A turn or two I'll walk, to still my beating mind

PROSPERO

You do look, my son, in a moved sort,
As if you were dismay'd: be cheerful, sir.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex'd;
Bear with my weakness; my, brain is troubled:
Be not disturb'd with my infirmity:
If you be pleased, retire into my cell
And there repose: a turn or two I'll walk,
To still my beating mind.

(The Tempest, Act IV, scene 1) 

Yes, my friends, Erin and Michael have left the great state of California and entered...

Ashland, Oregon, home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival!

Instead of going to see a play, however, they are scarfing down cheeseburgers with their trail friends, the Ashland boys. Psh.

But the good news is that their swollen feet, while still painful, are less swollen; their bee-stung bodies, while still in pain, are no longer bee-stung; and that bowel trouble that I alluded to in my last post, while always a painful lingering memory, has not returned. 

FURTHERMORE, Erin has acquired a trailname from their trail buddies Tribu and Muir Bird, two PCT hikers who like to travel up to the 30 miles a day (that's a lot). From here on out, I will refer to my sister as Jorge.

Apparently there is a perfectly logical reason for this: namely, ultramarathon runner Jorge Pacheco. The dude runs 100 miles for fun and likes to train on the PCT (also, presumably, for fun). Turns out that our dear Erin/Jorge occasionally turns into an ultramarathoner of sorts, speeding along the trail like she's out to win a race. Sometimes, though, she slows down. Way, waaaaay down. Then her trailfriends call her George.

So, congratulations, Jorge and Longlegs, on reaching Oregon! Love you guys so much.

More than halfway there!

Friends, please pardon my long absence. This is what I have been doing this summer: 

Photo credit: Kym Bernazky

From the first showing of "I wondered why," a one-woman show based on my Dad's memoirs as compiled for me by my Mom and Dad.

Here, in the other hand, is what my beloved siblings have been doing:

Photo credit: Tom Glass

So, as can see, we are all completing activities of comparable difficulty.

Here are some updates from the trail, in no particular order!

Tom/Teddy has returned to notPCT land in one piece, albiet heavily bearded, after a month and a half on the trail. I am stealing all of the photos today from his facebook page. They are stunning photos, and also, Erin and Michael don't send me photos because when they get into town they are too busy repairing their heavily traumatized feet and eating every calorie they can get their hands on to send e-mails. I have not yet talked to Tom/Teddy, but i promise a full report soon.

Photo credit: Tom Glass

Teddy, Longlegs, and Erin (no trailname yet) reached the halfway point! Annnd Legs and Erin are stiillllll in California. It's a big state. They just passed through Castella, CA this weekend:

Almost to Oregon...

With Tom gone, it seems that the intrepid Hanleyettes have either started to run into more mishaps, or they have fewer heartwarming stories to tell and are therefore telling the truth about how hard it is to walk thousands of miles. Michael was stung by a bunch of bees. Erin's toes swelled up so much that they broke through the tops of her shoes. There was an unfortunate poop episode that i hope to make a claymation movie about soon. Some packages failed to arrive on time. The Hanleyettes march on.

Photo credit: Tom Glass

Photo credit: Tom Glass

I should hear from them next weekend, but in the meantime, know that they are safe and (more or less) sound. And at least the view is good from wherever they are!

Photo credit: Tom Glass

Yours,

Megan