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??????