So it was the day before one of the most intense days in my life. It was much later that I even considered the connection, but for me it certainly holds a lot of symbolism and meaning.

I would like to know what the date was.

I’m pretty sure that it was on the way back north through the Smokys when we went into Gatlinburg, Tennessee to stock up. We had hooked up with a couple of other hikers. We left notes in the books in the shelters as “The Appalachian Trailers” I think. It was a few weeks after Denika’s bat Mitzva, for reference. It rained 24 out of the first 30 days that I recorded – can use old meteorology? We traveled about 10- 15 miles per day for a total of 400 miles. South through the Smoky mountains until the southern tip at some dam and then north again. All together about a month and a half in the mountains. I’ll have to piece it together bit by bit.

Anyway what really stood out besides the fact that my whole life turned upside down was that I was playing shuffleboard by the pool with Kelly. Suddenly a storm opened end on half the shuffleboard and the other half was dry. And sunny. And we continued to play and the puck would pick up speed when it hit the rainy part and shooting it in the other direction would cause it to slow down when it hit the dry part. We were laughing and waking in and out of the wall of rain. Weird.