You're Not Dreaming..

You're just in Pinch, West Virginia, home to about 2,000 nice folks and the prickly pines of Kanawha county.

Yass, grapefruit drink for everyone. Let's all put on the new Jens Lekman record and dance the merengue. We're 368 miles from the finish line. Or, 14 marathons, if you prefer. In my year of walking, i've averaged 5.479 miles per day. Theoretically, i'm 67 days away from done. This more or less means i should finish my voyage on Christmas Day. Can it be done?



Four Days Distance: 22.65 miles

Total Distance Covered: 2,202 miles

Pinch, West Virginia

Welcome to West Virginia!

Welcome to the place to be for loggers, bears, and a real live plethora of history-makers, wig-wearers, and did i mention bears? Tons of bears. We've plunked right in to the capital city of Charleston, home of Daniel Boone in the year 1791, and now the land of a million nicknames, some of which include:

a) Home of Hospitality (Mr. Rogers, Hot Apple Pie, Fresh Sheets)
b) Chemical Valley (Logging, Bear Poop, combination, etc.)
c) Chucktown (as in Berry, Taylor, E. Cheese..)
d) God's Love Basket

Hold it. Hold it right there. If you've been following this journey for more than three stops, you might guess that i'm going to spend the rest of my entry making fun of ol' option d). But you know what, i'm grown up now, and i've learned a lot over the course of this last year in San Francisco. If Charleston wants to go by God's Love Basket, well i'll be damned, thats fine by me. Who am i to judge God's Love Basket? God's Love Basket can love whoever God's Love Basket chooses to love, and i'll respect its decision, because, well, i'm its father. Now, lets image search: Love Basket.

Yeah, i mean, a perfectly feasible concept. When i'm dead and happy, i know that i'd love a chance to shine through some holes to let everybody else know about it. Otherwise, what's the point, right? Plus, it starts with "perhaps" so no matter what, we know we're just talking about a little artistic freedom of expression. Like saying, "Perhaps the entire population of Charleston, West Virginia, was invaded and replaced by a breed of highly evolved God/Bears." See, you can play too!


Ten Days Walking: 48.27 miles

Total Distance Covered: 2,180.24 miles

Charleston, West Virginia

Last Call, Kentucky...

We're within a Todd Helton homer away from the West Virginia border, and i'm still a bastard for not checking in more often. But let's not cry over spilled milk, eh? I hate milk. I spill it on purpose.

Seeing as this is our final day in the Bluegrass State, i might mention the fact that i saw Boz Scaggs live today in Golden Gate park for free, and without the help of psilocybins or head injuries, though the latter may have helped me to ignore the thousands of teenagers with cases of lukewarm Tecate and old-woman-substitute-teacher-tie-dye armpit smell- thats right, it was the annual free bluegrass festival in Golden Gate park, and i was 384th row for the Skaggs set. Who is Boz Skaggs, you might say?


If you aren't familiar, please take a moment to educate yourself with this clip. It's a good starting point, at least. The festival was overwhelmingly San Franciscan, for lack of a better description. I don't think a weirder place exists, and if it does, i don't want to have anything to do with it. Then again, we're only a few steps from the Virginias, where i suspect greater injustices are underway, under monikers like "fried pepsi" and "demolition derby" so maybe i'll hold off on that.

Don't you love it when you blow your own mind? I'm searching for the right Kentucky-related image to leave you all with, while the sun sets over a horsie in the rolling green meadows. Sure enough, i find this:


Now, are you going to tell me that ISN'T the aforementioned Boz Skaggs? Sure, he's aged a bit since the pink jacket days, but haven't we all? I think this is the circle of life that Elton John was talking about all along. Harmony of the spheres, or whatever.


Ten Days Walking: 55.72 miles

Total Distance Covered: 2,131.97 miles

Grayson, Kentucky