Date: 2004-06-18
From: Tom's Wayside

To: Jim and Molly Denton Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Good evening. It has not been one for me, but all is getting better quickly. Poppins, Skippy, and I are all in a cool shelter tonight to recover from the wetness. Soon Poppins and I are going to work on a crossword puzzle. Before that however, I will journal.I awoke early this morning to find crawling critters (not Krispy) everywhere. Friar and I emptied an innumerable amount of centipedes and millipedes from our campsite. I pulled a dozen from my left shoe alone. Add my other shoe and both socks and I probably pulled a million little legs out of my footwear today. Yuck! We were all packed early and went to meet the ladies. They were just rising so I had ample time to catch up with K-less, Rooster, and a sleeping Booboo. They seem to be well, but like myself did not arrive at Front Royal as soon as expected. I informed them of my last week and they looked shocked at my lack of hair. By 9 a.m. I said some goodbyes and we headed to the trail. Once I stop in Maryland I am sure I will run into the boys again.I prayed and sang over the 3 miles into Front Royal. Skippy and I soon reached the road to hitch into town after only a dozen or so bug bites and a plethora of mud. We waited at the road for Poppins and Friar who arrived shortly thereafter. Friar and Skippy seem less than optimistic about our hitching chances, so Poppins and I took the first shift trying to hitch. We stared at cars with huge smiles on our faces determined to be optimistic. I said a prayer. In less than 5 minutes a new SUV stopped on the other side of the road. To our shock the young driver told us to get in. I feel bad taking rides when I haven¢t showered in 10 days (that¢s right), especially in new vehicles. None the less, we accepted the ride. Once in town we handled our Post Office/resupply needs. Right as we finished a kind lady offered us a ride to the Grocery Store. I made it out of the store for $10 (Woohoo!) and we walked to the Outfitter. During our walk I was sad to hear that none of my hiking companions would be visiting me at home. I was bummed! I really wanted to take hikers in to my home, but I tried not to show my disappointment. We did our errands and ate at a cute diner (cheap :-)). All was well until I called home. I had completely forgotten that my dad was in surgery today and I felt like a jerk. Still I talked to my sister, Courtney Elizabeth, and she made me smile. She sounded excited that I would be visiting. I was growing happy until I went to the ATM: ¢insufficient funds¢. I freaked out! After calling my bank and 2 credit cards I discovered the problem. My savings and checking were switched. While not rich, I do still have money :-). None the less, I could have dealt without the surprise stress. I reached no one else of my friends at home :-(. All told, we had spent 6 hours in town and I was ready to leave. We said goodbye to Friar who is visiting parents (so sad) and went to hitch out. The good news is that Friar will reunite with us in a week. I cannot quite describe my frustration this afternoon other than that I was moody. Now the hitch. For the 3rd time today we were picked up in under 5 minutes (Woohoo!). We had no bites for a ride so I told Skippy to switch with me since she¢s cuter. As soon as Skippy stood in the forefront we got our ride. We returned to the trail at 4 p.m. and entered the mud.   Ewww! I was wearing a new white shirt and socks as we started walking; tonight they are brown. We walked by a fence of the ¢National Zoological Conservatory¢, but no exotic animals could be seen. Skippy and Poppins are wonderful. When I was down today they were so sweet. We talked about ugly names (Bertha, Ralph, etc.) and fun ones (Chase, Luke, etc). We had covered 2 miles by 5 p.m., then the rain. For the third times in as many days it rained at 5 on the dot. The rain was unrelenting and we pushed. I slid and hurt my knee pretty badly, then I pushed more. Lately I feel rain is a challenge to my will. For some reason though, I love it. What I don¢t love is being soaked afterwards. Today however, I would be disheartened by more than the normal soaking. I had left my journal in my pocket. It was sopping and ink smeared everywhere. Some 70 pages look close to illegible¢¦I was pissed off at myself for not realizing it was in my pocket. The girls would cheer me up again though. We decided to stop short at 8 miles due to the rain. As soon as we stopped the rain did too. I was bummed as we hung our wet clothes up, but Poppins cheered me up. She told me my journal would be OK when dry and she and Skippy kept making me laugh. The shelter had flowers and a cold shower. Within 30 minutes I was eating dinner with the ladies who were making plans to celebrate our ¢halfway mark¢ in a week. I ate an awesome sausage n¢cheese tortilla and ¢Mad Hatter¢ shared cookies. As I dreamed of our ¢Halfway Celebration¢ I forgot I was upset. Now I¢m in the shelter about to do one of my favorite things: crossword puzzles. All day whenever I tried to get down a friend picked me up. I¢m so blessed. Tomorrow we will hike 19 miles. The next day we will leave Virginia. The day after that I will see my Dad and hit 1,000 miles. I have no reason to be upset. Instead of moping over a hurt knee or silly journals I¢m going to try to just smile and enjoy myself. Though I¢ve only been with this group 5 days I feel included. My hope is up in the face surmounting odds. I don¢t believe Friar, Poppins, or Skippy were an accident. They were a blessing. My thoughts are summed up in this short rhyme: Though my knee is hurt and I walked in rainThough the bugs swarm and drive me insaneThough I haven¢t had a shower or a bathI have awesome friends who make me want to laugh.Goodnight,BEATBOX   ttt