The Appalachian Trail?

Now, after a full day's worth of wondering where he has been since last Thursday; after his wife said she had no idea where he was, but that he needed to get away from his kids on Father's Day weeend; after his office said he was working on "some projects"; after they said they had heard from him and then backed off of that, now Mark Sanford's office says he's hiking on the Appalachian Trail, and that he told them (but not his wife) that's where he would be, but they didn't want to say anything until they knew precisely where on the trail he was hiking.

A mystery surrounding the whereabouts of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was apparently solved late Monday when a Sanford spokesman said he was hiking along the Appalachian Trail.

Gov. Mark Sanford is hiking along the Appalachian Trail, a spokesman said late Monday.

"I apologize for taking so long to send this update, and was waiting to see if (we had) a more definitive idea of what part of the trail he was on before we did so," Joel Sawyer said in an e-mail to reporters.

Sanford's whereabouts were unaccounted for Monday when he stepped out of the public eye following a bruising session with the state Legislature. Even his wife, Jenny, said she did not know where he was, The Associated Press reported, according to The State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina.

"I want to emphasize that this isn't something that either staff or Mrs. Sanford is concerned about," Sawyer wrote Monday night. "As we said earlier today, it isn't unusual for the governor to be out of pocket for several days after the legislative session. We knew that he would be difficult to reach, and that he would be checking in infrequently. Given the media attention this has generated, we'll obviously update you once we have some more specifics to pass along."

Earlier, Sawyer told CNN in a statement, "Before leaving last week, he let staff know his whereabouts and that he'd be difficult to reach. Should any emergencies arise between the times in which he checks in, our staff would obviously be in contact with other state officials as the situation warrants before making any decisions."

Sawyer did not address Jenny Sanford's comments to the AP.

And how exactly did they determine exactly where Sanford is on the trail? Did he send up a smoke signal? The story doesn't say that his office spoke with him. If they had spoken with him, wouldn't they have said so? Instead, they say that they knew all along where he was, but allowed people to think he had disappeared because they didn't know exactly where he was.

Are they kidding? Who do they think they're kidding?

This is a bizarre story that gets stranger each time his office tries to spin it. And, make no mistake, they are spinning like tops. These people have no idea where their boss is. They're just trying to keep the whole thing from collapsing on top of them.

Can't wait to hear the next version of Where in the World is Mark Sanford? when it comes out in a couple of hours.