Not on foot. Though, I just got an email form my friend Francis who, after seven months, completed the Continental Divide trail, on foot, doing a "yo-yo" from the Mexican border, to Canada and back again. That's 5,600 miles. It brings new meaning and belittles the expression of going 1,000 miles for someone--as far as I know, Francis did not have a sweetheart waiting for him in New Mexico. Or maybe he did. There's a lot that could have happened since I last saw him in April. Here's his website.
As I head homeward, I've been thinking about what I've learned and, though I've been looking for books, I've learned about communities, ones created by bookstores and libraries and the books we read--you have to care about your community in everything you do. I was so impressed by the buy local campaigns I learned about in communities like Portland, Portsmouth, and Montpelier. If you have no community the world becomes, to steal the word from the New Yorker reading Kierkegaard--soulless.Indianapolis beckoned with community. I checked out the yearly downtown Ribfest--music, food, beer and, naturally, in the hands of people sprawled out on the grass or reclining in lawn chairs ....books! As my instincts told me when I arrived in Baltimore and I followed the crowds to the Orioles game, where there is community, there will be books. And maybe Captain Morgan, too.
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