Jonathan's Walkabout

Appalachian & South Taconic Trails

Since our house in CT sold, and we bought one in Iowa, and my seminars are over for the year; suddenly much of the pressure is off and we had a slightly down week before us. I realized perhaps I could fit in my annual walkabout after all!

I threw together a pack in about an hour and downloaded a map of the CT section of the Appalachian Trail I hadn’t hiked yet and was ready to go after baking a fresh baguette to strap to my pack and grabbing a can of chili.

I made two mistakes though in packing - I forgot a flash light and I grabbed my cheap hiking boots that I had not previously walked extensively in. I will never again walk extensively in those podiatry iron maidens. After the first four hours walking it was pain in every foot step. Literally.

But there was no turning back: 30 miles and 6 mountains peaks stood between me and the car that would take me home.

There was some great stuff to see. Crazy orange fungi, red salamanders, yellow snakes, deer, bugs, classic New England churches, old farm houses.

Not to mention the amazing vistas, up high with the falcons riding the same thermals that are blowing through my hair.

At night I met up with my friend Spencer (he who was hiking same trail in the opposite direction from me; we both situated our cars on each end of the trail).

Spencer actually got in after dark using his flashlight. We slept in a nice lean-to. However, it wasn't nearly as good a sleep as I would have expected for being so beat from a long day of walking - the ground seems to get harder as I get older, and sleeping outside brings all sorts of strange noises .


I hit the trail a little after first light and swapping maps with Spencer.

Day two started off with three mountains. Killer to climb, but great views. Luckily I didn’t just have just boring, sore feet to occupy me. I got amazingly winded making the mountainous assents (some day I’ll actually get in shape before going on these hikes). And for variety, my shoulders started aching from carrying my 30 pound pack. Then on the descents, after the third peak, my bum knee came back to visit me; a new kind of pain at each step. My knee held out until the last, and highest, and steepest descent on the last day, and then I almost died going down that hill. Things officially stopped being fun at that point. It was a good thing I was hiking alone so no one had to hear my grunts and snarls. I tell you though, grimacing really does help you move through the pain.


My blistered feet had become so passé at that point. I was more disturbed that I’d run out of water four hours earlier and hadn’t passed another water supply since. A fresh apple never tasted so good when I remembered I had one left and ate it.

(I did a much better job capturing the serenity of the hiking experience than I did the struggles)

Anyway, the hiking was gorgeous. I was the only person around for miles, utterly surrounded by nature with only a barely marked trail to show that civilization existed. The vistas were awesome, the weather was beautiful, and the food nice and humble. I got to spend a lot of time thinking about the path of my life and how to strike the right balance between all my responsibilities. I climbed to the highest point in Connecticut and knelt in prayer there - and I’ll tell you, it’s different on a mountain top. It was amazing. I think everyone should go on a walkabout once a year.

Finding a House, Teaching, Selling a House

Life has been busy the last few weeks. Sandwiched between my (Jonathan's) two seminars, Kristy and I flew into Iowa and looked at houses for a week. After almost a week of looking from 9 in the morning till 5 at night, and driving all over the countryside, we made an offer for a wonderful home on several acres in the countryside with cornfields behind it, and a pond off in the back.

There is already a garden spot, a barn and basic fencing. We plan on adding an orchard and then looking into some animals. We'll start with a dog and work our way up to real farm animals.

Before the house hunting trip Jonathan was in downtown Chicago teaching his Actuarial Seminar at the DePaul Conference center to over 50 actuarial students. It was a grueling 4 days - set up at 7:00am, teach from 8 till 5, take down my gear till 6, eat dinner and study my notes for the next day till 9pm, then crash at 10pm and start at 6:00am the next day. But eating out was a nice change of pace, the students were a fun bunch, the facilities were excellent, and the feedback was extremely positive.

While we were gone, the kids were split up and sent to friend's houses. They had a great time playing with their friends and Emily even learned how to walk while we were gone. It was so cute to have her come toddling up to us when we got back. After the house hunting trip, I repeated the teaching regime, only this time in Hartford.

Meanwhile, as I am teaching all day, Kristy has been fielding house viewings because our Connecticut home went on the market the day we got back from Iowa. Due to the low price we put on the house, there were a lot of interested people scheduling viewings. Which meant Kristy had to vacate the house for large portions of the day with David and Emily. She made a lot of trips to the library and to various parks and school playgrounds around town.

We basically ate out every night of the week: McDonalds, Burger King, Boston Market, Pizza Hut. But after only one week on the market, on Saturday (yesterday), late at night we received a solid offer on the house! Hurray!

Yesterday was also my last day of Seminar teaching. Hurray!

In 1.5 weeks I'll fly to Iowa to start work, and a few weeks later I'll come back out to help drive the family over to our new house.