Wordy Wednesday 299: Hex Pathfinder 20

WORDY WEDNESDAY #297

PATHFINDER 15 (answer)

Here is the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:
M. Sean Molley **
Mark Ballinger **
Bo & Becky Green **
Bryce Herdt *
Kevin Orfield **
Mary Maynard **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #298

FOXGERYPTICS 15 (hint)

As of this writing, 7 people have solved this puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #299

HEX PATHFINDER 20

(click here for a PDF version)

In this puzzle, each answer starts in the correspondingly numbered hexagon and winds through the grid, starting in the indicated direction. When you have finished, every letter will be used in exactly two entries.

Rearrange the letters in the shaded spaces to get the final answer, a 7-letter word.

1E Song that begins, “I've paid my dues time after time” (17, 4 wds.)
2E Singer/actress Merman (5)
3NE What one might do on a stack of Bibles (5)
4SW Indifferent to pleasure and pain (5)
5W Book after Nehemiah (6)
6E Like a bachelor (6)
6SW Substance at a hair salon (7)
7W The Postman Always Rings ____ (5)
8NE "She's cheer captain and I'm on the ____" (Taylor Swift lyric) (9)
9W Competent (7)
10SE Cold drink favored by Kermit the Frog in memes (7, 2 wds.)
11E Projection in a church (4)
12E Game in which a maximum break is 147 (7)
13SW Actress Stone (6)
14SE Medical swelling (5)
15W Flock females (4)
16E Barack Obama, politically (8)
17SW Japanese word literally meaning “empty hand” (6)
18E Word before “charge” or “perception” (5)
19SE Occasional (8)
20E Fire ____: Three Houses (2019 Nintendo game) (6)
21W Item depicted on Israel's coat of arms (7)
22NE 1999-2006 TV series popularly associated with characters talking while walking (11, 3 wds.)
23SW Sensational promotion (8)
24NW Use a rudder (5)
25SE Song in the opening of Shrek (7, 2 wds.)
26NE Not terribly pleasant to look at (6)
27E Regain consciousness (6, 2 wds.)
28E Knight’s defensive covering (5)
29E Surname of an Italian banking family (6)
29E Wind instruments with keyboards (9)
30W “The Freshmaker”, according to an old slogan (6)
31SE False god (4)
32E Home city to the NBA’s Kings (10)

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "Support Your ____ Sheriff! (1969 Western)"?

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, keep on living, and yappy solving!