My Hiking Schedule

Today I went to the Post Office to mail 2 of the three food packages I am shipping to myself along the Trail. One weighed nearly 12 lbs and the other more than 19. It will be like carrying 2 newborns along with me!

The lady at the counter was fascinated by my trip. "Are these people actually hiking all this way?" she asked. I explained that it was me doing the hiking and that I was mailing food to myself. She said how exciting it must be, then quickly added, "What are you bringing to protect yourself?" I told her we would have some mace. She went on to tell me a story about her friend and her friend's sister who "used to love to do things like that". Until her friend's sister went missing and was never heard from again. OK then. I'm pretty sure that's not an appropriate story to tell a stranger. But as an afterthought, she said, "Oh, but I'm sure that won't happen to you." Thanks for the confidence, lady.

In response to that, I thought it might be a good idea to post my schedule in case anyone is wondering where I am at any given time. My immediate family and Jen and Gilbert will be getting a more detailed plan, with phone numbers for reaching me when I'm in towns. So you can always contact them if you need to get in touch. I'll also have my cell phone for towns, although I don't know what the coverage will be like. As in life, nothing in this schedule is certain. Dates are approximate.

September 3 Springer Mountain, GA
September 7 Neel's Gap, GA
September 10 Hiawassee, GA
September 17 Nantahala River, NC
September 20 Fontana Dam, NC
September 27 Davenport Gap, TN
September 30 Hot Springs, NC
October 7 Erwin, TN
October 11 Roan Mountain, TN
October 17 Damascus, VA

My Family

My trip to Florida will be coming to a close soon, as I hope to follow Ernesto north to Atlanta on Friday. It's been great to reconnect with my family down here again.

Last Saturday, we headed to the beach for my niece's karate training. That's Rain, looking tough in her brown belt. In the span of three years, she's grown up a lot. She's in 10th grade now and recently got invited to spend a few weeks in Japan next summer on an exchange program.

After several years of home schooling, Rain's doing great in the Florida system. The only bummer is that she can't join me on my hike now that she has the rigors of public school to contend with!

The other cuties pictured are the daughters of my cousin Wendy. I wish I could have gotten them all together for a snap, but you can't always catch the little buggers, can you? The oldest, Minnesota, is 7. The twins, Juliet and Dixie, are 5. And the Buddha baby, looking mighty unhappy, is 2-year-old Fiona.


We visited their farm twice, and I got to experience my first trampoline with the children. Lucky that net was there, or I would not be alive to tell the story!

Other highlights of my family time:

- Doing Yoga on Crack with my ballet-dancing sister-in-law, Helena (She has a bit more grace than me.)
- Two hefty meals at George and Ann's house (I need 6 weeks of hiking to work them off)
- Watching the garage rehearsal of Local Juju, the band my brother, Helena, and her brother Jaime put together. (Does Rain have cool parents, or what?)
- Girls' Night Out (+Jaime) - Florida's seedy nightlife comes alive; I could only sit and watch in horror

The rest of my time has been spent preparing food packages for the hike. I have about 40 pounds to send to 3 destinations along the way. I think we'll be eating well, assuming we can move with all that weight on our backs.

I also got a call about another job last week. I had a phone interview on Friday, but so far there's been no word. Rain's school has been cancelled tomorrow thanks to the tropical storm. I expect I'll be holed up watching movies until the power goes out!

I don't think I'll get the chance to write again until the hike is under way. Hopefully, I'll have some interesting stories to tell as I go.

Measuring my Worth in 8 Questions or Less

Just when I thought I could put my job worries on the back burner, a new development occurs. A few weeks ago, racked with guilt for having gone an entire month without making any effort in securing my future, I decided to post my resume on dice.com. It was only intended to be a gesture. See, friends and family, I'm really trying - I'm not just thinking about this hike!

A few days after my posting, I was contacted by 4 recruiters. Two were jobs in Bioinformatics programming, something I was considering pursuing anyway. I sent my responses, noting my availability of November 15, and one recruiter remained interested. She kept sending me identical questionnaires to fill out; every time, I responded, and two days later she would send it again. I assume she was dealing with several candidates and couldn't keep track of us all.

Once I left for Florida, I figured the jig was up. There's no way of scheduling an interview now. But she called me yesterday. She wanted an updated resume spelling out my experience with C++ programming, AND she wanted me to take a TEST! They call it a skill assessment sheet, but it amounts to the same thing.

So yesterday and today, the girl with 10+ years experience in engineering, research, and computing had to take a test on C++ pointers. You'd think this would be an easy thing, given my background. But pointers suck. A freshman who's just taken his first programming class could have done better than me, because that information is fresh in his mind. Plus he has the benefit of having references surrounding him. After struggling for a few hours, I had to download a C++ compiler onto my brother's computer and borrow books from Helena's brother. All this for a job I'm not even sure I want.

What bothers me is that it's all about numbers to these people. My scores on a test about C++ pointers have no bearing on what I'm capable of doing. And I told the recruiter as much when I sent her the finished test. But she just wants to check that box off her list; she doesn't care about the fairness or worth of what she does. This is why I experienced so much frustration with the tech field to begin with. Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes.

To complete my application, the recuiter also spent two weeks browbeating me for exact numbers on my salary expectations. Each time, I responded with a polite and evasive, "I can't give you a range without knowing more about the position and its location." A few minutes ago, she called me and said that she would not submit my application until I gave her a number. Again, I refused, and said it should be up to the employer to determine an offer based on my experience. We went back and forth, and finally she said, "How about I put down $x?" Since it was the exact number I had in my head and more than I ever dreamed I'd make, I said fine. She has her number. And I still don't know anything about the job.

The Never-Ending Peace Corps Reunion

Yes, I realize it's been awhile since I've updated this thing. Usually, it's because there's either too much happening or too little. In this case, it was the former. When I returned from the west, I spent a few days unpacking and recovering and then began making the rounds - paying my last visits to friends and family before the big hike.

I started with a drive up to Silver Spring to see two volunteers from my group - Darcy and Hester. We spent the evening drinking margaritas and catching up on our lives. A few days later, I began the big drive up the east coast. First, I went to Debbie's house in Pennsylvania, where we attended the Schuylkill County Fair, and I met up with my old friend Chris from my Dahlgren days.

We spent the night at Debbie's farmhouse before continuing on to Bristol, RI to see Allison. We were there for about 4 days, much of it during the heat wave. We stayed indoors mostly, but certainly did not sit through eight hours of the OC. OK, we did. But it was reluctant. We made it to Boston one night, where Deb and I both met up with old friends from school. The picture is a bar in Cambridge.

We left Allison's on a Sunday morning for our next destination - Brooklyn, NY to visit with my sister and her fiance. We could only spend a night there before moving on. I dropped Debbie back in Pennsylvania, then picked up another Peace Corps friend, Laura, in Virginia. She stayed with me in Fredericksburg for a few days, and then I drove her to Alexandria where we stayed with still more Peace Corps friends. It was great to see everyone, but I think I was gossiped out by the end of that marathon.

Today, I leave for my brother's house in Florida. I'll stay for two and a half weeks, then head to Atlanta to meet Tina. We begin our hike September 3. So far, my pack weighs about 37 lbs, and that's without food or water. But hopefully with Tina and I sharing the tent and food, it won't be so bad.

I had dozens of observations I wanted to make on this blog over the last few weeks, but they are long forgotten. So here are some pictures from my summer:

The Summer of Amy