Date: 2003-04-28
From: Telephone Pioneer shelter

To: Who knows???
Miles today: 0.0

Got up this morning to the best view I have ever woke up to (at least on the trail anyaway) The sheltr was pearched on top of a mountain facing east towards another mountain ridge about 2 miles away runing in line with this one at about the same hieght.I got up at 0600hrs and it was light but the sun had not yet come over the ridge ahead but when it did the colours were amazing , all soft yellows and oranges with a touch of pink.Ying & Yang unfourtunatly were the only other things I could share this amazing sight with since I slept alone "again" in the shelter last night.Anyway I got trucking just after 0700hrs and could feel a pain in my left foot right from the first few steps I took , last night I sort of went over on my ankle a few times but I felt most of the pain on the top of my foot.By the time I was crossed the state line from NY to Connecticut I was really starting to feel the pain more and more.The sun was very strong today with temps in the 80s and not a cloud in sight , so I was sweating to death and limping along thinking to myself its one problem after another, I only really started to feel good for the first time in 2 weeks this morning with my virus gone and now I have another problem to contend with.I was like Hop Along Caisedy......By the time I reached Kent CT I was in agony and took a few vitiman "I".... Ibuprofen which tucker gave to me in Pennsylvania.I had images of getting into Kent and not getting a shower , the local store being closed and not being able to get a beer.Everybody I met on the trail told me about Kent! and said it was a real snob town with one of the leading prep schools in the U.S , so I thought it was going to be a stuffy place where no one wants to look in your direction.Well it could not have been further away from that type of town.As soon as I arrived I met my old friend Mineral Mark who was calling my name as I came down the street , we walked to the laundrette where everyone was very friendly and the guy in the shop behind had a moblie shower attached on to the side of his store , he let me use it for free and gave me some cold water to drink and said I could stay in the basement where its cool if I want until the sun dissapears.I refused because I had to get moving , next stop was the outfitters which was to expensive for me so I quickly moved on to the pizza joint for a ex-large !!!!! mmmmm then I met a scottish dancer who seemed to know scotland better than me and could even speak some of the mother tounge.She was a local woman who had hiked the west highland ! way who I eventually had to start taking backward steps while I was talking to try and get away from her after getting into a celtic music conversation which I knew nothing about( I got away after an hour) .....Mineral Mark informed me about the free beer every hikers gets when passing through town from the local wine store , so I got my free beer but ended up buying a 6pk too so I lost in the end.I am sure I must have had a conversaton with 50% of the town most of which claimed to be scottish , one guy was a Mcleod but I could swear he was an Italian.By the time I left town it was nearly 2130hrs and I got in there at 1500hrs , everytime I would try to leave someone else would stop me in the street and start chatting...One guy was even shouting "long live Scotland the brave"...what a great town it was!!!!!!...So 6 beers later I was limping along the road listening to the Proclaimers song "If you go will you send back a letter from America" and mineral mark was stumbling(lightwieght) towards the shelter which was 7 miles away , we never made i! t and ended up just putting our tarps on the ground and sleeping under the stars since there was not a cloud in sight and it was still warm for 2230.I have my fingers crossed for a non-limping day tommorow.