First New Friend - Right in my own back yard!

Well, today has been really cool! This trip requires items I simply do not have, and can not afford to buy at the moment. Because of the timing of everything, I decided that I would just ask for what I needed instead or wait - again - for things to be "better" for me to go. So I put up a "shopping list" of sorts on craigs list and freecycle of several items I need. And from that I have made a friend!

This is Mary, my first new friend as a result of this adventure.

Mary's pretty cool. She's an author, a naturalist, and once-avid hiker. She has a really cool blog an Mary's Detroit Photoblog, showing and telling of things in Detroit I think we all need to know and see. I have lived in the Metro Detroit area for 27 of my 40 years, and her blog, a person who has lived here for less than 5 years, has views I never knew were there, and she offers perspectives on things that a native might never get otherwise. I was going to mention another few of her blogs, but when I said she was an author, yeah, thats kind of like saying Lake Superior is a lake! Her name above is a link to her Blogger profile, which will open you up to a vast and varied world or writing and photo blogging, well worth the time! She is also generous, funny, and not playing with a full deck either according to the stories she shared with me! Thats cool with me since, well, you all either know, or will soon learn, that my deck is entertainingly incomplete as well! The only cards you can be sure make it into my deck at all times are the Jokers, and an ace or two ;-)

She responded to the ad I put on freecycle, offering me a tent. Not just any tent now, but a Northface Tadpole. And a cool little sleeping pad. They are both very light weight, the tent sets up easily, has plenty of space for me, and packs away into a light and compact package. And not just any Tadpole, but the one she has used for years on her own hiking adventures. Thousands of miles, including when she hiked th Northville-Placid Trail in the Adirondacks of upstate NY, alone! And I get the sense that if she had the ability and opportunity to do it again, she would not think twice before packing up and heading out! In spite of discovering on one trip that a food stash of hers, 5 days worth, was found and fully enjoyed by local bears long before she got back to it! No stores around, no pizza delivery. Just a bear-tooth-dented can of tuna, and the kindness of fellow hikers along the way!

This is me holding what I am now calling "The Merry Tent".

And this is the Marry Tent, all set up. My accommodations for the 50 or so days of my trip, minus the time I am at Pa's. Cozy huh? It's gonna be great!

  

See, compared to Mary, don't I seem totally reasonable? Hush! Yes I do! lol

All joking aside, Mary is such a sweet woman, and I'm glad to have her tent with me along my journey, and her support and encouragement as I lay down to sleep each night.