Goodbye Ireland, Hello Caribbean!!

It felt so good to be back home after being gone for ten days to Ireland.  There really is "No Place Like Texas"!  I know, I'm biased.  I always look forward to going places I've not been before, seeing new things, meeting new people;  this just makes coming home so much sweeter!  After being gone for almost seven months last year while thru-hiking the A.T., I have come to appreciate home even more!  There is nothing quite like the feeling I have when I wake up and look out our back windows  across the hay meadow, and see a gorgeous sunrise like this, here at home.

However, I sure wish I did not have the allergy issues I'm plagued with!  Before I went to Ireland, I felt like I was getting a sinus infection, although the change in climate across the Atlantic banished it.  As soon as I got home, the high pollen count got to me immediately.  Oh well, it could be so much worse, so I'll count my many blessings and shut up about it!

Once again, my bags are packed!  Tom & I are so excited to be going on a 7-day Caribbean Cruise.  We plan to drive to Baton Rouge, La. as soon as he can sneak out from work today, then board the ship in New Orleans in the morning.  The best part about this vacation is that Tom's brother, Tim and his wife Kathy will be driving from Georgia to meet us in Baton Rouge today and go on this cruise with us!  Such fun to have them along on our vacation!  The four of us cruised together back in 2004, and had such a great time, so we are really looking forward to seeing them again and embarking on yet another adventure together!

The day we get home from our cruise, one of my hiker friends, "Smiley", will be passing thru Edgewood on his way back home to Mississippi, and is planning to stop in to see us!  I haven't seen him since somewhere in Maine last year, since he finished his hike before I did.  He is an R.N. and has been working at a pediatric clinic in Arizona.  Can't wait to see him and reminisce and see what he's been doing since his hike.  I'll bet he looks a little different from when I last saw him!  His Mom FedExed him a full, home cooked meal to Mountain Meadows Lodge in Vermont last year.  By the time I got there, all that was left was some delicious pound cake and some cookies, which he generously shared with me.  The other hikers there had helped him polish off all the rest of his Mom's home-cooked goodness!

I would love to meet his Mom!  She is a good cook!  Yummee pound cake!

That's "Smiley", third from the left, in the turquoise shorts!  We were a scruffy bunch, seasoned hikers!

I don't feel like I am much different, however the hikers I've connected with in the year since I finished my hike definitely look different than they did on the Trail!  Maybe their perception of me is that I look different also? 

While we are on the cruise, I will surely remember where I was one year ago!  This coming Thursday, October 4th is the one year anniversary of the final day of my hike!

My dear sweet friend, "Pigeon" and me on top of the final mountain on the A.T.!  What great memories I will carry with me for a lifetime!

Don't forget that life is an ongoing adventure!