ohhh hostels :)

swayze and i are doing well! i had my first shower today since monday night. good thing, too, 'cause i pretty much smelled like death. a few of us put all our laundry together to make a full load so i've actually got clean clothes to boot! i wasn't real sure how to handle the whole town thing at first, what with swayze and all, but the people here at neels gap have been amazingly dog-friendly.

i can't do the hostel thing too often. it put me out $20 tonight. that'll really add up as i get closer to maine. i just stayed tonight 'cause we've had to deal with rain these last three days and it was actually really cold and windy today as we hiked over blood mountain. i feel so bad for swayze. :( i couldn't find her raincoat before i left for the trail and she hates being cold so i rigged her a raincoat out of the footprint of my tent. i'll have to find her something better, though, soon.

i haven't seen any bears yet, but some coyotes came way too close to our camp the other night.

the group i'm with is pretty awesome. :) they all seem to like swayze and til, a german guy who's section hiking, gave her like half of his bag of beef jerky the other day for lunch. vicky and rich have been extremely nice to me, giving me some of their filtered water and letting me use their cell phone. another guy who's hikin' with us, james, picked up swayze's collar that i'd accidentally dropped halfway up a mountain and didn't realize until we were at the top.

and in other news, i pooped in the woods for the first time ever.

just a walk in the woods...

started today! ::) daddy drove me to US42 this morning and hiked the .9 miles to springer w/me. swayze's doing awesome. we made it to hawk mountain shelter tonight... we caught up with and passed two groups of people today. my confidence has been greatly increased thwse last eight hours. :)

there's no place like home

i've been home for a whole six days and it's been absolutely amazing. the weather has been gorgeous, despite the tornadoes that we had friday (except that i really like bad weather, so i even enjoyed those, too... minus all the damage that was done). i've been able to spend time with my mama and my daddy and my awesome friends.

and as much as i hate that the opportunity arose, i got to witness one of the most heart-warming, patriotic events i've ever seen. ssgt. jason rogers, a marine from brandon, ms, was killed in action a week and a half ago in afghanistan. westboro "baptist church" had posted on its website that they were going to show up and picket the funeral. within twenty-four hours of their announcement, the news had spread like wildfire on facebook and hundreds of people had pledged to show up and, along with the patriot guard riders, stand between the family and the westboro hate group (because that's really all they are). it made my heart so happy yesterday to see all of those people out there paying their final respects to a hometown hero.

and it makes me even happier to say that westboro didn't even show up. i've heard it's because they don't show up to funerals where they're not going to get media coverage. and our news stations didn't mention westboro one bit. if this is the case, and they didn't show up because they were told that they wouldn't get any coverage, then it infuriates me to think of all the funerals that they *do* show up to because that probably means they were guaranteed media coverage. if you don't give these people the attention that they ask for, they will stop! i'm just glad that the family didn't have to deal with them yesterday. no one should have to deal with them.

so perhaps i'll hit the road tomorrow. that's the plan, anyways. my daddy's gonna take me to georgia and then i reckon he'll drop me off at springer tuesday morning. i'm gonna skip the approach trail (all the super-purists out there just had a heart attack) and i told my daddy to bring his hikin' shoes if he wanted to do the first little bit with me. it'll only be two miles. he's still young enough to make it. ;)

oh hey there antibiotics

so i was supposed to leave for georgia today, but it just absolutely wasn't meant to be. my friend katie, who was driving back to charleston from california and was going to swing by jackson to pick me up, somehow contracted pneumonia and was put on breathing treatments so had to be driven back to charleston herself. and as if that wasn't a big enough sign that i wasn't meant to leave today, i came down with a fever of 101.2* yesterday and felt like crappp. i still felt pretty poopy today, so this morning i was at MEA when they opened at 8:30. turns out, i have strep throat. they gave me a butt shot there at the clinic this morning and a prescription for an antibiotic and three days' worth of lortab with one refill for that hit-by-train feelin' i've got. the refill should come in handy on the trail.

i'm kind of glad i haven't left yet. i don't feel ready. i still haven't practiced my bear-bagging skillz and i still need to set my tent up with the rainfly all tied out. i need to finish buying my food and i still probably need another pair of shorts. plus, there's apparently some pretty nasty weather that's supposed to roll in here in the next few days and that would put me starting the AT on a rainy day. i know, i know. no rain, no pain, no maine, but still. i'd like to start out on a good weather day if possible. :)

maybe i'll leave tomorrow. my dad volunteered to take me to springer if the need be.

i took swayze to the vet the other day. she wasn't due for her vaccinations until july, but i didn't want to have to worry about finding a vet on the trail and she needed her bordatella booster if i'm going to be boarding her through the smokies. she also got a shot for a six-month heartworm preventative. that's cool... that's one less thing i have to worry about carrying &/or having shipped to myself while we're on the trail. the vet also said that if swayze was hiking with me, she could stand to gain a few pounds. she's been enjoying that. :) peanut butter on crackers, extra dog food, etc.

i'll be taking my cell phone with me on the trail. we bought a solar-powered cell phone charger off amazon the other day for like $30. it's also got an AM/FM radio and a weather radio. i'd rather be able to play mumford & sons and old crow on the trail, but since i don't have an ipod, i'll take what i can get.  

four energy drinks, a cop, and a pay phone...

arrrr. the drive back to mississippi suckedddd. i didn't leave charleston until right at two. i always do that. i procrastinate leaving a place if i really like being there. home. bristol. and apparently charleston. i stopped by starbucks before i left, and everybody there made me cry. tears fell for twenty miles up 26.

the drive took approximately twelve hours for eight hundred some-odd miles and five stops, only four of which were planned. the fifth one involved being stopped by a cop less than thirty miles from jackson who felt the need to let me know that the back end of my truck was wider than the front end and that i should keep an eye on my lanes. he was really nice about it, so i didn't feel the need to inform him that the reason i was iffy about keepin' it between the lines was because i was nodding off as i passed him. i just said, "yes, sir, thank you, sorry," and kept on goin'. i freakin' love mississippi cops. they never *knock on wood* write me tickets. i think it's the wink. just kidding.

my cell phone battery lasted just long enough for me to call my mama right before birmingham to find out what kind of weather i was headed into. there was crazy awesome lightning, but i basically wanted to know if it was gonna be raining the whole way in. turns out, i was headed into tornado warning territory. excellent. we just all slowed to thirty and used our flashers for a dozen miles or so. right before my battery died, i received a text from bank of america that my debit card had been temporarily suspended because of "curious activity" on my account. dear bank of america: south carolina and georgia are next door neighbors. it's completely possible to travel amongst the two states in less than twelve hours, so please refrain from putting accounts on hold if there's spending going on that close to each other. ya poops.

so because i couldn't use my debit card, and my cell phone was dead, and all of my chargers were packed into the back of a 16' moving van, i actually had the privelege of using a pay phone tonight. i know, right? i was surprised they still had those, too. i was almost worried about catching something from it, but i figure it was probably last used about eight years ago and any germs that were living on it then are probably dead by now. so i call bank of america and verify my email address, blah blah blah, and the guy says that he'll put a temporary travel notice on my account. i told him he might want to make it more than temporary because within the next few months i'll be traveling a lot. he asked me to list each state, and bless his heart, i think he lost count when i got to pennsylvania. he then just asked for a general route, "so will you be going from south carolina to new york city?" and i said, "nope. georgia to maine."