Leg 18 July 16th 2008

Start and Finish: Seaside Regional Center site, Shore RD Waterford, CT. Length of walk: 4.5 miles

Another hot day despite starting early.

Walked along Shore Rd across Jordan Cove and turned around at Little league field past RR tracks. Came back on Palmer and New shore roads.

This was always my favorite ride after work, often ridden on cold winter nights in the dark, but in summer it is very busy even at this time in the morning.

I am beginning to tire from both this type of walk-paved roads through shore line activity and also the heat, which seems to affect little Domino more than me. After turning around and temps in the 80s, worse on sun and on roads, she took a liking to lying the cool grass. Can't say i blame her. I tried taking a news paper and took a long rest on a spot overlooking Jordan Cove. At one point I soaked her with my reserve water bottle to cool her off a little.

I prefer walking near the shore in the off season, when not only is it quieter but I don't get that sense of exclusion, perhaps I am too sensitive to the multitude of no parking, no trespassing private signs. Perhaps I am too sensitive to the rudeness of the people I encounter. I personally would prefer these walks which are probably going to be similar for the next months, to not be in the summer.

There are some big houses along here, some on the shore some on a flat low hill near the water. Some have green grass tennis courts that seem to placed to be visible form the road, wheres as almost everything else is hidden?

Saw a threesome of deer at one of our stops, they were 50 feet away and Domino loved it.

The highlight of this walk was walking along the shore of Long island Sound for about .2 miles-not much to brag about I realize but about the only place I could get to near water. This beach was nestled between two public right of ways, and the beach itself was well marked with "no trespassing" and "no dogs" signs, which I interpreted as to refer to the beach itself not the shore line, which in RI anyway, is public domain. D decided to mark this sand with a solid biological marker which I felt like leaving there in spite, but I picked it up as I usually doo.

Waterford is my hometown, though I lived far in the north. Here was the Little League field I umpired at once, the store we sued to stop at skipping school, the house we used to party and their places.

When I got back to the car it was in the 80s and getting hot. I found a note on my car"Don't park here..your car will be towed" I had parked in what I thought was an unused former state facility for the Mentally retarded . There were no sign at this building, unlike the main entrance which had "no trespassing" signage. I had ben parked there for 2-3 hours and started at just after 6 AM. Hmmm

In my previous 17 walks of this trip, I have parked in some pretty suspicious places, nothing illegal but I had wondered if would get a bogus ticket or raise some local's ire by having the audacity to park-for two hours in the early morning-near their homes?