April 2 - I like my friends

Well, hello to all.  It has definately been awhile since I've written.  My problem is that this trip has all been about reconnecting with old friends.  It was hugely signifigant and wonderful to me but I don't know if others would be that enthralled.  I went from Minnesota to Nebraska where I got to witness my first hockey game. Skittles and I toured the mountains of New Mexico, learned some car repair, witnessed the most beautiful and obscure snow fall in Madrid, a ghost town painted all artsy and decorated with scrap metal.  We slept outside, listened to coyotes, toured Roswell (and giggled).  We ran on sand dunes, made sand castles and carved out messages to alien craft. At the Job fair they handed us a business card and told us to apply for Antarctica jobs on the web.  As we drove we listened to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as well as some depressing mountain survival stories on tape.

Skittles got to meet one of my oldest friends- as in, I've known her forever -  before he had to take a bus back to Minnesota.  We visited some flea markets and art fairs, little artsy towns and what-not.  Charity had made me a dress and she made my latest wool pant purchase into my new pair of wool capris.  THANKYOU!  We made pictures, watched Monkee episodes and numerous other movies, yay Vin Diesel.  She also introduced me to fantasy novels.  I can't believe how hooked I am.  We reviewed our own little fantasy novel.  A terribly girly story that we first began writing when we were 14 or so.  That story is the reason I began watercolor, illustrations.

Charity and I went up to Arkansas for another reunion with her sister that I haven't seen in about 8 yrs.?  I can't remember.  During that time she has gotten married so I got to meet the husband, Jeff, and see thier house.  It seems that Sarah has never told Jeff about this fairytale that she was part of so we all explained the drama and what role Jeff now was.  He would be Josaphine's husband, Troy.  From Troy's character list Jeff deduced that he must clench his jaw and stare a lot, with arms folded.  You see, Charity and I have an old planner that is a compilation of lists, outlines, time lines, and names.  It's the backbone of silliness and the story itself so that the essence of it will never be lost. The final plan had always been to make the story into a novel.    Charity and I painted a mural of the universe in Jeff's office, visited a step aerobics class with Sarah, swam some laps, played piano, and soaked up each other's company.  

I stayed with Charity for about 2 weeks before heading on to Georgia for another reunion with another Goddard, Peter.  He's an older brother of the two sisiters, and he's in the navy doing top secret stuff.  Pretty cool.  He was pretty busy with work and sports.  The last time I saw him was in California after I returned from Tahiti.  I got to shoot some guns on the base, a glock, shotgun, a .382?  and another cool gun.  With every clip I thought of how jealous my little brother Casey would be and now I am thinking how annoyed he'll be because I can't remember the name of guns the way he can.  The weather was beautiful so I also wandered downtown Augusta.

I finally arrived at Carrie's in North Carolina about midnight last Thursday.  I bribed her to go to an all night diner with me and we stayed up till all hours and had a grand ol' time.  Besides catch-up and my first Easter dinner, Carrie has also gotten me started on match.com and eharmony.  Sheesh!  Who's idea was this anyway?  Profiles and pictures and thinking about guys when my main goal right now is to get to Antarcica (still haven't heard much on that).  I do have my new pair of travel earings so this trip is now officially under way.  For this trip I didn't know what I wanted for earings.  Usually I get a craving for a specific pair, for my second year of fishing it was pearls, for Hawaii it was opal, for the Appalachian Trail it was hoops. The earings help me choose a focus and traditionally at the end of my trip I lose or break the pair, I hate that.  It's like they represent a theme to the trip while at the same time helping me feel feminine.  Well, I left home without my permanent pair of earings.  My trip had no focus just as I didn't know what I wanted for my earings.  In Texas I finally decided that I wanted earings that reminded me of Antarctica.  Charity and I scoured an art fair and I now have an icy blue pair, Christy, Carrie's mother, said they remind her of robins' eggs. 

 Another monumental purchase has been my very own personal hiking boots.  I purposely waited to buy boots till I got to go to David at Diamond Brand.  His purpose in life is to find the perfect pair of boots for a person.  I really need that, my feet are such an odd shape that I don't bother to buy quality stuff.  David immediately reassured my doubts.  "Whoa!  We have our work cut out for us!"  And with that I tried on about 10 pairs of boots.  It was amazing though. He made adjustments and put me through all sorts of walking tests.  I shut my eyes to all prices hoping to stay under $300.  I walked out with some high quality, well fitting boots, custom-fit insoles, and a pair of socks for a total of $240.  Whoo-hoo. Now I hobble around as I struggle to break them in. The quote of the day was David's,"Were you a club-foot as a child?"  He's so sweet.

I also have my plane ticket to Alaska under budget as well.  $235 from Minneapolis!  So I will get to see my family for about a day before I go fishing this summer. As for hiking.  I'm hopelessly unorganized.  The plan is to leave tomorrow for Roanoke, drop off my car, hitch to the trail, and start hiking.  I don't know how to get there, I haven't informed the person who will be storing my car of this plan, and I haven't bought my essential rice and lentils.  I do have an amazing new alcohol stove though.  Don Goddard couldn't resist the challenge of designing and perfecting of a stove made out of a pop can.  My new one burns half the alcohol of my old one.  Way cool.  I should also think about packing.  All my things are strewn about Carrie's house.   I really am excited about hiking again even though it rained most of this week and today it decided to snow.  Oh yeah, I still need to buy thermo underwear.   Minor details. I'll talk to you all later.

 Love,
Rachael (soon to be Roadster once again)

April 16 - Daleville to Waynesboro

I've actually been hiking.  Can yo believe it?  I found a hotel parking lot to park my car.  I started walking.  I think I made it a whole of 4 miles or so.  The first thing to go wrong was my camping stove.  Didn't work for nothing.  I composed a good little postcard to Don, the stove maker, and hiked on to try to catch the one other person that I saw on the trail.  I did have a cold supper my first night out but I also caught up to the she-hiker the next morning.  Lucky for me I found someone that sleeps later than me on the trail.  She was able to give me my missing stove component, a lighter.  The stove cooks good now.  Of ALL the things to leave behind!!! I think for it's size fire making tools are a pretty big deal. 

 I think I did pretty good starting out, granted I was packing over 40 lbs and I was hobbling about trying to break in my boots, I didn't start swearing at the trail till the third day out.  I'll blame it on heat.  No, it's always the hills.  Stupid hills.  About that time I also ran into some other hikers.  They had actually started at the same place I had.  I had talked to them on the streets of Daleville, Virginia. You can pick a hiker out anywhere.  Anyways,  It wasn't until we parted ways that I found out that she had known Skittles quite well.  It was Jig, they had hiked together for a bit around Erwin, Tennesee.  I already told Skittles this story but it's so cool.  Anyways,  she had such sweet things to say about my old hiking partner that I got all sentimental on the trail.  I didn't have any feet to follow.

I don't know when it happened but I got adjusted to hiking solo.  I suddenly had time to plan all sorts of stuff, I prepared a presentation for a nursing home about my travels, laid out an art ciriculum for teaching children art classes, and I designed some trail postcards and a sort of picture frame that I would like to make.  I also did a bit of mental arguing to preachy hikers and register entries.  Meanwhile, the sun toasted me.  I've been peeling skin out of my ears, and I hiked a 14 mile day uphill because some section hikers told me I couldn't, ha.  I'm hopeless.  I've also completely lost track of dates, I'm still working on relearning to tell the time from the sun.

My first Sabbath out was awesome.  I was able to wash my socks Friday, I got to wash up, I slept in, layed in the sun, stuck my feet in Matt's Creek, read Jehovah Witness literature, and at the end of the day I got to visit with the coolest people and traded with a masseuse for massage.  Ahhh.  The group was a laid back hiking crew with various ages and experiance but they were so warm and good natured and each one differant, it was an odd balance of being close knit but I felt like part of them immediately.  Someone told me I was wise when we talked about life plans, I laughed a diabolical laugh (I don't know if that word is what I think it means but like it).  I walked away with thier left over hiker food.  It was a great way to end the beginning, especially after a night with Hoods in the Woods, they THREW thier garbage on the trail.  Who would hike in with JUICE BOXES for a 7 day hiking trip for 9 teens?  AND individual applesauce servings, disposable silverware, indiviual handiwipes.  Never mind, I should have griped at them when I had the chance, a full out fight between a kid and a counselar at 11:00  at night.  I wanted to wake up at 4 in the morning and bang on the shelter till they were all grumbling at their own disturbed sleep.  Hey, I found a child's tent, have to sleep diagonal, but still.

A few days ago I was getting ready to head out of Cow Camp Shelter and Tortoise told me that a cold front was moving in.  He headed on out and minutes later my hands had gone from normal morning to nearly numb.  Luckily I had decided to go in to the Dutch Haus for a good meal.  They had been advertising along the trail.

Last year I wouldn't stay if I couldn't make a trade.  Well, it was supper time by the time I arrived at the Dutch Haus, too late for negotiations so I resigned myself to be willing to pay if pictures I painted wouldn't be accepted.  Lois makes amazing meals, has a wonderful cabin and was the nicest lady.  In the morning I was able to present her with 2 postcard sized paintings.  She was so excited about them, called it even and wanted me to paint another picture.  There happened to be a hiker doing a 25 mile slack pack, you know, walk witout a pack,  so I offered another night's trade if I could also slack pack.  Before I knew it I was heading up the mountain to hike 22 miles over some of the greatest altitude changes in the trail.  Soon I was hopping out of the van ready to go the wrong way up the trail.  I had to be pointed off in the right direction and then 22 miles was underway.  I'm not a thru hiker this year.  I had been hiking for about 8 days!  Well, I made it in ok time, no night hiking, I did bring my head lamp though, and I was definately swearing at the last mountain.  See, you start out ok then there was 3 miles of mostly downhill, then a river and 4 miles of UP hill.  It was still 5 miles after the toughest of the  climbs to get back to the Dutch Haus and it was in the last 2 miles, the miles that drag on and on that there was another awful climb.  Who designs these trails anyways?!

After the hike, dinner, dessert and painting my picture I went to bed for 2 hrs before hiking into Waynesboro here.  14 miles.  Ugh.  I WILL be lightening my load!  The awesome thing though is that everything has fallen into place for a 5 day canoe trip.  Half Full has the whole week off next week.  I am here where the trip begins, Tortoise is here and is going to go and Map Quest, the girl with the lighter said she would be willing to go but that's if we can get ahold of her before Monday, she's SOMEWHERE on the trail.  I am so excited.  So is Half Full.  It will be so nice to be "hiking" partners again.  She is always my hiking partner.  And now I am at Gnome's, a hiker the two of us met at Trail Days last year.  He has been a blast.  Got to sit and watch some more movies and what not.  With everything ahead of schedule I am going to make it into Pennsylavania and be even farther north before Trail Days than I had planned.  How cool.  So much fun.  I will talk to you all later.

Love,
Roadster

April 24 - Canoe trip and then some

It's snowing!  How can that be?  I am supposed to be hiking tomorrow!  What a week.  I've been hanging around visiting differant people.  Half Full came up to Gnome's for the canoe trip.  It went great except that we were an hour late.  I felt so bad.  I was afraid the outfitter would just drive away and leave us but he was very sweet and very patient. 

 The canoe trip was to be a 5 day trip, covering about 20 miles a day on the Shanendoah river.  The first days were hot and wonderful and perfect.  Although the first day out Half Full and I washed ourselves up on 2 rocks which heald the canoe in place while it filled with water.   This was not the sort of intro that I wanted.  I was all panicked waiting to see our stuff sink to the bottom.  Things worked out.  We had to stand in the rapids and bail in order to get the canoe floating again.

Tortoise was a character.  He kept complaining how inadequate and slow his canoe was.  He fixed the problem by latching on to ours and sitting back and visiting.  We would only seperate when the rapids came.  Half Full taught me some stearing techniques and soon I was feeling all confident.  We could go through rapids and I could stear around the rocks instead of screaming an pointing.  How cool is that?

The scenery was absolutely beautiful, there were cows grazing and wading, twisted trees, seed tufts floated in from everywhere, on the water, in the air.  We needed a guitar and an umbrella to complete the mood.  Tortoise had the umbrella, we teased him for that too.  As well as for being old and decrepid.  He took our teasing with a smile and bought some bungee cords so he didn't actually have to grip onto our canoe.  He did treat us to coffee and movies and what-not.  On the second day out we camped where his truck was parked so we took a trip into town and saw Hostage with Bruce Willis.  I wasn't impressed.  I told Mom that it was like they tried to cross Panic Room with Die Hard but missed the suspense and the action.  Oh well, it was still a movie.  The nights camping were so beautiful that I slept under the stars.  We were stocked with all the camping treats and about 3 boxes of wine.  It's hard to drink on the river when you have to portage and row for 2 canoes.  We still have most of our alcohol.

We swam, had water fights, found an awesome rope swing, watched hawks and herons, slathered on the sun screen (and still burned), and my hair worked itself into a dread lock.  On Thursday morning things changed.  A storm was coming in, the temperature would be dropping daily and the wind and rain came.  Tortoise heard about this and ended his trip.  Half Full and I couldn't wimp out that easy so we canoed on for 9 miles in cold and rain and quickly started making alternate plans for the weekend.  John, the outfitter was very accomadating and when we finally called, 11 miles short of Front Royal, he came and picked us up.  Unfortunately, Front Royal is the ending spot I needed to be able to say that I had aqua blazed the Shanendoahs.  Bummer.  Well, Skittles, you said you wanted to return and hike the Shanendoahs one year?  Sign me up.

While waiting for our pick up we got to meet a guy out of Waterboy.  He only said the first half of his words but once you realized that you could pretty much figure out what he was saying.  It was the chaw.   "Heh goo, you gah sah coe ha, I woo kee you."  That was one of his flirtations.

Half Full and I crashed in on Gnome again, he wa very helpful, then we drove around trying to figure out who we could crash in on for the weekend.  That's how I got to meet Bee, Half Full's horse friend.  It's been a lovely weekend in an old Virginia house.  Absolutely beautiful and cushy and now I see the snow and I am supposed to go back to my car and drive north to Harper's Ferry and start hiking.  Ugh.  I'm supposed to be lightening my load.  I've decided to do mail drops.  My weight is my food that I am greedily hoarding.  With about 15 days or more left to hike I could be a good ways north.  If only I can get into shape for it.  Canoeing didn't help that.  Nor did the restaurant meals or the marshmallow cream, m&ms, etc.  Well, our stay is about over. Hope this snow is a passing fancy.  Friday night we listened to an angry thunderstorm.  I guess it's a good thing we didn't follow through with our canoe week.

Love,
Roadster

April 30 - Harpers Ferry and counting

Howdy, howdy howdy
I have had such a great day.  I woke up in a hostel with rain pouring outside and was glad not to be out there.  I still had to get up and drive though.  I have had a great week.  Well, interesting, at least.  I told you that I was headed to Bear's Den hostel, right?  Well, on the way my car had a bit of an identity crisis at a gas station.  When I came out of the bathroom the cashier warned me that my car was leaking gas.  "yeahyeahyeah," I said.  Everybody always warns me about the smell of gas that eminated from the back of my car, I don't smell it.  As I was waving it off I glanced out and noticed the puddle forming under my car and from the station you could see my yet unpaid purchase draining onto the concrete.  That can't be safe.  The swamped mechanic kindly hoisted up my car, poked at my gas tank a bit and declared my car a rust bucket or something of the sort.  I called Daddy, my budget for emergencies, and a nice stranger gave me a ride to Pearisburg.  Cool.  The Holy Hostel, this was my first revisit to a hostel.  This stranger related his side effects of a car accident he had had 9 yrs ago.  He seems to have the perfect set-up, not only does he have absolutely no taste but he has memory problems as well.  It's the perfect set-up, not only can you easily eat healthy food but then you forget that you're even hungry.  He told of going 3 days without realizing he hadn't eaten.  He was still overwieght though.  Americans, just gotta be ailing.

The hostel had a character I wanted to mention to Peter and Charity and anyone else that might have read "The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (highly recommended).  Meet 42.  It was great, he was great.  He didn't even realize what 42 signified and yet he fit it to a tee.  He could be the guru in those dubbed chinese movies,  my question: "Where do you want to get to? " Answer: "There, it is where I will be, and when you are there you are here so you don't even need to get there."  Or something, at least I know he won't need a ride.

I hitched back to the place that I needed to get to to get here which was "there" at the time.  Lovely hitches.  Got me right back to the mechanic who had found a junkyard gas tank and off I went to Bear's Den.  I have been here all week!! How cool is that?  Very.  I walked in the door and asked to sleep in my car in the parking lot - trying to save money -  but during this questioning I found out that I was talking to my old friend Queen Diva!  She was the first person I got Trail Magic from and I saw her 2 more times last year.  She's running the hostel this year, she saw Dude and she was all caught up on the Roadster + Skittles gossip.  What has Dude been saying?  Dude finished about 2 weeks ago I guess.  He never told me.  Anyways, she has treated me like an old friend instead of a guest.  It's been so awesome.  She was open to the idea of work for stay for as long as I wanted, I mentioned painting, she remembered my drawings and I got to paint another mural!  And slack 54 miles.  I slacked the roller coaster, yessss.

I met my first currently hiking thru hiker this year, no, I'm wrong, Just Mark is thru hiking as well.  Well, this is Early Bird.  I got to feel all famous when I said my name and she got all excited.  She's been reading my register entries in the shelters.  She was also excited to learn that Jaws was here as well.  He is a hiker that she had been following on Trail Journals.  He ended up getting off and volanteering here for 6 weeks but I hadn't realized that he was a hiker but I laughed because I immediately knew who this ex-hiker Jaws was, it was Mark, who looks just like Richard Dreyfus.

So in summary I have spent the week slacking, meeting hikers, and sleeping in a comfy bed.  Queen Diva makes sure I get yummy home cooked food and life has been good.  I've had many slacking days to reflect freely, sometimes on my pain, I've decided it rotates: middle toe, left knee, right knee, right shoulder, left jaw.  Yes jaw,  why did that have to be thrown in?  Oneday I could hardly chew.  I've also had 2 zeros with a biblestudy thrown in, that all gives me time to forget about the pain.  One thing I have especially pondered is the description of some protein bars that I got to use to "fuel my machine."  At the time, I was rehearsing to be a critic for backpacker magazine.  Let me share:  The mint chocalate is exactly "chocolate flavored chalk coating a mint flavored eraser."  And the other Pure Protein Bar took 2, maybe even 3 hiking trips to finish and it took that many days to pinpoint the exact taste.  It wasn't until it's last bite yesterday on my 19 mile slack - that I did in great time, I think - that I finally really knew what that bar tasted like.  The label said it was chocolate coverd blueberry cheese cake (I don't think that sounds like an appetizing combo) and the picture of blueberries looked really pretty but I could not fathom how any part of that bar could taste like blueberries, it looked like a flattened and dried out Snickers bar but I now know the taste!  It's Grandma Sorenson's davenport that sat in the basement.  I'm serious.  If I had ever bitten into that polyester slip cover with foam lining, gotten through the layer of carpeted 70's upholestery and into that mustard yellow crumbly foam, it would have tasted just like this protein bar.

Today it all ends.  I got to shuttle some hikers around and actually be helpful for once.  Blisters (hiker) was there to help my car through it's mental breakdown, it is convinced that it's a seive and I am trying to persuade it otherwise.  Now it's the heater coil, which, until today, I had never heard of and am now very educated on.  I got some No Leak or whatever, 3 gal. of extra water, and lots of free advice.  I also have a couple back up plans (they include a thumb and some postage) but if today is an indicator of the drive home, I'll still make it.  It was such a beautiful day, all except the vortex of fog around the mountain.  It was a great drive with Tim Robbins back to his vehicle.  Well, he looks just like him.  I got a free lunch out of it as well.  I've also got a new $40 gortex jacket for $10.  Not bad.  Way too big, gotta love those new hikers.  I should make a point to hang around outfitters on a regular basis.  All right, enough words.  I am off to bed.  I am hoping I can keep ahead of Early Bird until next week and then drag her down to Trail Days with me.  We'll see.  You know, I might not get to talk to you till Damascus.  Ten days!!!  Hey, I'll see some of you there!

Love,
Roadster