PDY

Ahh… the importance of rest, conscious and deliberate rest, both mental and physical. The physical part is easy - you sleep a little longer, lay around, take a walk to do some errands, another to visit historic downtown Winchester, then lay around some more. The mental piece however is not quite as simple and is equally or more important than the physical. Thankfully I had yesterday, and I worked on both.

I wasn’t planning on resting yesterday, had a relatively short 13 miles from my cool Wayside Inn up to Winchester. It was an easy walk, relatively flat, perfect temperature, yet, I was unusually tired when I got to Winchester, and not looking forward to 20 miles the next day. And I was really tired upstairs, thinking waaay too much, dispersed and all over the place in anticipation of this up and coming arrival and what’ll happen next. I admit to having not followed my own advice, that is, allowing things to happen and just fall into place as they may.

So yesterday I rested, deliberately. First decision of the day was whether to sleep or have breakfast; I had breakfast and missed being able to just walk to my fridge and make my own scrambled eggs. Then I did a couple of Sunday crosswords, washed my clothes, got ready for today and didn’t go very far beyond that, I watched part of a movie, huge exception for me, but fell asleep midway, which is quite common. And I had a nice stroll, couple of miles, down to the old historic district. It felt good to stretch my legs. The entire day was quite mundane, but very necessary.

Recharged, I hit the road a little earlier, given the time change - that time thing again. And a great walk I had, 19 miles into Charles Town. Body feels incredibly well, though I think I may have peaked, fitness-wise. It’s getting a little harder after about 15 miles, but still very comfortable. Nothing hurts, hasn’t for a while, and for that I am grateful, very grateful. And rested, I was able to resume, get back into the day, realize that every second I think about the future is a second taken away from this walk, which I don’t want,

I very much enjoyed my last handful of miles in the Commonwealth of Virginia before crossing into West Virginia. These two weeks in Virginia have been nothing short of spectacular and a very educating. I am very glad to have switched valleys into the Shenandoah - weird the way that happened but I trusted my gut and changed my course, I’ve made up the 25 or so miles I lost, but I wouldn’t change this week for anything, The views, the people, the places, all very cool. Thank you to all my new Virginia friends, you are all incredible hosts and hostesses.

Rather anticlimactic entrance to West Virginia - only thing that even indicated a state line was a county-starts/county-end sign and different asphalt on the road. C’mon West VA! Little welcome sign at least, something to make me feel welcome! Actually, it’s fine; I was on a little bitty road between farms, but still… Looking forward to crossing the Potomac river tomorrow, at the confluence with the Shenandoah, have a chance to walk some more of the Appalachian Trail.