Date: 2016-07-12
From: Caledonia State Park

To: Pine Grove Furnace State Park
Miles today: 19.4

Tuesday July 12th, 2016Caledonia SP (1082.3)Pine Grove Furnace SP (1101.7)19.4 Miles ¢-> Total AT Miles: 926.7Whew wheee!!! What a day! This morning we woke up and hiked our butts off to make it to the Pine Grove general store in time to eat half-a-gallon of ice-cream. Firecracker put it best just a second ago, ¢I can¢t believe I hiked that hard just to hurt myself more.¢ She¢s still not feeling so well. I¢m not either, but not because of the ice-cream. Her farts are nauseating! I quite enjoyed myself. I even washed all that ice-cream down with a California Burger. Its special for having avocado.If eating all that ice-cream felt good, so did crossing the halfway point. Wahooo!!! Oh, we¢re halfway there. Oh oh! Living on a prayer. Take my hand we¢ll make it I swear. Funny thing is, it barely registered at the time. We were too focused on the ice-cream challenge. Now, sitting here in the tent, the milestone has sunk in. Over four months it has taken us to walk this far. We¢re over the hump. The rest of the trail is going to fly by and, before we know it, will all be over. Firecracker will be back in Georgia with her family and friends. Me? I¢m not so sure. I¢ll go home for a little while; at least long enough to get my bicycle and see my own family and friends. For the most part though, Pittsburgh isn¢t home anymore. The road is. My tent is. I didn¢t mean for this post to dig so deep. This is all just coming out as I type. I have a lot to figure out. And at the same time, nothing at all. Life is weird and simple if we don¢t complicate it too much.I can, and maybe should for my own sake, write an entire post on the pros and cons of the lifestyle I¢ve chosen. So many sacrifices for adventure and experience. I don¢t regret a minute of it though. Not now at least. I¢ve been calling this the five year plan for three years now. Still calling it the five year plan too!Anyway, I met some really awesome people today. At the first shelter past Caledonia SP, Querry Gap Shelters, sitting at the table was Huckleberry and¢¦ damn! I forgot her name. Huckleberry was punching away at the keys of a computer. I¢m not the only one! He¢s filming a documentary on the trail. What¢s the focus? He¢s not sure yet. Just filming what interests him. We leapfrogged each other for a while before hiking together and talking. It was a pleasure meeting him and I hope to hike with him more. A bunch of people that we¢ve been bumping into the last couple weeks were at the general store as well. Night watch and Snow White; Cruzer and Texas Hippie (who I¢ve never actually talked to). I¢m not sure where Thumper was. I hope he¢s alright. I know he was having some issues with shin splints. I met Jefe for the first time here as well. He was not doing so well having eaten a gallon of ice-cream. That¢s right. A half-gallon wasn¢t challenging enough (it really isn¢t :-) so he went big. Oh to be young and fool hardy! Haha. Some things just aren¢t worth the pain. Then again, many people would say that about the AT or riding a bicycle across a continent. Bet none of you would though!Time for bed though. We have another early morning. No idea where we are headed only that a lake calls our name. It¢s time for a real swim!!!P.S. Learned to double space returns in my writing program. Sorry about earlier formatting troubles.