Urban hiking.

Met up with Beth and David in Ravenna last night to grab some drinks. They will be starting the AT about four days after ourselves. Funny though, Mike met Beth (a barista) at the Starbucks right next to his work. He found out by chance that she was also planning a thru-hike which is pretty incredible since the odds of just running into a fellow 2010 AT classmate is something like 1 in 200,000.. or even more if you figure that a majority of AT hikers are probably living somewhat near the trail. We had a good time hanging out with them and we're looking forward to seeing them on the trail in Georgia next month. We were so pumped about hiking that we walked home from the bar, about 5.5 miles. Laura was wearing her clogs -d'oh!- and developed a couple tiny blisters but it was an awesome walk.

Went to REI today to get the last of our gear for the trip. We finally made ourselves spend the time to make our shoe selection - 2 hours! It was a task that we had been putting off and agonizing over for months. We both walked out of the store with new boots that we were really happy with. Phew! We forewent the bus trip again and tested them out on the 4 mile walk home with pleasing results. We're glad we have all our gear pretty much taken care of now since other things are in need of attention like wedding details and a plan of action for our road trip starting next week.
More about those tomorrow.