Inspirational

Some folks said to me before I started the hike "I hope you find what you're looking for". I appreciated the sentiment while knowing I found what I was looking for 25 years ago.

Nevertheless there was definitely some inspiration along the way and the first was Oct 2010. On my way to Tulsa to spend time with Alec:

I stopped for a night in Nashville and preached at the Clarksville Highway church of Christ on Sunday. Before services during breakfast I met a man they called Papa Smurf (Charlie Moffit) who shared some of his experiences having thru hiked the AT twice in his 60's and once with his wife. Can't imagine how he got the name:

That was the first bug in the ear, blip on the radar. Papa Smurf later went on to help build a shelter in Elizabethtown:

Well having passed the halfway point I'm still finding the experience tremendously inspirational. Indeed there are some sketchy people out here but most are cool and friendly just like life. And of course no one would ever look at Sparky crawling out of the hills all dirty, sweaty, unshaven and think "sketch"....right? 

The sabbatical side of the trek affords hours of time to think of future hopes and plans as well as present prayers and the family and folks I love. The current heat wave inspires me to seek and find air conditioning, bahahaha.

The Shenandoah Range inspired Cool Breeze to take the following pics:

Guess I'm the only one not to have seen one of these:

Thank you Papa Smurf and Cool Breeze

I had been looking forward to the Half Gallon Ice Cream Challenge in Harpers Ferry but strolled in too late. Theeeeeennnn I found another, even more famous at the General Store at the Pine Grove Furnace State Park! 

Not many folks are able to finish an entire half gallon of ice cream but I had been previously inspired and planning ahead. And that's the reward for success:

Thankfully one didn't need to eat using that spoon. The new owners of the ancient store had considered a more elaborate prized spoon but were told to keep this one instead.

As Cool Breeze learned recently, thru hiking is at least a full time gig. There's a list of things before, during and at the end of the day's hike that must be done each day and night. Setting up the tent is an obvious necessity, if it's raining or threatening I can speed up the process by humming the theme to Mission Impossible. Here, let me inject it into ur head: da da daaanana nat.

Speaking of routines, there's a great line in the following devo which speaks to the potential to get trapped inside them: