New speaking record: speaking to seven distinct groups across the course of a school day, at East Chapel Hill High School. It’s exhausting, but I still love it .
I spoke to PE classes today, and I’ll speak separately to four Spanish classes tomorrow. (I plan to use some of mi español in the process.)
Interestingly, today was the first time any classes have been given a Q & A assignment about the Walk. Having learned this, I made sure I helped them fill in all the right answers .

I’m speaking to the kids at East Chapel Hill High School’s Career Information Center today, and then speaking to the kids at Duke tonight!

I’ll be speaking to the high school INTERACT, in Chapel Hill. I have no idea who INTERACT is nor what it means just yet, but I’m optimistic and I believe this should be fun…

Also, related to yesterday’s post, here’s a wider answer to the bridge walking question:

How often do you have to cross dangerous bridges?
Far more often than I’d like, unfortunately. I don’t know that I’ll ever find the best solution to the bridge question. I want to walk 100% of my miles, but after crossing one of the most dangerous bridges as I was entering Orange, Texas, I decided that I would not be dying just to ensure I that I take 100% of the steps across every single bridge. Therefore, despite crossing some pretty dangerous bridges in Bridge City, Morgan City, Gilbert, Destrehan, Mobile, and many other places, I also chose to survive my way across two way-too-dangerous Louisiana bridges by getting to the other side in alternative ways (link).
It’s been well over a thousand miles since that deadly duo of Louisiana bridges, and while I hope to continue to walk every last bridge through to my final goal, I won’t be killing myself to do so.

I’ve walked thousands of miles from the Pacific Ocean to reach North Carolina’s Research Triangle– a grand mileage total approaching 4,400 since leaving home. My intention while walking across America has always been to connect 100% of the steps. That said, after running across far too dangerous a bridge one evening in Orange, Texas, I promised myself that I wouldn’t brush so closely with doom & gloom just to connect every last step across every dangerous bridge. There are many dangerous bridges across America, and throughout the miles of the Walk, I’ve crossed all but two of them on foot. As it turns out, the very day I left Orange, I encountered a bridge in Vinton, Lousiana, that was even more dangerous than the one I crossed in Orange. After finding no other way to cross it, I called upon the Louisiana State Patrol to assist me. After getting off the phone with a dispatcher who told me he’d felt was an incredible sensation of déjà vu in be speaking with me (I’d never before spoken to him), an LSP trooper came out to drive me across the treacherous, speedy, 1/8-mile span.

The second of these deadly-dangerous-to-the-human-foot bridges was the mile-long bridge from Westlake to Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Click on this pic to see the video link of how I made it from Westlake to Lake Charles:

Click on picture for full blog written by: The Upstate Under Your Nose:
The Adventures Of An Upstate Family Wandering Off The Beaten Path

Click on photo for full blog written by: The Upstate Under Your Nose:
The Adventures Of An Upstate Family Wandering Off The Beaten Path

Do the words bag and rag rhyme with the words leg and peg..?
If you were born and raised in the Pacific NW, then YES, they do!!
I was a teenager before I realized that not all of America refers to soda as pop, but it wasn’t until age 34, as I was stepping across southern California, that my walking friend Shay Emmons noticed that we say bag differently than the rest of America.
It happened all of the sudden, as I was broken mid-sentence: “Ha! Wow! What did you say!? Say that again!” Shay said.
“Say what again?” I asked, quite puzzled.
“Say bag!”
“Bag?” My confusion continued.
“Haha! I love the way you pronounce bag!” she remarked.
I was still confused. I didn’t understand the difference between my pronunciation of bag and Shay’s.
“You say  bayg [like 'leg']. The word is bag,” she clearly explained, pronouncing the “a” as one would in the word bad.
“So, you don’t say bayg like the word leg..?” I asked her, ignorant as ever.
“No. The word is ‘bag’ [like 'bad'].”
That was three years ago. I had no idea we say bag any differently than anyone else, and even if both pronunciations had otherwise been pointed out, I’m sure I would have just assumed it would be a word with pronunciations as flexible as the words either or route.
But no, across the years and the miles since, I’ve found that Shay’s bag is clearly the winner– and since then, I somehow notice every time the word is about to come out of my mouth. And I’ve been saying bag Shay’s way– as I’ve preferred to assimilate across the States more so than stand out with my unique local pronunciation.

BEST EVER 7-minute short documentary on the Walk…
Directed and produced by filmmaker Daniel McCord, as part of his 12-in-2012 series.

Happy Valentine’s Day!
After reaching North Carolina’s Triangle on foot, I’ve made a detour to visit mujer maravilla. All the stars lined up for this one: Kristian, a Carolina friend who’s been doing documentary film work for the walk, is attending a conference/workshop in Atlanta over the next several days, and while here, we’re planning to interview some of the many people I met in the Peach Capital.
Having recently spent weeks in Richmond to assist family post-surgery, it now feels like something of a volunteer service reward to rewind the miles a bit to the city where I met Rocío.
Having reached NC’s Triangle on foot, my Chariot and the majority of my stuff will remain garaged with great hosts in NC till I return, later this month, and ultimately continue the footsteps from where I’ve left off. In the meantime, I not only have some catching up to do with Rocio, but with blogging as well!

STATUS: ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~

“Excuse me– are you really walking across America?” a bright-spirited woman asked me, as I was shuffling my way through downtown Spartanburg, South Carolina, last November.
“I sure am.”
“May I ask why..?”
A journalist by trade, Emily Carter Dodson was attending a nearby conference, and using her free time to roam downtown Spartanburg before dark this cool autumn evening. Though we only spoke briefly, she told me she was a writer, and that she planned to look me up online and potentially write a story.
This was the beginning of dozens of e-mails over the course of the past couple of months. Emily wrote a full-page article about the Walk for Forsyth Woman magazine, and invited me to stay with her parents upon arriving to the Chapel Hill/Durham area.
Last night, I finally met her parents, Winslow and Harriet, and I also caught up with Emily again for the first time in months. They all have such sweet souls!!
Winslow & Harriet have hosted many exchange students over the course of the years, and given that I spent a year as a high school exchange student to Brazil, it was quite easy to quickly form a bond with this shiny pair of ultra-kind, veteran hosts. And how could I do anything other than smile widely at being invited to a Fat Tuesday parade with them on their first night?!?
I won’t be leaving North Carolina’s “Triangle” (Chapel Hill, Durham Raleigh) anytime soon, and they are in the process of organizing speaking appearances for me before I leave the Triangle.
Great times keep getting better– I love this family!