The Long Trail Journal,
Well I suppose you asking Why the long trail? Why are these folks planning on the hike through the wildness of Vermont? The Whys are not always easy to explain but I can tell you how we arrived at this particular junction of our lives. I can really only speak about myself and Anita but will give you some thoughts about our hiking partners as I see it. Of course the way I see it may not be the reality of the situation. Without going to far back like to childhood I will start this story a few years ago. I suppose I could blame the adventure on technology, to narrow it down a bit more the internet and to be particular You Tube. I find myself out of town away from home a lot and so to pass some time away I have looked through the content of YouTube , while wasting time searching countless subjects the Appalachian trail appeared and was something that sparked my interest. I have read about this trail years before but really didn’t think much more about it. I did purchase a couple of books about this trail and found it quite interesting. Anita and I have talked about this but not in a serious conversation such as us talking about doing this although in mind it was something that really captured my imagination. So a brief description of the Appalachian Trail for those who don’t know ,it is a 6 month hike from Georgia to maine with a total of 2190 miles give or take. I know “a Lot of miles and a lot of time”
The next part of the puzzle is Hubbards Beach and Bud light beer, Hmm its no accident that some events in my life happened in part with the consumption of beer. My marriage is not one of those, the proposal happened without beer and has been a great decision in my life….Sorry that is not part of this story, But I suppose it should be noted as after 25 plus years I have Anita’s support and she has mine. Now back to Hubbards and Beer. As with most days spent at Hubbards Beach we sat watching the tides ebb and flow while the libations were consumed. As part of this ritual we always engage in light conversation. Today was a particular hot day and we sat adjacent Tom and Pauline. I was on the outside, Anita to my right and Tom and Pauline to her right as we sat facing the water laughing and talking about trailer life. I wanted to say we were talking about the world events at the time but that would have been a lie. I didn’t want to start this story with a lie as there may be a few as I recount the events. Anita would remember but I don’t know how it came up all I could say is that Anita mentioned to Tom that I ( Mike)would like to Hike the Appalachian, This is the point where tom made the fatal mistake. He could have said , that’s nice Anita, He could have ignored the comment and carried on watching the ocean as the waves lapped towards our feet. But NO not Tom, He said “ Well That’s funny Anita, Pauline wanted to do the same thing” This was the other chance for things to end but they didn’t , Tom could have let it go, I suppose it was due to the amount of beer we had consumed this afternoon and Tom’s willingness to tell Pauline the dream we had in common. Tom rightly or wrongly decided to mention this nugget of information to his lovely wife. In Toms mind he though this conversation would have been over as quick as it had started but this was not to be the case. Pauline and I talked about what each of us knew about the trail and stated that it would be fun to give it a try. This was not the first time that drinking beer got us into trouble and I don’t expect it to be the last. I guess in earnest this was the start of the plan for the Long trial. The long trail was not discussed at this point it was still the Appalachian trail that we talked about. How to do it , What parts to do , what time to do it were some of the questions we asked. Anita and Tom asked a few questions as well like “ Why did I bring that up?” Why couldn’t I keep my mouth shut and enjoy the Beach?” But life is full of these little situations that change the course of how we live our lives, we should be counting our blessings that we are able to make these decisions based on what we think we could do and accomplish and not based on an illness that makes us change direction and forces us to live a different way.
The next part of the puzzle is Hubbards Beach and Bud light beer, Hmm its no accident that some events in my life happened in part with the consumption of beer. My marriage is not one of those, the proposal happened without beer and has been a great decision in my life….Sorry that is not part of this story, But I suppose it should be noted as after 25 plus years I have Anita’s support and she has mine. Now back to Hubbards and Beer. As with most days spent at Hubbards Beach we sat watching the tides ebb and flow while the libations were consumed. As part of this ritual we always engage in light conversation. Today was a particular hot day and we sat adjacent Tom and Pauline. I was on the outside, Anita to my right and Tom and Pauline to her right as we sat facing the water laughing and talking about trailer life. I wanted to say we were talking about the world events at the time but that would have been a lie. I didn’t want to start this story with a lie as there may be a few as I recount the events. Anita would remember but I don’t know how it came up all I could say is that Anita mentioned to Tom that I ( Mike)would like to Hike the Appalachian, This is the point where tom made the fatal mistake. He could have said , that’s nice Anita, He could have ignored the comment and carried on watching the ocean as the waves lapped towards our feet. But NO not Tom, He said “ Well That’s funny Anita, Pauline wanted to do the same thing” This was the other chance for things to end but they didn’t , Tom could have let it go, I suppose it was due to the amount of beer we had consumed this afternoon and Tom’s willingness to tell Pauline the dream we had in common. Tom rightly or wrongly decided to mention this nugget of information to his lovely wife. In Toms mind he though this conversation would have been over as quick as it had started but this was not to be the case. Pauline and I talked about what each of us knew about the trail and stated that it would be fun to give it a try. This was not the first time that drinking beer got us into trouble and I don’t expect it to be the last. I guess in earnest this was the start of the plan for the Long trial. The long trail was not discussed at this point it was still the Appalachian trail that we talked about. How to do it , What parts to do , what time to do it were some of the questions we asked. Anita and Tom asked a few questions as well like “ Why did I bring that up?” Why couldn’t I keep my mouth shut and enjoy the Beach?” But life is full of these little situations that change the course of how we live our lives, we should be counting our blessings that we are able to make these decisions based on what we think we could do and accomplish and not based on an illness that makes us change direction and forces us to live a different way.
More to come
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