Mid-Atlantic Walking Weekend - Part 2

Today's walk was in Martinsburg, WV. In fact, the registration was at the Holiday Inn which I stayed at when I went to Mark and Sue's wedding umpty ump years ago. The actual walk started and ended downtown, however, at the train station. Most of it was through reasonably interesting downtown historic districts and the route passed pretty much everything which might pass as a tourist attraction in Martinsburg. For example, there's the Belle Boyd house, the childhood home of a woman who became a Confederate spy (and lived to write about it). There was one section through bland residential streets which was obviously just a way to make up distance. There were no real problems with the directions, although one checkpoint required writing down the death year on a tombstone from the cemetery - and the date was so worn down that one digit was completely unreadable.

The weather continued to be good, by the way. As was the turn out. I heard they got 170 people yesterday and I'm sure they must have gotten more today. My start number was 148 and I signed in about 9:30 a.m., with start times going until noon. I'm hoping things continue to be nice, although the weather forecast for tomorrow is a lot iffier.

By the way, at the end of the walk, I stopped in at a store (right next to the train station) called Book Stop. It turned out really to sell comics, videos and science fiction collectibles. But they had a copy of Arkham Horror, a board game that I've enjoyed playing in the past. I also bought
a Mr. Mxyzptlk doll. And I had a nice chat with the owner about board games in general, as well as explaining to him why there were so many people parked at the train station.

Dumb Lawsuit Department

I read a filler article about a high school student in Danbury, Connecticut, whose family is suing a teacher. Apparently, the student in question fell asleep in class. And the teacher, in order to awaken him, hit her hand on his desk. The student claims the noise of this has caused permanent damage to his eardrum.

One can only imagine what the kid would claim had the teacher shaken him.