Date: 2004-07-30
From: Delaware Water Gap, PA

To: Delaware Water Gap
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

As we were walking towards the hotel's front desk to see if we could get the room another night (which we couldn't - there's a big NASCAR race gig on this weekend, and the hotel rates were going up to a dodgy and astronomical 140 dollars) when we noticed a couple familiar figures at the front desk. One figure was obviously a certain Rev. Yukon Jack. And the other - though now beardless - was clearly Paparazzi! "Papa!" we cried out (as in "Papa Razzi". Get it?). Hugs were exchanged, as well as plans for a catch-up dinner, later.And soon afterwards, we heard someone shout out "Moxie! Whoa!" as they came shooting out of the diner down from the hotel. It was Brood X (the hiker formerly known as "Apostle") who pulled us in to join a table for lunch. Many familiar faces in there: a cool aspect to this jumping ahead was clearly that it allowed us to catch up with a lot of folks who've been hopelessly ahead of us for a long time.Naturally, there was a lot of concern for Moxie, but there was also some delight to have us around.This was the day we had to figure it out. Her leg's still in a sorry state. Well, it's not in a *horrible* condition, really - she just can't hike yet. And she'll need some time to see what happens with it.We have been giving it time, obviously, but there are economic pressures to staying in town for a long time. Plus, the sitting around was starting to get to us. It was time for us to make up a plan instead of just sit around hoping for the issue to take care of itself.The only problem was that none of the solutions were very appealing. In fact, most of them were downright depressing.Here are some of the options we'd explored already:- wait and see (this is what we'd been doing)- try to get an appointment with a knee specialist or sports doctor (which wasn't going to happen in a tiny trail town - and which has its own complications, timing, etc) and take it from there depending on prognosis- us both getting off the trail, and giving up on our goal of completing the trail in its entirety (and try to feel good about it, cuz there's nothing shabby at all about hiking a thousand miles. this is something in and of itself to feel proud about)- Moxie'd try to find someplace she could go longer term, say a month or so, just to give it a serious chunk of time. And I'd hike solo.We formed a think-tank later in the afternoon at the town's church hostel. Papa, Moxie, Brood X and me all brainstormed ideas for a good, long time. Paparazzi kindly offered the use of his flat in Massachusetts as a place to convalesce for a while, but it was too far up the AT for Moxie's liking.It all fell into place when Tigger came to the rescue and emailed Moxie to tell her it'd be okay for her to go to her place in NYC. I don't even know if they have met before... Extraordinarily cool of her to come to the rescue.--------When we started the AT, me and Moxie had many long conversations about what we would do if one of us got injured on the trail. We both felt the same way: should the unthinkable happen, we both wanted the other to continue on and finish the hike. But now that it's an actual possibility, I am making up my mind: screw that noise. If Moxie's off, I'm off.----The rest of the day passed without serious incident. Other than the really good jazz musicians who were playing that night at the hotel next door. And Len getting drunk and belligerent. The English are funny.