Date: 2011-05-03
From: Daleville

To: Home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Tuesday, May 03, 2011Fraser FirSection HikerAppalachian TrailGeorgia to MaineDaleville, Virginia-home of Homer and Therese WitcherAs I stated, Homer and Therese picked me up at Loft Mountain Campground last night around 9:00 p.m.I started out our re-introduction in apologizing for having them out this late in the evening.Homer quickly jumped in ¢when it is time to come home, it is time to come home.¢¢We will not leave a hiker out there that wants to come home.¢Before I left Gainesville, Georgia eight days ago, I knew that I would be home to see Bryson¢s award ceremony. It was just the hiking that was sandwiched in between that I had ¢over-committed¢ to if you will.But then again, the hiking is what drives me all of the time. Looking forward to the next mountain to climb. The next journey to embark upon. While I felt this nag of disappointment for not accomplishing my ¢mileage goal¢ if you will; the pressure was released. I reflect on how many beautiful mountains I walked over and all of the awesome people I met. Not just awesome, but totally awesome!As you know, hiking is not easy. But the great outweighs the bad every time!I got to learn a lot about myself and had less ¢crises¢ on this section than any other section as far as eating and sleeping and stuff like that.In addition, this is the longest section hike that I have ever done.Hiking can be very psychological. Even to the most mentally stable of us.As I had mentioned yesterday, I wanted to be back home by 5:00 pm tomorrow night in order to see my son at his church awards ceremony. That is very important to me.Back to Homer, we were traveling quickly down Skyline Drive last night and there were deer everywhere along the side of the road.Therese¢s cell phone rang and it was her college age daughter. She was not feeling well and as it would turn out was having an allergic reaction, I believe to a medication that she was taking.Therese¢s and Homer¢s daughter had returned from a mission trip in Ghana (where I sponsor a little boy named Sal: coincidentally) and something happened over there where their daughter was just not ¢right¢ since returning.We raced to get back to Daleville as soon as possible. Homer and Therese were back and forth on the telephone with a neighbor who I believe is a nurse and was helping in any way possible.Thank goodness, everything turned out o.k.I had a very restful night of sleep in Daleville last night. I went to the store and got a thank you card for Homer and Therese and then made my way back home.Little did I know that I would indeed be back on Tuesday, June 21st to hike north from Buena Vista and ¢patch¢ up a hole in the middle of my section hike from Georgia to Maine.Bryson, Siler and I will be going camping next week at Unicoi State Park. We will spend two nights at the campground and give mom a much needed break!It will be the first time that the three of us will go out without mom. It has always been David, Bryson and Winzer. Unfortunately, Winzer will have to stay home to keep mom from worrying. Siler is a little bit of a handful so Winzer will be one less member of the family to look out for!Talk to you soon. Thanks for reading my journal!