Date: 2012-06-11
From: Fort Wayne, IN

To: Bellafontaine OH Comfort Inn
Miles today: 0.0

Cancelled all appointments we made today - TM eye doctor, SOS dental & Car maintenance at Yeoman's service center.We still needed 2 new tires and an alignment for the Pilot before we left to get back on the AT. Yeoman's did not have the Firestone tires to match the ones we purchased in TN, so I looked in the yellow pages to see if someone else could help.After striking out at Tom Steele Tires, The Tire Barn, and Zurker Tires in Monroe IN; McMahon Tires in Glenbrook had the tires in stock and were able to replace the old tires and align the front tires but not the back tires.We still needed to finish packing for the second leg of our journey on the AT. Juanita V and Margo Z(THANKS friends),came over to send us off and spend time with us while we finished packing. We finally finished packing and left the Fort at 2:15 PM.We made two stops; the first to see Trail Mama's Mom in Bluffton IN. TM's sister Becky was there doing Mom's laundry so we got to see her too. The second stop was to see Trail Mama's brother Bill and his wife Renee in Berne IN. We left their home a little after 5:15 PM. The AT was still 9 hours away and we still had to stop and eat dinner. Rather than go to a resturant and take more time, we stopped at a Kroger's in St. Marys OH and purchased chicken and a broccoli salad which we ate at a rest stop just outside of St. Marys.It was now almost 8:00 PM and and since both of us were very tired and still about 50 miles west of Columbus OH we booked a room in a Comfort Inn at Bellafontaine OH for the night.Today's memories will be the friends and family we got to see. They all reacted to our hair; mine because it is long and Trail Mama's because it is transitioning to her natural color.Our picture today is actually from yesterday. The picture is of 13 of our 14 grandchildren (7 girls & 7 boys) plus a friend. All of them are 10 and under with Caden Dean McCorkle being the youngest. Caden Dean is not yet three months old. The friend is our daughter Amy's friend's daughter Lyndsey. The friend's daughter is like a stand in for our fourteenth grandchild, granddaughter Larissa. Larissa is our second oldest granddaughter and Amy and Dino's oldest daughter. We lost Larissa at eight months to a genetic illness. She was a beautiful girl, who had smiling eyes and who was wise way beyond her eight months. Larissa will always be a part of the Summers' family. We will insure that her cousins and siblings will remember how special she was.Trail Mama and I are hiking the Appalachian Trail for HIM because I, "SOS", was called by God to do so to lift up youth like our grandchildren and their church camps in Indiana. Trail Mama and I believe that God will touch the hearts of Indiana UM's and that they will fund the revitalization of all the church camps in Indiana. The UM church camps in turn will ignite the youth of today to become the Christians leaders of tomorrow.There is not a day that goes by that we do not thank God and pray for are grandchildren. We want our grandchildren to know the Lord. We know from our own experience as children - going to church camps is one of the best ways for youth to find God. Please join us by making a pledge at www.rightfuture.org - THANK YOU.