June 2008
Monthly Archive
We got to start a little late today — around 2:00 pm — at the Newton line. We met David Tannenwald there. He gave us a heads of the the events for the day. We also met with Officer Daniel Sullivan, who was very helpful and happy to escort us. 
We walked for about 2 miles where we stopped at the Newton City Hall to meet with Mayor Cohen and Fred Gudzi, the Veterans officer for Newton. They walked with us for a mile. We stopped at Newton Center for a ceremony. The ceremony brought together the Newton Aldermen and bystanders, to help bring awareness to the walk. The local Newton news station came down and televised the whole event.
We cannot express enough of our gratitude to David. He put together this whole eventful day in Newton. Thank you so much David! We completed our walk to the Boston line and will be ready to finish off our walk tomorrow!
We started our day off at the Framingham line. About 4 miles up the road we walked Contichuate Rd. It was a busy street filled with businesses. While walking we were cheered on by the Target Staff, and more supporters down the road. They kindly gave us water and protien bars. Mike Shu from WAAF talked about us and the walk on the radio.
After the interview many people stopped and gave us water and some donations. We walked through Natick, Wayland and Weston until we reached Newton, where we completed our day.
Today we started in North Grafton at the Olde Post Office Pub. We were a little late getting started, because our legs were a little sore from the previous days walk. We had an escort from Tufts University. A couple of vets, from Mass Vets Inc. met us there and kindly walked with us for a few miles.
We walked through until we reached Westborough, where we had a change of escorts. from Westborough we walked until we reached Southborough. When we were in Southborough, a news reporter from http://www.southboroughnews.com, Linda Hubley, took our picture and story about the walk.
After a couple miles we reached the Framingham line and ended our walking day there. We drove back to the Olde Post Office Pub where we were greeted by the kind staff and generously offered a meal. After dinner the staff took a group picture with us outside. We packed our belongings from there and headed home for the day.
Tom sent in some photos from the first part of the walk:
Tom doesn’t have any internet service tonight (he said the place they’re staying has cows in the backyard!), so he asked that Andrew McClure from Building Homes for Heroes write something up for Day 5. Andrew writes:
“We walked a pretty uneventful 13 miles today. The thermostat hit about 97 degrees with a heat index value of approximately 105! This was essentially the hottest day of the heat wave which, thankfully, should come to an end today. There are some serious storms predicted for later this afternoon. We started off at 7:00am in Belchertown where we were escorted by the police department to the Ware line. We had a wonderful lunch at Lazer’s Pizza and Roast Beef in Ware. Afterwards, we were invited in by the members of American Legion Post No 123 of Ware. We rested and enjoyed some refreshments, and spoke with the veterans. Tomorrow promises to be more eventful.”
Getting up at 6 am, we felt refreshed physically and mentally because of the services Dr. Tghettis provided us. We then proceeded to the Amherst line, where we met with Officer Yvonne Molin. Her shift ended soon thereafter, so Officer Jamie Reardon escorted us.
About 3 miles down the road, we had a live interview with WAAF. We spoke with the Hillman Morning Show, and Lyndon Byers, the sports announcer. We talked about our whole walk up until that point.
We then proceeded another 4 miles, until we were forced to stopped because we heard of the weather alert. The forcast for the heat index was 108 degrees! We didn’t want to risk our health by walking through such weather so we called it a day. I then spent the rest of the day writing up our experiences so far.
Before meeting our escort, we stopped at the Williamsburg General Store, where the manager let us set up our display while we walked. Officer Aimee Wallace escorted us through Williamsburg. The weather was already pretty hot, but we withstood it for the troops. We continued on to North Hampton, where we met up with Officer John Lopez, who escorted us through busy intersections.
We stopped at D’Angelos, whose manager, Steve, gave us a free lunch, took pictures, and allowed us to set up our display while we ate. Continuing over the Calvin Coolidge Bridge, we then entered Hadley, MA. Officer Mark Ruddick took over as our escort through Hadley. We walked until we reached Amherst, MA, where we ended our day. Altogether we walked about 17 miles. We stayed at The Lord Jeffery Inn, in Amherst. The manager let us set up our display for the night. Dr. Don Tgettis, a chiropractor from Danvers, MA and a supporter of Operation Troop Support, came and taught us some adjustments and stretching techniques.
He stayed with us for about 6 hours, and also retrieved our donation bucket at the Williamsburg General Store, while we completed our walk for the day. Not only did he do all that, he went shopping for protein bars, fruits, and drinks. We had a good talk about the upcoming walk for the next day and he still had to drive 3 hours back home to be with his family! We ended the day feeling much better because of Dr. Don Tgettis and of course, the Celtics beat the Lakers AGAIN for Game 2!
The day started when businesswoman Jennifer Perilli generously donated 55.00 to our cause. We continued our walk at 7 am at Flinstone Rd. The weather during the morning was VERY foggy, but cool. About 9 miles down in the town of Cummington, MA, we stopped at The Old Creamery. The manager, Alice, offered us free sandwiches and drinks. We had the best roast potatoes with garlic and rosemary, and BLTs. We rested for about an hour where we got kind donations from Alice, and her customers.
After eating, we kept walking Rt. 9. we stopped along the way at a little stream where we rested, an d soaked our feet in the cold water for a few minutes. We followed Rt. 9 through to Goshen, MA where we ran into Officer Kevin Berube, who offered to escort us through Goshen. We walked through to Williamsburg, MA, stopping at Chef Wayne’s Big Mamou. Manager Peter Delis gave us complimentary
drinks and food. The staff there kindly took a photo with us, and let us set up our donation bucket, while we ate and rested. We stayed at the Comfort Inn in Hadley, MA.
We ended up walking about 22 miles again for the day. We rested for the night for an early start the next morning.
We started off at the Massachusetts/New York border in New Lebanon, NY. About 2 miles into the walk it started to pour, with lightning and thunder, so we had to delay our walk by a couple hours. A few supporters were there, and they clapped and said thank-you, honked their horns, and gave generous donations.
Once the rain let up we continued our walk to McDonald’s, about 6 miles down the road, where we were to meet with Dick and Chris Moody and about 30 or so veterans that came to show their support and raise awareness about the walk. After speaking and taking pictures with the veterans, the McDonald’s manager, Bill, offered a free meal. He was very kind to all of us.
After eating, we continued our walk down Route 20/9, and was very kindly escorted through the town of Pittsfield, by Officer John Bassi. About 6 miles down the road the three of us stopped at a local pizza place called “Hold The Anchovies.” The manager, Harlo, offered us slices of pizza and salad, all on the house.
We continued our walk through Pittsfield, until Dalton, MA, where Sgt. Higgins took over as our escort. We thanked Officer Bassi and continued. He escorted us through downtown Dalton, to get us through all the traffic. We no longer needed an escort after going through downtown Dalton, so we thanked Sgt. Higgins, and continued walking through to Windsor, MA.
The sights in Windsor consisted of a lot of farmland. The climb up the Windsor hills was about 2035 feet! They kicked our asses! At about 5 pm we stopped our day at the top of the Windsor hills across from a street called Flinstone Rd. All together we had traveled about 22 miles for the first day. We had to back track in the car to Dalton, MA, where we stayed at the Shamrock Inn on Rt. 9. We ate dinner at JR’s Shamrock Pub & Restaurant, owned by Jerry and Joanne. They kindly let us set up a display of our walk, and our donation bucket for the night while we went back to our room and rested. We went back around 9:30 pm and collected the display. Our day ended by watching the Celtics win against the Lakers 98-88.
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