Two days before my Appalachian Trail thruhike started, I was preparing in Georgia.
We left Maine at 5pm on Thursday evening after some very surreal goodbyes in the Valley. My sister, Erin, came along for the ride along with my parents. We all packed into a small BMW X3 that we had never driven a long distance in (and which turned out to have a terribly uncomfortable interior) and it held up all the way, thankfully! On our way out of town we stopped at McDonald's and had my first fast food in about 12 years (crazy I know).
We encountered intense fog (with broken a/c and defroster) in Connecticut all the way through Pennsylvania. But later the ride really redeemed itself with a beautiful sunrise in North Carolina!
Later, we dropped Erin off at the Charlotte Airport so that she could catch a flight for work (she's a flight attendant).
After that we headed to Amicalola Falls Lodge to pick up a hiking buddy of mine (thanks to The Trek for connecting us)! After that we went to Trader Joe's, my favorite store ever if you didn't know! We gathered groceries for the weekend, nuts, and a few special freeze dried items:
Lastly, we had a family dinner at our adorable Air BnB which my Mom found us!
Our night consists of laying out our gear, airing out our sleeping gear, and making shopping lists for last minute purchases. For me: that means the rest of the food I will need (about 4.5 days worth), shorts that I forgot *rolls eyes*, Ziploc bags, etc.
Tomorrow we get our last purchases in and do the last 'real world' things like updating my car insurance, paying some last medical bills, making sure my SPOT works, calling extended family members, eating a whole bunch, and packing!
Thanks for staying tuned! Tomorrow will be my last post before the trail, and then after that I'll only post when I can (will explain more later).
Disclaimers: Progress posts, much like my personal posts, are unedited to convey reality and feeling. If there are any typos please just ignore them. Usually these posts are written from my phone so they are difficult to edit and format. They are what they are!
