Day 8 - Saturday March 19th, 2005
Rogersville TN to Surgoinsville TN
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| Day 8 - Saturday March 19th, 2005 Rogersville TN to Surgoinsville TN |
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Our stay place in Rogersville was a far distance off the highway, so we stopped walking at the turnoff to town and amused passers-by with our end of day stretches as we waited to be shuttled down to "Club Route 66". The restaurant owner Gary had offered us all a dinner feast and accomodation in the adjacent empty building. Many walkers were up late , some giving healings to sick and blistered bodies, some on "route scout" and a few chatting with our generous host and meeting locals who came in for dinner . We heard Gary's experiences of readjusting to farm life in small town Tennessee (from New York) and the story of the fight to stop a nuclear power plant being built at nearby Phipps Bend. Though the project had been abandoned due to lack of funding, the group of concerned locals that had quickly rallied together to oppose the development had exerted enough pressure that no further proposals in the area had been tried. A skeleton of a cooling tower and a series of electricity cables to the area remain as testament to the intended deadly development.
Heading into Surgoinsville we had been stopped many times by people curious about the walk, and had been offered many donations, well wishes, and invitations to the local bluegrass show that eve !! Though it was great to connect with so many locals (big thanks to the Surgoinsville Market and Deli for the coffee and lunch break resting place) it was a a welcome relief from the constant traffic noise to finally venture off the 11W highway and meander along the back streets. We were treated to bananas and chocolate for energy snacks at our last break, and discovered as we walked into our stay place (an unused house) that the man who had stopped and offered them was our next door neighbour for the evening !! 
After walkers helped him feed his cows , we were delighted to have new friends Cindy, Kevin, Casey and Will from Routledge reappear , driving for 2 hours to bring us dinner and join in the next day's walk. We are already made many strong connections and new friends, and the energy for New York is building every day.
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