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The dropoff
I wake up to a loud alarm at 6 am in the Palace Hotel in Silver City. I kiss Ann and she mumbles “no,” and turns over. I dress and venture out for coffee, but Silver City appears to be closed on Sunday. This doesn’t improve Ann’s mood. Peter sniffs out a place to eat…
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The lights are on
This will probably be my last post from a ‘plugged in’ computer! We’re at Peter Gould’s house in Sante Fe. Our solar panels were rescued in Pueblo by a very busy but capable Greyhound employee named Terry. That was a big relief, and I look forward to my first attempt to send a post from…
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Misadventure Number One
We’re sitting at the bus station in Colorado Springs! I can’t believe it. I ran to get breakfast burritos when the bus stopped here, and when I came back the driver was unloading our bags. I can’t blame him for not letting us back on – we’d already made him late! It was agony watching…
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We Go
The time for planning is over, and the time to act has arrived. Today we tried to accomplish all our leftover tasks in downtown Denver without the car, which we left with Sarah yesterday. We acquired some books to read, replaced lost sunglasses, bought more waterproof bags, suspended the car insurance, printed our itinerary, and…
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The Things We Carry
We’re now down to just our backpacks and some supplies we will leave or mail to ourselves later. My pack with no food or water weighs 27.1 lb, Ann’s is 25.2 lb. I hope we can reduce both weights after some trail experience, but I’m not too upset with these initial weights. We have listed…
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The Things We Eat
On my Pacific Crest Trail hike Pete and I almost starved due to naive food planning. Fearful from our stories, Ann really put her mind to the problem of providing us with a reasonable diet. The information she compiled follows, starting with the most general and working into more detail. The first items should satisfy…
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Ann’s announcement
Today Ann sent this off, her first mass-email: Dear Friends and Family: Many of you know by now that my (newish) husband Dylan and I will be launching off shortly on our delayed honeymoon: On April 18th we will be dropped off on the Mexico/New Mexico border from where we plan to walk north, staying…
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Supply Schedule
Today we mailed our first supply packages, which made things feel very real. We’ve updated our supply schedule for the last time before leaving. This is the schedule Dan Kuhn will use to mail our packages to us. Good souls with kind wishes may also use the schedule to mail things to us. Most of…
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Snow Swim
When we wake up there are six inches on new snow on the ground. My cousin earns my eternal respect by venturing out in his shorts for a “snow swim”. Later, his son Forest joins him. I watch, thinking that very shortly all my baths will feel something like that.
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Dances
Jon’s daughter Brook and my father and Sarah take turns dancing for us in Sarah’s ballroom. Brook does very detailed Thai dances, and Dad and Sarah perform both International- and American-style ballroom dances. Forest does some impressive aerial acrobatics.