Date: 2005-07-07
From: Johnson City, TN

To: Poughkeepsie, NY
Miles today: 20.0

Well hello trail readers,As you can see I am at a much different location than my last entry. I need to catch you up with my adventure from the last week. First and foremost I'm doing well and am still having fun (that's for my grandmother, :>). I stayed at Kincora Hiker Hostel for the last few days trying to figure out what to do. I also lucked in on the meeting of the ATC in Johnson City, TN. 900 fellow hikers seemed just the right medicine for this hiker. Bob was helping with some hikes and was driving up to Damascus, VA to drop off a hiker and pick up one who was going back down to help. We got to Damascus and I ran into Sugarfoot, Ken who I had hiked with for a few days a couple of weeks before. It was like I had just run into a long lost friend. Great treat. We also picked up Lucky, who I would have loved to have run into and hiked with. Great lady. Who, while her hike for the year was over, offered to come back and help Bob with some of his hikes for the AT conference. We stopped and got some of the best ice cream, thanks BOB, and great conversation. We ran by the meeting and dropped off Sugarfoot and to the hostel Bob, Lucky and I went. Bob is a great storyteller, so the ride was wonderful.I also was able to meet up with another new trail friend. Tony from the Brown Street guys and the Smokies, lives about 40 min from the hostel. We had a great day seeing the sights and meeting friends and family. We even stopped and sat and listened to a Bluegrass band on the side of the road.   So you might be asking your self, self how did she get from TN to NY. What a great question. Once a got over the shock of the SWAT team and the murder suspect, I wanted to get up with other hikers. So Bob gets me to meet Laurie from the ATC. Who I had heard was wonderful, and I can now also claim as one of my trail angels... She helped me try to figure out where to go and also helped put the word out to see if anyone at the conference might be also to give me a ride north. A big thank you to everyone who helped me this last week... I ended up getting a call from a couple that had hiked with me on one of the hikes that offered to take me from Johnson City, TN to up to their home and back up to the trail in NY... They also turned out to be geeks like me.. Ron and Marilyn Rosen. What wonderful people. We even stayed last night with their sister and brother-in-law in Mercersburg PA. We had a great dinner and after a much needed rain storm, we walked around the Mercersburg Academy where Jim is the Organist. I got a great treat when we got to go up the tower to see the bells as Jim played the Carillon for us.. WOW... Doree added great history about the school as we walked the campus. We all needed it after the great dinner and the homemade Ben and Jerry's ice cream.. Yum...We chatted more back at the house. I learned really neat things about Ham radio, Jim's hobby since he was a boy.. We all went to bed and I slept great. Jim made us french toast and then the three of us were off for the drive to NY. We are about to have dinner, so I will have to write more later. I wanted to let everyone know that I'm doing well. Having grand adventures and good times. Miss all of you and think about all the time. Thanks for the emails and the notes. I should be hitting the trail again on thursday 7-7 or by friday 7-8 heading north.. Take Care. Check out the new pics under photos.. Dare to Dream!!!!!!Dreamcatcher