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Thursday, March 29, 2012

The Countdown continues...

One more month left before I hit the road.  Things are happening fast now.

I've been going over all my gear, loading, unloading, shuffling around, rearranging, and loading it up again with what I want to haul with me.  I got a camping chair to take with me -- like a regular chair only it's low to the ground.  It weighs 8 lbs, and that really gave me reason to pause, but I clearly remember on my last trek when it poured down rain all day long, and I spent the whole day inside my tent wishing I had a chair to sit in.  I'm sure this one will get MUCH use.  One reason I like it low to the ground is because I can have it inside my tent, and (ok, I'll give you 2) also, if I take a break and sit in my chair, then I can lay the cart down in front of me and elevate my feet! (Boy, does that sound lazy or what??)

I've got my bear-proof food container filled to the brim.  It has 15 servings of the red beans & rice/chicken/vegetable concoctions I put together in it, 2 dried soup mixes, 18 power bars, a jar of peanut butter, a honey bear, a lb of jerky, a bunch of tea bags, and some tortillas.  That should keep me going for a few days.

I've been going through the clothes I plan on taking, too. 4 pairs of shorts & 4 t-shirts, 7 pairs of ankle socks, 7 undies, 1 set of long johns, 1 fleece pullover, 1 vest jacket, rain gear (pants & jacket), a baseball cap that says "Prudhoe Bay, Alaska" on it, a cotton cap that has LSU on it, some pj's, a pair of sandals, and I think that's it.

It's rather amusing as I go through all my stuff and try and decide what I absolutely can't live without!

Friday, March 23, 2012

This is a test, to see if my text mssgs show up on my blog. Test test test.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Getting Ready For My Walk

Things are happening and plans are coming right along to get ready to head out on my walk again.  The new harness I had custom-made is perfect!  It fits well and works good. 

The box of Bibles I ordered also arrived.  For being a box of 100 small, pocket-size Bibles, that box was HEAVY!  I plan on carrying 20 or 25 of them with me, and giving the rest of the box to my friend Mark, who said he'd mail them to me as I needed them.  I am still kindof nervous about handing out Bibles.  I've never, ever done anything like that before, and still don't think that I have enough nerve to do that....but I'm fairly good at writing, so I figure I'll highlight some of my favorite verses, and include a personal note inside the Bible, put it in a zip-lock baggie, and simply leave them behind as I go on my trip. The New Testament Bibles cost $1.60 apiece.

The other day I bought several boxes of Zataran's Red Beans & Rice mix, and I had ordered a large bag of dehydrated chicken, and also a bag of dehydrated vegetables.  I took one box of red beans & rice and divided it into 2 little snack-size zip-lock bags.  Then I added 2 TBSP of chicken, and 2 TBSP of veggies, and zipped them up.  I had 16, but now am down to 15, because I decided maybe I'd better try one out, to see if it was actually edible.  It actually tasted pretty good, and I discovered that I didn't need to add quite as much water as I did.  So the other 15 bags went into my bear-proof food container.  I also tossed in 2 bags of dehydrated corn chowder, and a jar of peanut butter.  I still need to get some tortillas, tea bags, honey, candy bars, and a bunch of protein bars.  That should get me started.

Several people from town have mentioned that they'd like to walk with me from Dot Lake (where I'll be starting at) down to the Canadian border -- about 150 miles.  I think that'd be great, and would thoroughly enjoy the company!  So I contacted the Delta Wind Newspaper and asked them to put something in the paper asking for volunteers to help with transportation (driving friends out and back), food (sandwiches, water, bring out the grill and lets grill some burgers!), or if people would like to bring out their campers & RV's and join us out on the road.  I would really enjoy having people walk with me -- but I gotta say, it kinda made me pause and wonder why I'm being escorted out to the border.....!!