Date: 2008-06-13
From: U.S. 522, Front Royal, VA

To: U.S. 522, Front Royal, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

I slept very well last night. I was tired when I went to bed and don't remember anything else till 4am.I stayed in bed till 6am when I started the room coffee maker and it started singing my song. ;-)My plan was to catch the 10:30am shuttle back to the Trail....unless I heard back from Jonathan. I've been emailing back and forth with him for a couple weeks about me talking to a group of young kids about backpacking.I had an email from him when I checked and we made arrangements for that talk to happen later today, so I ended up staying for one more day.I talked to Forecast and Aggie in the lobby for a while. Forecast isn't feeling well and they were heading to see a doctor. Hope the best for you guys!Jonathan showed up just after noon and we headed over to Agape' Christian Day Care in Winchester.I walked in during quiet time...and it was quiet! :-)I met his wife, Victoria, and toured the large building.It was going to be a couple hours before the grade school kids showed up, so Jonathan asked if I was hungry. Can you believe it? When would a thru hiker ever not accept a meal. Ha! :-)Jonathan took me out to a Chinese buffet and I showed real restraint...I only had 2 plates of food, and a plate of dessert. :-)It was nice because I got to know more about him and his family. I think they have lots of backpacking in their future from the sounds of it.We went back to the Day Care. I have never done anything like this before, but it's part of what I like so much about living life the way I am....the new life experiences.I have lots of friends who I know would be great at talking to a group of 16 kids between the ages of 7 and 11 about backpacking. I wasn't too sure about me though. :-)Jonathan assured me I would do fine. He said he had been telling the kids about me for a couple months.Mrs Gorp suggested I take my backpack. I had called her because she was once an elementary teacher. I would have called John Galt since he currently teaches school, but I know he would have misled me somehow. :-)Jonathan and I went to pick up most of the kids at school in a van. I checked my email while we were waiting and was pleased to see my hiking friends using my guestbook as their message board. They were actually being really good about saying something nice about me once in a while. Even Liteshoe was uncharacteristically nice to me!The kids were all there and it was time for questions and answers.Jonathan introduced me as Mr. Suiters, then asked what my trailname was and all 16 kids said; "Stumpknocker". :-)I didn't really get a chance to say anything yet when I saw hands go up in the air. They were very interested in all aspects of backpacking....and they asked much better questions than my hiking friends would have. Ha!I was answering questions and having a blast. I think they all liked it when I showed them my pair of 2 month old walking shoes with the heels worn off. They seemed to relate to that. :-)I wasn't ready for it to end, but parents kept coming in and one by one took my audience away. We were down to about 4 or 5 children, so I let them start trying on my backpack and I adjusted my hiking poles to fit them.Not one of them said it was too heavy. I'll take that as a compliment. :-)I thanked Victoria and Jonathan for MAKING me do this....it turned out to be a complete pleasure on my part, and hopefully will encourage some of the kids to become future hikers and backpackers.Jonathan drove me back to my motel room in Front Royal. I thanked him again and said goodbye to Gunnar. I know I'll run into both of them on the AT someday. :-)I went into this day a little apprehensive and ended the day feeling like I did something very worth while and had fun doing it.Thanks Jonathan and Victoria for giving me the opportunity to talk to the children about backpacking.Another great day on my journey of the Appalachian Trail and the towns and the people along the way! :-)