Date: 2013-01-21
To: Finally Settling In!!!
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Me and the pups are finally in our new place. It is HUGE!!!!!! My company did a great job of furnishing it too!!! We don't know quite what to do with all this room...but then again I do! The second bedroom will now be my AT prep room with all my gear and I'll use it for organizing and packing my mail drops. It certainly has been a stressful week! I took the girls for a nice run/walk at Johnson lake yesterday. The trail travels along the shore of the lake and goes through many beautiful pines and oaks. This will be my outdoor workout area...and the girls love it!!!! It certainly isn't the AT or the mountains but there are several little inclines and many roots and rocks on one side of the lake. It'll have to do.    Now I can settle into a routine and ramp things up as far as planning, working out, gear selection, and logistical mail drops are concerned. 82 more days and I'll be on my way:0) So...in one of my earlier posts I was talking about journaling on the trail and not wanting to text the whole time. I looked into many dictate apps but ALL of them require connectivity to access the app. Prayerwalker, a fellow 2013 AT thru hiker, suggested the best thing ever!!!!! Verbatim puts out a folding mobile keyboard that is light weight. It's 9 oz. and when folded it is 6" X 4" X 3/4". It expands to a 12" full keyboard that pairs directly with the Iphone via bluetooth and even has a little stand for the phone. Perfect!!!!! I ordered it from B & H photo today for $51.00...Thank you so much Prayerwalker!!!!! It should be here Wednesday :0)    When I was in the hotel last night I was watching a few youtube video's on the AT and I ran across a wonderful one "Mancub and Kitfox thru hike the AT 2012". The music and the photography are awesome!!! It really inspired me and got me super excited for my hike! Check it out if you get a chance :0) The end is especially sweet!!!! I would love to know what kind of camera he used. Obviously it's water proof or in a water proof case. I'm gonna try to email him to find out. I just don't think my Iphone will capture all that I really want to when I'm out there. It will also drain the battery if I take alot of pictures and video's. When my friend Sharon M. and I hiked the AT through Shenondoah, I had my camera in a case attached to my chest strap. It gave me easy access and the pictures were of much better quality than my Iphone.    It really is a very exciting time for me...hiking for 6 months with no responsibilities and a lot of time to think. I don't have a job lined up for when I'm done and, frankly, I'm not sure I want to go back to being a physical therapist in a skilled nursing facility. It just isn't what it used to be. It's all about money now and patient care is the last thing that rehab companies seem to care about. It's very disheartening for myself and my colleagues. I have kicked around the idea of doing wilderness therapy for troubled youth....At this point I don't know what I want to do when I'm done with the trail. I think that answer will come to me somewhere/sometime during my journey. It is very freeing though....knowing that I can do anything I want. I just have to figure out what it is that I want to do :0) Certainly, 21 years of being a PT have been incredibly rewarding!!! I love being a PT...but the Medicare changes and corporate greed are really pushing me away....hard!!!!! So, career wise, I will allow myself to be open to all of the possibilities~I really like the idea of that :0)