#WalkCT 2019 — Day 1

This morning I kicked off my fourth annual Walk Across Connecticut — aka one of my favorite weeks of the year. As always, my goal is to meet as many people as possible outside of the confines of my office.

I’ll be walking 100 miles over the next five days — west to east across the state. Here’s a recap of my first day on the road:

An awesome group of New Milfordites (?) met me to help kick off the walk. From there, I started walking east toward Roxbury.

I met all sorts of people along the way, including a group of young campers who shared their concerns with me: ending youth smoking and animal abuse.

I also met Joe and Terra, who surprised me with ice water at the top of my first big hill.

Later on, I stopped to chat with a group of Trump voters. We went back and forth on taxes and welfare. While we disagreed on policy, 20 minutes later, as I was laboring up another huge hill, one of those guys rumbled up next to me in his pickup truck, handed me a cold bottle of water through the window and said, “Thought I might find you, figured you needed this.” It was a reminder that too often we judge people based on their politics. Democrats do it to Republicans. Republicans do it to Democrats. But you know what — we are all mostly really good people. There are exceptions, sure, but we’d be a lot better off if we didn’t assume we know somebody because of who they vote for.

Today’s weather was beautiful, and while the roads were hilly, the day flew by, with plenty of great photo ops along the way.

I’m looking forward to getting started bright and early tomorrow for day two. Hope you’ll follow along!