My first real hiccup

Ever notice that no matter how prepared you think you are, all it takes is one silly little misshape to make your prefect plans fall apart? For me, it was even sillier than I thought it would be.

The main part of my effort during my climbs is to raise awareness for Alzheimer’s. Money is obviously really important, but awareness tends to result in donations and volunteering for years to come. Anyhow, in order to raise awareness, it is really important that I take pictures, short videos, and write stories along my way for others to browse. What is the one thing that all of this depends on? Electricity.

No, I wasn’t so shortsighted that I didn’t plan on my batteries going dead. On my climbs, most of my nights are spent in tents; and as you may know, most tents don’t have a plethora of outlets. My plan was to charge up my batteries while on the road using an inverter for my cigerrette plug.

Upon my arrival at Hoosier Hill, my very first highpoint, I pull out my inverter which is attached to my cigarette plug, and all the guts pull right out with it. There I am, only 7 hours into an eight day trip, and my whole strategy for staying connected is ruined.

Fortunately, as most of you other campers know, it is our determination to not stop having fun that forces us to be creative and fix problems. I ended up having hack through the side of my ash tray with a pair of Leatherman pliers and a old Sawz-All blade that I had for some reason. It looks a little red-neck now, but the important thing is that it is fixed and I am back on track.