Flight Confirmation Received!

I bought my plane tickets today!

I will be flying from Seattle to San Diego on April 21!
Some lovely trail angels in the San Diego area will be retrieving me from the airport, keeping me overnight, and driving me to the US/Mexican border in the morning for the kick off event!
Woohoo!
My flight from D.C. to Seattle is in the morning on April 16th.

More things happening:

1) I got the first 1/3 of my maps in the mail! Starting to plan out my resupply boxes, but I won't be able to really put stuff together until I get to Seattle and can sit down and work it all out with Grace, my resupply person (and best friend!).

2) I am putting in my notice of leave at work in a few days. I am very ready for the break, it's been stressful the last couple of months, but at the same time I will miss these jobs very much. Especially my wonderful co-workers. You all know who you are :)

3) I think I'm going to do a training trip before I go. I live right next to the Shenandoah portion of the Appalachian Trail, a smooth, well-graded, 100-mile stretch of some of the prettiest trail along the entire length of the AT. My plan is to take about 5 days and hike as much of it as I can, from April 6 to April 11. This will let me get acclimated to trail living, test out my gear, and hopefully, given my lax pace requirements since I don't have to finish the full 100 miles, won't wear me out right before I start the real thing. My only concern is allergies. April is peak pollen season for me, and pollen makes me absolutely miserable. If my allergies are bad this year, I may skip this training trip to save myself the exhaustion of dealing with my immune response for 5 days of full pollen exposure. Hopefully it doesn't come to that though!

Schedule of resupply stops to come soon, for those of you who want to send me letters/packages!