Date: 2003-03-12
To: With More Than A Little Help From Our Friends...
Miles today: 0.0

"I didn't find my friends; the good Lord gave them to me."                                           - Ralph Waldo Emerson We are working busily to get all of our ducks in a row for the hike. I want to take a minute to thank everyone from the hiking forum and internet lists who have helped us get our gear together and who've advised us every step of the way. We've been so impressed by everyone's willingness to share their experience and keep us rookies on the right trail! The hiking community is the best.Family and friends here have come through for us. My sister-in-law, Karen, will be our support person, mailing packages to us and modifying the contents depending on our whims (No more oatmeal! Send lots of Snickers!). This is a daunting task, involving boxing things up and making more than twenty trips to the post office. We really appreciate you, Karen!Our friends Ron and Becky Morgan, have volunteered to keep this journal up-to-date for us. We'll try to post whever we have access to a computer, but when we can't, we'll mail our journal pages to Ron and Becky for updating. Thanks, guys-you're the greatest!Our son, Scott will keep the homefront secure, handling all of our business and banking transactions. Not an easy task, and combined with his own responsibilites and keeping nearly 3 year old twins Tyler and Andy entertained, Scott will be mighty busy. Thanks, son.Friends from another time in our lives - Bob and Betty in Virginia, and Lynn in Tennessee - thanks for taking an interest in our hike and offering your help and support. We hope to have the pleasure of visiting with you for a few hours off the trail.The biggest surprise for me in terms of the help we are getting comes from my "other family." I mentioned before that I retired from the Social Security Administration last year. Since Duane is retired USAF, my career with SSA took me to eight offices in five states as I followed him around the country. Each office I worked in welcomed me so readily that I grew to consider the many SSA staffers I met over the years as my extended family. As I started planning for this hike, I had the idea of writing to the SSA offices closest to the Appalachian Trail (all 42 of them!)to see if any staff members wanted to "adopt" us by providing logistical support for our hike. The response was overwhelming: I've had e-mails from nineteen SSA staffers who have offered to give us advice and help.So many have been so kind to us, but I must take a minute to give special thanks to some: Lonnie in Georgia, who, with his wife Nancy, will be opening his home to us to offer what every hiker dreams of-a shower, a bed, and a chance to wash clothes:); Allan in North Carolina who has given us great advice; Dan in Tennessee who's helping us with parking our car and providing excellent trail advice; Adele in Virginia, who's also helping with car parking, and offering a bed and shower; Jack and Shelley in Pennsylvania who told us "You have found trail angels...", and they were right!; Brandi in Pennsylvania who will accept a maildrop for us, and who has introduced us to a hiking friend, Joe; Barbara in New Jersey who has offered support; and Ken in Massachusetts who hooked us up with another SSA retiree who is hiking the AT this year, Pete Neumann. So many others have responded with helpful advice - please know how much we appreciate all of you.They say no one hikes the trail alone. All of you who have made so many contributions to the success of our hike will be there with us, in our hearts. Before we've taken a step, we¢ve already had much more than a little help from our friends!