GARDENING & PAINTING

Tom is gardening and Erma is painting!   Since we returned home from our trip to the East Coast, our time has been consumed with picking vegetables from the garden,  processing some to be put in the freezer , sharing a lot of veggies with friends and family, and continueing the project of painting our house.

This is how our garden looked when we got home from vacation on May 13.

Here is some of our first picks from the garden!  Love those frech picked veggies!

At the end of May, we traveled south to the Houston area.  We stopped by to see Patti H., Tom's neice who graduated from high school, and plans to attend U.T. in Austin in the fall.

Patti & her Uncle Tom!

Then we attended Donald and Becca's wedding. (Donald is my son, Darrell's, oldest son.) He and Becca had a beautiful outdoor wedding on May 27th, their sixth anniversary of their first date!  So sweet!  I enjoyed being with my son and his family for this special day in Donald & Becca's life!

The "Happy Couple"!

It is Summer in Texas!  It actually hasn't been that hot yet, however today it may reach 100 degrees, and we haven't had any rain here at our house in a couple of weeks now.  Unbelieveable to us is the fact that Tom has not yet watered the garden this year.  We were blessed with regular rain showers until now.  This is a first for Tom, because he can't ever remember a year that he did not have to water the garden!  We have really been blessed this Spring!

There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about my Thru-Hike on the Appalachian Trail last year.  I began on March 13th last year, so this year on March 13th, I began to read each day from my handwritten journal from the Trail, to remember and relive each day whatever I was doing on that day last year.  I am amazed how much I recall (that I did not record) each day as I read my journal. I was so tired at the end of each hiking day, after walking up and down mountains carrying "everything I needed to survive" on my back, that usually I was barely able to hold my eyes open long enough to write as much as I did in my journal.  But now as I read each day's journal account of that day, I think about all the things I left out.

Today,(a year ago), was the sixth day of Tom's visit with me on the Trail!  Together we hiked 4.6 miles, and made it to PenMar Park (before lunch), which is on the border of Pennsylvania/Maryland. Tom toughed it out over some very difficult, boulder-strewn trails for 23 miles in Maryland with me during some very hot days!

                                             Tom "Pyro" navigating the rocky trails in Md.

Tom's visit really lifted my spirits and made me even more determined to finish so I could go home!  I missed him so much while I was on my Hike!

I'm happy to be home this year with my Sweetie!

CALABASH SEAFOOD

On Wednesday night, before we left Ocean Isle Beach, "Skid", Pat, Tom and I went to the quaint town of Calabash for some of that world famous Calabash-style seafood.  We were not disappointed!  The shrimp, flounder, and everything else was scrumptious!  While we were having dinner, overlooking the fishing boats moored in the channel, it came a big thunderstorm and downpour of rain, however the skies cleared by morning, and it was a beautiful, spectacular day for our drive across the top of South Carolina and into Georgia.

We had one more stop to make on this long road trip.  We headed up into the mountains of north Georgia, to visit with Tim and Kathy H. at their beautiful home in Big Canoe, Ga.  Tom's brother and sister-in-law always make us feel so welcome in their home, which sits on the side of a very steep mountain!  What a workout it is just to walk up or down their street!  Steep!  Very steep!

I took this photo while standing inside their home, looking out the front door.  See how steep the street is!  Crazy!

Tim, my brother-in-law, is currently planning his own thru-hike of the A.T. in 2013!  He plans to retire at the end of this year, and will celebrate being 66 yrs. old next year by thru-hiking the A.T.  I will be rooting for him and cheering him and supporting him in any way I can, because I know first-hand how much that means when you are plodding along every day, up and down mountains, swatting bugs, getting rained on, getting blown around by strong winds, sleeping on the ground, sweating, being dirty, and on and on and on!  A kind word or goodies goes a long way to making it  all seem worthwhile.  I know I couldn't have made it all the way last year without all the support I had from my family and friends back home.

Tim & Kathy's neighbor, Paul, is planning to thru-hike with Tim!  Amazing!  We went to their home for dinner Thursday (May 10th) evening, right after we arrived at Tim's home.  Talked about the Trail and their plans!  Fun!  Paul and his wife Suzanne are such great people, and we always enjoy seeing them while we are in Georgia, visiting our family.

The next night, we went to see Tom's nephew, Jeff and and his family, in Cumming, Ga. and enjoyed dinner with them.   

Here, Tom is playing "microfone" with Grace, Jeff & Elizabeth's daughter!

An this is Emma!

We also saw a bear in Tim's neighborhood while we were out and about!  Also, there was the coolest spiderweb on the hill in front of Tim's house, I told him to leave it. (He probably got rid of it after I left!)  Tom and I also went for a "walk in the park" with Kathy on Friday while Tim was a work.

I'm so glad we don't live where the bears come right up to your house!!  I would be afraid to go outdoors, especially at night!

We got up early on Sunday morning and made the 12+hour drive home safely.  There is no place like home!

Hello Atlantic Ocean!

After our hike up McAfee Knob in the fog, we sat near our car at the trailhead parking area, waited a few minutes, and sure enough more northbound thru-hikers came along to enjoy some of our Trail Majic of cold drinks and chocolate!  Among them was Barbara "Mawmaw B" Allen, who Pigeon and I met last year at the Spence Field Shelter in the Smokey Mountains.  Wow!  What great timing!  Barbara has done a lot of backpacking in her lifetime, but she tells others that I was her inspiration to attempt a Thru-Hike of the Appalachian Trail!  I feel honored and really hope she sticks with it and makes it all the way to Mt. Katahdin in Maine!

On Tuesday morning, May 8th, we drove over to Wilson, N.Carolina, and stopped in for a brief visit with Brenda T., my sister-in-law, while she was at work.  My neice, Christy, stopped by to chat while we were there.  It was really nice to see them again, and I hope they can make a trip to Texas soon to visit all of us!

We then headed south to Ocean Isle Beach, N.C.  "Skid", who was part of my "Trail Family", and his wife Pat welcomed us into their beautiful island home.  What a tropical paradise!  I loved it!  While we were there, "Skid" took us on a bicycle tour of their island, and we walked along the beach, wetting my toes in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, all the way up to the north/east tip of their island.  Their darling little 4yr. old granddaughter, Sarah, walked with us on the beach.  The weather was spectacular while we were there, and "Skid" and Pat treated us with such awesome hospitality in their lovely home!

 We were pleased to meet their daughter, Andrea, and also their son Nate, while we there.  Nate was actually getting married in a beach wedding ceremony on Thursday, the day we left. 

On Thursday morning, May 10, we left the beautiful, tropical paradise of Ocean Isle Beach, and headed west, thru the lush farmlands of South Carolina, and on over to the mountains of northern Georgia.  More later about our "3,000 mile road trip"!