Good afternoon. Thank you. Please take your seats.

It’s that time again to let you know how things are going. But before we begin with the address this afternoon, a word from a friend of mine. Scott will get the honorary trail name “Orange Blazer” because he lead the way; I actually sponsored my first child through Scott way back when!

Scott with sponsored child Mantoto

As a fellow World Vision representative, I have had the opportunity to see firsthand the work they are doing around the world and in our own country. Sponsorship is perhaps the best way for us to connect to that work if we are not able to devote ourselves to full time missions. It connects us to a real person with real needs, and helps keep our country’s current “economic crisis” in humbling perspective. I’ve seen my small sacrifice of about a dollar a day make ripples that benefit more than just the children I sponsor. It blesses their entire communities as well.  Talk about making every penny count!

Thank you, Scott.

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I have so many thoughts and things to say about everything that has gone on the past several days. I thought I would organize my thoughts into the following categories as they relate to my hike: 1.) Hydration, 2.) Nutrition, 3.) Health/Hygiene, 4.) Education/Inspiration, and 5.) Finances

1.) Hydration: I had a big scare the other day. My water filter all but quit working. Like I’ve mentioned before, it’s a pump-mechanism: easy to use, normally quick too. But all of a sudden, it would hardly pump, and not much was coming out. I cleaned the filter as best I could in a gas station bathroom, but I wasn’t optimistic. I wanted to quit hiking because of a broken filter. That and it was raining really hard and unusually cold. Thankfully I got through a few more days, including one stop at a person’s house who lets hikers fill up from their spigot. When I got to the next major town the outfitter was out of replacement cartridges, so I had to buy an entire new filter. He gave me a 10% discount which was nice. Total cost: $70

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Well…here’s where I am at the moment:

One more thing…while I’ve never run a marathon, and though I’m only at the 2/3rds mark of this trail, I do feel like I’m hitting “the wall”; physically, mentally, spiritually. Most of my creative ideas surrounding the hike and turning it into an “awareness” campaign were all formed before I even set foot on the trail. Now that I’m out here, I’m realizing how hard it is to sustain creativity and enthusiasm while constantly battling fatigue and exhaustion!

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LOOK! New things all around you! Cool, huh? New intro paragraph (say goodbye to the “Fresh Prince” reference). New progress banner (survey is still available on the side for you slackers). And NEW PICS in the gallery.

Speaking of progress, GOOD JOB team 2200miles.com. We’ve got some kids sponsored! THANK you SOOO much. That’s so cool…really. We just have a little farther to go. Glad you’re going there with me!

Past the 1/2 way point now and things are looking up. I’ve been more encouraged lately than downcast, so I’m thankful for that. I’m out of Maryland for good and almost out of Pennsylvania. I’m hoping to average 17 miles a day with one “zero” per week.

One of the best days I’ve had in a long time was Monday June 29th. It turned out to be my second longest day at this point at 26.5 miles! Most of the day was flat as the trail passed through fields and farm lands. Rather than being surrounded by the “Green Tunnel,” it was so refreshing to have a change of scenery. Corn fields (knee-high by the 4th of July!). Soybean fields. It was like…palate-cleansing sorbet between courses. Or a piece of ginger between sushi. Mmmmm…sushi.

Othern’ that…I’ve seen another bear (morning of 7/8)…and LOTS of snakes. Lots. Big snakes, baby snakes, poisonous snakes, non-poisonous snakes. I’ve been hiking with fellow hiker “Mostly” for over a week now. Luckily he deals/sells reptiles in his normal life, so he’s recognized and described every snake we’ve seen so far! See photo gallery!

So, below is the long awaited intro video for the documentary I’m filming! It’ll also have a website soon, and I’ll let you know when that is up:

Cool, huh? Unfortunately, of the original 7 people who started, there are only 2 of us left! The producer, Jason, gave a camera to a 3rd person who we’ve met along the way but hasn’t been filming since the beginning.

Also cool, I was able to record an interview with CDR radio in Cedarville, OH where I graduated from school. Here are the excerpts from those clips! (They’re each about 3 min long.)

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