Date: 2004-12-01
From: New Jersey Again!

To: Somewhere along the A.T.
Miles today: 0.0

Bad Hippie hasn't written in a month. What have I been doing all that time?   Well let me tell you it wasn't writting in my journal.   Sorry! To make up for it I will update you for the month of November now.   You better get something to drink and snack on this my take a while.Well as everyone who actually reads my journal knows I went home for the first part of November to work.   The first week home I worked for an old boss in the catering business. I drove a lunch truck down near Belmar, New Jersey.   Interesting job! It was fun to drive again. I got to see a few people in the business that I haven't seen for a while. My second week home I helped my Aunt Bea in her new home.   I had a lot of fun spending time with Aunt Bea.   88 years old and has the best memory.   She has a lot of stories about my family.   I have learned a lot about my grant grandparents from both her and my grandmother.   Lucky for me I have the same memory as them.   That's why Stumpknocker keeps loosing money to me, I have a great memory.When I was ready to return to the trail Stumpknocker offered to slack me so I could catch up.   Slack me well Ok I guess if I had to.   I met up with Stumpknocker and Rainbow Slick at RT 206 in New Jersey.   Tripod and I gave them a ride back to their cars at both Lott Rd. and Rt 94.   I jumped in Stumpknocker's truck and we headed for CT.   When we finally got up to the trail he gave me 2 hours to hike 8 miles before dark.   Nice guy! This is how I was about to start my slack pack to catch up. Great.The rest of the slack wasn't that bad. I ran high mileage for the first 3 days then I took a zero to return home for Thanksgiving. Yes I had to take a zero and return home for the holiday or my mother would be not be happy. So I brought Stumpknocker home with me for dinner.   We had a blast.   He got to finally meet Displaced Hippie and now my parents know there are actually normal, (well kind of) people on the trail.   And we both got home cooked dinner and lots of it.   I quickly returned to the trail on Friday.   I had miles to hike before Monday.   I did some nice mileage days to start.   The weather was great for hiking.   There were lots of hunters on the trail so I people to talk to.   I had forgot to mention up to now about having to be in the woods on opening day of first New York then New Jersey's gun seasons.   Yeah I just love being out there opening day. I saw lots of men with guns.   It was fun and I lived.My mother and dad came out to the trail near Rt 94 in Vernon to hike with me. That was great. I love to see them exercise.   I did think my Mother wanted to kill me when we walked a little further then we had thought be had to hike.   But she didn't.   Of course they came out and walked a really easy section so I couldn't really show them what I have to hike over some days. But I picked this section because it was pretty so that works to. After my parents left I hauled butt for a few more miles so we could head out to dinner with Goosebump and Rainbow Slick's.A second Thanksgiving dinner cool and with hikers. Everyone except for me and Martin were the only ones who did not South bound thru hiker last year. Everyone else I had met hiking with Stumpknocker last fall. It was nice to see everyone again. Last time I saw them was at Trail Daze. We ended up spending the night along with Dr. Doolittle. The bonus was breakfast the next morning. I had waffles and ice cream with whipped cream and suryp. It was great. I almost zerod there but ended up leaving and getting 5 miles done.I finally caught up to Stumpknocker on Monday.   Only 8 days later but I did it.   We finally got to start camping out again. Yeah right.   We had everything ready to go and then I had to say it. "you sure you don't want to just slack crossing paths."   It took a moment then I got a OK.   Yes!   another few days of slacking.   And we get to not camp out in the pouring rain that night. Cool! This is a great day to end the month of November. I can't believe it is almost 10 months on this trail. It has been great!