Sunday, June 7, 2015

Day 65 and 66- A Little R&R

June 5-6, 2015
Dripping Rock Gap(847.3) to Dunn Loring, VA Zero miles

This is the first time I've gotten behind on writing my blog. I had so many other things to get done the last few days that I just didn't get it written. Plus, zero days aren't usually very exciting to write about. 

I ended up taking a triple zero for two reasons; to let my feet heal and rest and to go to my nieces fourth birthday party. I stayed really busy the entire time off of the trail. Friday I got up early so I could go to REI. I had my brother just drop me off because I didn't want to be rushed. I ended up spending over three hours there. I got two new pairs of shoes(one would be returned later), a new pair of SuperFeet insoles, and a variety of snacks and dehydrated food. I'm not really sure what I spent the rest of the afternoon doing, the day just flew by. Since it was, Anthony and Lauren's fifth wedding anniversary, they went out to dinner and we took Parker out to eat. Her favorite restaurant is BJ's, so that's where we went. She was very well behaved (as usual) and all of our meals were delicious. While we waited for Parker's dessert, we killed time by letting her play with my iphone, which led to her taking our pictures. 
Dad and Yoda (taken by Parker)
Parker and Yoda being silly

Once we got back to the house it was time for Parker to take a bath and go to bed. I stayed up way too late watching three episodes of Game of Thrones. I'm still two episodes behind. 

Yesterday was another action packed day. I spent most of it agonizing over which shoes to keep, Keen Voyaguers or Brooks Cascadia 9's. After going back and forth all day long, I ended up keeping the Brooks. I started this journey wearing the Cascadia 10's and they had a design flaw that caused them to tear in the foot box area. The Cascadia 9's have reinforcement in that area. I really wanted to like the Keen's, but I didn't want to risk them not working out. I also spent a good portion of the afternoon sorting through my food and planning out the next ten days. I decided to start off with three days of food. My parents will drop off another 3.5 days worth of food to me on Tuesday via Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park(SNP). I also made up a box of food to be dropped off in Front Royal, VA that I'll pick up next week. I find it very stressful to try to plan ahead that many days. 

Once I had my trail chores taken care of it was time to get ready for Parker's birthday party. My other nieces, Riley and Kallie, were able to come for Parker's party. I was able to see my sister-in-law, Sharon and her mother, Dolly, as well. Parker's party was at a tumble type gym. There were 23 other children there with parents too. I almost had a panic attack. I'm not used to being around that many people in such a small area. Throw in 20+ over stimulated 3-4 year olds, and I was freaking out. I quickly excused myself and bolted out of the door. My dad followed and we went to the grocery store next door to look for a few things I still needed to pick up. We returned to the party a little later and everything was fine. The kids had settled down and the parents had spread out around the room. I enjoyed watching my nieces play and have fun. 
Birthday girl with her awesome hat
Riley, Yoda, Dolly, and Kallie
Me in normal clothes

After the party ended we went back to my brothers for a family dinner. The kids ran around and had more fun playing. I started to get all of my things together and repack my bag. 
After dinner, Kallie, Riley, Sharon, and Dolly had to get going. They live outside of Philadelpia and still had to make it home. 

We watched the Lightning beat the Blackhawks to even up the Stanley Cup series. Go Lightning!!!! I stayed up way too late again. The plan for tomorrow is to leave my brothers house by 5:00, stop in Front Royal to leave my food drop at a motel, and hopefully be back on the trail by 8:00. 

"I'm not anti-social. I'm just not social." -Woody Allen

6 comments:

  1. Great weekend together. So happy you are healthy again and bak in the game
    Dad

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  2. Glad you got to enjoy some family time! Now back to getting closer to your goal!!

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  3. Good to hear you enjoyed family time. I would have been right there with you and your Dad at the grocery store! Hope you and Airlock do meet up soon; sounds like you need a planner. Looks like Harrisonburg isn't going to work out and that's ok.

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  4. Hi Yoda, Nice to spend some time with your family and friends. Sounds like your healed up and ready to get back to the task at hand. Wanted to tell you I Spent sometime in my hammock and I can see it is going to take a little getting used to but I think I'm going to like it. Mine has a continuous loop with removable whoopie slings..instead of the slings connected directly to the hammock. Thought this would give me a chance of trying different setups. This set up seems a little long so I will be trying something different. What are you using for suspension system and would you make any changes? Anyway Glad to see your getting back at it...More journals for us to read. :) Hike on!!!

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  5. Yes, it was a very busy triple zero day for you. But, we all enjoyed seeing you. You really needed time to get your feet in better shape. At least Anthony & Lauren's Dr. friend said you would be ok. Swelling probably more from bug bites.
    Anthony said you just disappeared into the woods!! I hope there were hikers that did go through where we left the trail margin today. Or, it may have become critter food. See you in a couple of days to drop food off to you on our way home.
    Sorry, by taking extra day off you probably won't catch up to Airlock!!
    A start, a finish, it's still one step at a time.LY

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  6. So glad you got to spend time with your family and enjoy some rest time! Happy trails!
    Alie

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