Location: Tidewater Campground
Time: Pre-dawn
AOP was 6:30, and despite the heat and miles, and aches and pains put on the day before we were ready to hit the road early. Today's weather was forecast to be around 80 degrees, a 15 degree improvement over the first two days...we were one full day ahead of schedule (20 miles farther south than what we had planned for) and feeling good for today's walk.
John shows up, we do our protein bars, fruit, hydration, discuss our goal for the day (if we were to stay that one day ahead, our goal was Rowley MA, 20 miles ahead). There was some talk of Tropical storm Elsa being nearby sometime tomorrow. We wondered if that might affect us. Hmmmm, I wonder?
Doing our best to stick to the 4MPH speed limit in the campground, right on to Route 1 south - and we're off!
Recap of the few miles from our start to the Massachusetts border
- Long and flat
- Desolate stretches through saltwater marshes
- Pleasant walk though Hampton, Hampton Falls, and then Seabrook
- Lot's of retail along the road...Christmas stores, antique barns, furniture shops, etc.
- Then we came across the mini mall of Decadence
- One stop shopping for all of your vices
- Adult video store, smoke shop, pawn shop, fireworks store, tattoo parlor, and comic book store...bookended by a trailer park and a cemetery. Oh, and the Poker Room just across the street.
- Despite something there for each one of us, we decided to not stop.
- First break of the day in Seabrook, maybe five miles in
- I do my WBLM interview, just as charming and loquacious as I had been the first two days of my on the road interviews. I'm telling you, I've got a face for radio.
- Spent the next twenty minutes trying to stream the interview on Link's phone. 18 minutes of ads (which seemed odd, but after being on the road for two days and walking about fifty miles, we were a bit slower mentally), until we heard the DJ say "Thanks for checking in Pete". So much for that.
- Another milestone - the NH/MA border!
On we went.
Not much difference between the southern end of Route 1 in NH and the northern end of Route 1 in MA. Lot's of retail...not many neighborhoods.
Walked through another marsh area - maybe the fourth or fifth of the trip? Seemed we were getting close to some bigger water. What made us think that? How about this? Denise doing her best Vanna White.
Either this was one of those rare great white marsh sharks, or we were getting close to the ocean.
So far, it's been a nice walk. We'd covered about 10 miles. Lot's of streams and rivers on this stretch.
Next up was the bridge over the Merrimack River (whenever I say Merrimack River I instantly think of Joe Cupo, former weatherman for a local TV station, whose catchphrase for the weather was "Eastport to the Merrimack River) which would bring us to Newburyport.
In a minute John was there to pick us up ( actually, that's not true...John was already pulled over after this bridge to pick up us. John knew, he always knew). Drove us maybe two miles and dropped us at the intersection of Route 1 and Boston Road. I remember this because I cracked some sort of Dad joke about taking that road all the way to Boston.
Jumped out and got going. Again.
If you look at this stretch on a map it shows a straight shot....
What a two dimensional map doesn't show is the rise and fall of elevation. This stretch was the hilliest of the trip so far. I'm not doing them justice by calling them hills. Mountains might be a bit of an exaggeration. What falls between a hill and a mountain? A high hill? A small mountain? Don't know. What I do know is there were mile after mile of long hills...the kind of hills where you couldn't see over the crest from the bottom...the kind of hill you wouldn't feel comfortable not applying your brakes on if you were riding down it on a bicycle...the kind of hill where if you dropped a ball from the top of it, it might roll for three miles before it came to a stop. Those kinds of hills.
Some recollections of these hills -
- We saw hundreds (yes, hundreds) of empty nip (small 50ml size, for you non drinkers) bottles. I'm talking biblical amounts of bottles. This was not a heavily walked area so these are clearly being ingested and tossed from cars. A scary thought. I can safely say the good people of Massachusetts have a issue with the consumption of little bottles of alcohol while driving or being driven in motor vehicles.
- To the best of my recollection I say popularity went something like this
- Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey - by far, at least half of all nips were this brand
- Smirnoff Vodka
- Bailey's Irish Cream
- Patron' Tequila
- and then a toss up between Jack Daniels and Makers Mark Whiskey
- Pre walk, Joe wanted to place a wager on how much money we would find on the ground during the course of the walk. Apparently Joe walks with his head down, remember, he found that cursed cross in Biddeford on day one. He was laying the smart money at about five bucks. The bet should have been on number of nips we'd see on the road from the MA state line to Fenway Park. I'd put it at about 500. No lie.
- After about the 12th consecutive hill Link and I actually did see a quarter on the ground. No way I was going to, or was able to, bend over to pick that up. Joe and Tom were about 200 feet behind us , so Link and I paused , hollered out to them, and pointed at the ground where the quarter was. Then we kept on up the hill.
- A minute or so later Joe and Tom were in the area of the quarter, and wouldn't you know it, Joe did not disappoint, he was not going to let that be passed without picking up.
- Watching Joe muster the willpower to bend over mid hill (or mountain) to get that was precarious and hilarious at the same time.
- Jesus, didn't we laugh about that. I told him later he looked like a weeble when he bent over to retrieve that quarter. Weebles wobble but they don't fall down.
- Came up to the Blue Boat seafood restaurant in Rowley MA. Time to eat! Once again we did not scrimp on the carb intake. Fried food all around, except for Denise. Denise opted for a grilled cheese. That's will power.
- While we were eating we got to telling another customer (this was an order at the window, eat outside establishment) about our story. He asked for our website info and vowed to donate to our cause. Another guy, got out of his car, told us he overheard us talking to guy number 1 and said he just got on our website and had made a donation. Good stuff
- On we went. At some point...maybe hill #8?, we pass a golf course. A golfer pulls up on his cart alongside me and Link and asks if "We were those guys walking to Boston? I heard about you on the radio, that's pretty cool". Pretty cool indeed.
- Came to a final daunting hill and to a person we all were thinking, "Can we make it up that one?" When we got closer to the base of the Monster hill, was that a white truck pulled over up ahead? By God, once again, it was John to the rescue. Telepathically knowing when we were done. And we were.
- Finished up walking for the day directly in front of the Topsfield Fairgrounds. Total miles covered for the day 27.... 28 miles ahead of schedule. We'd need this.
- Doubled back to the camp ground for night two.
- Link on the phone with his lovely wife, Michelle.
- Michelle offered up driving down to deliver Italians (for those of you not from Maine, that's Italian sandwiches. You might know them as grinders, or hero, or sub, or torpedo. Scratch all of that. They're just called Italians).
- We, of course took her up on that offer. Two hours later we were eating our Italians.
- Michelle also delivered a much needed prescription to Link, he would be a new man for the rest of the walk, and some sweet, custom made, limited edition, collectible koozies. I'd explain what a koozie is, for you non-Mainers, but the Italian explanation wore me out.
- Sweet, right? I know a guy that , for the right price, might have a couple on hand .
- This my friends is the end of day 3.
Next up - Tropical Storm Elsa.
