February 5
End: Suwanee River
Miles: 12.4
Total: 809.9
I woke up and headed over to the tourism center again, where I got to use a computer with a dial-up Internet connection. That took me way back. Then I went and visited the Presbyterian church, which was built around 1902 according to the lay minister.
Incredibly, the church has never had more than twenty members, and only has eight right now. Of those, about half were there. You do the math. The building was big enough for probably sixty or eighty people to sit.
Afterwards I went for some more snack food and hung out for awhile before sitting out back of the post office. I was hoping for my long-awaited tarp.
I had only been sitting about fifteen minutes when the postmaster drove up and waved, going inside to look at the delivery. I tried not to think about what I would do if it were not there. I had been in White Springs for nearly two full days and was ready to move on.
Finally she came out waving a large envelope, and I was overjoyed. It had been almost a month since I had ordered it, and I had hiked over a month without carrying any real shelter. I thanked her a lot, hastily filled up my water, and left town.
I walked above the Suwannee, watching as it lazily trickled along, very low on water. I came across a cool little overlook of the river and set up my tarp for the first time.
I slept under the tarp, having to readjust often because I had accidentally positioned myself on an incline that I kept sliding off.
