In order to avoid the heat AND the worst of the thunderstorm, we left town at 10pm. From what I have heard, a lot of our weather has been from the hurricane on the coast. We are so far inland that hurricanes can only affect us indirectly, but it still means a lot of rain and wind.

What made it even more adventurous was this: the first 14 miles out of town were mostly farmland and did not allow camping. We wanted to make it to the shelter anyhow, which was the end of those 14 miles. We finally did, early in the morning, in a thick cloud. I could only see about four feet in front of me, so hiking had slowed quite a bit.

We slept. Until about 2pm. I read an entire book: The Little Prince. We slowly woke up, talked, goofed around. Other hikers came and thought us strange.

Finally, we packed up and began to hike again. Many were going into town for July 4th, but we opted for the shelter nearby. I don’t think we missed much in the way of fireworks or celebration. We had our own festivities.