Date: 2011-01-16
To: Dear journal
Miles today: 0.0

So I'm not feeling so peppy at the moment, but I thought I should update. I had off work two days this week from snow, so I tried to find things to work on for my hike. I finished my turkey jerky. Took a lot of work. There was this kid just standing their laughing at me. I didn't think it'd be as difficult as it turn out to be. It was a chore to tear the arms and legs off. The meat was kinda hard to dig out, and the kid laughing at me didn't help, until I asked the 3rd time if he would help out. Apparently he's a deer hunter. My favorite part was the seasoning, I bought it all myself . Liquid Smoke is so cool. I dried the jerky quite hard, it'll be chewy. I got my mom to sell me some of her grass-feed-beef. Remember from before. But I thawed it and I just couldn't cut it, way too flabby. I knew it was all my fault. My mom said to not refreeze it, but I did anyhow. We'll see how that turns out. The second day I woke up with the thought to hike to my cousins, which is like seven miles away, I told my sister before she went to school. I told my mom, something about telling people helps me. So I packed my school backpack full of rocks, my uncle gave me, candles, and a jug of apple juice. I weighed it with my nifty HHS (hand held scale) Till it got to 20 pounds, and grabbed a water bottle before I left. I also had my itouch. I didn't bring a phone. I stuck itouch between my face and my hat, Since I don't like headphones. I walked over the busy highway, with cars all around me, even beneath me. Good thing no one stopped to ask me If i wanted a ride like usual. I had made this walk times before, just not in the middle of winter, with piled snow, and not with such a heavy burden. I brought rubber boots, which was a good idea, since there was so much slush, twas fun to slush through. I had two pairs of socks on so I was warm. But my feet did get sore, pavement just isn't giving. I don't enjoy walking by roads, but it's my only option, luckily I wasn't splashed by any cars. My back got terribly sore, so I'd wear it on my belly side, uphills. Most of the roads were in the countryside, farms and such. So when I came in sight of my cousins house, I was feed-up I needed a rest, a bathroom, I needed to get that weight off my achy back and sore feet. So I decide to take a short cut and cross over a beautiful snow swept field. Yay boots. My cousin Donald was outside with is dog, and the dog saw me well before Donald did. I was kinda scared the dog would come attack me, of course that was dumb, but the dog did howl. Don was so happy to see me. It was cool. The sun was pretty low by then was almost 4 O'clock. We had fun breaking the ice on his pond. It was the thiner layer and underneath was a tougher layer. My aunt and uncle were happy and shocked to see me. Of course, they joked that I should try making it home, and my aunt put on my backpack, and was like "wow, this is heavy" she puts it on and starts walking about the house. and says "Donald should wear one of these around". I had dinner with them before my sister picked me up with Kyle. They had fun trying on the pack too, and teasing me. You can walk home and we'll drive behind you, too keep you safe."