Date: 2003-11-27
To: Home At last
Miles today: 0.0

I trust this Thanksgiving day finds you surrounded by family, friends and fanciful feast! I have just gorged myself silly and am rather disappointed that I could not finish my first helping and even struggled through dessert. Ugh! Where has that ravenous hiker appetite gone? I tend to get sentimental around big holidays and I sent an email to Strider, Pushing Up Daisies and Flatlander this morning thanking them for being such a big part of my hike. I also want to thank all of the wonderful people I met during the journey - each and every hiker, trail angel, motel owner ( especially Keith at Goose Creek and Reba Jordan just north of Fontana) and the hitchhiker picker uppers,especially the lady in the white pick up who picked me up just south of Erwin Tennessee in the pouring rain. 100 cars had passed and she stopped! Thank you! Without you, my adventure wouldn't have been possible or nearly as memorable. I also want to thank all of you who hung in there and read through my ups, my downs and trivial drival as I attempted to walk the 5 million steps from Georgia to Maine. I'm not quite sure how many miles I walked, but I do know that I enjoyed most every one. The best part is, I had a smile on my face the entire time, no matter how awful it may have gotten. I won't ever call my-self a thru hiker, but I will say I walked from Georgia to Maine. This journey has been the adventure of a life time and one that I reflect on daily! The friends I made during the way will remain friends for the rest of my life - to name a few my beloved Strider! We spent one of the worst nights on record together! Then hiked the next 500 miles or so together! It's amazing! Someone you would never think twice to talk to becomes one of the most important people in your life! I love you buddy! See you in June! We'll finish Pennsylvania! Pushing Up Daisies and Flatlander! You guys rock! I think of you all the time and miss you tons! The All Girl Gang will live again! We are planning to do the 100 mile wilderness and Katahdin next August! Foxie, Littlest Hobo, Firefeet, Brown Bess, Double A, Viking, I love you guys! Other wonderful people include Goldberry, Spunky, LT, Leapyear, Blip, Wingin It, Big Red, Red Rover and Peregrine, Mountain Dancer and John E Smokes, You'ns, Shaggy, "Greasy", Mover, Dutch, Skeemer, Mag, Dag, I know I am forgetting hundreds of wonderful people...and all the gang who started on Springer on March 14th "Thank You" for such an incredible time and experience! Since returning from Maine in early June, I have been quite the busy girl. I scored the job I wanted at Eastern Mountain Sports and set the goal to be the manager of a new store, somewhere, by 2005. That's when things started to change. I had lunch with my old boss. In my previous life, before hiking and before moving to Maine I was in radio. I worked on the air, in production, in sales, lets just say I did just about everything. So at lunch my boss tells me he's purchasing all of these radio stations, about 13, and is looking for a few good people to run them. Before lunch was even served, I had been pretty much offered the job to manage 2 radio stations in northeast PA. So, after Christmas I am moving to Clarks Summit, PA. I am very blessed to have such an incredible opportunity, basically plopped in my lap! Thank you Lloyd for believing in me!Thanks to my incredible family! Jeanne and John, your cards were the best! Kathy, Woude, Kris and Kate, thanks for the Pine Grove buffet and letting the smelly girls crash at your house! Thanks Susan and Keith for Gooney Creek and Gooney Gloria! Thanks John and Marilyn for my allowance! thanks Nancy and Bob for your support! Thanks Allison for the goodies and listening! Thanks Linda and Polly for helping me make this whole adventure possible! Most importantly, I want to thank my mom and dad for believing in me and always being there! I hope some day to find the right words to say how much you mean to me. Until then, I thank you with every ounce! You picked me up when I was down, you dropped me off when I was ready and were always there when I needed an ear to tell someone what was going on! Thank you for supporting me and getting your friends and entire neighborhood interested in my hike.And thank you dear reader for sticking with me! I'll never forget the pressure I felt in Damascus when a man recognized me at trail days! He said something to the effect of "way to go Molasses! now don't let me down!" I thought yikes! Ironically, it was there that I went home for the first time. I hope I didn't disappoint you, for I never disappointed myself! Today, I am a much stronger, slimmer (40 pounds if you were wondering), confident, organized and patient person. Thanks for sharing my little adventure with me!