Project Eveningland

6/26/2023 Monday

The morning forecast calls for 2-4 inches of rain today and tonight. Yikes. I am gonna take a rest day here, at my little Danielsville bungalow, and spend as much of it as possible in bed. Deep rest. Deep rest with good outcomes.

I laid in bed reading most of the morning. Then fell asleep for a few hours. Then laid around more. I ate a protein bar for lunch because it was more important to me to rest than to get town food. Don’t feel too bad for me—lots of snacks and bananas and peach tea and other stuff to go with it. Barbara, (innkeeper, who also goes by Rooster) and Apollo (canine assistant innkeeper, who finds me much more trustworthy with the knowledge that I give excellent “side scritches”) dropped by late afternoon to share some pantry items that enabled me to prepare a much more satisfying dinner.

I had long phone conversations with Benny and Mom. It was restorative to talk at length without wondering when the signal would drop. The signal did drop about half a dozen times, but the worry was gone. Might have been caused by the weather.

If this thru-hike were a movie, this would be the moment that we cut over to Ben, who is also on a journey of self-discovery, though, lucky for him, he gets to live at home for most of his. That’s his story to tell, of course, but it’s been sort of an I Love Lucy storyline: both of us have had to live without the other, doing the work for ourselves that the other normally does, and we are coming to appreciate each other more for it. We are both feverishly eating chocolate off a conveyer belt.

I told Ben that the shift in my internal monologue was like losing a Severus Snape and gaining a Mr. Mason (from Downton Abbey—William Mason’s father) in the bargain. It’s more complicated than that but honestly that mostly covers it. For Schitt’s Creek fans: I started this trail a David, and I’m turning into a Patrick.

Do you remember 900 miles or so ago when I started carrying hair gel? I’m about to start carrying something almost as heretical among long-distance backpackers. I want a lightweight chair. I need somewhere comfortable to sit and massage my feet and write midday. I’m tired of walking for miles trying to find a log or rock or patch of ground that I can make comfortable with a tiny sitpad.

In the last few weeks and months, I’ve chucked about 16oz of clothing, and I think someone makes a chair that weighs around that much. And also I’ll ditch my sit pad, which weighs 3oz, thus offsetting the chair a bit.

I have so enjoyed all the wonderful rooster decor in this cozy little basement rental.