I DID IT! A HALF A MILLION PIECES OF TRASH!

 

After Friday night, I needed 5,878 pieces of trash to reach my halfway goal of half a million pieces of trash.

I got up really early and was out of the house by 8:30.  I continued where I left off on Wilbeth Road.  

There is a lovely park that was so trashy, I couldn't believe it!  There's no trash receptacle around, so that's why water bottles and snack food wrappers just get dropped on the ground.

I would NEVER let my children play here!  And the way Henry loves water bottles, I couldn't even walk my dogs by this area.

I wish I was around to see their faces when they come to the playground today!    Now it looks the way it should.

If I had young children, I would get all the kids together and clean the park before they played.  It would be a great lesson for them.

I cleaned a section of Wilbeth Road yesterday, and this morning, I was out for five hours and got the rest of this side of Wilbeth Road done, from the freeway to Arlington!  I picked up 4,532 pieces, and I only needed 1,346 more to reach my goal.

Five hours is too much for my knee though.  I went home, ate lunch, took a hot bath, had a 20 minute nap, and took the dogs to the school for an hour.  Then I forced myself to go out again.

I started at Main & Wilbeth, and there wasn't a lot of trash to pick up.  The wind kicked up, and it's very hard to pick up trash in the wind. In wind, I do more chasing than picking!

I did it!  Half a million pieces!

I was near the towpath on Wilbeth Road, and I walked by this big car part, and when I was at 1,345, I turned around and went back to get it.

At that very moment, a friend of mine rode by on this bicycle!  What are the chances that would happen?  I asked him if he'd take a picture for Keep America Beautiful, and he was happy to.

I look a mess, like I'd been picking up trash all day, but that's because I'd been picking up trash all day.  This is the 500,000th piece of trash!

I didn't pick up one more piece.  I wanted to, but there was nothing left of me.

What a great adventure this has turned out to be!  Who would have guessed that when my dog cut his nose on a piece of broken glass that my whole life would change?