if this situation were chocolate, it'd be bittersweet...

i no longer own a truck! :)/:( on one hand, i no longer own a truck. :( on the other hand, i won't have to make those God-awful truck payments each month and pay ridiculous amounts of insurance and i will be able to HIKE HIKE HIKE all the way to maine. well, i mean... barring anything horrible happening that would pull me off the trail. 

the guy came down from north carolina last night and had a cashier's check in hand. he drove it around a little bit, played with the 4WD, and then we signed the bill of sale. i was kind of in shock that it happened last night, and when he cranked it up to drive it away, i got all misty-eyed. one day, i'll have another one. 

so i need to get with the program and finish buying my gear and figuring out my timeline for things. i haven't bought all my gear just yet because i wasn't 100% sure if i was going to be able to hike, and i didn't want to put all this money into gear that i wasn't sure i'd be able to use just yet. 

to help myself organize my thoughts, here's a list. things in bold, i've already got. the rest is just general ideas and things that i know i'll need. if anyone has any ideas, please feel free to leave me some hints. i'm not 100% sure what all i'll need for six months in the woods just yet, even if i have done a lot of research on all this...

pack group

• pack: coleman max elate 65L
• pack cover: came with the pack

sleeping gear

• sleeping bag: campmor 20* down bag
• sleeping pad: -
• liner: -
• tent: msr hubba hubba

electronics

• camera
• battery charger
• extra sd card
• extra battery
• transfer cable - bounce box?
• mp3 player? (would have to buy)

kitchen

• stove: currently have the new esbit stove; thinking about getting a msr pocket rocket
• fuel: - ; esbit tabs for now, poss. canisters later
• pot: dimebag ok? haha... jk
• frying pan: do i really need one of these?
• mug: -
• spork: -
• bladder: -
• bladder: -

hygiene/first aid/general group

• bug spray 
• rope
• water purification
• headlight
• knife
• tooth paste
• tooth brush
• soap 
• vitamins
• ibuprofen + acetaminophen
• more powerful painkillers
• benadryl
• pepto tabs
• neosporin
• 2 ace bandages 
• needles
• thread
• 2 4×4  gauze pads
• 5×9 gauze pad
• emergency blanket
• toe/hand warmers 
• whistle 
• alcohol pads 
• toilet paper 
• thru-hiker's companion 
• eye drops
• spare set of contacts
• compact mirror
• tweezers
• face wipes
• dental floss
• trowel

clothing worn

• shoes: merrells
• poles: probably wal-mart poles
• shirt: -
• pants: -
• socks: smartwool hiking socks
• socks: liners?
• underwear: ex-officio?

clothes packed

• socks: smartwool 
• socks:  liners?
• rain jacket: one that i've had for forever
• camp shoes: croc-like 
• base layer: top?
• base layer: bottom?
• base layer: sports bra
• buff x2, bandana
• shirt: - 

swayze stuff

• ruffwear approach pack
• dog food
• kong/peanut butter
• leash/collar/tags
• frontline/heartgard
• rimadyl
• ridgerest sleeping pad

so not to jump the gun, and put all my eggs in that basket again, but there's someone from north carolina coming to buy my truck tomorrow? o.O it seemed kind of sketch yesterday, and i'm still not sure what to think, but we've exchanged well over 75 texts, three or four emails, and we talked on the phone for a little over ten minutes this morning. he said he's been following a couple of trucks for a little bit on craigslist and that he's narrowed down his choice to mine. he wants to pay cash. if some guy shows up tomorrow afternoon with $14,500 cash, you better believe i'm takin' a picture of all that before i deposit it in my bank account. :) 

in other news, last night kelly, katie, and i all went out and had a blasttt. we started out at the corner pocket and shot a few games of pool, but since it was a monday night, it wasn't really busy at all, so we headed to west ashley to the tin roof and listened to a one-man band play. then we went and shot pool at the kountry klub (redneck, i know) and we finished off the night at waffle house. after three whiskey sours and a shot of jack, that waffle, order of hashbrowns, and three cups of coffee was amazing! 

also, my hair is super frizzy today. i decided to commemorate the occasion by buying this shirt at target. :) 

i'm so easily amused...

kelly and i went to the gas station last night and bought powerball tickets for the $125M lottery. she said if she won, she'd buy my truck and let me keep it and then send me hikin'. i said if i won, i'd buy her house and let her keep it and then go hikin'. needless to say, today we're just $3 poorer than we were yesterday.

i discovered this morning that the $25 rain jacket that i bought years ago at wal-mart is packable. it stuffs into itself! that's freakin' amazing! no wonder it was $25, haha. regardless... i think that'll wind up being the one i take on the trail with me. we'll see...

i stuffed my sleeping bag into its stuff sack and packed it this morning. i'm gonna pack the tent in later and just kinda fiddle with it. i'm so ready to get out of chucktown.

the guy who test drove the truck last week just came and picked it up to take it out on the highway for a second drive. "dear God, please! thank ya! love ya! bye!"

also, as something to get my mind off the crappy weather here in charleston today, here's a littie video i ran across a few weeks ago.

Green Tunnel from Kevin Gallagher on Vimeo.

looking up?

so... showing my truck again this weekend. the guy actually checked it out last week and drove it around the neighborhood; he wants to take it out on the highway sunday and he actually even mentioned possible paperwork should he like what he sees come sunday. we'll see. i'm not getting my hopes up. every time i do the whole "all eggs in" thing, i get let down. i'm just crossing my fingers and praying. that's about all i can do.

in other news, i have three days in a row off starting sunday!! if i can find a decent hiking trail in the charleston area, i might go on a mini-backpacking trip. maybe. we'll see. i'm semi-excited about this. 

also, a few awesome hiking discoveries:

1) i'm getting better at figuring out how much things weigh by the feel of 'em! =) i picked up four pears today at publix and figured i'd take a guess at how much they weighed. i was spot on at 1.5#. i was sorta proud of that. :) 

2) baby bell cheeses just came out with a white cheddar cheese! yes!

3) i discovered this new product at publix today... it's called mia? mio? anyways... it's a drink mix and it comes in quite a few different flavors. i picked up the sweet tea mix just for shits & giggles, and it's not bad at all! no weird aftertaste that you get with all of those other zero-cal sweeteners. none of that nasty, back of the mouth grossness.

umm... that's about it for now. until i sell my truck, there's no real new news on the hiking front. just sleeping in my sleeping bag and trying to pretend i'm on my way to springer.

as a side note, i went to a thrift store today just to see what i could find. i found bill bryson's "a walk in the woods" in there. right where it belongs. that book is so overrated. i guess i wouldn't have been nearly as disappointed as i was in it had i known going into it that he didn't even hike a quarter of the trail. but everybody raved at how great a book it was because he hiked the AT and wrote about his experiences, blah blah blah. he basically stayed in a hotel the whole time and bitched when the goin' got tough. i dunno. i just wasn't a big fan, and thought it kinda funny that the "most popular" book on the AT is sittin' on a shelf, waitin' for somebody to plop two quarters down and buy it.

as a second side note, i also saw TWO copies of a book that i bought in a discount bin a while back. "amanda bright @ home." it makes me wonder just how crappy the book really is, for me to have bought it in a discount bin, and for two copies to be sitting in the same thrift store. i wonder if it'll even be worth my time? o.O oh well... i guess if i can read twilight, i can read this book. but then again, the writing in "the memory keeper's daughter" was so bad i couldn't even get past the second or third chapter. "light of the streetlight"... that still gets me. 

o.O

i slept in the backyard last night. in my tent. and in my 20* bag in 60* weather. it was unzipped, though. swayze slept out there with me on her little ridgerest pad. i figured out that i need a better sleeping pad. i don't have a very good one right now, anyways. the stars were awesome. i watched a lot of csi-type showed before i went outside. it was probably a mistake. i had weird dreams in the middle of the night and dreamed that i got scared enough to go inside, but i ran through a huuuuge spiderweb on my back inside to the house. it was all a dream, though. weird. the neighbor's dog kept barking last night. all in all, i slept well, i just need a better pad. i wish i were on the trail. =/ if i don't sell my truck soon, this will all have to wait until next year. i overdrew my account the other day. i have money in savings that covered the overdrafts, but now i'm eating into my AT savings. i get paid tomorrow, but i still need to sell my truck. sigh.