Date: 2004-08-31
From: Georgia

To: Maine
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Mile 1742.4Moose MountainSouthwestern NHAugust 31, 2004And that's it for the word from the trail, from the Palm Pilot anyway. Palm.net is pulling the plug on me and all Palm users, the corporateswine! I'll be losing service and this palm address is historytomorrow, 8/31. So next week start emailing me at duke@jigglebox.comor just go to the button on my site and hit it. It is a sad day for me and the past two years of Palm magiccommunications. I'm gonna finish the story of my trip "live from thetrail" as best I can, utilizing library computers in what few towns inclose proximity to the trail are left remaining in these final 400miles. It almost doesn't matter that I'm losing this service, because at thispoint on the trail I hardly get any signal anymore anyway. Only forabout three hours in the past three weeks have I had signal, alwaysatop a peak. And so I sit here atop Moose Mountain in New Hampshire, eager to moveon to complete my 20-mile day. But I know the moment I descend, I'lllose signal and with tomorrow being the 31st of August, that'll be it. The fact that you're reading the 15's now is only by lucky chance thatthe Moose came through. When I didn't have signal in Hanover, NHyesterday, home to Dartmouth U., I thought sure that was it. From hereon out it's boondocks. Nowhere. Off the page.I am sooo grateful to all of you for all the lovingly sent carepackages! From here on out (my final 400 miles!), I have a last wish. Rather than packages which often cause packweight overload, (wonderfulas it is!) I ask you this: If you like what you're reading, have aburning desire & the means to help carry me to the finish line, make a pledgetoward my "Bed & Bath" fund. This will weigh nothing, and help megreatly in super-expensive New England where the cheapy hostels of theSouth are a thing of the past. Motels run 40 or 50 bucks, not bad, butimpossible for me on my budget yet so very needed for rest and showers.And in the White Mountains, which I begin to conquer the second week ofAugust, free shelters are virtually non-existent and the only"civilization" available in this harsh, high elevation section of trailare the "huts" of the Appalachian Mountain Club, $80/night lodges whichcater more to the likes of yupsters than to we scraggly thruhikers. Please know that I expect nothing in return for the stories I relate here on Jigglebox.com. I know that few if any of my friends have the means to help me, and I don't expect help from anyone, let alone my fellow struggling artists. However, it doesn't hurt to ask, for I know there's someone out there reading who does have the means and would gladly help. Every time I get online I see the reader statistics climb, so I know someone¢s reading. Many someones. I hope one of you is an agent, another an editor, still another a publisher.Your support, in whatever form, has been and will continue to be hugelyappreciated. Thank you all so much! Write me at duke@jigglebox.comshould you wish to pledge, or just to say hello. And if somehow youfind yourself in New England and wish to join me for a section oftrail, call Cuzin Justin at (603) 393-7838 for my latest whereabouts.And so it's goodbye from Moose Mountain, but not without a laugh ortwo. New England pulled a fast one on me and, after again taking on theweight burden of all my winter gear, I find myself hiking in alate-summer heat wave. Temperatures soar in the 90s this week with humidity to match. I can hardly sleep at night, as well, so warm has it been. I'm a sticky-phobic walking nightmare of sweat. The bugs are back in force, yet the leaves begin to fall as well. In the words of Mark Twain, however, "Don't like the weather in New England? Wait a minute." It'll probably snow on us next week. Adios. Auf Wiedersehen. Ciao for now.-RSM His Madness Lord Duke Jester Jack Gadget Jigglebox Malcovich,Esquire, Inquire Within