Sunday April 28, 2013

As we left Tucumcari, N.M. this morning, we are so glad that we stopped last night when we did and slept a little while, because we are really enjoying the beautiful changing scenery today during the daylight hours.  Lots of flat scrubby looking land with majestic mesas rising up from the desert floor, gradually changing to larger hills and then to mountains the further west we go.  Very rugged and unforgiving landscape!  Not much out there for the occasional cows we are seeing to nibble on.  Homes are few and far between.  Did you know that a full 1/4 of the population of the entire state of New Mexico resides in Albuquerque?  There are thousands of acres of uninhabited land in this state!  The miles are really clicking by, since the speed limit is 75 m.p.h.!

It was funny to see miles and miles of huge billboards one after the other, close together, advertising Clines Corners or the Flying C Ranch.  Then when we get to the exit for each one, we see it is just one building, sort of anti-climactic after the buildup from all those many , many billboards!

Before we arrive in Flagstaff, we begin to see the snow covered peak of Humphrey's Peak, the tallest mountain in Arizona at 12,633 elev.

When we arrive at the entrance to the Flagstaff Airport, there are state troopers there who have the road temporarily blocked!  It seems there is a security risk because Vice-President Biden's plane (Airforce Two) has landed there.  After a few minutes, the barricade is removed and we are allowed to enter the road to the Airport Terminal where Don is patiently waiting for us to pick him up.  We are so glad he is able to fly in here to join us on our hike into the Grand Canyon tomorrow!  (Don did this same hike with three of my sisters in 2011)

It is a really pretty drive north out of Flagstaff on U.S. Hwy.180 north to Ariz.Hwy 64, to Tusayan, Ariz. where we have a reservation for two nights at the Best Western Grand Squire Inn.  This is such a nice hotel, and after we enjoyed a good mexican food dinner at a nearby restaurant, we are in bed early (6:30 p.m.) in preparation for an early start in the morning for our hike into the Grand Canyon!

This elk is peacefully grazing right next to the hotel next door to where we are staying!  Guess they are used to all the tourists! 

Saturday April, 27,2013

We are on the road by 3:30 p.m., the weather is sunny and warm.  We are amazed at all the new growth and development around Terrell and Forney!  The "big city" of Dallas is spreading eastward!  The views of downtown Dallas are a little hazy today.  Tom is driving the first leg of our journey to Grand Canyon(and beyond).

After encountering a lot of road construction in the area around the northeast corner of Ft. Worth, we are so happy to finally be heading northwest toward Amarillo along U.S.Hwy. 287.  The landscape changed quickly from rolling, wooded hills (thickly populated), to immense expanses of flat, very flat, farmland (thinly populated).  Many gigantic fields of lush green winter wheat!

Before we made it to Amarillo, we also noticed the strong aroma of cattle "feed lots"!  That really makes you want to head out and get a beefy hamburger!  Guess that's why we stopped in Amarillo, fueled the car, popped into a McDonald's for a couple of McDoubles!

Following that, we headed west on I-40.  There are a lot of billboards along the interstate highway!

Wait a minute----we left Edgewood hours ago!  But here is the exit for  Edgewood, New Mexico!!

By the time we arrived at Tucumcari, N.M. it was after midnight, and we were pretty beat!  We quickly found a Holiday Inn Express (after checking at two other hotels with no vacancy), and luckily they had a vacancy.  It was worth every penny of the $130 room charge just to lay down on a comfortable bed for a few hours!  The next morning, after enjoying breakfast supplied by the hotel, we were back on the road by 6:30 a.m., heading toward Flagstaff, Az. Airport to pick up my brother, Don, who is going with us to hike down into the Grand Canyon on Monday.

Road Trip!

BooBoo is so excited to be going on a road trip!  She is packed up and ready!

We are excited also!  We're just not packed up and ready yet, but we will be by tomorrow!

I am so glad to have my brother, Don, joining us for our hike into the Grand Canyon.  Don, Norma, Donna, and Ginny (my sisters) did this hike in 2011 while I was Thru-Hiking the A.T.  Ginny made a DVD of their adventure, and I have to tell you that watching their adventure on DVD made me want to go hike in the Grand Canyon all the more.

We are looking forward to seeing a couple, Thomas "Snake Hips" & Sue "Spud", who I met on the A.T.  They are now living in St.George, Utah and we plan to meet them at Zion National Park for a day hike.  Here they are on top of Stone Mtn., the 500 mile mark on our Appalachian Trail Thru-Hike:

 

 

I will be journaling each day while on this trip and will post those journals here for you to enjoy.

 

Remember how I told you that Norma and I are planning a 20-day Tour of Australia/New Zealand next year?  Well, we are going in March (not October) of 2014.  And, now we are four!  Besides Norma and I, our sister Donna, and my friend Jeanne are also going with us!  It will be so much fun and adventure!  Anyone interested in this once in a lifetime adventure go to www.holidayvacations.net  and click on the Australia/New Zealand icon to view the itinerary for this Tour. 

 

More to come later------------------- 

BROKEN DREAMS

Since my last blog post, my brother-in-law, Tim "Maine Man", has joined many others who have "gotten off the Trail".  Meaning, their A.T. Thru-Hike is over, they have gone home.  Tim, along with all the others, has his own personal reasons for aborting his thru-hike after only six days.  Each year as approximately 2,000 hopeful hikers anxiously begin at Springer Mountain in Georgia, with aspirations of walking all of the more than 2,100 miles of mountainous terrain to the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, Mount Katahdin in Maine, only approximately 500 or so hikers succeed in this journey of epic proportions.  Most all who complete the entire A.T. will agree that the most difficult part of the whole journey is mental, not physical.  It is not easy to prepare oneself for the mental toughness to overcome the daily grind of getting up, packing up, and walking day after day across difficult terrain in all kinds of weather.  I wonder how I kept going, even when things were tougher than I ever could have imagined, and pushed thru to the end.  I am certainly not any stronger mentally or physically than anyone else who attempts a thru-hike.  I do think all my planning for almost two years, talking incessantly to all my friends, family, coworkers, or anyone else who would listen, may have encouraged me to keep going.  What would all those folks I had been telling about my plans feel about me if I quit?  How would I feel about myself, after being so obcessed with the idea of Thru-Hiking the A.T for two years, if I quit??  I am very lucky that in 2011 we did not have the heavy snowfalls that the 2013 hikers are facing this year, or I may have been tempted to "throw in the towel" also, because as anyone who knows me, knows I do not like cold weather or snow!

Since I don't have Maine Man out there on the Trail to cheer on and support, I am now sending encouragement and maildrops to a young gal from Maine, Jesse, who hiked with Maine Man a few days, and also Kathy Saunders, from Ohio, who I have been communicating with via email since my own Thru-Hike.  While on my hike, I met Socks, Kathy's daughter, who also thru-hiked in 2011.

Two years ago today, Pigeon and I awoke (in the over-crowded Derrick Knob Shelter in the Smokies) to an overnight snowfall,  which of course made my friend Pigeon very happy!  Since she spends her summers in Alaska, as a guide in Denali National Park, she loves snow!  Since I grew up in Texas, I do NOT like snow! 



A very happy Pigeon! (2 yrs. ago today)

We are experiencing a nice wet Spring here in Texas!  The ground is still too wet for Tom to till up our garden spot and plant anything yet.  We have began some plum tomato seeds inside, in peat pots.  The next few days are suppose to be sunny and warmer, so maybe soon we will be gardening. 

My project last Spring was to paint our house, which I did; this Spring my project is to clear the old fence row in back of our house, creating a nice mowable ground between our house and the large hay meadow out back.

Well, I talked to the folks at Holiday Vacations this morning, and discovered that the Australia/New Zealand Tour that my sister Norma and I are planning for 2014 is not in October, like we had thought, but in March 2014 instead!  Wow, I am glad I have already begun to save my money!  I read thru the 20-day itinerary for this trip, and I'm already excited about all the many fascinating excursions and places we will experience on this Tour.  If you are even remotely interested in joining us, for more information go to http://holidayvacations.net

Norma and I booked thru Holiday Vacations last year when we went to Ireland, and were very pleased with their services.  We didn't have to worry about anything, because Holiday Vacations planned all the airfares, hotels, excursions, most meals, experienced professional guides, baggage handling, tips, etc.  It was great!  The price of the Tour covers all that!  I am really looking forward to a 20-day Tour of Australia/New Zealand in 2014!  I wish Tom woud go, however he doesn't want to, so I am thankful Norma is adventuresome and wants to go again with me.

Living Vicariously!

It is hard to believe it has been two years since I began my hike on the Appalachian Trail!  Last Wednesday, the two year anniversary of my Thru-Hike beginning, Tom's brother, Tim "Maine Man" Humphries, began his own Thru-Hike.  So now I am living vicariously through him hiking the A.T., the same as he did when I hiked.  There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about the Trail.  It was truly the adventure of a lifetime!  I am not now, nor ever was a backpacker.  That is why today, as I hear that Tim is having a rough day on the Trail, because the weather is horrendous in the mountains of north Georgia today, I can not believe I persevered through many days just like he is having today and actually completed all 2,181 miles!  It is still hard to wrap my mind around that!  Did I really walk 2,181 miles?  I am still truly amazed that I did that!  Crazy, huh?

I am once again reading my daily journal each day from my hike, to recall where I was and how I felt on this day, two years ago.  Here are a few photos from the first few days of my 2011 Hike.

                                          Tom "Pyro" & Erma "Flame" on Day 1

                                                Pigeon & Flame on Day 4

                                Ali "Lil' Pook" giving BooBoo to Flame on Day 5

Sunrise on Day 7

 

Flame, Pyro, & Pigeon on Day 7

 

What a life changing experience!

 

If you would like to follow along with my brother-in-law, Tim "Maine Man", on his Thru-Hike, you can to www.trailjournals.com and search for him.

 

Tom and I will be cheering him along by signing his guestbook on Trail Journals, writing him letters, sending him good stuff to eat, and plan to go out there to see him somewhere along his way.

A.T. Hiker Friends

My A.T. hiker friends, Greenstone and Thimbleberry, who live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, were passing thru Texas, while traveling from Arizona to Alabama, and stopped by our house for a short visit.  I'm glad they carry their "home on wheels" with them, since we are limited on sleeping space in our little humble abode. 

We always enjoy their visit with us! 

In the afternoon following their arrival, I took them on a lovely drive in East Texas and through Mrs. Lee's Daffodil Gardens.  Back in the 1950's, Mrs. Lee ordered a boxcar full of daffodil bulbs from Holland, and along with a host of volunteers planted them all across the beautiful rolling hills of her farm's acreage.  It is a beautiful sight when they bloom during late February and early March.

My sister, Norma, had been wanting to meet Greenstone and Thimbleberry, so she and her daughter, Carla, and grandkids, Devin & Holly Beth, came over for dinner that night. We all enjoyed frito pies and chili dogs made with Tom's delicious homemade chili.  After dinner, we watched a DVD, "2,000 Miles to Maine", which told the interesting stories of several hikers in their quest to walk over the miles of mountains between Springer Mtn. in Georgia to Mt. Katahdin in Maine.

The following day, we went to the Salt Palace Museum in Grand Saline.  Morton Salt has mined salt just south of Grand Saline for many years, and the gigantic salt dome that is there, lying 750 feet below the earth's surface is large enough to supply the world's salt needs for 20,000 more years!  It was fascinating to see how salt is mined, and to see the myriad of uses of salt in our everyday lives.

We drove thru the countryside northward, over several peninsulas of Lake Fork, on our way to the Dairy Museum in Sulphur Springs.  G. & T. had experienced a bit of dairy farm life while growing up in Michigan. Following a tour of the museum, and seeing a video about the history of how milk has been produced and sold in America over the years, Greenstone treated us to lunch (and ice cream), right there in the Museum's lunch counter!  Thanks Greenstone and Thimbleberry!

The next day was Tom's day off, so we each got our dayhiking gear together and headed out early to drive over to Lake Mineral Wells State Park.  There we met up with Jerryatric (from Ft. Worth), another of my hiker friends.  Lake Mineral Wells State Park has many hiking trails and some challenging terrain, rocky and steep in places, with some great views of the lake.

It was a very cool morning, however gorgeous blue skies and plentiful sunshine made for a great day to be outdoors with great friends!  We stopped midways thru our walk, at a nice sunny spot, where we enjoyed a snack.

BooBoo had a wonderful time, and said the only thing missing was her friend TooToo!  (Thimbleberry is almost totally hidden behind that tree!)

                 Pyro, Greenstone, Jerryatric, & Thimbleberry.
Their visit was all too short, having to leave early the next morning, to arrive at their next NOMADS committment near Andalusia, Alabama. Tom and I are hoping to take a trip up to Michigan next year to see them in their beautiful Upper Peninsula!

Yippee! Spring is Coming!

Well, it has been awhile since I have posted anything here.  We have been staying busy with work, friends, family, and our daily routines.  However, Spring is coming, and I do love Springtime in Texas! 

                                               Our forsythia bush in bloom!

                                                 Our flowering quince bush!

When these two bushes begin blooming, I know Spring can't be too far behind!

Tom has been going to the gym and woking out on a regular basis, and he is also getting an upper body workout in our backyard, while splitting some big logs from a dead tree on their place, that our friends Jim and Patsy gave to us.

"Greenstone" and "Thimbleberry" are coming!!
G. & T. are my hiker friends from the upper peninsula of Michigan. that I met on the Appalachian Trail.  They are a part of what I call my "Hiker Family", which also includes "Pigeon", and "Skid".  The five of us hiked together (off and on) for the first seven or eight hundred miles of the A.T.

Anyway, G. & T. will here tomorrow!  I am so excited to see them again!  They are travelling from Arizona to Alabama, with a stop here with us for a few days in the middle.  They are involved with the NOMADS, a volunteer group affiliated with the Methodist Church, who travel across the U.S. and do three-week projects at churches who need their help with all sorts of remodel/construction projects.

They came by for a short visit last March also, on their way to Louisiana.  The last time we saw them was in April 2012, when we were vacationing in Virginia, and met up with them at a road crossing on the Blue Ridge Parkway, as they were hiking another section of their Appalachian Trail Section Hike.

                                               Greenstone, Thimbleberry, and me last April.

The last hiker who came thru here for a visit was "Smiley", from Hattiesburg, Miss.  That was back in the Fall, and the morning he was getting ready to leave, as we walked out the door, here comes a bunch of wagons down our road!  Of course, "Smiley" assumed this was an everyday occurrence, after all this is Texas! 

As you can see my horse "Tex" came running up to the fence to see all the action.  This was a group of "mule/wagon" owners who travel along the old Historic Dallas/Shreveport Road a couple of times a year, and we happen to live on that Historic Road.

My Mom has just about recuperated from her bout with double pnuemonia, and her eight day hospital stay.  However, she thinks she has been weakened overall by her illness.  She doesn't have much energy, she says.  Well, Mom, you are doing pretty well for a gal that will soon be 87 years old, I would say!  Mom and my sister, Norma, meet monthly with an R.V. group for food, fun, and fellowship.  I met them the other day at their monthly campout, and enjoyed the games and food with them.

 That's my Mom in the middle, looking at an album of pictures from previous campouts that their friend there keeps updated.  That's my sister, Norma (in the red top) looking on.

Norma and I enjoyed our 10 day tour of Ireland so much last September, we are currently "saving our pennies", hoping to go on a 20-day tour of Australia and New Zealand in October 2014.  Anyone interested in going with us??????