Hot, hard days (they're behind us)

Saturday and Sunday were our hard days - very hot weather on the walk from Bethel down to and through Greenville, then south through Ayden and Grifton. We had a great meeting an a cafe/bookstore in Greenville on Sunday afternoon, attended by five Greenville residents who came to hear our story. We had a light day on Sunday, attending mass at St. Gabriel in Greenville and attending a Unitarian Universalist meeting later that morning - our hosts (who provided lodging for Dave and Debbie for two nights) Edith and Carrol Webber are members there. Our friend Kelly provided lodging for a night, as did Mike. Kelly also cooked a homemade vegetarian dinner Sunday evening.

Yesterday (Monday, June 22) brought us from Grifton into Kinston. On the way, we were greeted by Rose and Denny Clark, whom Scott has known since he and Roberta provided family support around the execution of Rose's brother, Ernest Basden on December 2, 2002. Scott will write more about that reunion, so I'll leave that to him. We walked through downtown Kinston to the county courthouse and were met by The Kinston Free Press for an interview and prayer. We met briefly with the Assistant District Attorney, Ms. White for a very productive meeting. Rose and Denny treated us to lunch at Christopher's restaurant in downtown (thank you!), then we drove down to Jacksonville. There, we prayed in front of the courthouse and then met with the Onslow County Assistant DA - also very briefly. He was very familiar with our pilgrimage, having read about it in the News & Observer that morning.

We were a bit behind - it was 3:30 and we'd only walked 9+ miles in the morning. We put in three quick legs of 4+ miles each, through Jacksonville and towards Emerald Isle. The weather today was much, much nicer than the mid nineties we had on Saturday and Sunday coming through Greenville. We walked until almost 8:00 PM last night, then grabbed some dinner cand checked into a hotel generously provided by Rev. James Brown's First Baptist Church. We got caught up on some laundry and showers and finally had time for this catch-up blog entry this morning before we head back out for about 14 miles into Emeral Isle. We've now walked about 185 miles, so are very excited about the final week.

We look forward to this evening's event featuring Linda White at 6:00PM
Emerald Isle Baptist Church, 304 Emerald Plantation Rd. Emerald Isle, NC 28594-1910
(252) 354-8795. Please join us! Linda will tell her storing of losing a daughter to homicide, her need to meet with the person who committed the crime, and how she came to be a grief counselor. Those not near Emerald Isle can also hear Linda speak on Wednesday at 7:00PM at St. Augustus AME Church 318 E. North Street Kinston, NC 28502. We hope to see our friends, old and new, at either event.

Sorry for the infrequent updates - it is very hard to find time to write, and harder to find internet on our journey. But we will keep trying!