Date: 2005-05-26
From: Pearisburg VA

To: A Letter Home from GypsyLuLu
Miles today: 0.0

Mom, It was so good to talk to you today. By the time I got onto the trail it was after 7 o'clock in the evening. I walked a mile or so and then got the eeby-jeebies and decided to go back to town for the night. If Touk is ahead of me (which I'm sure she is) my friends Sam I Am and Origami will pass on my plans. Sam and Origami are fast hikers and man o man, I didn't want to be alone tonight. A storm blowing in and after I talked to you I heard some bad gossip about some creep who might be on the trail ahead.(edit) I'm not night hiking if I've got bad feelings...Yada, yada, yada....So, here I sit in a echoing empty hostel. The radio is sketchyly droning away keeping the lonliness away. Our gang left a bunch of food here, leftovers from last night. I've already eaten two veggie burgers and the last of a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Tomorrow I'll need to pull some serious miles. Twenty-three point five to where we planned to be- WOW! That will be something! The wind is doing crazy things outside and even though I'm thinking of how daunting tomorrows itenerary sounds, I'm still peaceful in my decision to be here. The trail has summoned up this deep rooted independence(if you will) i.e. I listen to myself and am more grounded in my decisions. I know that it sounds rather kooky - forgive me. Another odd side to that coin is the familial connections that have formed out here. We all walk by ourselves each day, hundreds of hikers, all spaced out over the trail, lost in their /our own thoughts. Okay, so you'ld think we'd develope cases of anti-social, I-wanna-be-a-hermit type of people-(Maybe a few I guess, but those people were like that before starting the trail). For the most part, we are a tighter community than I've ever seen. This is weird because each man or woman is totally rootless and transient out here. I got here to the Catholic Hostel and crestfallen, walked through the empty rooms. No one here! Then I saw socks drying on the rail and bounded upstairs. Yay! Those Lafuma's could only belong to one of two people;'Fireball' or 'Clearwater'! Fireball hiked out this morning so I know it's Clearwater. Where is he? I have no clue but I feel easy knowing that my friend is here. Friends , brothers, comrades. The men and women walking this trail with me are held so close to my heart. Mom, I know that you are still being a Mommy, and that you have all sorts of things going on. I want you to hike this trail in another eight years or so. You would really appreciate all the tangible and intangible aspects of the trail. Things I can't write in my journal - not stuff like(edit), but zillions of little things. The pickup truck that passed me today, driven by a wrinkled old man with a hat and his wife in a sun bonnet with the neck ruffle... a picture of what you thought mountain people looked like - only they still do! You'd get a kick out of the thru hiker community, the outcasts and cool beans of all ages. You'd wish that you had twenty daughters to marry off to all these nice, sunkissed laddies who pack guitars, quote poetry, walk on their hands to prove that twenty-three.five miles don't scare them! You'd know what to eat. You'd test Aunt Robin's prayer of healing out on the acres of man-eating poison ivy.Hey! I walked into the office supply shop today. The lady gave me a bunch of ink pens to pass along to other hikers. "Write your Mom!" she admonished. I bought forty eight cents of paper and a pocketful of ink pens. Both are being used at the moment. Ah well, back to Sam I Am and Origami. I met them in the Pearis cemetery-way cool! Keepin in mind that I'm in Pearisburg, I saw the overgrown marker of Cap't.? Pearis, VA. MILITIA, REV.WAR. WOW! Michigan seems increasingly young as a state.Alright, I'm getting sleepy. Rain is drumming down outside the barn. I should shake out my sleeping bag and climb in. Love you so much! GypsyLuLu