Chuck's News: Day sixteen - Walking Day Twelve

Another Zero Day in Siena?- Weather-bright sunshine in the morning, clouds rolling in in the afternoon - High 60, Low 44, On Route 9.15 miles, Total Distance 10.32 miles, 24,208 steps

To Date; OR - 95.10, TD - 110.51

Approaching Weather

We woke this morning with plans of another zero in Siena. We lazed in bed, enjoying the election news and reviewing our route and timing decisions.on the midst of our bus routes, walking distances and search for inexpensive places to stay we realized we had left out one important factor, the weather. Our plans had us sitting here another day . . . during perfect weather and then tomorrow walking to Ponte a Tressa while half an inch of rain fell. Something is not right with that picture. About 9:30 we realized walking in the rain didn’t sound inviting (are you as surprised as much as we are that it took us that long to come to that conclusion?) and quickly packed up to do the walk today. We knew there was a bus we could ride back from our destination, Ponte A Tressa, once we got there. The buses run all day, about every half hour. We had to come back to Siena because we had already booked and paid for a room. Then tomorrow we will ride the bus back to Point A Tressa, spend the night there and continue our walk on Saturday.

Decision made, we had to gather some food for lunch from the stores in town. We walked back to one we knew, bought sweet bread (almost like fruit cake) and a few other items, then got on route following our gps track.

The route was nearly all downhill today as we descended out of Siena. The road ran atop one of the ridges that extends from the city slowly lowering us to the surrounding countryside. While still up in the ridge we passed swanky homes, olive orchards and plowed fields. Once down off the ridge we walked through an industrial area, car junk yard, car lots and light manufacturing. We stopped for lunch in the grass next to a fairly busy road just past a traffic circle. It was not a quiet serene lunch spot, but the Brie cheese on the fruit bread was delicious.

We got to Point A Tressa at 3:47, just 10 minutes before the 3:57 bus was scheduled to arrive. It was a few minutes late. We boarded and were off.

Once again we were reminded of the wonder of the wheel and modern travel. We had just spent five hours walking 9 miles. We climbed in this metal box and 15 minutes later were dropped off where we had started. Amazing!! I think back to 200 years earlier and realize that other than a horse, walking was the only mode of transport. Also, the people that made this trek in the centuries past got to Rome and then had to walk back home again! We get to hop on a plane and be home in the equivalent of one days walk, all while sitting in a chair in the sky. Amazing, crazy world we live in.

We had a little trouble getting into our new place. The instructions sent were incorrect. We watched the video and it got us in, but then instructed us to open one of the rooms with a code on the keypad. We did. Someone was already in the room. Luckily they were not in the room. We closed it quickly, switched to the written instructions rather than the video and found our room. All good.

We had pitched vegetables on our walk through town. I cooked a big pan of stir fry for dinner along with brown rice. More politics, then to sleep. Good decisions today. Rain tomorrow.