July 13th, Watkins Glen, NY

July13, 25 days from base, Watkins Glen, NY, next stop Ithaca, 

A 0 day, I keep having to remind myself that I do not have to prove anything. Just doing what I am doing is ok. No records to set, no mileage to be set, and the money I am spending is for a good cause, i.e. my health. Yesterday, I saw the illusive and mystical "Sun Blaze", it may or may not be rare, but it is like the native American trickster. It is when you have not seen a white blaze mark on a tree for awhile, and you look into the woods, and there is this white blaze mark on the tree, but you can see that there is not path to it, and then it fades as you look at it or you move a little bit. So far the trickster has not caught me. I find that I can feel myself moving on the path towards to OCEAN over the horizon, life is not over at 70 like I was feeling 4-5 months ago, but I can see that I and my body are not 60 anymore. Everyday, I find myself a little amazed with what I am doing. It is not an ego amazement, nor is the satisfaction of having overcome the first struggles of the first 1 1/2 weeks. It is truly one day at a time, one mile at a time, one city at a time. Ya!

I had a very dissatisfying interaction with the lady at the front desk of the Lodge this afternoon. I went down town to the library. To get to the downtown, I had to walk down a mile long hill. The day was hot with high humidity. I worked up a heavy sweat walking back up the hill later in the afternoon. I went into the office part of the Lodge. She was an older lady with white hair. I do not know if she was an owner or not. I told her that I had just walked up the hill from downtown and asked if there was a way for me to get a fan for the cabin. Her response was, "ya, if you go to Walmart and buy one". I said that was not practical since I was hiking the FLT. She then said, "a fan would probably blow the fuses". I looked at her in disbelief. I knew there were fans in the motel part and I knew that there was an electric heater in the cabin that drew alloat more amps than a fan. She then said in a distainful voice, "Sorry we dont have fans". I gave up at that point and went to the cabin, opened up all the windows and decided I would not eat at their resturant in the evening. It was the only negative experience I had during the whole hike from a motel.