MY NEW BIGGEST CHALLENGE TONIGHT!

 

Tonight, I went back to Brown & South and started picking up trash under the overpas.  

There was a lot of broken glass, pop cans, food containers.  Very typical for under a bridge.

When I got to the other side of the bridge, I saw this big pile of cans on the other side of the fence.  If there was a decent way to get there, I would have picked them up, but it was dangerous.

My guess is someone thought they could collect the cans and make a bunch of money.  When they found out  this big pile of cans was worth about 25 cents, they stopped collecting them.

I was feeling really good about getting one side under the bridge done so quickly.  Then I turned the corner . . . 

And I think I said a bad word out loud.  This was my new biggest challenge.  

I think this road is really an entrance ramp onto I-76, but I'm not sure.  I've never been here before.  IT WAS HORRIBLE!

I just stood there like a statue.  I didn't know what to do first.  Then I snapped out of it and told myself, "Maybe I'll reach my one million piece goal right here!"  And I walked to the top of the hill and started picking up trash.

A man came out of his house and said, "Waste of time!  I stopped cleaning it. There's too much!"  I just shook my head and kept on working.  Maybe I could do it, maybe I couldn't.  I was going to try. 

It's sad, because after I clean it, it will stay clean for a while.  He could keep up with it if he went out once a week.

I found a basketball, a soccer ball and a football.  I found a knife, needles and garden hoses.  I kept thinking about what that man said.  The trash here hasn't been picked up for years!  Was he feeling embarrassed?  Maybe.  I wasn't asking him to help, and I didn't act like it was his fault.  I know people unload their trash before they get on the freeway.  I know that.

I saw a tiny bit of shiny glass here, and I knew it was a bottle.  I couldn't see it, but I knew it was there.

And I got it out of the dirt.  

Most of the trash here was buried under dirt and other trash.  It was a slow process of reaching down and pulling garbage out with my hand, because I didn't want to break my trash grabber.

This is what it looked like, all the way to the top of the hill.  Layers and layers of trash and broken glass.

But you know what?  I got it done.  All of it, and I even crossed the road and did the other side of the bridge.

I picked up 2,823 pieces of trash and filled four bags.  Keep Akron Beautiful will come pick them up tomorrow.  

I love that they do that.  I don't ask often.  There is a dumpster close by, but I didn't have time to keep emptying my trash bag.  It was getting dark.

I picked up all these rusty nails under the bridge.  These are the ones that stick in tires really well.  

Traffic was nonstop.  People have no idea how bad it is to drive here.  If they did, I'm sure I'd see more people out picking up trash.