Date: 2004-08-03
To: Home to Jackson
Miles today: 0.0

Well hello to all-   Here I am the night before I start to work my way home. Since I last wrote I took a train up to CT to see some of my family, Bill, Kelly and William. It was great to see them and spend some time together for 2 reasons:1. I have not seen Bill and Kelly in 2 years, since there wedding. 2. I got to meet my nephew William for the first time. He was born in Feb. and I was so happy to see him and spend some time together. The time up there was wonderful and I got to do much of nothing except relax. I spent some time at the beach and even went fishing for an evening, I didn't catch anything but it was nice just to stand in the ocean and cast. After about 1 week there I came back here to Pittsburgh were I got to do more of nothing and just some relaxing. I am now on my way home to jackson with a stop in Missoula MT for a few days. i am really looking forward to getting back there since I miss it so much. So that is what I did with my time after the trail in a nut shell. I still think about the AT and wonder were would I be, what would I be doing and with whom. All in all though I feel I have made the right decision about stopping where I did. I enjoyed the 3 months I spent on the trail and would not change that for theh world. I have also learned so many things out there that I will always carry with me where ever I go and what ever I do. SOme of these things are about me, some about others and some about life in general, so I will try to share some of these things with everyone.    I have learned to follow your dreams where ever they will take you and no matter what they are, but carry them as a idea and never be afraid to change. To follow your dreams I belive Nike said it best with "Just Do It" because you may never have time and sometimes you need to give things up to get things done. I have also learned that there are good people out there in the world that will go out of there way to help a stranger and expect nothing in return. Out there this was called trail magic, but you don't have to be out there to give or receive this magic. It could be in a form of a helping hand, a small gesture or even a smile or a wave. It doesn't have to be something huge becasue the little things sometime mean the most. I have also came to understand that no matter what you do you will and can never do it alone. Even though I was out walking by myself most of the time I always had millions of people with me, they were the other on the trail, the people reading my journal, my freinds and my family. With this comes the idea that when ever you are down and out don't be afraid to talk with these people because they came help you out by giving you advice or even just lending an ear to let you vent. This also applies to when your up and feeling happy. Humans are creatures of social interaction and with out that you will never get as far as you can. Now about getting far. You can go as far as you possibility can imagin because it is always up to you. Your body can do amazing things if only your mind will let it. It may be hard but you can do it and the more you do it the easier it becomes. Finally the last thing for tonight is one of my favorites. Just be yourself becaus ethat is all you can be. Out there I never tried to be anything else because it was just to hard and I need to spend that time and engery doing other things. If people liked me that was great if not oh well, but as long as I could go to bed everynight pleasing myself that was the best thing possible. Why all of this because it was my life and my hike. I will go back and finish the rest some day but not his year. So as we would asy on the trail "All you can do is Hike your own Hike and not someone elses." I will proboly write more later so feel free to always check back.   Tim