Final post from home.

This will probably be my last post here at home.  I've got most of the house packed and am going to spend the evening at a birthday dinner (for me!) and mingling with friends.  Stew, his dad, and I will be packing up the house early tomorrow and then Stew and I will spend our last night in our house--- sleeping on the floor.  :)  I guess there's no better way to ease into sleeping on the ground for months than to do it at home.

Over the past year I've researched, read, looked at, questioned, and absorbed every nugget of information I could find on the internet or glean from others concerning the Trail.  Some of it was very useful, thought-provoking, clever, and helpful.  Some of it wasn't.  It's up to Stew and I now to make of it what we will and (as the common saying goes) "hike our own hike".  Many people have been humble in offering advice, but I've also found that many people who've hiked love to explain just how THEY did it.  And why that is not only the RIGHT way, but the ONLY way.  Gladly, I usually don't place other people's advice higher than my own (okay, some might call that a "fault"...)  :)

What I'm trying to say is, I feel good about this.  I feel calm, I feel determined, and I feel happy. More could be said, but it would only come back to the fact that I feel ready. 

I had some tid-bit of information floating around in my head today, something about "getting in touch with the silence within myself", and I was wondering where I'd heard that before.  Then it came to me: my parents had written "Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself..." in my Senior yearbook.  I think I am already on that track, but maybe it's something I'll focus on during my long walk.



So here's to our walk, and here's to everyone who helped us prepare.  And here's a big THANK YOU to our wonderful, supportive family and friends.  Many people helped in so many ways, and without you I don't think we'd be as ready, or as successful, as we are- and as we are going to be.

Okay, here we go...