Date: 2008-07-06
From: Albany, NY//Hanover, NH

To: Three Mile Road
Miles today: 8.4

I miss my wife. Yes, it has only been 10 hours or so since i saw her, but when i have to leave to come back out here, it is hard. Two thoughts have made it easier this time than the others... one, i only have about five weeks until i finish this part of the adventure and i go home, and two, i am about to hike into the white mountains....it is still hard to leave my wife, and i am sad about that, but coming back to a big group of friends helps.Other news: gobbles has lyme. crap.So two thirds of my group has contracted it, and i am nervous that i will be next. I am on hyper-alert for the symptoms: headache, neck pain, weakness, and loss of appetite. Lyme is all over the place out here. I would say that almost half of the hikers i have come across and are in our vicinity seem to be coming down with it. Not a pretty picture. I hope that the hikers behind us fare better.So, back to gobbles... we are all going to take a zero here tomorrow, so he can rest up, and get his meds. We will hike out on tues. morning. That is the plan....So what happened during the day? lots... today was a day of surprises...I got out of albany around ten, and watched from the rental car as my wife zoomed south on the highway as i zoomed north. I had forgotten which exit i needed to use from the highway, so i got off an exit or two early, and had the fun of driving through glens falls, ny. Pretty town, but stoplights annoy me, so i wasn't as enthused about the town as i might have been otherwise.the drive was nice, and i got back to the car drop off about 1:45 or so, waited for a cab for a half hour, and then was back in hanover by 2:30. I met up with the gang - gobbles, knuckles, trust me, snake eyes, and thud. I haven't seen thud since may 15, so that has been fun. I was told that snake eyes and trust me were hooked up with a house to stay at through a family friend, and we were all welcome to crash there. Awesome! the gang had slacked into town, so they were going to catch a taxi back to the house, and i would hike the 8.4 miles to the house. snake eyes even took my backpack, so i could slack too. Even better!!So this scenario unfolding has been eerily similar to my dream....I'm tempted to go see if i can find the snacks that were in my dream, but i don't want to jinx this, and wake up.After hanging out with them at a good pizza place, i left about 3:30 to get up here. Gobbles headed off to the doctors, and the others were scattering to do whatever, but would reconvene to catch a cab back here.I got here at about 6:30... and did not find the kind of house that they had been hyping up. I was expecting a two room cabin. I found a palace. I thought maybe they were playing a joke on me when i first came here. I half expected the cops to come rolling up and arrest me for trespassing...glad to find out the joke was that they were playing down the cabin. This is an awesome home, and i am really lucky to be staying here. Thanks snake eyes and trust me!The evening was spent hanging out, and then cooking dinner. Gobbles came back with his lyme news, and we developed a plan to make sure we could all stay together. Actually, trust me sprang into action, and got permission to stay here another day. So gobbles can rest up and feel better.So i'm not sure what tomorrow will bring, but it should be interesting.