Date: 2012-06-16
From: US 30 at Caledonia State Park

To: Pine Grove Furnace State Park
Miles today: 20.7
Weather: broken clouds

We checked out of our hotel in Waynesboro and drove to the start spot on US 30. (Sorry we forgot to wave at Nora and Tessa who were there two months ago and waved at Opa for future reference). This is a terrible spot with no parking on a very busy highway so I was glad to survive it one more time and be done with it! Since I couldn't check into our camp site for the night before 3 and friends were coming to meet up with us at a road crossing at noon, I decided to check out Chambersburg. I went to a strangely set up McDonald's and decided to work on the journal. It had no outlets period so had to use the computer without plugging in until the battery ran down. I got a call from Rog to meet up with Joe and Mary from VA who were heading to the trail crossing. They were there when I arrived. Shortly after this, Peach and Overdrive came out of the woods so I got to be Trail Mama!! Then wonder of wonders...here came our "lost kids" GQ and Maxis!! I had been carrying around Maxis' favorite blueberry roll ups for a long time so got to give him some! It was great to see them all and get to do my "job" again. Joe wanted to hike to catch up with SOS so off he went and Mary and I headed out to find something exciting to do. Sad to say, we didn't find anything but did get the guys some lunch and headed back to the crossing. The guys were there waiting on us so we all ate some lunch and then the guys hiked on to our stop for the night. Mary and I drove to the Pine Grove Furnace State Park and checked in at the park office. We then drove to the general store to see where SOS would take the ice cream challenge. There were MANY hikers and campers there...most of them eating ice cream! There was a large group of fathers and kids there. The fathers were offering $100 to any kid who could eat ONE GALLON of ice cream in one hour. One of the kids actually did and didn't even seem to be worse for it all. According to the fathers, this was the first time any kid had actually "won" the money...they were having a lot of fun! Mary and I walked down the AT to meet SOS and Joe. They soon came and SOS was ready for the 1/2 gallon ice cream challenge. He picked Black Cherry Ice Cream and got his wooden spoon when he was finished. We decided to find a place to eat. The GPS told us about an Italian place only 7 miles away so we headed there. It was a small place but the food was good and we talked until we were the last people in the place. SOS and I headed back to our camp site and Joe and Mary headed to find a hotel. SOS headed to the showers to find a LINE waiting for showers so just took a small sponge bath and headed to the tent. We were both soon fast asleep.SOS here:On July 11th, 1996 on my twentieth anniversary, Trail Mama said goodbye to me at our motel in Indianapolis where we had spent three days. She did not go to the airport with me that day; she could not bear to say her goodbyes and see me get on the plane to fly to Fort Benning Georgia, where I would be processed for active duty and sent overseas to support our US troops in Bosnia. Because I was leaving on our anniversary, we had celebrated our twentieth anniversary with our good friends Pastor Ted and Lynn Blosser the night before by going out to eat and taking a carriage ride around the downtown area of Indianapois.We had already made plans for her and our son Joshua to join me in Germany. Much to our surprise Joshua had agreed to spend his senior year of High School in Germany - even though he was already much in love with, and who in now his wife, Melissa. As you learn very earlier in the military nothing is certain because instead of being assigned to 21st TAACOM in Kaiserslautern (K-town) Germany - I was assigned to the staging base in Taszar Hungary. The staging base was where our troops going and coming from Bosnia passed through to be equipped to serve in Bosnia and to be debriefed and aided to reenter society.Being assigned here meant that Trail Mama and Joshua could not join me because Taszar was an unaccompied assignment. It also meant that I would work 7 days a week for the US Army and would not be allowed off the base for six months. Needless to say I was miserable without my soul mate - just like General Grant was miserable without his Julia.Why do I tell you all of this? Because had I been assigned to K-town and not Taszar Hungary, Trail Mama and I would not have spent this weekend with Joe and Mary Waldron.You see just three days after I arrived in Taszar Hungary, Major Joe Waldron was assigned to the Better Business Practice Team I was assigned to. Major Waldron is a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point and I wondered how he felt being assigned to serve under this LTC Indiana University ROTC graduate. I can say to Joe's credit (Joe retired as LTC) no other officer treated me with more respect and no other officer worked harder for me. We became close friends and shared many memories together while serving in Hungary. The memory I cherish the most with Joe is going to see the Pope John Paul II give a mass in Gyor, Hungary - the crowd was mammoth and we got to see the Pope (who was less than 30 feet from us) go by in his Pope Mobile.Before I left to go back to the states - Trail Mama and I spent a weekend with Joe and Mary in Paris. Wow, what fun we had.The problem with life is it is so busy that relationships you cherish the most get lost in the business. You see until this weekend 15 years since we served together, we have only spent time with Joe and Mary once. We went to Washington DC area for the marriage of their oldest daughter, Jessica.I hope it will not be that long again. Thanks Joe for being someone I want to emulate and grow up to be like. THANKS FOR COMING, JOE AND MARY!!