The Seed of the Dream

The Idiot in the mountains of New Mexico.

So, where did this crazy idea come from?

Since you asked…….

This past Christmas, I got a Kindle Fire for myself with Christmas money that I had accumulated from various relatives. My wife will tell you that I am VERY anti-modern technology and that she never thought she would see the day when I would voluntarily buy myself any kind of useful electronic device. (I still only have a cell phone that I only use for actual phone calls)

I got this Kindle so that I could start reading. In 2012, I am ashamed to admit that I read all of ONE book (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) the entire year, and even that took me about 6 months.

One of my 2013 New Year’s Resolutions was to READ, hopefully at least TWO books, thereby shattering last years record.

I started searching the Kindle for E-Books that I might like.

The Kindle, with no prompting from me, started reccomending various books on all kinds of subjects, ranging from Romance, to Spy Thrillers, to Sports Autobiographies, to books on Piercing and Tattooing your self in the privacy of your home, to Pets, Dr. Seuss Children’s books, to books on Home Taxidermy of those prized family pets. There was one book that kept popping up repeatedly.

AWOL ON THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL

I heeded the subliminal suggestions of the Kindle Gods and purchased the E-Book.

This book was written by a man who up and quit his job, left his family at home, and headed out to hike the Appalachian Trail in a quest to fill that “hole” in his life that he desperately needed to fill. Like most of us, he realized that something was missing in his life and he went out onto the trail in search of inner fulfillment. He did complete the trail, using the trail-name “AWOL”, and he says his life was forever changed by the experience. (Great book! I highly recommend!!)

Reading this book led me to buying, and quickly reading, 4 other Appalachian Trail-related books. By the time a month had passed, I had read five books on the trail.

The seed was planted.

Why not? Why could I not have such a dream?

All these books were filled with tales of the OTHER hikers that the authors encountered on the trail. There were people from all over the world, from every walk of life, from every economic class, of every race, ranging in age from kids about 12 years old, all the way up to seniors in their 70’s and 80’s. Everyone was out on the trail, not for the exercise, or the love of hiking and the outdoors, but were instead hiking along in search of that single “life changing experience” that completing the trail would afford them.

Every author completed the trail.

Each author agreed that their lives were changed forever, for the positive, for the experience they endured on the trail.

Why not me?

But, as you know by now, I have some physical issues to deal with. My mind was constantly telling me that I was crazy. There is no way a disabled man could do that trail. I could picture myself getting 20 miles into the hike and then coming to my first obstacle in the trail that I felt I could not handle. Maybe it was a hill I deemed to steep to safely go up or down, maybe it was a stream that needed to be forded, maybe it was a poorly-marked crossroads in the woods where I was not sure on which way to turn. I could picture myself quitting.

Quitting and hating myself for the rest of my life.

I began to think that this was an adventure best tackled with a hiking partner. Someone that could lend emotional support to keep me moving, despite all the obstacles. Someone that could physically kick me in the rear with their hiking boot if I started whining about wanting to quit. Someone that could tell the Emergency Responders on where to find my crumpled body when I slipped off that steep cliff back there….

There was never a doubt on who to ask.

Steve Kramer.

I’ve never met Steve in person, which is logical given that we live half a country apart from each other, with me in Texas and Steve up in Massachusetts. I haven’t met him in person, but through the wonderful world of blogging, we have become blogging brothers. Our views on life and the world in general are very much alike. We are virtually the same age. We both have had physical issues to deal with. We both have warped senses of humor. And like me, his daily schedule is pretty wide open. Steve was the only one to possibly ask to undertake such a crazy adventure with me.

I was chatting with him one day online and brought up the crazy idea of hiking the Appalachian Trail. There was no hesitation or delay whatsoever. “Let’s do it!!”

Why 2016?

That was my doing.

Obviously, this year is done. Anyone wanting to hike the trail this year is already on the trail or is leaving within the next few weeks.

I figured that 2014 would be too soon because both of us are admittedly terribly out of shape and overweight. Losing the weight and getting in shape would probably take us a good year or so, and then we still have the issue of actually needing to buy equipment and supplies.

I could not do 2015 since my youngest child is graduating High School that year and there is no way I could miss that. (The wife and kid would kill me)

That leaves 2016. We both should be slim and trim, should have our walking legs under us, should have accumulated all the needed equipment, and if we haven’t chickened out and ran for the hills by then, we will both be itching like mad to get out on the trail.

So, that’s how the crazy idea came to be.

The clock is ticking. April 1, 2016 will be here before we know it.

And the Adventure will begin.

Thanks for all the wonderful support and encouragement that ya’ll have given to Steve and I. Anyone out there wanting to chase the dream with us is more than welcome to jump on our crazy train. A parade of crazed bloggers stumbling through the woods of Appalachia in the summer of 2016 would be a heck of a sight to behold, and would make for GREAT blog posts!

Happy Hiking!