But that wasn't any kind of surprise. The serious surprise (we all only found out about it on Tuesday) is that David and Anja came to hike with me for half a day. It was sort of a surprise even to them, although they'd been trying to figure out how to pull it off for several weeks.
First of all, you need to know that David is much taller than we are. He was standing a step down!
Second, you need to know that David is Marie's son, and Anja is David's daughter.
Here's how they pulled this off. Dave drove from Philadelphia to Boston yesterday to pick Anja up from college. Her semester just ended. They packed her stuff in the car and then drove to where I am located in western New York. They got here about 9pm last night. They hiked with me for a half day this morning, and then had to drive right back to Philadelphia.
Third, as you can probably surmise, David is a little crazy! But he's my kind of crazy, and they really wanted to be a part of this adventure.
It was pure coincidence that they were here for my 2000-mile day. We stopped at the Shindagin Lean-to, where I reached that milestone, and celebrated with slices of cold pizza and chocolate candies.
I am SO pleased that they wanted to do this and went to all this effort to join me for a few hours. David was in on several early North Country Trail hikes. Our (Marie and I and whoever else joined us) first long hike on the NCT was in the Allegheny National Forest in 1994. He was just out of high school. Puppy Chips was on that hike too.
And Anja has also been a part of my adventures. David and the girls made the effort to come from Philadelphia to my final hike in Petoskey, Michigan, that completed my first end-to-end of the NCT in 2010. David is walking toward us, Anja has on the green top, and her sister Mia has the purple top. Mia is still in high school, so she wasn't able to come on this adventure.
David is like my extra kid, and even though I only get to see Anja and Mia about once a year, they claim to really like having me come. So these people are really my extended family. Very special day!
And how do I feel about 2000 miles? They did me in! Just kidding. I'm still going strong.
Miles today: 14.6. Total miles so far: 2013.8.
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5 comments:
Congratulations on this milestone...so glad that you got to share it w/some special people! What an accomplishment!
Wow, 2000 miles. That's a lot of walking.
What a nice surprise to have David and Anja come to be a part of the experience.
So a journey of 2000 plus miles starts with a single step. How great that you've had such wonderful company along the way. Then there's the invisible cloud of followers online. You are greatly blessed.
Kathie and Ann- thank you!
Chuck! I was hoping you were doing well- I haven't heard much from you in a while except for a fake friend request.
Good story about David and family. Funny 2000 picture of you
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