Date: 2003-10-03
To: a jumbled mess, a change of plans, and $1,000
Miles today: 0.0

let it be forewarned that my thoughts are sometimes a jumbled messtoday is the second day of october. by my calculations i should be somewhere in the wilds of maine right now. and yet, i find myself sitting here in north carolina. how in the world did that happen? what have i been doing? why am i not in maine? all great questions. all of which we will get to soon enough.last we heard i was living it up in the hot and dry state that is called new mexico. i know, they say it is a dry heat, but i¢ll say it again- anything over 100 degrees is hot (wet or dry). i left that great state at the end of august; bidding my good friend, red, a fond farewell on a saturday morning, pulling out of the driveway as he sang the new end of summer/adam is leaving song that he¢d composed during that last breakfast. a great song as only red could compose. i decided to take the long way home- making for north carolina by way of austin, texas. heck, it only adds 600 miles to the trip. and, when you¢re already driving 1600 miles, what¢s another 600? and, when you can pick up shoeless jon in austin to ride the rest of the way back with you because he is there for a wedding, what¢s another 600? and, when you can take back roads pretty much the entire way from santa fe to austin, what¢s another 600? and, when you can stop off along the way and visit the grave of billy the kid, what¢s another 600? and, when you can spend the night on top of a plateau in lincoln national forest, in the middle of the desert, just you and the stars and your guitar and your lawn chair, what¢s another 600? and, when you can spend the afternoon with your very good friend ashley, what¢s another 600? and, when you and jon can make the drive from austin to asheville in 17 hours (1300 miles) and only stop twice along the way, what¢s another 600 miles? it isn¢t much at all really.so, that¢s what i did. i made the drive. i had the adventures. i found myself back in north carolina.i¢ve spent the last month here, getting reacquainted with everything that i¢d been missing for the past 2 12 months. man, has it been good to be back. what is it that they say about you can never leave a place you love, or maybe it is something about returning home, or, oh, never mind. needless to say- there is something about the mountains of north carolina that just can¢t be beaten. i may go away for months or years at a time, but this is the place that i¢ll always return to and this is the place that i¢ll always think of as home.in the last month i¢ve gotten to catch up with people. i¢ve gotten to move back into and move back out of the farmhouse (the house where i laid my head and made my bed this past year, in the thriving metropolis that we like to call weaverville, nc). i said goodbye to that house a couple of days ago. a tearful departure it was. well, not really. i actually just kind of put the last of my things into my truck and drove away. didn¢t even look back. i guess i made my peace with that house when i left it at the beginning of the summer. now, everything i own is in a 5x10 storage unit. how great is that? to be able to say that everything i own is in a 5x10. to actually be able to fit everything i own into a 5x10 is quite impressive- something to be proud of. in the last month i¢ve won a thousand dollars at harrah¢s cherokee casino. yes, i did just say that i won a thousand dollars. long story- but here¢s the short version- jonah and i went to visit our friends, the indians, like we like to do on those rare occasions and i won a thousand dollars. go figure. sometimes things just kind of work out like that for me. and, sometimes they don¢t.for instance- i did get pulled over a couple of weeks ago and was informed of and ticketed for having expired tags and registration, an overdue inspection, lapsed insurance, and an expired driver¢s license. really? yes. i was that far behind. that much out of the loop. sometimes i just don¢t pay attention to these kinds of things. needless to say- a very large portion of my previous winnings went to clearing up the matter at hand. so, i guess things do sometimes just kind of work out like that for me. but, as the very nice state trooper was writing up the various tickets i came to a realization.and, it was this- i decided that the first day of october was no longer the day to begin my southbound adventure. instead, i was going to push it back a little bit. instead, i was going to work for a week or two to add to the financial cushion that i am sitting so nicely upon. instead, i was going to hitch a ride to hanover, new hampshire, with a friend of a friend, attend ¢the gathering,¢ and from there find a ride to maine. instead, i was going to start hiking on a day not so much at the first of october, but more towards the middle of october. say, sometime around the 13th or 14th. maybe even the 15th.so, here i am on the second day of october. my original start date has come and gone. i still sit in north carolina, where i¢ve been trying to pretend like i¢m planning this trip out. but, we all know that no matter how much planning i do- as soon as i hit the trail, i¢ll throw it all away and just make things up as i go. that¢s much more my style, anyway. i have been doing some work, earning a little extra cash. i haven¢t talked to the person that is supposed to be giving me a lift to new hampshire (should i be worried about that?). i haven¢t found a ride to maine.   (anyone know of anyone heading that way? let me know. i¢ll pay for the gas and candy bars). i¢m sure it will work out. things just do.i will have to say that i am quite excited about this upcoming adventure. i know that God is going to show me and teach me some pretty incredible things as only He can do. now, let the real countdown begin. in about a week i will throw a bunch of stuff into a backpack and leave home once again, trying to remember what it is that i need but have most likely forgotten. i will go to maine and i will walk to georgia and it will be a grand adventure.oh, and, a big thanks to rocket for making me some pretty great gear. he¢s got a journal on this site. read it. email him. tell him that you want him to make you some pretty great gear. that¢s what he wants to be doing. i know he doesn¢t want to be in school. who really does for that matter?i went to school once and now look at me. (not really sure what that is supposed to mean. it just kind of seemed like a good way to end all of this. but, now i¢ve ruined it by adding all of this stuff to the end of the end and you can¢t even hear it anyway because of the fact that it sits within the parentheses).