Crankdaddy on the AT: Thanks for the Great Send Off!

On the trail in five days...great send off party last night - Carolyn (as always) did herself proud, keeping with the theme, serving up great chili, corn bread, trail mix, etc. - and of course decorated the place in "campfire style". It was great to see all our friends turnout in an effort to better understand: one, what this AT thing is, and why on worth would I want to do it, and second, why would Carolyn if think of letting me do it.

The good news is that I brought in reinforcements to help address these topics! Jay Tews and his wife Debbie and Tina Holan and her husband Scott were "keynote speakers" and shared their enthusiasm for the journey, having experienced it firsthand. Jay brought pictures that told the tale and Tina sat around the fire and told the stories of what it was really like to do the AT back in the old days when plastic hadn't even been invented.

Thanks everyone for a wonderful evening! I will miss everyone much along the way and hope that you all remember me and maybe give a little encouragement along the way! I'll surely need it on the rainy days. I will do my best to keep the blog up-to-date when I drop into towns along the way.

Am I nervous? Yes, like crazy! I have done some interesting things in my life, but this is clearly out of my comfort zone! I have come to realize that this is the one most significant challenge I have placed before me in my life. I would have to say that the ten things that will challenge me the most (of course, outside of missing my family and all of you), in rank order from most to least are:

1. Rain
2. More rain
3. Even more cold rain
4. Snow and wind
5. The state of Virgina
6. Oh yeah, the trail up the mountains
7. And yes, the trail down the mountains
8. Missing good food
9. Sleeping on the ground
10. Mean-spirited animals like mice and raccoons

Bears, rattle snakes, wild boars, hillbillies cause me pause but they don't seem get in the way.

Thanks everyone...stay tuned...