Date: 2005-03-17
To: A Little 'Off-Trail' Magic
Miles today: 0.0

This is just too much! On Tuesday I was cruising through the other entries on trailjournals.com to see what was going on with all of the other thru-hikers and then something happened that was completely unexpected.I noticed a new journal that was posted and had been updated that very same day. The name on the journal said Sara and John Rougeux. I immediately clicked on the link because a friend of mine from high school shared the same name and I thought, ¢This name isn¢t that common, but could it be my friend? ! Could the world be that small? Is there any way that let alone, someone from my home town is doing the trail when I am, but that it is someone from my high school, and it is also a friend of mine? !¢ I frantically routed through their entries trying to find out if they listed any characteristics that would alert me to the fact that this was indeed my friend from high school, John, but I noticed references to other cities and such, but I didn¢t stop reading, and then, BOOM, I saw the word, ¢Louisville¢, and I knew it was him. I signed his guest book on the web page and told him to email me and then I had to get off of the computer because I had planned on riding my bike that evening to do more training, and hopefully continue to build muscle back in my leg.My ride that night was great. My leg is really starting to improve and gain back some of its form. The whole time I was riding I was wondering if I would be hearing back from my friend soon, because even though I was pretty sure it was him, I still couldn¢t be sure.When I got done riding my nice 30-mile training ride, I hopped on the computer, and found an email from John. How cool is that? !I called him and we caught up and decided to meet later. Last night his mom was nice enough to make dinner, (which I missed because I was in class) and we went to Sam¢s Club to get more supplies that they needed for their maildrops.His wife, Sara, and John are hiking the trail together, and as he humorously puts it, they are going to, ¢put their marriage on the rocks¢, and spend their first year anniversary on the trail. They leave for Springer Mountain tomorrow.I was so ecstatically happy to see John again and to meet as wife as well. It was so awesome for me to finally talk to another thru-hiker and for me to be able to converse with others who get just as excited as me when talking about gear and plans and all of the behind the scenes planning that has to take place to hike the trail. Even going to Sam¢s Club was cool because I had just done the same thing and I could relate. It is so exciting.Earlier I just mentioned that it was so incredibly cool to talk to another thru-hiker who understands the same things that I¢m going through in relation to hiking the trail, but, trumping the novelty of talking to another hiker, was the fact that I was also happy to just see my friend again. I couldn¢t be happier to hear that it was he of all people that I would be sharing the trail with. It was so much fun to sit around last night and talk about hilarious high school experiences and laugh the night away.I wish John and Sara the best on the start of their hike and hope to see them on the trail sometime not so long from now, as I¢ll only be starting two weeks behind them. We talked about maybe seeing each other at Trail Days in Damascus, which is basically a huge Appalachian Trail festival. Regardless, it will be funny when we finally see one another. We were cracking up when we were talking about how it might happen, (running into one another). We were saying that I¢d probably be like; one day behind them and that will be the day that they decide to hike a forty-mile day or something! It will be nice though, because I can track their progress through the shelter registers. What a Small World!On another note-Today is my last day of College! God- This is amazing!I am graduating with honors also!I almost can't believe it! What a long trip that was!My final GPA is going to be in the range of 3.6 or 3.8 depending on my classes this quarter...Most people don't end up going to five colleges and taking six years to finish their degree, but I am happy that things ended up like they did, because my final GPA might really help me out in the future, and there were times in my early college career where it looked like I would never make it at all!I am so glad that this is over!Words cannot express my elation!Take it easy everyone!