SISTERLY AFFECTION

I have four sisters, and three of them live within an hours drive from me, and for that I am very grateful.  We regularly meet at my Mom's house for "Sunday lunch/games Day".  However, my fourth sister, Donna, lives in Cody, Wy. and we don't get to see her very often!  So, I thoroughly enjoyed her visit to Texas last week.

Tom & I went to Mom's last Sunday for lunch/visit and that evening we drove Donna to a hotel near DFW, where she planned to stay before her early morning flight back home to Wyoming on Monday morning.  How lucky I am to have such a wonderful loving family!  

                                                      Donna & Me

Spring has Sprung!!  The grass is green (and growing) and needing mowing regularly, wildflowers are in full bloom!  The bluebonnets, crimson clover, indian paint brush, and so many others are just beautiful everywhere, and especially along the roads as we drive!  I must get some photos soon!

Is it snow??   No, that's where I brushed my horse, Tex, before saddling him yesterday morning before my Thursday Saddlebags Ride!

Tom is preparing the soil for our garden!  I love smelling the freshly turned dirt! 

Our neighbor has leased the twenty acres behind our house and is preparing to sprig it with coastal bermuda hay, great for his cattle!

We are having a carport/storage/shop area added onto the west side of our little house next week!  We are excited!  Since turning our "backroom" into a nice little dining area, we had no place to put Tom's workbench, and all the other things we had in that backroom!

So, I can see a lot of painting in my future!  I've already painted that dining area and our kitchen and part of our front room.  Now, I just need to finish the front room, then paint our bedroom.  Then comes the exterior of the house.  Our little house has been green for many years, but we have decided to go with a much lighter color.  Sort of a cream color with a burgundy trim!

Spring is a busy time of year for us!  Last Spring, I missed out on all the "fun" here by being out on the Appalachian Trail hiking to Maine!  I felt guilty a lot of the time while I was hiking, because "Pyro" was here doing all this Spring work here at home alone and I was just getting up each day and walking in the woods!  I am very happy to home and I'm relishing all the joys of Springtime in Texas!

Siblings and Friends

We awoke this morning to find it had rained about 3 inches during the night!  Yippee!  This is much-needed rain to finish filling all the large rivers, lakes, and reservoirs which provide most Texans with their drinking water. A little while ago,  I walked down to the creek that runs just below our home to see if the water had come up over the bridge yet, and take some photos.  The creek is flowing very fast is flooded over it's banks.  The water is also over the road just past the bridge;  I won't be going in that direction today!  And it is still raining! 

Last Friday, Tom and I enjoyed reconnecting with some of our A.T. hiker friends!  Country Mouse & Shadow, Jerryatric & Jane, and Tom & I all met up for dinner in Mesquite.  Country Mouse & Shadow, who are from  Nashville, Tennessee, purchased a motor home after their completion of the A.T., and are traveling through America!  Jerryatric & Jane live near Ft.Worth, and he is a retired college professor.  It was great fun to see each other again and reminisce about our adventures on the A.T.

Over the weekend I took a "trip down memory lane"!  My Mom, along with all four of my sisters and my older brother, drove about six hours to Louise, Tx., where we lived during the late 50's and early 60's to reconnect with a family that we are still friends with!  What great fellowship we had with them!  Donna, my sister who lives in Cody, Wy. flew to Texas last Friday for a visit, and since she was born in ElCampo (just down the road from Louise), it was the perfect time to make this trip to visit with our long-time friends.  They fed us and made us feel so welcome!  What a great time we had!  It's hard to believe 50 years have past since we lived there!

My friend, Carolyn and me.

The Townsend "children" , all grown up!

My Mom w/me & my siblings w/ the Townsend siblings

I really enjoyed my weekend with family and friends.  I feel so lucky and truly blessed to have such a wonderful family and friends! 

Tom is wondering when he will be able to get the garden planted!  He has tilled the ground a few times already, however it is still too wet to even attempt to plant anything!  Today is the first day of Spring!  I love Springtime, when everything starts to turn green, and flowers are popping out all around.  Now, it reminds me of all the beautiful flowers that I stopped to take photos of along the A.T. as I was hiking last year.

From Florida to Georgia!

The Inn on Cabbage Key is famous for the many thousands of dollar bills that in the beginning  fisherman, and nowadays tourists have signed and taped up on every available square inch of walls and ceilings in the dining room!  There are layered so thickly now, that many of them fall to the floor each year and the owner of the Inn gathers several thousand dollar bills off the floor each year and donates them to a charity.

After spending time on Cabbage Key, enjoying lunch and a nature walk there, our Tour Boat took us the long way back to Captiva Island, docking momentarily on Useppa Island to pick up tourists who had opted for the Useppa Island excursion instead of the Cabbage Key excursion.  We were blessed with glorious sunshine and mild temperatures throughout our time in Florida!

By late afternoon on Wednesday, we decided to head north to Big Canoe, Georgia to spend a couple of days visiting with Tim & Kathy Humphries, Tom's brother and his wife.  We drove as far as Alachua, Fl. that evening, which is just north of Gainesville.  (I am so disappointed that I totally forgot that Double Check, a hiker friend, lives in Gainesville, and I missed the opportunity to maybe spend time with him and his wife!)  I have now compiled a list of all the hikers that I spent any time with on the A.T. and where they live!

On Thursday morning, we headed north again, and arrived in Marietta, Ga. in time to have lunch with Tim at the very popular Marietta Diner.  It was so good to see him again!  We last saw him on the day we climbed Mt.Katahdin in Maine on the final day of my hike.  Following lunch, we headed on up into the mountains to Big Canoe where Tim & Kathy live in a beautiful home that sits literally on the side of a mountain!  I love going to visit them there, however I don't think I could ever be comfortable living in the mountains!  I'm such a Texas gal at heart and love the flatter terrain of home!

Tim & Kathy always make us feel so at home and comfortable in their home!  That's why we love going to see them!  We actually are planning another trip out there in May.  Tom & Tim want to climb Catawba Mtn. and up to McAfee Knob, the most photographed place on the entire A.T.!  I would also like to provide some Trail Majic to Thru-Hikers while we are out there in Virginia.

On Saturday, Tim, Tom, & I enjoyed a short hike along Blackwell Creek, which is near their home.

   

On Saturday evening we were invited for dinner at Jeff and Elizabeth's home, and visit with them and their two pretty daughters, Emma and Grace.  They are such smart girls and very entertaining to us "older" folks!  It's always a joy to see them!  (Jeff is Tim & Kathy's son.)

We woke up early on Sunday morning for the long drive back to Texas.  Tom and I take turns driving and usually stop every 1 or 2 hours to get out and stretch, walk around, and refresh ourselves a bit.  We were back to our "home sweet home" by early evening. (about a 12-14 hr. drive)  The end of another great "road trip" vacation with my Sweetie!

Love My Thursdays!

I just got back home from my "Thursday Saddlebag Ride"!  What great Spring weather we had today!  I have been involved with this group of women since 1985 and truly cherish the friends I have made over the years as we ride our horses together each week on Thursday.

On this day last year, I was struggling up and down the mountains of north Georgia!  As the one-year anniversary rolls around this year, I am finding it a little difficult to focus on the here and now, because my mind is so filled with the memories of each day on the Trail!  When I began my journey on the A.T. last year, I had no idea how profoundly that "walk in the woods" would affect my life after I returned home.  It was such an intense experience over days, weeks, and then months, that I am only now beginning to comprehend the magnitude of  walking 2,181 miles!  Thru-Hiking th A.T. is very different for each person!  My age, and hiking and camping alone so much of the time, certainly affected me and my hike!

At the end of January, Tom and I went on a "road trip" that took us to Sanibel Island, Florida!  We left home on Saturday, Jan.28, and drove to Alexandria, La.  The next morning, we headed south and skirted around the north side of New Orleans, on I-12 and upon arriving in Mississippi, we took U.S.Hwy. 90 and followed it along the Gulf Coast all the way to Alabama.  We then went south through Bayou La Batre, Al. and over the causeway to Dauphin Island.  From Dauphin Island, we took a small ferry (for a fee) over the mouth of Mobile Bay to Fort Morgan, Al.  I had no idea there were so many oil rigs in Mobile Bay!  It was 4:30pm by the time we arrived at Fort Morgan, so too late to do a tour of that, so we continued east along the Gulf Coast to Pensacola, Fl. Then on to Tallahasse, Fl., where we spent the night.  I love the Gulf Coast!  

On Monday morning, as we left Tallahassee, we decided we did not want to drive on the Interstate Hwy., so we took U.S.Hwy. 19 south to Tampa, Fl.  We passed thru many small towns along the way, but hardly any traffic, very relaxng drive.  From Tampa, Fl., we zipped along down I-75 to Fort Meyers.  There, we cut off to the west and went across the "big bridge" to Estero Island where Fort Meyers Beach is located.  With no reservations, being our spontaneous selves, we cruised along the main drag, and found a great room in a Holiday Inn, right on the beach!  With "high-rises" all around, this Holiday Inn was right out of the '60s or '70s, only two stories high!  Our ground floor room faced the beautiful white-sand beaches of the Gulf of Mexico! 

On Tuesday morning, we drove over the "big bridge" to Sanibel Island, and rented bicycles and rode around the Island and through the "Ding"Darling Nature Preserve, about 16 miles.  Toward the end of our bike ride, we went by Doc Ford's Bar & Grill, and stopped to have a light lunch to "replenish our strength".  We bicycled abround 16 miles!

On Wednesday, we drove back over to Sanibel Island and on to Captiva Island, where we planned a Day Cruise to Cabbage Key.  While waiting for the boat to leave, we walked along the beach and picked up sea shells.  There were tons of shells washed up on that beach!  While we were picking up sea shells, we observed several ospreys searching for their breakfast in the beautiful clear Gulf waters.  Suddenly, one osprey swooped down to the water and came up with a fish in his beak that must have been a foot long!  Up in the tree he went to enjoy his feast!  

  We really enjoyed the Day Cruise to Cabbage Key, a very small Island, accessible only by boat.  We had lunch at the Inn there and went for a walk on their Nature Trail, where we saw several large turtles.  There were a lot of boats at the Cabage Key Dock.  After we reboarded our boat for our return trip to Captiva Island, as we waited for everyone to get back on board, we saw a sea lion come up out of the water onto a small fishing boat that was docked, it grabbed a lg. blue-tinted ziploc baggie out of the back of that boat and slipped right back into the water with it so fast I did not have the time to grab my camera for picture!  Hope those fisherman's valuables weren't in that baggie!  (The sea lion got into the boat on the left)

More on our Florida vacation in my next post............

I took BooBoo to Florida with me!!!!

   

Life After the A.T.

Next Tuesday, March 13th, will be one year since I set out from Springer Mtn., Georgia on my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.  What an adventure that was!  206 days and 2,181 miles later, I reached Mt. Katahdin in Maine.  Since returning home, I have went back to work on a very part-time basis.  Mostly, I have just enjoyed being back home with my wonderful husband, Tom "Pyro".

I met a lot of great people while hiking the Trail, such as Thimbleberry & Greenstone, a couple who live in the upper peninsula of Michigan, who have been here visiting us this week.  What great fun we have had reminiscing about our hikes on the A.T.!  While they were here, we went to Dinosaur Valley State Park, in Glen Rose, Tx. where Jerryatric (another hiker I met on the AT) met us for a day hike.  We barely got in a couple hours of hiking in between the rain storms.  But, we are not complaining about the rain, after the severe drought Texas experienced last year!

I have not done hardly any walking since I've returned home from my Hike, and I've gained back the 20 pounds that I lost on the AT!!  Not Good!  However, after seeing G & T this week, and talking a lot about hiking the AT, I have got my motivation back!  I think I have anyway!  After G & T left this morning, I went out and walked 4.2 miles (on the little county roads near our house).  Going forward,  I plan to make walking some each day a regular routine.

Tom and I went on a "road trip" to Sanibel Island, Forida at the end of January.  I will write about that adventure in my next post on this "new" blog.  I am new to blogging and very new to writing.  I journaled at the end of each day while I was hiking the AT, and it was very therapeutic for me.  So I want to continue the habit of recording my thoughts and our adventures.

I feel so very blessed to have Tom "Pyro" in my life, and a wonderful family, an awesome group of friends ,and now even more great friends that I met on the AT!  God is so good to me!          

Flame, Thimbleberry, Greeenstone, Jerryatric