Date: 2009-02-15
To: 3 WEEKS!
Miles today: 0.0

Twenty Days. This is unbelievable and exciting! We're in the home stretch of preperation. Most of our food is boxed up into our mail drops, we've rationed all of our vitamins, toothpaste, etc. and we're narrowing down gear choices. To be honest, we're reconsidering out Tarptent choice.. It just seems like it would be nice to use a freestanding tent in shelters, storms, or in a hurry. The tarpent won't provide much insulation as it is single walled and has gaping wide ventilation mesh. Our bags, however, are quite warm - so that may fix the issue. Obviosuly, the 300-400 we'd spend on a freestanding tent that weighs more or slightly equal to our tarptent is a consideration. We'll likely start with the tarptent and order something else from the trail if it's not working. It'd be a pity if it doesn't work though - at least not in the cold. I know it'll work in the summer.Work is going extremely well. Roxanne actually got laid off from Starbucks, effective 3 days before her planned seperation date - she got the news before handing in her two week's notice. The severance will certainly help out! In fact, we're considering picking up catastrophy insurance with that money 0 just in case the unthinkable happens. Insurance is something I haven't heard many folks talk about when describing the AT experience. It's certainly notthe most sexy of topics, is it? In the event that we break a bone, turn an ankle or pick up lyme disease, we will be paying most of that cost ourselves. For $138/mo, we will keep a 5,000 deductable and be able to use insurance to cover anything major. Let's hope that we don't have to use it, but I would encourage other hikers to consider it. I'd hate to add a huge hospital bill to the pile of debt we have waiting for us when we return!Back to work for a second - My job (mike) has been really awesome about the whole thing. Aside from TRIPPIN' about only having 3 weeks to replace me, my boss is really excited about following our pursuits. He outted e infront of our major client last Monday, so that's provoked a lot of interest in the office as well. It's amazing how quickly you forgot that you're about to have the experience of a lifetime when you're in the trenches planning for it. All the people I talk to that are strapped down with kids, jobs and houses are really excited for us because that's not something they can just decide to do. It makes it worth all of the sacrifices when you are reminded of what you've done to make this happen. Last week, we talked about insurance, dehydrated more stuff, buried our first dehydrator (caught fire), and rested for Valentine's Day. I also had a chance to make and AT microsite on mikeandrox.com. I've embedded a google map that will be updated by my nephew, Ethan; it will show our progress as we hit trail towns. We've also posted some mail drop info and will update that more this week or next.So this week, we're concentrating on pack organization and last minute gear buys. We'll figure out what stuffsacks we'll need and pick up our first bit of Iso fuel, as well as some more tent stakes (I thought I had more than I do). We're excited!! I can't believe we're just 20 days from the top of Springer!