A new and wonderful thing has happened! My daughter had a baby boy, and I am now a grandmother times two. My first grandson is 3 and the new baby is almost 3 months old. I am staying with my daughter’s family and caring for the baby while everyone else goes to school. I love every minute of being a grandmother, playing with the 3 year old in the evenings, and caring for the baby during the day. My walking, though, has really slowed down. Now I am lucky to get in a half of a mile each day. This will improve as baby and I find our schedule. For now I push him in a stroller when the weather is good, but he often gets hungry or fussy before a lot of distance is covered. That is OK, we are slowly developing the love of walking and outdoors, one small stroll at a time.  When my first grandchild was born I did the same thing, I had the great honor of staying home with him for his first year. I walked with him often, pushing the stroller up and down the Tennessee hills, and I plan to do the same this year. My parents instilled the love of nature, and the joy of walking in me, and I think my kids got some of that as well. Now the next generation is here, ready to explore the woods, mountains, trees and fields. A new generation to discover the beauty of birds calling as they fly, to discover the feel of chilly wind on their faces as they climb a mountain trail, to love the sound of streams dancing over rocks and falling down as waterfalls. A new generation to care for the wilderness, to try to protect it and to share that love with their friends and neighbors. Perhaps someday these two boys will also take tiny hands in theirs and walk outside under the blue sky. My grandpa took my dad out walking on the family farm, my parents took me out walking on the wild trails of the Tetons and through Yellowstone, as well as on the family farm. I took my three kids out walking, in the North Georgia mountains, in the Tetons and Yellowstone, along our neighborhoods, and on the family farm.  The love of nature, of all that is wild, is a gift to be passed on one little child at a time.  This blog today will be short because the baby is waking up, the sun is shining and the stroller is waiting. I have walked 25.37 miles since I last wrote, and am now (on the AT) at The Lost Mountain Shelter in Virginia, the next state along the trail. I plan to keep recording the miles and writing these blogs until I have finished the AT, but I have a long way to go. The only way to get there is to start, and to keep sauntering on. See you on the trails!!