Date: 2005-03-10
To: Two More Days
Miles today: 0.0

It's crunch time! Too many last minute things to do, and never enough time in the day. So let me just share a few thoughts so you¢ll know what's going through my mind.Lots of good things happened yesterday. Among them:1. I sent my first journal entry via my new pocketmail device to the wonderful lady from Tennessee, Shelly, who has volunteered to transcribe my journal while I'm on the trail. I'll ask her to introduce herself at the end of today's entry so you'll know who she is, and don't be too surprised if she adds an editorial comment or two (or three) in future entries (Have a good time, Shelly!), as she has this really great sense of humor and is sort of irrepressible anyway, which I really like in a person, so I think we're going to make a great team! She is contemplating her own through-hike next year, so, like, stay tuned for that, too2. Not only did I get my pocketmail working, I managed to get it to work WITH my cell phone! That took awhile, given the sorry state of my own IT competence, but might not have taken so long if the customer service reps at my cell phone provider weren't even LESS competent than me - which added both to my frustration level and to the amount of time I had to waste on the durn thing. It turned out that it wasn't working because I didn't have a data transmission package as part of my basic service, and needed to add that. I said fine, go ahead, only to discover, after still failing to get it to work, that the first rep had added the wrong package, which was then replaced with the right one, and now it works. Yessss!3. Apparently the technology gods were in a good mood yesterday, or took pity on me - I'm not sure which, but I also managed to get that really cool map thing up on my journal. My plan is to set that page as the one you see when you first open my journal, so you'll see how far I've gotten, and then you can simply click on the "last" journal entry to get an update on my travails. Oops - I meant travels... 4. Just to keep the fun in this little adventure, I told my family that I was thinking of taking some kind of token or totem along - something frivolous perhaps. Nothing too outrageous, of course, as I am, after all, still ME - conservative banker, family man, scout-leader, and all-around respected member of the community. I should have KNOWN better, of course, than to ask THIS tribe for advice. To make a long story short, I will now be taking a pair of pink rabbit ears with me, and will be obliged to wear them whenever I have my picture taken as I hike down the trail. (Dang, I sure do hope I don¢t lose them anywhere along the way¢¦) Well, maybe Mother Nature will take them as a sign that spring must be here if the bunnies are out playing in the woods, and it won¢t snow as much. And besides, a bear isn¢t likely to attack a bunny, is he? Bears don¢t eat bunnies. (What¢s that, Dear? Bears don¢t, but coyotes DO!) Oh, great. And all these journal entries I¢ve been reading lately talk about hearing packs of coyotes howling during the night in Georgia and North Carolina! Well, maybe I won¢t wear them at night. I¢ll just put ¢em with my food and hang ¢em with my bear bag when I get to the shelter each night. But still, somehow they don¢t seem quite fitting for someone of my stature. After all, I am the Company Clerk of ¢M Company¢ where I¢m known as Private, 2nd Class Longhaul, Walter M. (The ¢M¢ stands for Mitty, of course, for those assembled eyes just joining me for this little walk in the woods.)5. Finally, and this is so totally appropriate, it has been decided where and how I shall spend my last evening at home. My wife (She-who-knows-me-best-but-still-loves-me, for those assembled eyes who may not have been paying attention over the past 25 or so entries) has managed to reserve the entire Reston Community Center, and more than a hundred people have been invited to attend a farewell dinner JUST FOR ME!Right. In my dreams. What I will actually be doing is attending my younger son¢s Cub Scout Pack¢s annual birthday celebration of the scouts, known as the Blue and Gold Banquet. There will be good food, a lot of great scouts and their families, singing and games. It will be a lot fun, and a fitting way to spend my time. Besides, in true Walter Mitty fashion, you can be sure that I will be standing at the door greeting each of my guests with a firm handshake, welcoming them to the war room, and cautioning them on the need to keep my mission a well-guarded secret. I can almost hear the planes overhead now, and feel the ground shake from the percussion bombs¢¦battle stations, men, battle stations!.....Stay tuned,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(Editor¢s note)Hello everyone! Longhaul has requested that I give an introduction of myself for his viewing audience. My real name in the off-trail world is Shelly Hale. My trail name in the real world is Tenacious Tanasi. Though, there is some debate as to which world I¢m really from cuz I¢m really out there. Really! LOL I¢m from East Tennessee, born and raised (Go Vols!). Like Longhaul said I am planning my thruhike of the AT for next year. I promise to keep my commentaries in the regular English language and not Southerneze-besides; when I spell the way I talk it sends my spellchecker into spasms. However, there is an advantage to reading what I say¢¦depending on your reading speed, because you probably read faster than I talk anyway. Though, when I get ticked off about something I can out talk Dale Jr. driving his Chevy at top speed at Bristol. Just ask my husband!I¢m married to a verrryyy patient man who puts up with my hiking addiction. Though he isn¢t a hiker himself, he understands my need to be out on the trail. How lucky can a gal get? My three young daughters (7, 9, & 13) have caught the hiking bug and will be venturing out on the trail with me over the next year as I prepare. That should certainly provide some interesting stories to tell. After all, with 3 girls that quite personify Jenny McCarthy, Roseanne Barr, and Lucille Ball, it is a hoot to be out in the woods with them. You just can¢t make those kinds of stories up! I hope to get my own trail journal updated so that you can follow Blondie, LadyBug, BabyDoll, and me through our adventures together.I guess you can see now why Longhaul and I get along so famously. We met on the AT-L, which is an emailing list for Appalachian Trail enthusiasts. After our hilarious virtual chats, I really wanted to meet this funny man that was preparing for his thru, and I was able to do so in January of this year at the 2005 PA Ruck sponsored by the AT-L at the Ironmaster¢s Hostel in Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Gardners, PA. I have to say that Longhaul is even funnier in person!When Longhaul mentioned to me that he needed someone to transcribe his trail journal for him, I jumped at the chance! I knew from our chats that this would be a wonderful experience for me, not only for the opportunity to hike vicariously through Longhaul, but to also further take pleasure in his candor and humor. I have truly enjoyed the insights that he has shared in his previous trail journal entries. If you haven¢t read them, you really should. He is an excellent writer with a knack of adding the spice of humor that enlivens this unfolding tale of the evolution of preparation for his journey. It has certainly whetted my appetite for more. I can¢t wait for him to set his boots to the trail in Georgia. What a tale this will be.The end of the beginning is nigh, and the journey not to far to come. So, like Longhaul says, stay tuned. Tenacious Tanasi (Shelly Hale)