Date: 2014-05-24
From: Campsite

To: Carlisle, PA
Miles today: 5.8
Weather: broken clouds

Today's the day. Man I love mentally when you get to get off trail. It's always a whistle while you work sort of thing.Slept like a ROCK after not having much the night before and hiking all those miles. Only have about 6 miles into Boiling Springs - a major stop along the trail. This is, I think, where hikers get the full sense of being in the North and starting the second half. Kind of like a fresh start. You also for the first real time hike out of the mountains. They have been slowly petering out for miles and really down to the last big ridge. After about four or five miles you step out of the forest and into these beautiful big open fields. What a change. A wonderful warm morning at that. It was time to finally listen to America/Simon and Garfunkel. Gets me every time. So pensive and thoughtful. I just drifted through. In no time I was hiking into Boiling Springs by a nice pond with lots of people out for the day and to the Pennsylvania ATC. And there's Mariposa! Nice that we can still catch up to each other. Also saw Violet and West and Gentle Spirit and met a few new hikers. Sad to see that they were about to head out but HAPPY that it was time to see some friends. Megan and Steve are friends from my old office who met and married years ago and have moved back here to Steve's family home in Carlisle. I have had it in my head that I don't want to get picked up - I want to hike all the way to their house. From Georgia to their house! Google says it's 5.5 miles - nothing. So I put up my poles and started hiking. Hiking on the road well, it's just no fun. Cars whizzing by, the asphalt is not as forgiving as the ground, weird noises and smells, and looks - and 5.5 is a LOT further on a road then in the woods! I didn't enjoy it. But I was on a mission..which changed when I was about 1 mile away and saw a McDonalds. I'm not a snob. Before I came out here I was a frequent fast food eater. Part of the goal of hiking is to get a lot healthier and I had mentally banned any fast food from my diet but when I saw those golden arches I made a BEELINE to it. Right at 12:30 too. That place was PACKED and felt so out of place with my big pack and crazy hair and I'm sure smelly pits but I really did not care. Give me that quarter pounder dang it! I got a DOUBLE quarter pounder meal, fries, and a Diet Dr Pepper (of course..diet, watching my calories). And then went back for a large strawberry milkshake. I earned every calorie. Satisfaction.So headed to Megan and Steve's. Carlisle is a very typical American city in some areas (which I was in). Typical big box stores and fast food, nothing special, but as I started walking to their house - WAY COOL. I should have taken some pics. It's like being in colonial Philadelphia. Beautiful old homes, some row homes, very historic. Coming from a city started in the late 1800's you forget how much history the country has and how much I'm going to see now that I'm in the northeast. I'm loving it. Hiked on through Mayberry to their house. Leafy lanes, beautiful big old homes, picture perfect. I even walked by without realizing it (they have a weird numbering system on the street) and Megan had to rap on the window to get my attention. SO SO happy! These two are just the world's best personalities. All funny and smart and bubbly and smiley. I'm going to love it. I was immediately offered a cold cider (then mojito, then another, then wine, then another cider - ). We caught up all evening and I really just couldn't be happier. And the weather here is gorgeous. Warm, sunny, what you imagine Memorial Day weekend to be. They have four kids and I got Andrew's room. Slept like a ROCK. Nice to be somewhere that doesn't require air conditioning. At home, fall is almost like Spring. You finally get a chance to open up the house again and let things air out. Here, I think that happens all summer.