Date: 2012-10-02
From: Still in Cooperstown, NY

To: Batavia, NY
Miles today: 0.0

We spent over an hour reorganizing our car because I couldn't stand it any longer! It now looks much better...:-) On down the road heading west today. It was still raining off and on. We were listening to our book on CD (which is actually titled The Confession instead of whatever I said the other day...)and I was knitting and didn't notice the fabric/yarn shop...but SOS did and turned around! What a guy! It was a huge quilt and yarn shop. I bought 3 pieces of fabric to make story bags for the new books I bought along the way. I like to make bags to put my book and whatever else that goes with it inside. When I go to schools to read, I ask the kids to look at the bag and see if they can guess what the story will be about. I am knitting some boot toppers which are short leg warmers that you wear at the top of your boots and fold down over the top of the boot. The tops will be ribbed in a heavy yarn and the bottom part will be a thinner yarn so it isn't bulky in the boot. We will see how this turns out since I am not using a pattern... We ate in the car in the parking lot because it was raining harder and we had food in the car that we could munch on. Later it stopped raining and we stopped at a roadside stand to buy tomatoes and pears. We took a break in a town in NY we can't spell or pronounce, Skaneateles, and went to a combination book/coffee shop to relax for a bit. While relaxing, we wrote 15 postcards...again today! (13 to grandkids and 1 each to Mom and SOS's sister) We mailed them on our way out of town. By now it was time to start looking for a room. Since we have been driving on US20 and it mostly goes through small towns, we had to look off of 20 to find a room. Batavia was our choice of town and Clarion our choice of hotel because I had a good coupon. So here we are in a huge room with a king size bed and a guest LAUNDRY! The main event for the evening will be getting the laundry done so maybe we will have some choices for tomorrow!Just got a call from hiker friends Frenchy and Slingshot. They summitted today and sent a picture from the top of Katahdin. CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU BOTH!!!SOS here:Many have ask will I hike the PCT or CDT next. My anwser would be neither. This hike was NOT on my bucket list. This hike was all about answering God's call, and this hike has always been about raising the awareness of the funds needed to make the United Methodist Youth Camps second to none and make the United Methodist church camps in Indiana a place where youth can learn, together about Jesus Christ and commit their lives to him. Because of that call to hike for HIM, summitting Katahdin is just the beginning and not the end.I am dedicating my life, as he has called me to do, to raise the awareness of the the youth camps in Indiana and raising funds for those camps to make them second to none where youth can learn about HIM. I will go wherever God sends me and wherever he opens up doors for me.What I have learned in the 2,184.2 miles that I have thru hiked is: to hike that many miles requires patience, endurances and accepting that you do not control the outcome. Many who set out to thru hike the Appalachian Trail do not succeed for many reasons. They may not complete the the thru hike, because of health or family demands. It is emotionally overwhelming to continue to hike mile after mile, day after day or for countless other reasons.I was blessed to complete it and in the process went from being over weight to skinny; from a waist size of 36 inches to 32 inches. I also lost 40 lbs. If you lose 40 lbs. that is like losing two 20 pound turkeys. Try carrying two twenty pound turkeys, one in each hand and climbing up the mountains and back down on the AT.Trail Mama and I fulfilled the promise we made that the hike would not interfer with our families. We returned to Indiana, for those one time family events that would never be repeated. We took three weeks, because of one time events, to be with our grandchildren during the hike. The first time we saw them was when we returned to see our new grandson, Caden Dean McCorkle, born March 20. The second time we saw them was when we returned to see Caden baptized and the last time we saw them was when we came home to take part in the annual Grandma Camp.One of the regrets I have from the hike is that I did not get to see and/or hear the joy my Dad and my Father-in-Law would have expressed and shown for the accomplishment. I am sure they both have smiles on their faces, now. I just can not see them.I can hardly wait to be a part of my grandchildrens' lives once again.