With the finish line in sight, our pace picked up through New Jersey. As this was not part of any official route we chose whatever local and state roads provided the most direct route. We encountered a diversity of people and places, but did not linger anywhere for long.
We walked by large estates and humble homes, home proprietors and shopping malls, gardens and skyscrapers, Hindu temples and carriage horse racing. We stopped only briefly to chat with a postman, pregnant Mom, Paraguayan family and various ages and ethnicities. We transitioned between cultural landscapes similarly to how long distance hikers transition through natural landscapes.
Much of the appeal for us long distance hikers lies in this grand scale transitioning. I realized this as we strolled through a garden. Many people like to view different museum exhibits or the flowers in a garden over a small portion of a day. I love viewing various landscapes over an entire day, particularly mountain landscapes that change after every pass or bend in the river.
The American Discovery Trail provided us with changing landscapes at a meta scale. Natural landscapes changed between ocean shores, plains, mountains, canyons, deserts and different forest ecosystems. Cultural landscapes included cityscapes, urban neighborhoods, suburbia, rail trails, farmland, ranches, villages and ghost towns. The American Discovery Trail lived up to its name and I highly recommend it to any landscape junky.
The grand diversity of our journey extended to the various church floors upon which we slept. With the references of our home UCC church, the nature of our blog and access to a cell phone we knew we would be staying on those church floors across America. With Ky serving as our support person, making advanced contact on our behalf, we also stayed on Baptist, Methodist, Assembly of God, Presbyterian, Episcopalian and community church floors as well. Ky arranged for our three church stays in New Jersey.
Ky also served as a great kindness ambassador. All my interviews, podcasts and blog posts limited my socializing with many of our hosts across the country. When Cindy was known as “Gabby Galvin” her warm, conversational style would have engaged anyone. Though she grew more garrulous as we headed east, she remained the quietest among the three of us. Fortunately, Ky filled in for our shortcomings quite well.
Ky arranged for our three church stays in New Jersey, which proved to be a challenge because of insurance issues at many of the churches she tried. This was yet another example of how the quest for security, or to “be safe,” conflicts with a quest for kindness. Still, Ky managed to find us places to stay when and where we needed.
Our first church stay was at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Medford. Father Don Muller and his wife Lynn took us out to dinner at the Mexican Food Factory. Afterwards, we went back to stay at the church, and to learn about “Ugly Quilts.” Ugly quilts are made from scrap fabric and neckties by the 10-12th graders. They go to the inner city, where their “ugly” status minimizes the possibility they will be stolen from the homeless.
After a free stay at the Timberland Lake Campground, once again arranged by Ky, we then stayed at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Princeton. Ky arrived at the church in time for one of the three community meals they offer each week. They prepared extra meals to give to Cindy and me when we arrived.
We save the best for last, the last church we stayed at in New Jersey, the last church we stayed at for the entire journey. Ky first picked us up in Bridgewater and brought us to the Community Presbyterian Church (CPC) in Chester, where we stayed a few nights. Unlike the insurance conscious churches of New Jersey, this Presbyterian church went out of their way to welcome us into their fold.
We arrived while they were rehearsing for their Mother’s Day service, which we then attended the next day. Presbyterian and Congregational churches (my home church) have a common lineage, which perhaps explain why everything from the church structure to the service seemed comfortably familiar to us. The vibrant coffee hour after the service particularly reminded us of home.
Over the few days spent at CPC, while Ky slackpacked us northward, we spent time with a variety of parishioners. We chatted with families at the coffee hour. Andy and Martha Smith invited us into their home for dinner and showers. We kibitzed with volunteers Tabby and Bonnie as the Midday Friendship Center prepared dinners for Meals on Wheels. We talked to handyman Richard and son Dan, who repaired things for the church and for whom the church helped find a home.
The single factor that made us feel most at home at CPC was Pastor Chris Scriven, who reminded us greatly of our own Pastor Erick Olsen. On our last morning Chris brought us some bread freshly baked by his wife Michelle and chatted for a while. Our visitation near the close of our journey reminded him of Presbyterian Kenyans they hosted near the end of their visit to this country. He shared a dream he had about us, conjuring an image of us walking for kindness juxtaposed with a night rain.
We talked of ways to connect our two churches together and in a final gesture he gave us the key to their church, attached to a lanyard. Anytime we were in the neighborhood, walking for kindness or any other reason, we could just use the key to make ourselves at home. What an extraordinary gesture at our last church encounter, in a state where many churches were worried about their insurance. The best saved for last!
Handyman Richard would become Ky’s boyfriend; in years hence they traveled back and forth between New Jersey and Connecticut to be with each other. Richard could be seen on many occasions at our church services in Norfolk. I had every intention of returning to the CPC, of using our key to the church someday, but have yet to do so. The arc of how Cindy’s dementia and my caregiver duties progressed after the journey was over still prevents me from doing so.
On May 24 the symphony I composed to tell the story about our walk across the country will be premiered at the Music Shed in Norfolk, CT. You can register for the event here.
