Day 23 – 30.3 km (total – 427.8 km)

View form Norris Arm

We’re in Grand Falls-Windsor on a Tuesday night and again, the snow has found us!  The 15 cm that was expected a couple of days ago turned into a foot and a half.  The snow banks in town are over my head!  And tonight, the snow falls again – locals say another 10-15, but they seem amusingly skeptical based on the last forecast.  So yet again, the snowplows will visit us in the wee hours of the morning… seems to be a trend in the last couple of weeks.

Yesterday, I decided to duck off the TCH and run through a community called Norris Arm.  It was the same distance to Grand Falls, so thought it might be a nice change of pace to run on a road that didn’t have transport trucks whizzing by me at 100 km/hr.  The local school had an empty parking lot and we thought that might be a good place to call home for the night.  We had to move for the plow, but then we settled in… until a horn and headlights caught our attention.  It was the caretaker of the school… he had received a call about a strange RV and was asked to check it out!  After a brief explanation, we started chatting.  Likely in his early fifties, he nodded vigorously as I explained what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.   He cut in and told me about walking miles to school in his day and how today’s generation is ending up “obese” because of the time sitting still in front of screens.

Because in building that trust, there’s a possibility the time we spent  outside in our youth that we often took for granted can be acknowledged  and maybe even sought after by a generation that is bombarded with  reasons to stay inside.

It seems everyone has their two cents about youth and what they’re up to.  And although it’s tempting to argue we’re just sore that video games today are vastly superior to Atari 2600’s Donkey Kong of old or that a lot of kids no longer have to get themselves to school, I think there is genuine concern from a lot of people.  Even those who are not tapped into the latest research or statistics seem engaged and interested in the well being of younger generations.   So where does this leave us?

In any relationship, trust takes a lot of time and a lot of effort to build.  At the best of times, that gap in generations can be a difficult one.  But for those of us who have any sort of vested interest in the future of youth, it seems like a no-brainer that it’s worth the time and effort to build that trust with them.  Because in building that trust, there’s a possibility the time we spent outside in our youth that we often took for granted can be acknowledged and maybe even sought after by a generation that is bombarded with reasons to stay inside.

Coming into town from TCH