The travel saga over Gov. Sanford continues to grow more interesting by the minute.  I spoke to the Governor’s spokesman myself, and he sent me an email saying that the Governor was hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Now we know he was in South America. 

Here is a copy of the emails Joel Sawyer (the spokesman) sent to me Monday evening…

8:38PM: The governor put in a lot of time during this last legislative session, and after the session winds down it’s not uncommon for him to go out of pocket for a few days at a time to clear his head. Obviously, that’s going to be somewhat out of the question this time given the attention this particular absence has gotten. 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.

Then, at 10:05PM, he sent an update…
I wanted to pass along the following update regarding the governor’s location.
The governor is hiking along the Appalachian Trail. I apologize for taking so long to send this update, and was waiting to see if a more definitive idea of what part of the Trail he was on before we did so.
I want to emphasize that this isn’t something that either staff or Mrs. Sanford is concerned about. 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 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.

Now, I don’t know if Joel knew what he sending was not true (I haven’t known him to do that in the past,) or perhaps he was given bad information.  Either way, there’s a problem.  If he sent incorrect info to me on purpose, that’s a lie.  If he sent incorrect info due to confusion over his whereabouts, then that seems to support the questions some have about the problem with leaving without ensuring THE RIGHT PEOPLE know where you are (and how to contact you.)

If his office can’t even get us correct information on the Governor’s location, it does beg the question of how well things would function with Governor Sanford completely out of contact with staff for any period of time.

What do you think? As a journalist, my issue is less about going on a vacation that he can’t be reached at, and more about knowing that the information I am given by the Governor’s office is accurate.