Date: 2012-04-14
From: Uncle Johnnies Hostel

To: Uncle Johnny's Hostel
Miles today: 0.0

This is a this and that post. Just some random thoughts that I haven't included in my previous journal entries. Since I have some time on my hands waiting for the dinner shuttle I thought this would be a good time to update some things.But first, I got a great nights sleep last night and the Dry Mouth stuff seemed to work. I hope it works on the trail also. Stay tuned. I dedided not to do the breakfast shuttle as I was still full from last night so that gave me some time to update my journal and go through my stuff to see what I might need in the way of resupply. I did take the noon shuttle to an all you can eat pizza buffet and salad bar. I was pretty hungry by then and ate a lot. Mainly salad but I put a dent in there salad bar also. I waited all morning and in to the afternoon before I could get a washer and dryer but that is now all done. My only complaint here is one washer and dryer for the hostel and the guests. The hostel used it all morning and into the PM for towels, sheets etc for the cabins. I have all the resupply I need so I will go to dinner and then just chill out while others do their resupply. A nice feeling. Off tomorrow on a new section of trail.This and that.The homeless couple made it in this afternoon and are doing a work for stay tonight and tomorrow. I hope it works out for them.I weighed when I got here and I have lost another 4 pounds. That is good. I didn't want to keep losing a lot of weight. I think I have most likely lost about 20 pounds of fat and gained 6 pounds of muscle.I re-read my journal entries and noticed that on 4/9/12 I said I had met two new hikers and was sleeping between them in the shelter. Lucky me. You must of wondered why lucky me. Its because one was a 50 year old lady and the other just a little older. LOL I revised that entry.A week or so ago I started seeing more pine trees and in many spots the trail is covered in pine needles. As long as they are not wet that makes a comfortable walking surface. when you hike up to the higher elevations and then down again you go from trees with no leaves and it looks like winter to trees with leaves budding out and wild flowers here and there. It's great.My sister said I should explain a little more about a device I carry called a SPOT so I will. That's what Sisters are for to keep Brothers straight. The SPOT I carry is a little GPS device that does only a couple of things but very important things. Before I left I set up a group to receive emails from the SPOT. When I get to a place where I am going to stop for the night I turn it on and push a button that says OK. When I do this it finds my location and sends it to my email list along with my GPS coordinates. When they receive it they can clike on it and it will take them to Google Maps and they can zoom down to my location and see where I am. There also is a button for SOS. If I push that it notifies an international rescue organization that I am in trouble and they locate the nearest rescue service and send them my location and hopefully they will come get me. It is only to be used for life threating situations and serious injuries. There are other things that it will do but those are the most important. I have my daughters to thank for my SPOT. Thanks Heather and Lauren. I am still amazed at the number of smokers on the trail. Very sad to think the price they are going to pay in the future.I think that is about it for now. If I have missed something I will add it in a later post.