When I can’t think of a title I resort to dates.  I know.  It’s lame.

I guess I owe a bit of a catch up.

Currently I’m up to 66 miles total since starting this in June.  My feet hurt, my body hurts….but on the plus side…I’ve got one hell of a tan working at the moment.  Stop.  I don’t even want to hear about how this is going to cause me skin cancer when I get old.  I’m using SPF 50.  I think I could only do better if I basically covered myself in a burka and that ain’t happening.  Number one it’s hot.  Number two, this is Texas.  Someone will shoot me.

I am happy to report that someone apparently does, from time to time, read this blog.  One of my co-workers came up to me yesterday and turned me on to some new hikes in the area!  I’ve very stoked and excited.  No I’m not sharing right now.  I have to give you some reason to come back now don’t I?

I do need to add a page to this blog with the hikes I’ve done.  I also need to get better about describing the hike in better detail.  The problem is when I’m on the trail, I’m very witty.  Trust me.  The problem is when I get home and decompress and I can’t remember shit I was thinking about on the trail.

I am happy to report my boots are holding up quite well.  The Body Glide stuff I’m using for chafing is doing well…except for today.  I have a new blister on a toe that hasn’t been there before.  I’m blaming it on the fact that I had to wear wool synthetic socks since all of my Thorlo socks are in the dirty hamper.  Which brings me to a new system we’re starting at our house.

My partner already has to laundry baskets where I have to separate everything.  No single pile for us…  We have the Whites/Jeans (whites being the “unmentionables”) and we have “Everything Else”.

We’re going to add a third hamper for “V’s Stinky Hiking Crap”.  You see…I’m an odd bird.  I’ll wear the same hiking stuff day after day.  I don’t wear it in “public” or to work or anything.  But the way I figure it, why throw clothes in the hamper when all I’m going to do is put on a clean pair of clothes and trash the hell out of them by hiking in 95+ degree weather sweating like a pig!  I usually peel the stuff off…lay it out somewhere and let it dry for the next day.  Never mind that the cat likes to lay on this stuff and then jump on my partner’s side of the bed and roll around.

However, today, I realized I may be taking this a bit too far and that this Texas weather may be more than the clothes can handle.  I was midway through my hike this evening when I stopped to take a drink and rest in what little shade that exists.  I kept smelling something funky.  Like maybe a sewer had backed up or something….when I suddenly realized that maybe it was me I was smelling!  Hence I came home with the epiphany that maybe my hiking clothes need their own hamper to keep them separated from the general population!

Other than that, I noticed my hiking pole is starting to wear down.  This is not one of those fancy ones where you can stroll into REI (aka: Really Expense, Inc.) and buy replacement tips.  Nope…these are what they are.  The good news is we have three others that I’ll eventually wear down; but if I ever do a real hike, I’m probably going to have to break down and buy new treads.

Let’s have a look at the tape for the last two days (since I was a slacker and didn’t blog yesterday):

July 8, 2014

Miles: 4.39

Time: 01:24:45

Min/Mi: 19:19

July 9, 2014

Miles: 3:17

Time: 01:01:08

Min/Mi: 19:18