August 26 & 27 - Woodstock, Florenceville, & Hartland, NB

These past two days have been hot, but our walks have been made more pleasant by the fact that each was beside the St. John River. In fact, as an addition to our scheduled itinerary, in Hartland we walked across the river over the longest covered bridge in the world.  I kept a tight grip on my cane as I didn’t want it to disappear down the small space separating the pedestrian and vehicle sections of the bridge. As I walked across I couldn’t help but think back to our walk in Golden, BC with Dale and Sharon and our walk across the covered bridge there.  We have definitely covered a lot of territory. The picture below shows me at the Harland bridge entrance

I enjoyed my time in the Andrew and Laura McCain Public Library in Florenceville this morning. Yes, you have maybe guessed that Florenceville is the headquarters of the McCain Foods, and the town is known as the Potato Chip Capital of the World. Much of the development of the town is due to the generosity of the McCain family.

In the library, I was able to talk a little about the White Cane Connections project, the challenges of vision loss, and the people I have met through my books. I am particularly excited about this with the approach of the Paralympics. Two young blind athletes I have written about in Out of Sight are in London, England at this moment, ready to represent Canada in the Paralympic swimming events. Donovan Tildesley has already competed in the Paralympics in Sydney and then in Beijing where he carried the Canadian flag for the opening ceremony. London will be Amber Thomas’s second time to compete in the Games and she is hoping to bring home a medal or two for her country. You can read more about Amber in today’s edition of the Edmonton Journal online at: 

www.edmontonjournal.com

 You can read a more detailed account of both of these young athletes in my own book, Out of Sight, copies of which are available in many libraries across the country or can be purchased through myself at:

sboman@shaw.ca

Please add book order to the subject line. Purchase cost is $15 plus $3 for shipping.

Although the Paralympics don’t get as much media coverage as the Olympics, you can follow along online.

The picture below shows me chatting with Marian, Terri and Sandra at the library.