Really Getting Real!

Hey, Sports Fans!  We are getting close to the March start, and the excitement continues to grow!  I am a week out from the start, and we have adjusted the Frankenflop (Trademark not­ pending, please feel free to use this term at cocktail parties) to include the following, initial:

Car-Flop:

1. Wayster drives to my house, drops his car here. Neighbors promise they will not use it in a Lady GaGa video
2. We drive to a spot on the trail in MD, where Strags (Dave) picks us up, leaving my car
3. Drive to Harpers Ferry, hike to ATC, do the lecture on LNT (please, people, follow LNT and feel empowered to point out when others are out of line; usually they just aren’t aware that they are doing something wrong, although I have met three annual LASHers who do a week at a time, and are halfway to Katahdin, and still left a raging fire burning at Ravens Rock shelter. I put out the fire and hightailed it, catching up to one of them at PenMar, where we had a spirited discussion regarding the dangers of forest-fire creation. Anyway, Strags and I get tags at the ATC, and we head north into Maryland, My Maryland (for a laugh, check out the words to the Maryland state song).
4. After a few days, get to my car, swing back to pick up Dave’s car, head north dumping a car ahead for a few days, then we go back and pick up from where we started.
5. Rinse and repeat for two weeks. Well, not continuously, your skin would get all pruny, but y’know…
6. Wayster needs to go home, Strags hits a concert, I see my lovely wife, we all bathe and dry off.
7. Strags and I take the overnight train to Blairsville, GA arriving 7:30-ish the next morning (your choice to start humming “Midnight Train to Georgia”, or alternatively, “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.” Depends on your mood, I suppose).  Shuttle to the parking lot north of the terminus, and we are  — Once Again! – off and, er walking.

Now, in the interest of stoking controversy, Strags and I will have completed the miles between Rt. 50 in VA and however far north we go on our foray with Wayster, all in February/March, so the Frankenflop gets re-stitched together.  So, when (If?  Please make it when!) we get back to Rt. 50, we will have earned some off-trail time for family, beach, Orioles game, crabs, etc.  We will take a week off, then go back to where we left off in PA, and head north to have a chat with a sign on top of The Greatest Mountain, where I am told the Secrets of the Universe are kept.

That’s where we stand for now, upcoming developments may require more pivoting (hope not), but this is our plan, and we are pretty happy about it.  ONE WEEK!  See you out there, and to the Class of 2024 – Be Excellent to each other, and let’s do the miles done with smiles, as much as we can.  Cheers!