Meeting a world famous motivational Speaker

  Photo From the AT:   

 This is Bill and Martha's car.  She says she 'SELDOM' let's him drive.  I sure liked the License Plates,  in honor of his dog Orient.

So for today:

I had a Journal with AOL. I was able to post on the trail using the Cell phone. I was privileged to be chosen as Journal of the Week once while hiking, That generated many new readers.

Once in Maine, we saw a note tacked to a tree at a trail head announcing a Church where Bill Irwin (famous Blind Hiker) was going to speak. Shucks, the time had passed.

That night I made the mistake of using that information on my journal ‘regretting I had missed the occasion’, but I misspelled or used the wrong last name. Within a few minutes I received an e-mail from Bill’s wife sorta getting me for using the wrong name. Imagine that, she was reading my Journal!!!  I apologized telling her I had his books and KNEW his name, but…. Stammering then said “Let me make it up to you and take y’all out to dinner!”

I received a message back, “Probably not, we are pretty busy, you understand.”

I turned to Sherry and said, “Can you believe I just invited an international motivational speaker out to dinner?”

It wasn’t long before I received another message. “Bill is now a vegan, but he says he would love to go to dinner with you if he can pick the place.”

I said of course!!!  She gave me the time and place in Bangor.  We had a wonderful time. He had his seeing eye dog with him and I commented on how well the dog was trained with all the food around. His reply smiling, “He is working right now.”

I could hardly believe it. I don’t even remember what we ate nor the name of the restaurant. He was so down to earth and honest about his life. They joked about being in the process of building their own house with a view of Katahdin.

What an experience, dinner with Bill Irwin and his wife Martha. He knew I had bought his books, but still gave me autographed copies.

This grew too long, continued next time as "BLIND COURAGE!"

Nite Shipslog

PS: I could never explain the feeling there at dinner, WOW  After that hike he was in demand around the world for speaking engagements.