Email 10

Date: January 15, 2003

Happy New Year. Did you have a good holiday? We did. My daughter Martha and her family drove in from New York City, Rob and his family came in from Memphis. Dan and his 2 sons live here in Cleveland so there were five little cousins (3-10 years old) in the house. What fun, they really get along so well and love getting together because they do not get to see each other often.

I prayed for snow (to keep children busy and happy outside) and it arrived on Christmas Eve looking exactly like a holiday greeting card. Perfect. Christmas day, while the cooks filled my kitchen the rest of us were all out in the yard making snow balls, snow angels and snow men/people. Inside my daughter-in-law made macaroni and cheese and baked a beautiful ham, my son-n-law made brussel sprouts the way his mom does and Dan cooked a huge turkey stuffed with two apples, 4 heads of garlic and a few other spices. Delicious. The next day every one went sledding in the Italian Garden around the corner. On Friday we all went to my friend Michelles Kwanzaa party, with sledding at Cain Park before candle lighting and stories at her home across the street from Cain.

What a wonderful week.

I am exhausted. And happy.

I spent a few days decompressing and then the shock of calendar announced that although I was sure I d kept my promise to myself to cut back on committees, community and school talks.who in the world made all of those appointments?

The fact is I am having way too much fun.

With a gentle nudge from Fran Stewart Ive actually begun picking at the first draft of THE BOOK! (always upper case and always with exclamation point to emphasize how odious a task writing is). On good days I smile proudly at the fact that I have babbled anything onto the keyboard about this amazing walk. Fran and I have revisited a couple of the Ashtabula sites and plan to go back to southern Ohio later this month.

February is full, because it is Black History Month. I am even booked for March because it is Womens History month. And I am both (tee hee). Now all we need is Short-Old- Peoples month, then Ill take the rest of the year off.

Im in casual training for the spring walk that will begin April 5, 2003 and run (walk) through April 26th. We will begin where I left off, in Edinboro, Pa. and travel along the lake to Niagara Fall to St. Catharines, Canada. AND THE EXCITING NEW THING IS: some wonderful new friends, The Lake Erie Travelers, an RV club, have agreed to join this last part of the IN THEIR PATH! journey. (That will mean always knowing exactly how far ahead a bathroom is. And I will be able to start walking right from the door every single morning. And end each days walk right at the door of my safe house). I love it. Ill let you know details as we work them out. Want to come to St. Catharines?

High gear training needs to kick in soon, i.e. as soon as this truly frigid weather breaks. I cannot walk outside for very long when the temperature stays in the teens and twenties, and I need to get back to a couple hours walking everyday. I have dragged out my Nordic Trak and that helps but Ive actually gotten so I like walking in the cold (not the bitter cold). Probably well be back up to the thirties next week. Love Joan E.