KingGator and Sons

Letter to Family


In this letter to my dearest friendsand family, I want to do two things. I want to announce that in 2013(For Six Months), David, Daniel, and I are going to be hiking thelegendary Appalachian Trail. Please keep reading this letter, becauseI want you to know the details along with what you PERSONALLY can doto help or support this amazing journey.


Now, for those that do not know whatthe Trail is, let me explain a little about it to you before I getinto our reasons and what this all will entail. What is theAppalachian Trail? Well, it is a 2,200 mile hike trail from GEORGIAto MAINE. It goes through many different mountain ranges, includingthe famous Smokey Mountains and even Mount Washington up in NewHampshire. This trail goes through 13 different states on the way.This is not just a walk in the woods. The Appalachian Trail seems tome to be the most famous trail in the entire country, or even theWorld. Only 14,000 people in the history of this planet have evercompleted the entire thru-hike from beginning to end all at once. Wewill be part of that group. Most people liken walking this trail toclimbing Mount Everest. It is THAT AMAZING of a journey. We will seeplenty of wildlife and amazing sights along the way. We will facemany dangers, but with teamwork and intelligence, we will beat themall. This trail will probably take us 5-7 months to complete.Basically all of 2013 will go to the trail. If we average 100 milesper week, we can get this done at a reasonable rate of time.


Now, what are my reasons for doingthis? Well, it is simple....adventure. Most of you already know thatI am the type of person that tries to give my children the mostamazing memories and journeys that I can. As a family, we have donesome amazing things. We have done Vegas, the Grand Canyon, The HooverDam, King's Island, Busch Gardens, Sea World, Aquatica, The Gulf ofMexico, Honeymoon Island, Adventure Island, Disney World, The MagicKingdom, Epcot, The Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. We havepacked up and moved 1,400 miles from Indiana to Florida without ahouse or a job. We then went even further down into South Florida byleaving Clearwater for Ft. Myers. Keep in mind that each time, weleft all of our belongings and started completely over.


Well, this adventure will do wondersfor our health (mainly mine) as well as make my sons into MEN. Thetruth is that if they can face this challenge, I believe it will helpthem face every other fear and challenge in life. For example, howintimidating is a job interview or test in school gonna be afterwalking up a 6,000 foot mountain or sleeping in the woods for sixmonths straight? After staring a bear in the face, how scary will aover bearing boss be later in life? The truth is that this trail willteach these boys about survial, suffering, sacrifice, and many otherthings. It will show them that life isn't all about the XBOX andmusic. It will show these boys how to deal with real issues in life.It will remove fears later in life. Let me ask you...Would you EVERfear being homeless after this? No. Would you ever fear wildlifeafter this? No. Would you ever fear the dark after this? No.


In terms of my health, I am 60-80lbsoverweight. This will trim off a lot of this weight. I am a smoker.This trail will kill that habit. I am going to have to quit to havethe cardio needed to walk this trail. Besides, I do not want to wastemoney on cigarettes when me and my children are going to be starvingfor the most part. I would rather spend that money on a burger. Ibelieve this trail will also work my muscles and strengthen my back.I haven't been under 200lbs in my entire adult life except for afterbeing released from prison in 2008. The truth is that this will helpout my health tremendously and give me a better quality of life.


Now, how are we going to eat. I amgoing to be having Chrissy and hopefully even some of you, send uswhat are called “food drops” through the mail. We will only beeating certain types of food. We need to keep our backpacks as lightas possible. BTW: If any of you wish to help with gear before hand,please feel free to do so. We would greatly appreciate it. Basically,Chrissy is going to send boxes of food to predertimined post officesalong the trail. We will then resuply that way. There is some moneyon the child support card that comes each week from Daniel's father.We intend on using that during the trip for extra food or needs. Hischild support gives us around $10 per day. Now, I admit that this isnot enough. We will need help along the way. Any help that any of youcould send will be greatly appreciated. You would be surprised howwell it will help moral to get a few bucks on our pay pal or apackage along the trail. I will post our pay pal information on hereif you want to transfer money along the way. It will go straight tomy card. Keep in mind, we could definitely use your help with gearand food. We would appeciate it.


In terms of safety, we will be ok. Iplan on being careful and focusing on the boys health. They areyoung and will be o.k. In terms of school, I will make sure that allthese kids got majority of their school year done and will pass. Theywill take their FCAT test before they go and everything will be ok. Ihave most of the kids in Florida Virtual Online School, so they havesome flexibility in their schedule. I do not want them to miss a oncein a lifetime opportunity.


Shamus, if you are reading this, let mesay this. I know you wanted to come out and spend a week in Floridato see Daniel this year. You can still do so, but you will need tocome out to the trail. Hell, it will be fun and you can hike with us.I think you will have fun. You and your family are more than welcometo keep up with Daniel along the trail and even help out if you wish.We hope that you support this journey and enjoy keeping up with us.If you or anyone else has ANY QUESTIONS, feel free to ask us. Danielwill have a cell phone on him too.


If you want to keep up with us onlineand our entire journey, you can do so on these websites. I will listthe websites and explain what each one is for. For some of you thatare not very internet savy, I am sure that other family members willbe able to help you out with that. We will also try to stay incontact via telephone when ever we can. With that said, here are thesites...


http://www.trailjournals.com/kingjbandsons/
http://[email protected]/
https://www.facebook.com/NewToTheWild
https://www.youtube.com/New2theWild
https://twitter.com/New2TheWild
https://sites.google.com/site/new2thewildjb/
http://new2thewildjb.blogspot.com/
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/memb...Gator-and-Sons


You can donate to our pay pal I believeat the following address...https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/websc...if%3ANonHosted


If you are family, you could just callChrissy and handle it with her if that makes you feel better. Shewill be able to tell you more of what we may need or how you canhelp.


I love you all and hope that yousupport this journey,
JB, David, and Daniel
[email protected]
239-738-3759
(We will be taking THREE phones on thetrail)