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ATTLEBORO -- Don Doucette has always been on the road.

There were the 26 years he drove an oil delivery truck, and the many, many walks and rides with his wife of 35 years, Nancy.

Even a partial disability didn't stop his travel from place to place to place.

Then one misty day he dreamily looked out of his back window at the apple trees in his backyard and spied the hanging limb.

`` I said to myself, `I'd like to make a walking stick.' I took the limb down, took the bark off with my pocket knife. I sanded it when it dried and put three coats of polyurethane on it. I didn't know what I was doing,'' said Doucette. `` The stick's five feet long. It conforms to my anatomy per fectly, with all of my faults and all of its faults. So, we have a symbiotic relationship. It goes where I go. It's been to many places.''

Doucette, 60, Nancy, 57, and the stick, 9, have been to dozens of sites in the Common wealth. The Doucettes are on a mission, a quest, if you will, of what Nancy calls `` doin' towns.''

`` In the late summer, early fall, of 2002, I turned to her and said, `I've got something I would like to do.' She looked at me quizzically and asked, `What?' I said, `I'd like to visit every char tered community in the Com monwealth.' She said, `Okay.' So, we tried it,'' said Doucette.

To read the rest of this story, see Living Well in today's Sun Chronicle. You'll also find a column by Elizabeth Bristol on musings on cat-and-mouse games, a story on how to talk to your toddler, recipes and a look at the best exterior stains.