Date: 2012-07-20
From: MA 23

To: MA 41
Miles today: 12.0

Today we woke up to rain and a huge drop in temperature! At 3:00 today it was only 66 degrees! My kind of weather...:-) It only rained for about 2 hours and not hard so it didn't do much for the dry conditions. SOS didn't even put on his rain cover on his pack...he was hoping the rain would wash some of the smell out of his pack. I don't know if it worked or not because I have learned to stay far away from his pack! I even make him close it up in a plastic bag when it is in the car with us...that is how bad it is after 1500+ miles. Since we had checked out of our hotel, when I dropped off SOS I had no home for the day. On to the library and there was Starcraft (Joy..the other woman assisting her hiker). We sat and knitted and talked and looked at knitting books for several hours. Around noon, here came Comanche and Manfred. They had just had lunch at the Neighborhood Diner (yes, that is the name). I got hungry about 1 so walked there also and had lunch and then back to the library. Joy and I worked some more and then I had to go pick up SOS. We exchanged phone numbers and emails since we may not see each other again since we will be off the trail for several days. The pick up spot was another bad one with no parking but I arrived very shortly before SOS so just put on the flashers and sat on the road. When he came, we headed for Fort Wayne...only 733 miles according to Edith Chloe (our GPS). If you figure our mileage there and back, it will be something over 1466 which is LESS than the miles he has hiked already! We ate at a Roy Rogers Restaurant at one of the road side rest centers. Roy Rogers was a huge cowboy star when I was growing up and I loved seeing Roy Rogers movies so it seemed like a good plan...and my hamburger was good. We started looking for a place to stay that was not far off the interstate. We found a room at a Scottish Inn and here we are and will be off to sleep soon...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzSOS here:WOW - What a day - it rained on me today but it did not dampen by spirits. Today was I believe the seventh time I have experienced rain. There has been a drought on the AT at least the parts I have hiked. As a result the topic of conversation when thru hikers meet is, where is the next good source of water. This conversation for me to date has not been important, since I am being assisted by Trail Mama and I always start the day with three liters of water and 2 bottles of Gatorade.Today was special because I saw many thru hikers that I knew; I saw young people experiencing the trail and I was treated to trail magic not once but twice.I hiked South against the grain to see the NOBOs I knew. (NOBOs are thru hikers hiking from Georgia to Maine.) I am a NOBO. When I hike against the grain I mean, instead of hiking North, the way I am ultimately going, I hike South. Most NOBOs do not have that luxury, because they have no one to pick them up and get them back to the starting point to hike North again. I am able to do this because Trail Mama is there to pick me up at the end of the day and to drop me off at the next morning at the new starting point. I particular wanted to hike South today because this may be the last time I see this particular group of NOBOs since Trail Mama and I are going back to IN for Grandma Camp and I will be off the trail for 6 days. This means the NOBOs I have been hiking with since the middle of July will be anywhere from 60 to 90 miles or more ahead of me. It is not likely that I will catch any of them before I reach Katahdin. (Boots and Melody want Trail Mama and I to take a helicopter ride with them when we are all finished and before they return to Switzerland. They said they would call us.)It stopped raining around noon and right after that, I met a group of young ladies. They were either high school age or just a little older. They were from Camp Wellsprings. (I did not know this at the time but when I looked it up on the internet it is a camp for weight loss.) These young ladies were obviously out on the AT exercising and were all excited to meet a real thru hiker. This is where I received my first spontaneous trail magic when one of the young ladies offered me an apple. Of course being a true thru hiker, I did not refuse. They all had to give me a high five for my stick to it attitude and were amazed at my accomplishment. A thru hike REQUIRES A NO QUIT ATTITUDE and some luck in staying healthy. There is no guarantee, no matter what the age, that an injury may keep you from finishing.I met a young man today who made it to NY from Springer last year and had to leave the trail because of a stress fracture in his leg. He returned to spot where he left the trail this year and will complete the AT by hiking to Maine from that spot. It will not count as a thru hike but he will still join an elite group who have hiked the whole trail. He is still excited about accomplishing that and he should be. Anyone who completes the whole AT has done an amazing feat. I think it is even harder for a section hiker because every time you have to start the trail fresh it will take a while to get your hiking legs.Just before finishing today - I received trail magic for the second time - a vanilla coca cola. A thru hiker never gets tired of the unexpected generosity from a complete stranger.Many times I have been asked what are you thinking about as you hike mile after mile? Most of the time I am not thinking of anything in particular - I am just being sure of the next step or taking in the surrounding but today I was overwhelmed with the blessings of life.Many times my thoughts today were about the blessings of having a spouse like Trail Mama. Trail Mama did not just say, "God did not call me to hike the AT and I am not going to put my life on hold and leave my grandchildren and my friends and go hike the AT with you." No, instead Trail Mama said, "If that is what God is calling you to do, I want to be right there beside you". Trail Mama got all the eqipment to hike beside me. In February of this year, we went to two state parks in IN to train and we both looked forward to hiking some of the trail together.It was not to be, because Trail Mama suffers pain every time she tries to hike about three miles into the hike. I know this is very discouraging for her. Yet without complaint she has stayed by my side - has driven to places she would have never believed she would have driven to pick me up. She always takes care of the lodging on moving day. Boots, our friend from Switzerland. says to me yesterday, "You are one lucky person to have her." "She is always looking out for you." My thru hiker friends know how blessed I am to have Trail Mama as my partner in life. Yes, many of my thoughts were about Trail Mama today and how blessed I am to have her be a part of my life.I could not turn the blessings off today - I was overwhelmed with all the blessings. I am blessed with 14 grandchildren who make me smile when I think about them. I am blessed with children and their spouses who I enjoy watching them be parents and share their lives together. I am blessed with siblings who would do anything for me. I am blessed with parents who gave me an incredible place to grow up and appreciate life. I am blessed with the memories of my relatives Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. I am blessed with pastor friends who have enriched my life immeasurably and with their Christian examples.I just could not turn off my joy. It was like my feet did not touch the wet slippery trail today.When I wrote this journal last night I forgot one more thing that made yesterday so special. I passed a historical marker on the trail marking the spot where the last battle of the Shays Rebellion was fought. Shays rebellion was citizens and soldiers who became disgruntled with how they were treated after the American Revolutionary War. History shapes my soul with the past - I have Mrs. Fisher my Sophmore history teacher at Kendallville H.S. to thank. Mrs. Fishers's method of teaching has had a profound influnce on my life.One more thing I thought about today and I think about this almost everyday is I want to hike the AT on my schedule and it never happens that way thank God. Because you see, if I had hiked it on my schedule I would not have been where I was today and I would never had met Boots and Melody, the young girls from Wellsprings or anyone else I met today. I am overjoyed that today happened just the way it did and not the way I planned. I hope this is life lesson for me in the everyday life ahead.It was a great day to be on the AT.