Hoowwwdeee from Palmerston, PA

Well, I've crossed the Mason-Dixon line a little over a week ago, and I haven't had sweet tea in that same time. Nor a shower. Nor have I updated the blog in a while. Well, we all do without.

I'm sitting here in the library in Palmerston, PA...the PERFECT hiker town. Absolutely wonderful. It's a nice quiet town without much traffic and just one main strip with all the shops, so everything is walkable. The town center lets hikers stay and shower for free!! Well, I guess you can tell that I'm excited to be here. I've been in a funk for the past few days. I think the excitement of crossing the halfway point has worn into the realization...dear god, I've got a thousand more miles to hike. Am trying to push on. Soon enough, I'll hit the point where sheer stubborness will win through. But, as always, it's not all bad. I picked up a free book here at the library...A Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek by Annie Dillard. I happened to cross over Tinker's Creek a few hundred miles ago, so it will be interesting reading about it, plus she's a pretty good writer. Also, Sarah Marcum, if you happen to read this, she mentions a book that I thought you would like, "Space and Sight" by Marius von Senden who describes the experiences of people who gained sight after cataract surgery became a possibility. I think an obscure book, but it looks fascinating.

Right, so, I have 60 days left to hike if I am going to get done by the first of September and 940ish miles to go. That's about 16 miles a day without taking any days off. Hopefully, I'll average about 20 miles a day and earn a day off every four days. That, I think, will be key to keeping the spirits up. I'm going to try not to do the math very often, though and just run with it, take it as it comes, else It'll dominate my hike, my mood, etc.

A brief recap? Why not...

So, since I last wrote, I've gotten in to DC. I pushed rather hard to get there and get there before the 10:30 train left, and I had a mini breakdown as I was night hiking to Harper's Ferry. It was about eleven, and I thought I'd been making good time and passed Crescent Rock early on, only to discover that, about an hour later, I was just then passing Crescent Rock, and I still had 17 miles to go to town. Not only that, I had left one of the neatest hostels on the trail, stocked with a couple of friends, to get into town. Well, already sleep deprived, I was about to give up, and I lay down for a nap. But woke up two hours later and decided to give it another go and get seven miles out of the way. I ended up getting about 11 miles from H. Ferry before passing out again for another three hours, then making a death march into town from 6-9:30 that morning. About the hardest thing I've ever done. And the train was late by like an hour and a half. Bah.

But getting in to DC was great, as was seeing Andres and Veronica, who were both gracious hosts. I only wish I had come on a weekend. Besides the city, it was neat to see their relationship...it's really the first functional, adult relationship I've gotten to see among my friends (I sure hope I'm not unintentionally offending anyone with that remark). Anyway, they are both looking after each other, struggling a little with life after school, maybe, but building a life for themselves in the city. Neat.

Alright, so my manic writing mood/muse has departed, so I'm going to fill in a bit more later. After some food. Lots of food.