the plan

Yesterday I started working out the first leg of my walk, and discovered that Yahoo has a much better map system now than a year ago. It makes it much easier to plan a route from point to point. And they have satellite photos now, too (here's a good shot of the retreat place).

When I leave St. Francis (the Mahoneys' retreat place) and start walking, my first destination will be the Little Flower Catholic Worker farm. It's only about 50 miles away. If I take it slow starting out, it should take about four days. Here's the plan for the first leg.

The whole trip should look something like this. The main stops after the CW farm are the McClains in Strasburg (who were the first family I visited, where the picture was taken of me and Gabrielle), Holy Cross abbey in Berryville (where I visited on my first walk and again two years later), and the DC Catholic Worker. I might also be able to cross paths again with George Walter, who's walking a loop through the same area this summer.

It looks like it might only take a month, but that's the right amount of time for Paul Gallagher, who's still planning to go with me. I don't mind a shorter walk, either. I wanted to stay in Virginia and meet some of the folks I'll probably be working with in the future, and I'm also eager to get back to St. Francis and start there.