Today I reach my destination

Dear Children,

Today I'm going to write just a short message to you because I need to walk my last nine miles to get to the end of Route 11. Here I am at the 25 mile mark.

I wanted to show you this photograph of a wind farm in Northern New York State - there were dozens of windmills. Do you remember the video of little windmills down in Alabama? I took a video of these, up close, and I will post it early next week.

And this photo reminds me of a picture of this farm machine I took way back, also in Alabama. This time it has a windmill behind it. I think it's cool!

Please check the blog again soon. I want to answer the questions that you asked me but don't have time today.

Love, Nana Greta

NICE TO HEAR FROM ALL OF YOU!

A sunflower and some sheep.

A northern barn, built so that the snow can slide off the roof.

A river canyon in Watertown. Remember how there were no rocks down on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. There certainly are rocks in Northern New York State.

I've seen many deer crossings but here is a cow crossing.

Dear Children -

This is a message to all the children who have been reading my blog, especially the new ones who posted so many new messages to me.

I have three dozen messages to respond to so this time I will write to everyone at once.

Luiz H., Cela, Pedro 5B, Sabrina, Lua, Luis, Felipe, Marco Silveira, Omar Abbas, Ana Maria, Bia, Marilia, Susan, Fernanda, Ivan, Juliana, Jaqueline, Maria Miguel, Julia, Larissa, Malu, Rafael, Stephanie, Melissa, Amanda, Alice, Rone, Jose Vitor, Billy and Cris, and Christina:

You all are so wonderful, you give me a great boost, new courage, and hope for the future.

Many of you said you would like to do what I'm doing - you would like to walk, to see the states in the US, to do something for the environment. Some of you thought you wouldn't have the courage or the will to walk so much. Let me tell you something: all of you will be able to something like this some day. You will have energy and courage for the things you really believe in. I hope you will have a safe and diversified world to live in, with animals for you to love and care for, and much beauty and wonder.

Here are some of the animals I've seen: deer, goats, sheep, cows, horses, rabbits, squirrels, dogs, cats, a bear, wild turkeys, many kinds of birds, a snake, frogs, turtles. Unfortunately I've also seen animals that were run over by cars: armadillos, raccoons, opossums, and some of the ones I mentioned above.

I call my motor home a gypsy wagon because I've always liked to wander and I've admired the life of gypsies. I like to pretend that I'm a gypsy. Other things I call it are: motor home, van, RV, truck, vehicle.

About public transportation in Brazil: I can understand that sometimes the buses in big cities are not safe or comfortable. But it is wonderful in Brazil that you can get almost anywhere by bus, much more so than in the US. It's not good for everyone to have to have a car for everything they do, and I hope that we can work to improve public transportation here and in Brazil.

Some of you mentioned things you do at home to help the environment. That's excellent - keep doing what you can. It's good to be aware about not wasting water, electricity, paper, food.

I wish all of you could join me for a day. I'm getting very close to the end of my walk. I will send you some more photos, and I hope to hear from you again.

Love, Nana Greta

A little message

This morning I am leaving the nice place on Lake George where I've spent a short vacation with family members, including my little granddaughter from Brazil. I will walk on Route 11 for the next eight days and arrive at the end of my journey on Saturday, August 29.

I received a wonderful batch of messages from a group of children in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. They put a big smile on my face and I loved their ideas and questions. Children from Bahia, I will respond to you as soon as possible, hopefully this weekend. It's not always easy to get on the internet, but I hope to find a library tomorrow where they have WiFi.

Now I must leave for the six hour trip back to where I stopped walking last Saturday.

Love, Nana Greta

Nana Greta has walked 1000 miles

This is me near Pulaski in New York State, as I complete 1ooo miles of my walk. I have about 170 to go.

Remember the long line of hay bales covered in white plastic? Not far from them I saw this strange sight peeking out from behind the corn. What do you think it is?
Well, well - someone had fun painting this huge caterpillar complete with antennae.

Here is my friend Tim, who walked almost 100 miles with me, some in PA and some in NY. He is peering into a little house, which I think is a shelter for children to wait in for the school bus when the weather is bad.

Love, Nana Greta

My final State: New York

Dear Children,

See if you can name the eight states I've walked through by now. The list is at the bottom of this posting. Now I'm walking through the last state on my journey, the state of New York. This weekend I'll walk through the city of Syracuse.

This is a busy time in the countryside. These silos are where the harvest is stored in the winter months.

Hay is one of the main crops in this area. It is long grass that is dried and bundled for the cows, horses and pigs to eat in the winter when there is no fresh grass. All those white things are bales of hay covered in plastic to keep them dry.

This machine takes the big rolled up bale of hay and wraps it tight in plastic. See the roll of plastic underneath. The hay has to be cut and dried and put away dry, so it's important to have a few days without any rain. The sunny days of August are perfect.

This cat had such shiny green eyes when I spotted it by the roadside - it was probably looking for a mouse or bird. Farmers often keep cats to hunt the mice that eat away at the corn and other grains.

And these beautiful scarecrows are supposed to scare the birds away so that they won't eat seeds and fruit from the garden.

What are you doing with your August days? Hope it's a great month for you.

Love, Nana Greta

States: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, (a tiny corner of Georgia that I'm not counting), Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania.