I ran out of money and had to come home. I tried to do things smart, coming home and staying when possible to save money, staying where breakfast was included so I had one less meal to buy and bringing some of my own food to eat along the trail. I did of course also eat in some better restaurants too. A lot of times that was because I got a really good rate on a room and had extra to spend on a nice meal. There were also times when I had very few choices on hotels or restaurants because of what was available in that area. I had some money that was promised to me not come through. (ok enough wining)
If you would have asked me after the first week or even month of walking how I would feel about being able to finish the Erie Canal trail but not go on, I never would have expected to feel disappointed. I probably would have said relieved, maybe even glad to be home. The start of my trip was so very difficult. Now though, I am feeling disappointed that I was not able to go further. I was just getting to a point where I was enjoying what I was doing. I had a few episodes of foot problems (most of that probably because I did not walk while Noelle was in the hospital and then tried to get right into walking 20 miles again, not real smart). Another change in my attitude from the beginning is that even though I am disappointed to not be able to go on with my walk, I am not disappointed in my efforts. I did step out obediently in faith. I did finish the Erie Canal trail, how many people can say that. Am I questioning whether I heard God correctly, yes sometimes, but I do believe that all He was asking of me was to step out in faith. If more money comes in in the next week or so, I will go back out again, but I need it to be enough money for me to go for more than a day or two. If I don't walk, any extra money that came in I will divide between the two charities.
As for the two charities...I will keep this blog up for a while so you will be able to continue to link to the charities from here and I will update it if anything new happens with me. As I have time to reflect on my walk and God has a chance to deposit all He has for me I will also update with my insights. If you were going to donate based on how many miles I walked, 500 miles would be my best estimate. The Erie Canal trail was 400 miles, I did about 50 miles in Massachusetts and about 45 more miles in the southtowns.
I am planning to walk Across the US following the Erie Canal Trail from Albany to Buffalo, picking up the Lakeshore trail from Buffalo to Erie PA and then following the American Discovery Trail. I will try to update you all on my progress daily. I will soon be adding a picture page and a FAQs page.
Trish-- I commend your efforts to follow God's leading and to raise money for such worthy causes!! Not many people would have taken the steps (no pun intended :P) to do that. I pray that God richly blesses both you and your charities.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you addressed in this last blog post something that's been weighing on my mind and heart a great deal as I've been following your journey. You have (as many of your posts have featured) enjoyed some very fine dining. I mean, fish, crab, lobster, shrimp...often more than one in a meal! And it's made me pause and think- well, if she were eating a salad (minus shrimp) and a sandwich (or chicken breast, or pasta w/marinara), wouldn't she have quite a bit more money to fund her trip? My experience in eating out (which is by no means vast) suggests that this would be the case. and as someone who worked multiple jobs and can't afford such luxuries, it boggles my mind that you would have chosen to go that route (again with the no pun intended). Also, you mention that when you saved money on lodging, you used the excess to get a more expensive meal.....that is simply giving up any surplus you may have had!
I hope that if the opportunity should again arise for you to take on such a meaningful and worthy cause, you will take some of these thoughts to heart. You are an amazing woman of God to even consider this in the first place, and I'm proud of what you accomplished!!
It took me a while to answer your comment because I haven't had internet access except for on my phone. I had even debated deleting the comment because it was done anonymously, but I had promised myself that I would always be transparent on this blog. I did list that I had some more extravagant meals, but some of those meals were paid for by others. People had offered to take me to dinner and did insist that I order something nice for myself. I also did not post the many times that my meals consisted of beef jerky and an energy bar that I carried with me. There is one time in particular where I did not have a choice in the restaurant since it was the only one in the area, and it was pretty fancy. I did spend probably more than I was intending and a lot of that was intimidation. It is hard enough to walk into a fancy restaurant by yourself, but then to walk in wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt, and a reflective vest is intimidating and I suppose I did want to prove that I did have the money, that I wasn't just some homeless person who walked in off the street (which is what I looked like to many people I think.) I also many times when I was eating seafood, was not ordering a meal, but an appetizer and soup. Then there was the purposeful reason I was posting the restaurant reviews on here. I was hoping that the other restaurants I would go to would then discount or comp my meals because they would know I would blog about them and they would want the advertisement.
ReplyDeleteWhere I really failed is that I tried to do this on my own. I should have had someone driving with me, it would have made all the difference. I wouldn't have had limited choices on dining. I would then also have had a person who could drive ahead of me and let people know I would be there and what I was doing, and they could have worked on getting the discounts set up for me already when I arrived. It wasn't that I wanted to do this alone. I had tried to get someone to follow, but it just didn't work out. If I did try something like this again, I would not do it unless I had a driver already set up to go with me.