I said, “So Dad, how’s it going?”  He waited for a few seconds and then looked me in the eye, shaking his head back and forth.

 “Not good,” he replied.  I immediately became protective of him. “What’s wrong,” I pried, “are they not taking care of you?” 

He took a deep breath and murmured so low, I could barely hear him.  “That’s not it,” he said.   I leaned in to him.  “Tell me,” I asked, “what’s wrong?”

He looked around nervously to see if anyone was listening and looked me in the eyes.

“I need more stories,” he said.

 I was confused.

 “More stories! What are you talking about?” I asked.

He took another deep breath and spoke.  “I need more stories!  You should hear the stories these people tell in the dining room.  Everyone has had such an exciting life.  One guy was a lumberjack and all the ladies crowd around him to hear about his adventures in the woods.  Another guy went to snow school and has all these great stories about plowing snow for the city.”

I eased back in my chair, and couldn’t help but smile.

 “Oh, come on,” I said, “you’ve got stories.” 

“I’ve got nothing,” he replied bitterly, “I worked in the NYC controller’s office for thirty years.  What stories do I have?”

 As I contemplated his predicament, I slowly began to feel sorry for him.  It must be depressing to realize that after a long lifetime, you really didn’t have anything interesting to tell people about yourself. But whatever empathy I was feeling at that moment, soon vanished when my dad looked me in the eyes again and asked, “What stories do you have?” 

The question brought a sardonic smile to my face.

 “I have stories,” I replied, confidently.   “Yeah, let’s hear one,” he said, leaning back and folding his arm across his chest.  That was when the cocky smile faded from my face and it suddenly dawned on me.  I got nothing!  My father shook his head knowingly and a smirk appeared in the corner of his mouth.

“It’s too late for me Kev,” he said, “but it’s not too late for you.”   And that my friends is why I am hiking the Appalachian Trail.  To get some more stories!  So I’m not eating alone in the dining hall when I’m 90:)

Ain’t No Field of Dreams

 The AT called to me!  Seriously! There’s no other way to explain it. I felt like Ray Kinsella, Kevin Costner’s character in the movie Field of Dreams.…just not as good looking.  “If you build it, he will come.”  Except I wasn’t walking through anything as visually stunning as a cornfield and a voice didn’t whisper, “Georgia to Maine, Mount Katahdin or shame.”  I was just lying in bed with my laptop in November 2023.

I recall reading something about the Appalachian trail when it hit me like a thunderbolt. I had never experienced anything like it before. I remember immediately texting a few family members that I was going to hike the Appalachian trail. I received laughing emojis in response.  

My brother had told me that I shouldn’t be telling people I was doing this. But the way I saw it was, if I tell enough people, then there’s no way I can back out of this without looking like a complete wimp! I’ll save that look for when I dodge the Approach Trail.