I thought today would be very emotional and I would be teary-eyed for most of the day, but I could’t seem to get the smile off my face!

I arrive early in the morning into Erie County, the final county on my journey

About 7 miles from Sandusky, I started seeing a wind turbine in the distance. I got very excited because I knew Toft’s Ice Cream, only a mile from my ultimate destination had a turbine
Turns out there are lots of wind turbines in Erie county and I soon discovered the one I saw was not the Toft’s turbine. A couple more miles down the road, I saw what looked like a roller coaster in the distance and yet another wind turbine. This brought yet another rush of excitement because I could see the end! When I finished the walk, I discovered the roller coaster turned out to be a McDonald’s sign on route 2 and Toft’s wind turbine wasn’t nearly tall enough to see from 5 miles out. lol!

Loved the stone wall around this sign for the winery

This guy startled me and was watching me closely as I passed!

I reach Margaritaville and the turn onto Venice Road – only two more miles to the lake!

I reach Toft’s Dairy, my final stop before the ultimate destination. I take the time to change into older shoes. I plan to walk into the lake and don’t want to ruin my good ones.

Laura Cobb, a triathlon friend joins us at Tofts and walks the final mile with me to the lake. Thanks Laura! We make the turn into Lion’s Park and see the lake. What a great feeling of accomplishment to know that my journey is complete and I have successfully crossed the state from the Ohio River to Lake Erie!

I take off my radio and equipment I’ve been carrying and walk down to the lake. Even though the above picture makes the lake look very inviting, I quickly rethink my position of walking straight into the water when I see that it is so green, it looks like antifreeze and is slimy/foamy. I really don’t even want to put my shoe in the water, but Fred insists the journey isn’t complete unless I get my feet wet.

Laura (and baby bump!) and I at the finish

Fred and I at the finish. What a journey for both of us!

Thanks so much to everyone who shared this journey with me. It was special in so many ways and your love and support made it worthwhile. Thank you!

Off to a bit of a late start this morning due to some “technical difficulties” with the radio. First few miles were on a somewhat busy road that had a decent berm. 99% of the people I passed in cars have been careful to give me plenty of room, but geeze, those 1% are frustrating! I had two people this morning riding the white line and they didn’t look malicious, just distracted. The first lady had a glazed look in her eyes like she didn’t get her morning shot of coffee, and the 2nd one was fiddling with the radio. It was sure nice to get off the busier road and be able to let my mind wander without worrying about getting run over.

Nice scenerey this morning

Road was for railroad repair, but I was able to get through it. Fred drove around and met me on the other side.

I had several ups and downs today. Started out feeling really good, then was really dragging. I’d take a break and start feeling really good again, then dragging again. This went on most of the day.

On one of our breaks, we were parked off the road by a bean field. I saw a man across the street watching us from behind a tree. He watched and watched, but never came out. Soon, a state trooper showed up and asked if we were okay. We told him what was going on and he said we were fine. We offered to move if there was a problem, but he said no, we were off the road, not causing a hazard – we could stay as long as we needed to. We talked for awhile and it turns out most of his post were deployed to Mansfield to cover the president and he was very happy to be talking to us out in the beanfield. Really glad I didn’t walk through Mansfield!

More pics from along the way

Arrived in Monroeville mid afternoon. Met up with friends Clay and Glenda for spaghetti and pizza. Big thanks to Clay for bringing me more lamb’s wool to pad my feet for the final day!

Big thanks to friends Gary & Julie Mummy for welcoming me into Ontario in style last night with a big banner and steak at Steve Dakota’s Steak House. Had a great time laughing and being silly! Spent the night in the Home Depot parking lot. Not my 1st choice of places to stay, but there wasn’t anything close that had electric and I wanted internet, which was in abundant supply. Lack of good rest took me into Day 11 a little on the grumpy side. It didn’t help that early in the walk I hit some heavy traffic on State Route 61. There was a wide berm, so I walked with traffic rather than facing. After a couple of semis blew by me, I was nervous. Fred stayed behind me with his flashers going so cars would get over in the middle lane and give me a little space. Luckily this was a short stretch – a couple of miles, so it didn’t last long. I was relieved to get on a less traveled road. Traffic was strange all day. I’d walk quite awhile without seeing a car, then a dozen would go by. Walked by an old one-room schoolhouse that was being rehabbed. Several amish men were working and there was a horse and buggy and an old-style tractor parked outside. Felt decent the first half of the walk, then started fading the second. Think I got overheated. It was a bit warm out there! When I got into town, I walked just a little further than planned to the grocery store to pick up some supplies.

Went out and did a route study for Day 12. There is a road closed on my planned route, so we went to find out if I could get through or if I would need to make a 2+ mile detour. Not something I was overly excited to do. We found that the work is at a railroad crossing and I’ll easily be able to cross. Fred will need to make a several mile detour, but shouldn’t have a problem joining up with me again.

Absolutely gorgeous morning walking. Route 546 was continuous rolling hills with the views to match. Had a great time walking until we went through Lexington and the traffic picked up considerably. Early on, I had a wide berm to walk on, so it wasn’t a problem, but it disappeared and I ended up spending several miles in the weeds and ditch. Not fun! Was thrilled when I finally got to sidewalks. The last few miles were on very congested roads with lots of shopping areas and restaruants. It really wasn’t too bad with the sidewalks – just had to be careful with the roadways to and from the stores. Tomorrow should be a fairly flat and pretty day with not as busy roads.

Fred talked to some ODOT guys while he was waiting for me to catch up with him in Lexington. He told them what was going on, and they said, “Heck, she’s about there now!” Hard to believe this adventure is nearing its end.

Funny how a small gesture can make a world of difference. When I was struggling on the busy road, an older guy on a motorcycle went by and honked, giving me a thumbs up. It really brightened my mood!

Sorry I didn’t get this posted last night. Our campground did not have wifi and we were tired and not in the mood to drive around and look for it.

Really enjoyed the sights in downtown Mt. Vernon this morning. Hills weren’t really as bad as I expected them to be. Most of the day was uphill, but since it was slight, I didn’t notice much until I got on Route 546. That road had some nice rollers that got my attention. Pretty scenery on that road as well. Love the rolling farmland. Found a wallet on Rte 13 just before we hit 546. Sadly, not belonging to a multimillionaire! I took more breaks today since my feet were pretty sore last night, but ended up making better time taking short breaks rather than not so many longer ones. Feet fared well today. They’re a little achy, but I’m still being very attentive to them, and I think they’ll make it to the end without problem. I told Fred tonight that it feels like just yesterday that we were down in Logan. Thursday, I’ll reach Lake Erie.

Had a great start to day 8. Met a group of friends and family and we walked 4 miles to Early Birds Breakfast. The gang at Early Birds did a great job as usual and I had a yummy blueberry pecan pancake. After breakfast, I headed up the road towards Ye Olde Mill and Utica. I’ve driven through Utica many times, but it was fun to travel through on foot today and enjoy some of the big older houses and large porches. Had a rougher time this afternoon. Today was entirely on State Route 13 and had fairly heavy traffic most of the day. Also think I went too long without a break and it really wiped me out. Feet were sore and I was dragging from miles 13-17. Funny though, when I only had a mile to go, I perked right up and my feet stopped hurting. Very tired tonight. Going to get a good night’s sleep to prepare for my highest climbing day of the walk. Most of tomorrow will be uphill, but looking forward to Monday. After I hit mile 10, the entire rest of the journey will be downhill. Now, that is some exciting news!

The last week seems surreal.  Did I really just walk through southern Ohio?  Interesting day today.  Started as soon as it was light enough to see since there were storms forecast for this afternoon.  Had some time on extremely busy roads today.  The cars themselves didn’t bother me so much, but the noise was maddening.  I don’t know how people that live on busy roads put up with the constant noise.  It was a fairly hilly day, but I was focused on getting to the end before the storms, so I kept moving pretty good.

When I finally moved into downtown Newark, I was greeted by a couple dozen people at Park National Bank.  I was expecting a few people, but I was blown away by the group and their cheers and they made me cry!  We took a break downtown, then continued up Route 13.  Fred radioed that the road was closed, and couldn’t get through, but thought I’d be able to.  It turns out there was an oil spill and they had a couple miles of Route 13, along with another road closed.  When I was talking to the sheriff trying to decide if I wanted to go through, a thunderstorm moved in.  I told the sheriff that maybe it was just time to call it a day and I walked over to where Fred was waiting with the motorhome.  He was talking to a ham radio buddy who told him it was an isolated cell and shouldn’t last long.  Just long enough to soak me.  We took a break, went over to Walmart for some supplies and went back to where we left off.  At this point, I only had a mile left to go, and really didn’t want to go back out tomorrow for such a short distance.  I started walking again and Fred went in search of a detour to make his way to the stopping point for the day.  We finally finished up around 3:00 and made our way home.  The storms started a little after 4:00, so we didn’t cut it too close.

Scenes from Day 6:

Nice morning in spite of the fact that I was on busier roads than I am comfortable walking on.  Mostly corn and soybean fields today.  I had an incredible urge to pick and ear of corn and eat it as I was going down the road, but there was a decent ditch between me and the corn wherever it looked ripe and when I could get to it, it wasn’t ready to pick.  Fred says it is stealing to take an ear of corn out of the field, so I asked him if it would be considered stealing if I took corn out of the bean field. :)  He said farmers actually pay people to get corn out of their beans, so it will be a new mission for me in the coming week – snag me a ripe ear of corn from a beanfield.   

Got pretty tired this afternoon.  Made a couple of long stops to regenerate and soak my feet in an icebath.  It was hot and my feet felt like they were on fire.  I was a bit dehydrated and needed some salt.  Felt much better after stopping and made to to the end feeling pretty good.  Met some nice folks today who asked about why I was walking.

Started this morning out of Kachelmacher Park and through downtown Logan. It was a nice change to be in a populated area for a little while. Didn’t take long for us to head back out into the country. More beautiful countryside for us today almost all day long. After last night’s fiasco looking for internet, we decided we would stay at home tonight since it is only an hour’s drive. Don’t know how I’ll feel about that decision when we need to hit the road at 5:30 to get back to where we left off, but I’m fairly sure I’ll be happier here than driving around the country looking for internet until its time for bed! Visions of being at home made me move a little faster this morning. Good thing, because the rain moved in shortly after our morning rest break. It rained from mile 8 until I finished, which was shortly before 1:00. I went ahead and added some of tomorrow’s mileage to today since I felt good and walking an extra 1.5 miles took us to the road we needed to be on to head home. Now we get to start tomorrow with no backtracking. I’m surprised at how good I feel.Day 4 Logan to Bremen Miles today: 15.4 Miles to date: 68.4 Started this morning out of Kachelmacher Park and through downtown Logan. It was a nice change to be in a populated area for a little while. Didn’t take long for us to head back out into the country. More beautiful countryside for us today almost all day long. After last night’s fiasco looking for internet, we decided we would stay at home tonight since it is only an hour’s drive. Don’t know how I’ll feel about that decision when we need to hit the road at 5:30 to get back to where we left off, but I’m fairly sure I’ll be happier here than driving around the country looking for internet until its time for bed!

Visions of being at home made me move a little faster this morning. Good thing, because the rain moved in shortly after our morning rest break. It rained from mile 8 until I finished, which was shortly before 1:00. I was worried for a little while that it was going to be so bad I had to stop, but mostly it was just a steady rain with a little thunderstorm thrown in for a little more excitedment. I went ahead and added some of tomorrow’s mileage to today since I felt good and walking an extra 1.5 miles took us to the road we needed to be on to head home. Now we get to start tomorrow with no backtracking.

I’m surprised at how good I feel. I thought I would be suffering more. Don’t get me wrong, pretty much everything from the waist down hurts right now, but its certainly not debilitating. It’s a really good feeling knowing that I’m pushing myself, but doing it for a reason. It really is an amazing journey and one I’ll never forget. I thought I would be suffering more. Don’t get me wrong, pretty much everything from the waist down hurts right now, but its certainly not debilitating. It’s a really good feeling knowing that I’m pushing myself, but doing it for a reason. It really is an amazing journey and one I’ll never forget.