Date: 2010-02-19
To: Ok, I'm back
Miles today: 0.0

I was hoping no one would notice, but Kinnickinic seems to have been keeping track of my whereabouts and has decided to join the others who expect me to keep them amused while they are house-bound with the snow. As if that weren¢t enough, I just had an email exchange with my editor, the irrepressible Break-a-leg, and now SHE¢S bitching about my lack of journal entries. Sheesh! So I got out of town just in time. Not long after my plane departed for Frankfurt, Dulles Airport closed due to the snow. In fact, that storm left the entire region paralyzed. I was gone for 12 days, and it seems like no one left their house the entire time. Absolutely nothing got done at my office while I was away. I managed to avoid getting kidnapped while in Yemen, which I thought was a major accomplishment, and I may have actually managed to get some useful things done during my visit. At least I got paid for my time, which is one of my two principal criteria for success these days. I also found, on my return, that I was 12 days closer to starting my hike ¢ which is the other one.      As part of the deal for allowing me to visit Yemen, I was obliged to stay in a ¢low profile¢ hotel. Boy, was it low profile! I felt so safe: no terrorist in their right mind would ever guess that foreigners would be staying there! No business center, no internet connection, no health center, and no room service. They did have a ¢restaurant¢ that was open 24/7, but not one you would actually want to, say, eat at. At one point, I started to wonder how much worse off I would be if I WERE kidnapped! I made it through five long days at that particular establishment, and then discovered that some of my colleagues were staying at a rather better hotel on the other side of town. I bailed on the low profile establishment, leaving behind only a cloud of dust. (There was no air conditioning, either, so you had to leave your windows open¢¦) The second half of my stay was noticeably more comfortable. I was even able to use the treadmill on a daily basis. They didn¢t have a ¢Stairmaster¢, but the treadmill had a 15 degree elevation capacity which I used to full advantage. I¢m still not in shape for my hike, but I¢m not in as bad a shape as I¢d be if I¢d stayed at that first hotel the entire time. While in Yemen I was occasionally able to check in on the first of the Tenners to hit the trail ¢ Second Stage ¢ and I have to say that I am very impressed with her tenacity. She has also demonstrated outstanding judgment in knowing when to keep going and when to pull the plug and head for civilization. She has been up against some unusually cold and hazardous weather, but has managed to keep her sense of humor, which is a good thing. I can only hope that things will start to warm up a bit by the time I arrive at Springer Mountain just three weeks from tomorrow! Some of my other fellow Tenners are now experiencing the ¢Oh Shit¢ phenomenon. That¢s where your mind moves beyond the hypothetical concept of hiking the trail and enter the ¢twilight zone¢: that yawning gap between the mere concept of doing it and the impending reality of actually arriving at Springer Mountain dressed in hiking garb and carrying a forty pound pack, with no other option available than to start walking north. The first time out that approaching reality can be just a tad unnerving. Fortunately, it disappears almost immediately -- just as soon as you run into a few of the other pilgrims with that ¢deer-in-the-headlights¢ look on their face ¢ and realize that you¢re not alone, and that this thing is actually going to be FUN! It¢s all downhill after that, psychologically speaking. Terrain-wise, it¢s going to seem like it¢s all UPHILL, but that¢s another story.Oh, speaking of other stories, Break-a-leg has confirmed her plans to visit us here in D.C. just before I leave for my hike. She will then spend the next several days researching that story I mentioned in an earlier journal entry. You remember: ¢Through-hiker¢s love child with aliens being raised by bears in the Shenandoah¢s¢ ¢ that one.   I can¢t wait to see what she comes up with! Do keep after her, faithful readers, until she gets it done.