Blogs from Virginia, United States, North America - page 104

In about an hour and a half, my husband is going to walk in the door, and a whirlwind of activity will ensue. Bags will be grabbed, trash will have to go out, the cat will have to be shoved into her carrier, and off we will go! Off for a weekend of fun in the sun in North Carolina. The problem is, I'm still in my jammies and half packed. I have, at least, picked out what I'm going to wear. But there's laundry that needs to be put away, dishes to be done, a shower to be taken, stuff to pick up, and of course, a suitcase that needs to be completely packed. My motivation has been dead since yesterday. That's when Ginger and I laid about all day watching episodes of Alias on ... read more

35 days walking in total, 359.9 miles completed @ an average of 10.28 miles per day. We have broken into the 10+ mile per day average bracket and feeling great about it! Got out of the camp at 8:30AM. A little later than I had wanted, but we had a nice hot breakfast with hot beverages afterwards. 1,120' was the mornings climb up Kelly Knob and to White Rock @ 3,800'. CC twisted her right knee yesterday so we wrapped it with an Ace bandage this morning. She is dressed like yesterday with most of what she has for clothing on. We are quite the pair to see in the mornings. She is dressed for a cool New York spring day, I am in shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt and sweating profusely within the first half ... read more

The rain only lasted an hour or so without any thunder and lightning. The tent site was not flat, so we had to stuff things under our pads to try and even it out enough to sleep. I do not know how we managed, but we both woke up fairly rested. We were out of camp by 8:45AM heading south down the trail. The trail basically ran the spine of a ridge for about six miles. There were the normal PUDS, but nothing too tough. We met a large group of young ladies from a boarding school on a 14 day hike. Most of their packs looked like some 1800's traveling salesman's walking minstral show. They looked like there was as much hanging from the packs as was inside. After crossing VA 624 we started up ... read more

Hounds of Baskerville. All snug in our bags early this morning about 3AM. Out of the woods and darkness this pack of loose hounds hit the scent of chow. In one loud voice they sang out and gave chase. Must have been at least eight plus dogs and all had excellent working vocal cords. We were waken with a start as the Baskerville Beasts ran toward us down an unseen trail chasing who knows what. It seemed they would run right through our tent. They veered off away from the tent site and continued the chase through the river and up the hill. You could hear the bay of hounds over the rain for almost 45 minutes. The rain continued off and on all night long. The tent stayed dry inside, but all our stuff outside ... read more

Well, today is Tuesday, May 23, 2007. Vision Quest 2007 was officially scheduled to begin this past Sunday. Unfortunately, on the eve of our embarcation, as we were returning from the spiritual oasis of Walmart no less, our beloved 1999 Hyundai Elantra..."Car"...decided she would no longer exceed 40 mph without stalling. The auto mechanic called it a failed clutch, but given Car's past refusal to leave the DC metropolitan area (various failed trips due to "clutch problems") we believe that Car simply doesn't want to leave DC and will make every attempt to keep us from doing so as well; nevermind that we've taken her in twice in the past month and received the "A...OK" from the repair shop. Since Car isn't scheduled to be repaired until late Wednesday at the earliest, we decided to ... read more