Date: 2004-02-21
To: Hanging out in Atlanta
Miles today: 0.0

Hey ya¢ll...I can hardly believe that I¢m actually in Georgia! I¢ll be starting the AT tomorrow morning..unbelievable but I know it won¢t actually seem real until I¢m standing at the top of Springer.   A year of planning/dreaming/saving has finally been made into reality.I¢ve been hanging out with Lauren Pavlak (another trailjournalist for AT 2004) and her family for the past couple days. It¢s been a lot of fun! Thanks so much to Lauren, Lauren¢s mom, Carol for her hospitality and Grandma Nancy for the kind offer! The hospitality has been amazing and I feel like I¢ve met so many trail angels before I¢ve even stepped on the trail. Also a quick thank-you to Hammock Hanger who will transcribing this journal and super-mom (lana) who will be taking care of pictures and Jackie¢s life while I¢m hiking.Lauren and I are going to do a joint entry about our time hanging out in Georgia. Highlights included: -I ate my first Krispy Kreme donut and first Chick-Fil-A meal. They weren¢t a dissapointment. (Side note by Lauren: Canadians are really missing out when it comes to the most creative way to ingest pure fat. If you¢re going for death by clogged arteries, good ole¢ Southern grease joints are a fine way to go.)-I had the great privilege of introducing Jackie to the fine art of ¢Yo momma¢ jokes. When I responded (lamely, I will humbly admit) to some joke by Jackie by saying ¢whatever, your mom¢, and she proceeded to give me a blank stare, I knew she had to be educated. I thought for sure that ¢yo momma¢ jokes were universal by now, but maybe not.-We were tourists in Atlanta for a day and even saw a few things that Lauren has never seen before! We went to Martin Luther King¢s grave and Church where he preached some famous sermons (and we should get extra points because it¢s Black History Month!). We saw Centennial Olympic Park, the state capitol building, Oakland cemetery and underground Atlanta....a shopping area where new streets were built on top of it. Good times but Lauren walks really, really, really fast! Be afraid Andy when she starts hiking with you!-Now, when you go to the Krispy Kreme, you always have to get some to bring home to friends. (Or to eat as breakfast for yourself the next morning). So, of course, we brought some leftovers back to my place and looked forward to enjoying their kremey and krispy goodness just as much the day after. What I neglected to remember is that the weather has already started to change for the better in Georgia. Warmer weather + pure gooey sugar sitting in a cardboard box in the kitchen = ...Ants. Hundreds, thousands, I don¢t know how many. I swear I have never had a problem with ants in this apartment before. But when we woke up the next morning to indulge ourselves, sure enough, the army had invaded the box. The task of vacuuming up all the ants and disinfecting the entire kitchen (grr!) was not nearly as infuriating or tragic as the fact that we were actually going to have to throw out half a dozen donuts. Sigh. -I keep saying to Lauren, ¢that¢s Bizarre.¢ I think America is the land of 24-hour Wal-Marts and obese people running to Krispy Kreme when the hot donut sign lights up. We all speak the same language (only barely though!) but it¢s a different world. Seriously, I think sometimes I feel like Korea was more familiar to me than Georgia. I¢m happy I¢ve had Lauren as a tourist guide to help me out in this foreign land. (Side note by Lauren: What? You mean if you just absolutely have to go to Wal-Mart at 2:00 a.m. in Canada, then it¢s impossible? They actually close? Oh, you poor souls!)-When we went to examine Jackie¢s gear one last time before she headed out, I was curious to see what food she had decided to bring for her first couple of days out. Seemed pretty normal at first, energy bars, instant mashed potatoes, etc. But when I came across a bag containing some flaky green stuff that slightly resembled a certain type of illegal leaves, I was somewhat concerned. Turns out that in Korea, Jackie got hooked on dried seaweed. Yes, I typed that correctly, dried seaweed. And she could just eat it like they were potato chips or something! All I know is that if I had to survive off of preserved kelp out in the backcountry, I would be in serious trouble.   Ugh. To each her own...-Lauren and I had the bright idea of testing out our stoves. The only good thing about it is that we were by the fountain so we could put out our flaming hands and legs. Lauren had this crazy stove that Andy made her so when we tried to light there was a big poof and a mushroom cloud of flame caused some damage. It could have been a lot worse so we¢re both thankful that we escaped with only minor burns. (Side note by Lauren: I take full responsibility for the explosion. It was not the stove¢s fault! At any rate, I won¢t be placing my legs so close to any stove next time. You just never know. Besides, Jackie didn¢t really need the hair on her arms anyway.) So I think that¢s about it for Jackie¢s pre-hike trip to Georgia. I had a good time and met a lot of cool people. Tomorrow is the big day when I start the hike. We¢re going to leave early in the morning and then I¢m going to hike 8 miles or so. I¢m trying to be confident about it but I¢m getting a little scared. I wonder how much I¢ll actually sleep tonight...maybe I¢ll wake Lauren up if I can¢t sleep and we can hit the Wal-Mart. That¢s it for now, the next entries will be on the trail. Thanks everyone for reading my journal and for all the encouraging emails/guest book entries. You guys are all amazing and I don¢t think you understand how much I appreciate it. I¢ll end with this: This a bit of a sketchy undertaking that I know will be out of control but I¢m sure I¢ll have the time of my life. I know some friends back home in Canada are wondering what¢s happened to me because I haven¢t mentioned my two favorite wilderness sayings so that¢s for you!