Date: 2014-02-10
To: Friends/Colorado/Maine/ATKO/Jerkey
Miles today: 0.0

Where to start....Today, I feel very thankful to be surrounded by the friends I have. This morning around 10am I picked up my friend Jordan, whom will be going to Colorado with me. We went to Wolf Ridge Ski Resort and were supposed to spend the day skiing before we head west. Instead, I find out my alternator is bad, as my gauges are flickering on and off. Jordan stays to snowboard and I hurry back down the back road trying to make it back to my friends shop in order to fix the car we are about to drive out west. Well, I made it about five minutes down the road when the Subaru died. I called a few people, and within ten minutes, a friend said "I'll be on the way within a hour with the alternator. They are easy to put on. I'll have it on in a few minutes." So, a hour or so later, James pulls up (after scaring the sh*t out of me as I thought a van was about to take me out on the side of the road). He was right, five minutes later the car was running great. Although, of course, the new alternator was not a good one. So, we went back to his shop, he installed another one, and it was working great. Then, now around 4pm, I went to my friend Jason's shop. He installed a brand new Interstate battery for me as well as changed all my fluids and checked over the car. On top of that, he gave me a few quarts of oil for the car since it burns some on long trips. I bought the car from its original owner, a former AT thru hiker in 2005. Matt was one of the "Honeymooner's" and sold me a great vehicle. Just over 230,000 miles and it still runs great. Thanks to the friends and people that surround me, I'm now ready for this road trip, and this is not the first time the day before I am running around having people fix stuff for me...Danny and everyone at the Tire Station in Asheville finished my RV the day before Laura and I drove it 17,000 miles to Alaska and back(without a single problem).Tomorrow I head to Colorado with three friends to ski some of the said to be best terrain in the states. I absolutely cannot wait! I grew up skiing in New England and taught skiing at Cataloochie Ski Area in Maggie Valley, NC for a few years in high school. Everyone says skiing out west is nothing like the east coast. We will be starting at Keystone and working are way around the state for a week or so. After Colorado, I will be in NC until February 12th, then I head to Maine. I will be visiting family and enjoying the winter while there. I will be going to Eustis with with my dad, step mom Beth, my uncle Earle, and my aunt Diane. I haven't been to their camp in years, so I am looking forward to it. Spending time with family I do not get to see very often is valuable to me. I will also be skiing while in Maine at Sunday River in Bethel. The next time I am in Maine, I will have walked just under 2,200 miles to get there...that should be an interesting feeling. I was trying to figure out what I should do from the time I get back from Maine until the time I started the trail, which was supposed to be around March 17th or so. Then, I kept reading about this "ATKO" (Appalachian Trail Kick Off). After talking to some people about it, I decided it would be fun to attend. I called and got two tent sites in the "tent city." The week before I will be going to Pittsburgh, PA to pick up B Man and Jo Cool. They are going to spend some time on the trail this spring which is awesome! I cannot wait to hike with them. Miss Janet is heading down to GA for the ATKO so I asked her if she would be willing to stop in Asheville and pick us up on her way down from Erwin, TN. Of course, she didn't hesitate to reply with "oh hell yes!" That should be a very fun weekend and a great way to start an awesome journey north. Today, Chris Graham, the owner of Uncle Fool's Smokehouse LLC in Florida messaged me stating one of his team members had decided to postpone their hike and asked if I would like to take their place. I thought "what is the catch?" and before I could even ask the questions I had in mind, I was reading his messages. To sum it up, I pretty much promote his jerky on the trail and receive jerky for the duration of my hike. Sounds great to me! I wanted to make sure there were no type of commitments to others, miles, towns, and so on; and there isn't which is great. I'm fond of small businesses; of all kinds. Chris is a small business owner who is thru hiking the AT this year as well, and I think he has taken it upon himself to do something great not only for other hikers, but for his business as well. Check out his facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/unclefools also, check out the AT page at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Uncle-Fools-Jerky-AT-thru-Hike-Team/592277330857415 I would not promote something I think is a horrible idea. The fact that all he asks for is to say you like his product, if you do, I think is a great thing. So, bring on the jerky! I feel like Mach 7th will be here before I know it, and I hope it is. Colorado and Maine will both be great trips. I feel very fortunate to have all the opportunities I have in life, especially being able to take this time between graduating college and finding a "real" job to do exactly what I want to do; travel in all forms. Until next time,