Update: Nearing the celebration, facing the final challenges

"Going to Mordor!” Cried Pippin. "I hope it won’t come to that!" 

- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

This past month, I've been trying hard to stay healthy and continue on my journey... however, the fires of Mt. Doom had another plan for me. In case you didn't know, Washington has been either surrounded by or on fire for the past month or so now. I wrote about it a bit in my last update, but the fires and smoke has continued. On September 5th, ash literally rained from the sky, the shadows all looked orange, and the sun looked blood red through the smoke. As a priest at a nearby parish actually mentioned: "...it looks like Mordor out there."

Looks about right...

This all lead to me (a sadly more delicate little hobbit than I'd sometimes like to be) getting an upper respiratory infection. Ugh! That meant that walking to work, which involved daily crossing a pretty steep hill, was out of the question for the next two weeks, as I found myself coughing and choking after almost any strenuous activity. 

But I kept up my meal planning, and thus eating healthy, hobbit-hole prepared meals at work more often and trying to be as balanced and active as I could be while recovering.

My healthy lunch.
Also, the One Ring is work attire, right?

Since my last update, this has lead to me still shaving off about 80 miles (before I got my infection, I had a solid week-long streak where I walked over the length of eight football fields a day!) and losing another pound and a half. Therefore, total I've lost a little under 10 lbs on this journey, and I only have 20.5 miles to go for my goal.

Now that I'm feeling better and the end is so close in sight, here is my new goal: I want to finish this journey this week. After all, this next weekend is HOBBIT DAY, the birthday of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. I think it's fitting if I can complete my Walk to Rivendell by the end of that day. It'll be tough: I'll have to both do more walking and biking each day to make it happen, but I have faith that I can make this final push. 

It'll certainly be something to celebrate...

"It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life." - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

And then we'll have to see what the next adventure will be!