Date: 2008-06-25
From: Gren Anderson Shelter

To: Unionville
Miles today: 20.0

Gren Anderson Shelter to The Mayor Of Unionville¢s House That¢s right baby! Hanging out in style at the Mayoral Residence in Unionville NY. We had dinner with about 20 other thru-hikers, it seems the Mayor, Dick Ludwig, has a thing for thru-hikers and he really offers a wonderful service here. He fed us and let us wash our bodies and clothing. We¢re all camped out in his back yard. I¢m not kidding! Anyway, bad news today¢¦ Rolex has decided to split the trail. We¢ve been having some head butting moments and I¢ve been pretty antagonistic toward him lately. I¢ve been a jerk for the last couple days and he¢s finally sick of it. I have some issues, mostly Ego issues, and I have a tendency to try to squash him when it¢s really me I¢m disappointed in. We talked about it and we¢re cool with each other but he¢s pulling off to spend the summer working on the shore house with my Dad. He was going to pull off soon anyway and that¢s another reason I¢ve been a real ass lately. I need to work on that. For now we¢re cool but he¢s splitting. I don¢t blame him. We had a long hike today. Tempers were flaring and things came to a head. We stopped at a park where one of Rolex¢s buddies from his swim team works as a lifeguard. The concession stand was closed but we got a quick swim in and Rolex¢s buddy Anthony gave us some grub which we immediately stuffed (except for the granola bars which we eventually ate). We got back on the trail and headed for Unionville NY. When we got down to the road we called one of the numbers on the trail book and believe it or not we got the Mayor. He picked us up in his silver Prius and took us to his house where we ran into all of the hikers we¢ve met so far in Jersey. CRAZY. We met a bunch of new ones too. There was no room in the house so most of us are sleeping in our tents in the back yard. We sat around eating and talking and then me and Rolex and Cyclone had a long discussion and talked about the situation. I think we cleared a lot of things up. I have been resentful because those guys can go so fast and are so young and strong and it really fractured my pride. I end up being a real jerk in an effort to make myself feel better about who I am and what I can and can¢t accomplish. It¢s much easier to recognize it after the fact than when I¢m all wrapped up but sometimes that¢s too late. The damage has been done. There don¢t seem to be any hard feelings, we got showers and then we went to the local bar to get more grub. We met some more interesting peeps there and after dinner went back up to the Mayor¢s house and BSed with the hikers who were still awake and I hit the blog and we are going to bed. I feel pretty crappy about the whole situation. My Dad is coming to pick up Rolex at 10 in the morning (it¢s a three hour drive from home) and I guess me and Cyclone will try to get along for a while until he gets off the trail in July. It¢ll be weird without Rolex but in the long run I know he¢ll have a better summer helping Dad out with the new house down the shore. There¢s lots of work to be done and Dad hasn¢t had a chance to show him how to do carpentry and plumbing and stuff so it will be cool for him to learn those things. I¢m going to miss you Rolex. You would have gone a lot further if you didn¢t have to wait on my slow ass all the time. I¢m sorry I can be such an asshole.David AKA ¢Mr. F'n Gentle Spirit¢ Website http://www.wbafinc.org Photos: http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof Videos: http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1