T Minus 1 Day

So, I’m typing this retroactively. The present tense in this post happened yesterday on Wednesday, March 11, 2015.

This morning involved a lot of last minute technology related tasks. Mostly these had to do with my SPOT GPS tracker I’ll use on the trail so you can know where I am. Also, I had some last minute packing to do, mostly assembling loose items that are not kept in my many stuff sacks. Eventually I gave up on trying to pack these items. Instead, I found a much more elegant solution! I got a trash bag and just randomly dumped the whole lot into it. I reasoned that time was short and that I could work on packing after arriving in Georgia.

With the car loaded, I was ready to leave. It was at this point when the true gravity of my situation finally set in. As I had just visited each room in my house, looking for any “gear escapees,” I became aware that I would not see my house for nearly 8 months. And now, behind the wheel of the car, I had the thought, “What the hell am I doing?”

I mean, of course I know what I’m doing. I am attempting to thru hike the Appalachian Trail. I’ve spent 16 months researching and planning this. But I’ve been so crazy busy the past three weeks that it just hadn’t completely “sunk in” yet.

Well, now it had. I was leaving my house, bound for Dahlonega, GA. I had a deer-in-headlights expression for several minutes until I finally snapped out of it and backed out the driveway.
The drive to Georgia was long but uneventful. For teating purposes, I turned on my SPOT several times. If anyone was watching my tracking page, you’d see where I was! We finally arrived at the Holiday Inn Express in Dahlonega at about 930 pm.

It would’ve been easy to simply go to sleep and skip dinner. However, the appetites won the game. After a lengthy search, we found a tavern in town that was still open. After having some of the best Philly Steak and Cheese type subs EVER, we headed back to the hotel for much needed rest.

In the morning, I would have the final task of packing the remaining loose items. To be honest, I was worried about making them fit. I even considered possibly having to buy a new backpack, should everything not fit.

But for right now, the immediate worry was…

zzzzzzzzzzz….

Sleepily Wandering on…

Kelly