Days 249 – 1/28/12 – Led to Kindness

Fulda to French Ridge Road; Distance = 9 Miles; People Met = 11+

Back near Kansas City Ardie and Gretchen Davis advised me to focus on speaking at high schools and colleges when the hike is over.  Getting a chance to speak at a high school would have been nice during the journey but the possibility seemed remote and I was not going to pursue it.  Well, things change in unexpected ways.

For example, had not Mark and Rebecca Fenn took us for a little tour of Tell City on Saturday morning we would have started earlier and chose a different end point for this two day stretch.

Mark and Rebecca

Because of our late start and choosing to end at Leopold by 10:00 a.m. Sunday morning we bumped into two brothers, Charlie and Allan Waninger, near the Waninger farm.  Charlie had read about us in the paper and the brothers paused from their work to chat.  Charlie showed us a better route to Leopold than the one we intended.  Charlie also placed our full packs in his “mule” and transported them a couple miles for us.  We discussed the possibility of us making it all the way to Leopold that day and joining Charlie and his girlfriend for supper.

Cindy in between Allan and Charlie Waninger

Because Charlie showed us a different route to Leopold we were on the French Ridge Road when Ross, Claire and Corey drove by.  They also read about us in the paper.  They turned their jeep around to talk.  We shared that we wanted to reach Leopold, perhaps even by that evening, but darkness was not too far off.  The three were about to go out for the evening but put in some calls about where we might stay.

Claire, Ross and Corey

Because Ross placed some calls for where we might stay, we were greeted by Kurt Cooper when we walked by his place on French Ridge Road.  Kurt was married to Claire’s Mom Carla, and they were watching the grandkids for the night as the parents and friend enjoyed an evening out.  The initial plan was to stay in “Coop’s” garage, but we were soon invited into the house to spend the night.

Granddaughter Emma, Carla, granddaughter Olivia and Kurt

Because we spent the night at Coop’s house I was invited to speak at the Perry Central School where Coop taught English.  We would still get to Leopold by 10:00 a.m. Sunday in order to attend a dinner and give a short talk at the Crawford Consolidated United Methodist Church.  We would be brought back to Leopold again on Monday morning in order to speak at the school before hiking on.

I was amazed that Coop could pull that off, but he had been teaching there for a long time and built up a position of respect.  Indeed, both faculty and former students often dropped in at Coop’s garage for a little “garage therapy” as he called it.  I got a taste of garage therapy when Coop invited former students Chad Heximer and Heath Roessler over to meet me.  Meanwhile, Cindy was getting her “kid fix” by playing with two-year old Olivia and visiting with Karla.

So we went from a two day stretch where we would carry our full packs and camp overnight to a stretch where our packs were carried for us part way and we enjoyed good company, food and drink while securing my first high school gig on this journey.  Stuff like this just keeps happening.

Other Photos

Now this is the way to backpack!

Bathroom Sign