My day yesterday started at 2:30am and finished when I finally stumbled into my small airbnb room in South Bay, Florida around 9pm and fell face first onto the bed. It was a day full of planes, trains and automobiles and many, many buses.

After landing in Fort Lauderdale, I needed to find an outdoor store to buy a knife, fuel for my stove, get a U.S. phone plan, and make my way to South Bay, the last small outpost about 100 miles away before heading onto the trail. Somewhere between buses, a kind stranger to whom I asked directions (a super cool professional fire walker and juggler/manager of Toys in Motion) offered to give me a lift to an outdoor store, helped me navigate and gave me a toy. Random acts of kindness still abound and while the day was full of tiring and tricky logistics, the help received helped soothe my nerves.

As it turns out, I’ve had more nerves than usual preceding this trip. It’s a good thing I think. Leaving the warm, safe comfort of home and heading solo into the unknown shouldn’t be taken too casually. While driving me to the airport in the small hours of the morning, my son Colin asked why I was doing this if I was nervous. I told him that I loved feeling strong and fit but getting there wasn’t generally fun or easy. And it’s is also the adventure fix that I need and love. It’s a paradox.

It’s not the out of shape part, or even the traipsing through the interior of gun-slinging, Trump-loving Florida part that concerns me the most; it’s what the little devil on my shoulder has been whispering in my ear – this is the first time in five years you will be rough camping totally alone where the wild things live, it says. You are 62 years old; you still got the horses for this!?? My answer is, I don’t know. I hope I do. When my daughter Sabrina was helping me fine-tune the trail app and my new e-reader the night before leaving we decided I shouldn’t read books called The Swamp Murderer. Makes good sense.

Judging from past experience, once I’m on the trail I love everything about it as my body and mind settle in with the solitude and flow. I’m not expecting it to happen tomorrow for sure but I’ll know soon enough. I had a good sleep last night (full of wild dreams) and am heading out shortly from here to start walking with two weeks supply of dehydrated food. As usual, I’ll keep you posted when I can with the nitty and the gritty.