28 June Manchester, Connecticut All I wanted was a few weekends and to take him to a hockey game now and then. Instead his mother resorted to the deplorable yet sure-fire tactic of using him as a weapon against me. She has utilized him this way from the very beginning when she didn’t get what she wanted out of me. For years I tolerated the put downs, insults, and threats. I held my tongue and other primordial impulses when she force fed him a liver dinner. I squealed with him as she practically pried his teeth open with the fork from [View Full Entry]

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Welcome to this summer’s essays entitled THE SUMMER OF MY SALVATION. THE SUMMER OF MY SALVATION will depict a different type of journey starting in Tennessee. From there, who knows? A traveler’s itinerary should never be set in stone. For me, it is still developing as I compose these words. I am still considering a change in title, as planning has been thrown on its head in the past week The purpose of these essays was to originally document a part of the world through my eyes and ears. While raw, unfiltered, and very subjective, more introspection will come into play. [View Full Entry]

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It's hard to believe we will be in Ireland soon! We still have so much to do, and wanted to be sure we knew how to use this correctly. We promise our future entries will be more interesting--Wish us luck! [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone, Just a quick note about my upcoming trip to Iceland. I'll be leaving Sunday, June 28th from Boston and flying directly into Reykjavik getting in around 6:30AM local time. For the first part of the trip we'll be staying at Hotel Plaza in Reykjavik, then on July 4th moving to Hotel Highland in Hrauneyjar. Finally, we'll return back to Hotel Plaza on July 9th. It looks like we'll have internet access just about everywhere we go, barring any problems, so I'll try to update this as often as I can. They've sent us some information about the trip including [View Full Entry]

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Rain patted the tent fly all night long. Not heavy, just a steady Seattle drizzle. The thick pine trees overhead helped abate the worst I think. It also helped it continue to hit the tent long after the real rain had quit. We woke up around 5:30 with water still hitting the tent. Motivation was not real high to go out, but we did have to make the Post Office 11 miles away. The Ridgerunner told us the trail was detoured around a construction site not far from where we had camped. She didn't say if it added or subtracted [View Full Entry]

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Sunday, 14 June (NYC KOA to Mystic & Boston/Cape Cod KOA): We left the NYC KOA around 9am, heading for Mystic, Connecticut before our next home base at the Boston/Cape Cod KOA in Middleboro (or Middleborough depending on where you look). The trip to Mystic was pretty much uneventful, not even getting GPS lost. Our first stop was Mystic Pizza for lunch at this famous eatery from the movie by the same name. Mystic is very picturesque, but doesn’t offer much in historic or other sights, although the traffic was pretty heavy. We shared a Greek salad and a Mediterranean pizza, [View Full Entry]

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So much for all the early risers in the shelter! We woke up right at 6AM, I thought I heard someone in the shelter making breakfast or packing. CC was awake so I got all fixed up, rolled up my sleeping pad and headed out to make breakfast. Much to my surprise all four hikers, even the "I get up at 5AM" guy were still in their bags snoring away. Quietly, like our friend "Highwayman" used to do, I made breakfast and packed up my stuff. CC was close behind and we ate our oatmeal like church mice. One hiker [View Full Entry]

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After some wonderful rest and visiting we are back to the trail. The ride up was uneventful. The weather outlook for the next few days is fair and I have new shoes without holes in them. Warm weather greeted us as we pulled our things from the trunk. Hugs all the way around, goodbyes said and in a cloud of dust (kind of) we were back on our own headed north. One of the things we did yesterday was maintain our gear and I tested an idea for lessening my load. Many solo hikers use an alcohol stove for cooking. [View Full Entry]

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Quiet night alone on the mountain. I did see the moon through the trees once when I woke up to adjust my bag. We sleep with one half the fly door open on each side when we can. This prevents condensation from breathing and sweating overnight. We were up by 6:30 packing and eating. During our resupply at Joline's we chose to have non-cooked breakfast for these few days. Oatmeal bars was the fare with hot coffee. 8:15 we walked out of the campsite. The first six miles today were all up and downs with +/- 500' - 700' seven [View Full Entry]

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The rain made it to the tent about midnight and the fly was damp the rest of the night. A couple more hikers came into the shelter after we had retired. We crawled out of the tent about 6:15 this morning. The rain had stopped earlier but the trees held more water than a wet duck dog. Making breakfast I was talking with the new hikers. Turns out that one of them was the son of a co-worker of our son-in-law in Rochester, NY. Both of us knew about the other and had been on the lookout hoping not to [View Full Entry]

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