7:00 AM came very early. I wanted to sleep all day but I got up and had breakfast with Emie. After eating we said our goodbyes, good lucks, etc. and I went to pack up. I was off by 8:30. I just walked across the street to the footpath that followed the Rhine and started heading north. My original plans were to head south down the Rhine and try to make it to Munich for October-fest. Sticking true to the usual pattern of my life, I had changed my mind the night before for no reason other than wanting to see Amsterdam. The river flows all the way through Germany, into Holland, and then empties into the North Sea. Mainz is about forty kilometers from the hostel and I hiked all but about eleven the first day. I also took some time to explore through some of the suburbs so I figure I hiked about twenty miles today. I have already begun to get used to people in this small villages staring at me as I pass by. As I walked into a town near where I stayed the night, I walked by an outdoor patio of a restaurant. There were two long tables set up seating about forty people and then about ten or twelve tables right next to the path with two to four people at each. As I walked within sight people started to notice me. By the time I was within twenty feet everyone was looking at me. Like I said, I was used to it by now so I just started laughing to myself. When I was almost past the patio a lady started to speak to me in German. I said that I only speak English like I had already done so many times that day, and then her and her table started asking me questions in my language. I could tell the entire place was ease dropping and some would laugh when something funny was said. Even a dog acknowledged my plans to walk along the Rhine with a couple of reserved barks. I imagine this meant either that I was crazy or that he wanted to come along. On the other side of the town I stopped to watch a game of soccer in the grass by the river. Then a few minutes away I saw a volleyball net with a few men getting ready to start playing. I stood and watched for a minute until they waved me over. They invited me to play and I almost accepted until I realized that I was way to exhausted to play volleyball, especially in my hiking boots. As my pack hit the ground I felt like God was letting me know that He was with me. I sat by the court and cooked some macaroni and cheese with salami. It was beautiful! I had so much fun just listening to these grown men bicker the whole time. I laughed a lot to hide the fear that they were about to start throwing blows. As the sun started going down I walked about a hundred yards and pitched my tent between some trees near the River.
That night was very interesting for my first night in the tent. I fell asleep by about 9:30 or 10:00, only to be awakened at 11:37. All I could hear was people yelling and I thought there was going to be fight. Then there was a loud blast of music. I finally realized in my dazed sense of awareness that it was kids out partying on a Friday night. I swear it sounded like they had the music right against my tent. It was some type of German dance/techno music and they were constantly throwing in their own whoops and hollers. The first thing that went through my head was that if these drunken kids see my tent, would they come check me out? Would they want me to party with them or would they want to fight me? Both sounded like a bad idea to me at the time because all I wanted to do was sleep. I think I fell back to sleep a little after midnight, and I don�t know how I slept through all that. It wasn�t until 2:00 when I woke up again and the loud music and yelling was still going on. However, within about five minutes it got quiet as sudden as it had started, and once again, I passed out cold.
9/7/2002
My alarm was set for 5:15 AM so I could get my tent packed up before people started coming around, but after the night I had just had, coupled with a twenty-mile hike with a fifty-pound pack on, I decided to sleep until 6:30. Just before leaving Texas I had bought the new issue of Backpacker magazine, which I read cover to cover like all the others. At the end of this day I recalled an article that talked about not pushing it too hard when backpacking. It said that you should not go so hard that if you run into trouble you can�t get yourself out of it. Today I did not take heed to the advice in that article, but it really wasn�t my fault.
This morning as I was packing up I looked over to see a fisherman looking curiously at me. I waved, he returned the gesture, and I got back to my chores. I wonder what he was thinking as he watched me take down my tent in a place I am sure he had never seen anyone camp before. I decided against cooking breakfast, as is what happens at least ninety percent of the time I�m backpacking, and hit the trail. Less than an hour after I left I had found breakfast! I was hiking through a vineyard (still on the foot path) and I rejoiced at my good luck. I feasted on grapes that were ready for the harvest and then found dessert�wild blackberries were everywhere.
From where I camped to Mainz was supposedly 10 kilometers, and I was looking forward to making it to my first big city of the walk. The problem with big cities, and small ones too I guess, was that sometimes the trail runs into a street and then you have to navigate back to the trail. Luckily I have had perfect luck with this task thus far. As I was walking through the streets of Mainz I made some detours to just check out the city. I thought I was heading in the general direction of the river but soon learned otherwise. Two kids were skating up behind me on their roller blades. I heard the little girl say something in English about skiing, and then, �should we ask him?� I knew they were wondering why I was carrying my trekking poles that many people mistook for ski poles. I could tell by their accents that they were Americans so I was eager to strike up a conversation. They asked all the usually questions and I did the same. Their mom was from Germany and their dad was from the States. Their parents were divorced and they were living here for a year. In November they would go to Georgia to be with their dad for a year. After talking for a while I asked if they would tell me how to get to the river. They insisted on showing me the way. Keisha (8), and Chris (12) took turns playing with my trekking poles and asking me even more questions, while telling me about their recent lives. Keisha wanted me to go home with them. She said that I could stay there and she would give me food. I gratefully declined knowing that it would probably look funny to her mom if the kids brought home a smelly vagabond. Then she said that she wanted to come with me. I suggested that too might not be a good idea since she had school and all. She agreed and said that someday she too would do what I�m doing. She decided that she would go pack a bag and come back to the river to pretend like she was on a �walk�. After they went home I napped for about 30 minutes and then continued on through the city. Today my feet started to get very stiff if I would stop for any amount of time. However, after walking for one to five minutes the pain would go away as they loosened up. I later saw that there are blisters starting to form on the pads of my feet by my toes. I decided to try to slow the pace a little and hopefully my feet will be better tomorrow.
