Loner beyond Kent, CT

Sorry I haven't written in a while, still not feeling myself, a few complications along with the Fibromyalgia, probably not Lyme, my doc says since he's only seen in case in SC and he's been in practice a long time.
But Loner had better news - he may be in Mass, his home state by now.  He last wrote to me on July 26th and posted 9 more videos on his You Tube Video blog at Loner2012AT.  And he's finally met up with Fatherman in Kent, at guess where?  The laundromat!  It would either be that or the library where they both go to load videos.  Loner has posted his meeting with Fatherman on his You Tube video blog but not sure if Fatherman had the chance, last time I looked he hadn't.  It was funny - they were both filming each other!  I sure do hope they get to meet at Trail Days. 

There's lots of cool and interesting bits in the new videos, more trains, a steam machinery exhibit for all my steampunk friends, a zoo that the AT passes right through, owls, expensive and antique cars, cool little towns and a lot of great museums Jeff took the time to visit on mining, Native American, arrowheads and more.He's met some cool people too: a Hudson River Painter named Clay who was painting pleine air on a bridge over the Hudson River.  Clay was so kind as to stop and offer some great Trail Magic after they talked a while.  Clay stopped painting and drove Jeff 9 miles to Walmart to get a new camera, after Jeff's broke in New York.  Jeff also met hikers who were skateboarders, Alf - a 3-time thru-hiker and then to top it off Fatherman.  Jeff even got to sleep behind one of the old blast furnaces. 

His birthday video is on there too and it was a great birthday with lots of Trail Magic and other types of magic - he even found a a blue arrowhead.  Loner is very invested in arrowhead, artifact and fossil hunting. That's why he kayaks so he can get to places you can't walk to. He's been collecting since he was about 14 years-old and travels to hunt various areas. The Pickens County Museum in Pickens, SC, which has a huge Native American collection, once tried to buy Jeff's collection but he's never sold one piece. 
 So now I don't feel so bad that we didn't get to share his birthday with him this year.  He had more important experiences in store for his 40th birthday which started out with waffles and orange juice from Trail Angels!

There are some days I wish we lived closer to the trail in one of those cool little towns so we could easily go do trail magic.  But we're going to try next year however we can do it. I think it would be a great experience for my granddaughters.
It's been a long journey and I have to admit we all miss Jeff  alot. Here's a photo of my smallest granddaughter, Deven who is only 7 months old. The giraffe represents Jeff, since that's one of his totem animals. So Deven has to substitute a stuffed animal until Jeffrey gets home and Kendall misses him and asks about him all the time. Both girls will be so changed when Jeff gets back, Kendall is taller and no longer a little girl, but a young lady of 9 and Deven couldn't even sit up or talk when Jeff left.  Now she says Mama and Dada and something that sounds like "What's that?"  but she touches us and whispers "Idat."  And she will be so changed. She now sits up, feeds herself small little pieces of dry cereal, and stands in her crib.  She may even be walking by the time he gets home! Her sister walked before she was a year.