Date: 2007-05-23
From: High Pt. Shelter

To: County 519, and off trail for awhile
Miles today: 3.2

Wed. 5/23 High Point Shelter, 6 am        My last trail day until after June 5.      Even then its not clear how much more trail time I'll have. Usha might need me again mid June while she's in Italy for a week lining up her new job, housing, etc.   And then there's the issue of whether to accompany her to Italy during the first of Aug. when she could really use the help or waiting until I've hiked a few more months before joining her there. I have a feeling I'll opt for the former as I know how much she could use my help. There's a reason a two parent household works so much smoother than a single parent one!! This might, in fact, be my last day on the trail.         If its my last day, that's o.k. This past month I figured out a new lifestyle, one of total independence and self maintenance and I know I'm a whole lot more confident about my abilities to live singly in this world. I'd like to feel I was "healed" and that the divorce decree won't be upsetting, but I know better.   But the difference is that I now have something to go back to - not just the trail itself but an internal self that is truly so much more self confident about my strengths and my future. My life of marriage, family, and home may have ended, but my life of exploring, creating art,and building "community" have not - I've actually done all those things on this trip, did them successfully, and did them on my own.         I woke up with a sense of clarity this morning: Jim and I created a most unique and exciting life together. That's not going away, its just not continuing.   More importantly, for the people that matter most to me, my children, our extended families and our close friends, this sad ending to it does not diminish its accomplishments. I hope to do more in life, but if my legacy encompasses nothing but the fruits of those 36 years I can rest in peace.      Wed, 5/28 pm         Englewood, NJ at Cousin Jeanne Hopewell's         This is just too good a story: I left the trail at the next road crossing knowing that I could get to a motel about two miles away for the cleaning up process (shower, laundry) I'd need before I'd be welcome on any public transportation tomorrow. I could have just hoofed it, of course, but a car was coming along this rather remote country road and I stuck out my thumb. He stopped. I went over and warned him I'd had four days on the trail and he'd have to keep his windows open, and he said, "Its ok, I grew up on a farm, hop in". I did. In the few miles getting to the motel I explained my plan to clean up and then backtrack to Port Jervis to catch a train the NYC tomorrow.         "I'm going down close to the city, so I'll take you down there if you want and you can catch public transport from there."   Pete was an older gentleman, "Retired, except in the winter when I still work down in the New Jersey area across from New York City delivering home heating oil. Yeah, I commute these 75 miles daily to do so."         Somewhere along the way I was looking at a NJ map and noted that the town he was headed to was close to the one Cousin Jeanne lives in, Englewood. "Oh, my husband's cousin - a really great lady - lives in Englewood: Jeanne Hopewell," I exlaimed.         "The Jeanne Hopewell on Liberty Ave.?" he asked.            "Uh,....yeah," I said, surprised.            "I know her! Yes, she walks her little dog, and yes, she is a great lady!" he said. Turns out Pete delivers Jeanne's home heating oil in the winter time! Do you believe, he dropped me off right at her driveway? Such is the small world we all live in. Such is trail magic. Such is the goodness of strangers.               I got to Jeanne's about noon. She welcomed me, as always.   Four hours later I joined her at her weekly anti-war vigil outside the local armory.            So, on my last AT day I left the high points and (mystery) bears of New Jersey's wilderness, received the generosity of a stranger who delivered me to a doorstep we both knew well, and actively rejoined the real world by protesting its number one debacle. Whether this is just phase one of a longer AT journey or its completion (for the moment, anyway) remains to be seen. Either way, I am very content.