The Conversation Flowchart (23 days until Springer Mountain)

There are two characters in following picture: Red and Blue. I am Blue. Red is a role that has been played by many people and it will undoubtedly be played by many more in the near future.

Regardless, of who is playing the red character (friend, family member, or total stranger), the conversation pretty much always follows the same pattern:

<Click picture to enlarge>

Either you see the appeal of the trail or you don't. I'm not going to be able to change your mind, so I'm not going to try.

The Four Things I Learned In Front Royal, Virginia (35 days until Springer Mountain)

The past nine months that I've spent in this small town haven't been all that exciting, but that doesn't mean it was a total waste of time. If nothing else, I'd like to think I'm a little wiser now than I was nine months ago.

Here are four valuable life lessons I learned while living in Front Royal, Virginia:

1. If you spill water on your pants and want to dry them quickly without going to the laundromat, you can dry them in the oven. Just keep the temperature low and stay vigilant. (You don't want to start a fire.)
   
   
2. Clothes that have dried in an oven generally smell a little like the last food you cooked in that oven. (In my case, that usually means pizza.)
   
   
3. If you work from home and aren't planning on leaving the house all day, there is nothing wrong with wearing clothes that smell like pizza. After a few minutes, you stop noticing the smell.
   
   
4. The whole “drying clothes in the oven” idea is a slippery slope. If you try it once and it works out well, it becomes tempting to never want to pay for a dryer again. Next thing you know, you are sitting at the library one day and a stranger asks you, “What smells like pizza?,” and suddenly you realize you should have just gone to the damn laundromat. Saving a few quarters isn't worth the shame you feel when you realize that you have become the weird guy at the library who smells like pepperoni and sausage.