Connecticut Re-connection

I've been moving a bit faster than I was expecting. I had my first 23 mile day, which I felt for two days. I'll be in NYC probably Tuesday night, and may stay through the weekend. I'm looking for temporary lodging... (drat team untie)... so folks, give a call if you want to stink up your apartment a bit, and have a guy polish a 3' x 6' space on your floor. Also, if folks want to do any goofy tourist stuff, or teach me to sail, then give a call. Oh.... and the pouring beer and/or food into my food portal... call now!

As for all things mental, I'm doing pretty dang ol' good. Mass and Conn have been very good for me. The variety in terrain has been fun fun fun, and I got to hang out with some other hikers for a moral lift, and some lifting of spirits to my lips. I really like the woods out here. Walking out here reminds me a bit of Maine, with changing from river walks, to rocky scrambles, to mossy stream sittin' spots. I kind of wish I weren't hitting NY so soon. Alas, NYC calls and the miles pass.

Funniest hitch hike of the week: truck with locked bed cover driven by stoner guy (also he fishes and is a carpenter... JC is it you?), had to drag the banjo and pack into the front seat with me again. Tight hitch. Not as bad as the mini cooper hitch, but a close second. You haven't lived until you are swinging around 30 MPH curves at 60 MPH, with no seat belt, and no option of jumping from the moving vehicle. He was fun though! And smelled like pot! Second coming, indeed!

Best magic of the week: met three guys walking down this steeeeep hill that lead to a shelter .5 miles off the trail. I had night hiked in and didn't realize how steep it really was. These guys were older folks, and asked me to pass on word of their whereabouts to two others ahead of them. I met the two others and passed on word. Later in the day I got the three guys seriously lost when the trail was ambiguous, but got them straightened out again after a half mile detour. Then I hit a road where the other two were driving back to find the the hikers I misled. I mentioned that the pack of three were going to be just a bout 15 minutes behind me. So the two guys pull over the car and whip out beer! Two beers later, I stumbled off into the woods again. Getting paid in beer for losing your friends; priceless, unless beer has a monetary value, in which case it's two beers worth of money.

Worst smell of the week: close tie between my socks, and the water I had to filter a couple days back. One smelled like death, the other like a sulfur pit. Filtering that water through my socks may actually have mellowed the scent. Mmm, poland springs may be on to something.

Strangest recent connections:

1. Allied One, a company that insists I may have already won a ford explorer or 25,000$ keep leaving me partial voice mails.
   
2. Google, who are trying to interview me again while out here. What an odd time and place in life to try taking a technical phone call. "Patricia trie? Nah... but lots of maples!"
   
3. Bumped into a section hiker that I met in Maine. It's a small trail.

Well... I'll be turning on the phone tomorrow when I zero in on NYC. Hopefully there's a place to sleep, and a cold one waiting. Here's to figuring out the train system again, after spending 2.5 months where the most complicated part of the day is lifting your foot up and putting it back down again, or working a spork. Pot-smoking-hitch-driver save me!