 miles

Today I start my biggest journey.  I am going to walk from Stamford going east on the Post Road until I finish my walk in Stonington, CT.

The trip will be around 100 miles and I plan on doing the trip in eight days. At the end of each day segment, I will take the train home and start the next day at that point.

I have driven parts of the Post Road but not all of it.  I have driven I-95 which parallels the Post Road.  I am very excited to see all the sights and sounds of the Post Road.

Every night I will be posting about the days trip.  One of the things I will be looking for is artwork along the trip.  I know there is some nice sculptures in Stamford.  Let us see what the rest of the state has.

The trip starts at 8:15 am. Wish me luck

The answer is five hours.  What is the question?  How long does it take to walk from the top of Stamford to the Bottom?

I know this is the correct answer because I recently walked from High Ridge Road at the New York State Line and finished up at Long Island Sound at the end of Shippan Avenue.  I walked along High Ridge Road and slowly crossed over to Newfield. Newfield changed to Strawberry Hill then to Elm and finally ended up on Shippan Ave

As Usual there were many sights to be seen. Lots of sounds and of course I almost got hit by a car on High Ridge Road

I went from countryside to suburban to city to Industrial and then back to suburban. Finally coming off the hill seeing the Long Island Sound was exhilarating.

I will be following up with more details of the adventure

Yesterday and today, I started my walk at 5:30 am.  I don’t usually start that early. I am taking care of my grandchildren these two days.  They have a school holiday.  It will be hard to get my ten miles in if I don’t start early.

At 5:30 am it is still dark and there is very little traffic on High Ridge Road.  I am even able to walk on the road.  Which is nice as the road is freshly paved compared to the bumpy sidewalks.

At 6:00 Stamford wakes up.  Traffic picks up on High Ridge Road.  I notice the transit buses have a few people on them and the sky start to lighten.

Yesterday in downtown I saw the DSSD staff cleaning and getting downtown Stamford to look good. The coffee shops were starting to get busy.

Today I walked up to the Merritt Parkway on High Ridge.  It was quiet until about 6:45. At that point I could hear the steady hum of traffic on the Merritt Parkway.

Tomorrow I will let you know what traffic is like when school is in session.

Last night August 21st the weather forecast was bad. Hurricane Henri was going to being coming onshore in Connecticut.  Heavy rain, flooding, hurricane winds and possible power outages for days.  I was very worried.

I wasn’t worried about the hurricane issues.  I was worried about, how am I going to get my ten miles of walking in.  The last two days I only walked nine miles and if the weather was going to be that bad walking would be difficult.

When I woke up this morning there was no rain. The forecast was still for rain all day.  However, I was hopeful.  The heavy rain started around 8:00.  At nine the rain slowed down, and I took a chance to walk.

I live close to the track at the local football field, and I took a chance to walk there.  Waterproof shoes and a big umbrella were all I needed. The rain slowed down, and I was able to walk four miles in the morning.

The rain was on and off the rest of the morning. At 1;00 pm I felt it was safe to take a big walk.  I headed downtown on High Ridge Road.

There was very little traffic on the roads, yet I almost saw three car accidents in the space of five minutes.  At Bulls Head where Long Ridge and High Ridge merge into Summer Street, there is a traffic light for Long Ridge.  Right turn on red is allowed.  I watched two cars make the right turn without slowing down and of course they didn’t see the traffic coming down High Ridge.  How they missed hitting the cars is a mystery to me. Further down Summer Street a car tried to cross the road and almost hit the oncoming traffic.

Sad to say the sounds of horns were always with me.

I walked to the Stamford Mall which was closed.  I walked home and altogether I hit eleven miles for the day.

Let us see what the week shall bring

I like to walk. Lately I have been walking ten miles a day. There are so many sights and sounds to enjoy during the walk.

Unfortunately, there are dangers when I walk. I must always be on the lookout for cars, bikes, pedestrians and animals. Just last week I was walking on a sidewalk in front of a stopped car when the driver decided to move forward.  They had been on the cellphone and started to move before they looked up. Luckily, they did look up and stopped again.  I was ready to jump or scoot out of the way in case they didn’t.

The other day I was walking on a back road when I missed getting hit by a foot.  I never saw or heard it.  It was a hidden danger that I could not have reacted to at all. The hidden danger was a large green hickory nut falling from a hickory tree.  There was no sound until the nut hit the ground right in front of me. I don’t think the nut would have hurt me to much if it hit me. I am glad it did not.

I am curious what the acorn season will be like.  There are oak trees all over Stamford