New addy… x2 July 11, 2006
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Hey, I’m at my new blog address now: http://kelseyhill.blogspot.com
But I’ll also soon be at my new snail mail address, so come visit sometime after next week:
1911 Eastlawn Dr, Apt E2
Midland, MI 48642
Changing locations! July 11, 2006
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Hey everyone, this is important if you want to continue reading my blog in the future. I just remembered that I lose all my umich space on the 17th or something, so I’m moving this blog to free hosting by blogger. Thus, the new address will be http:// [something cool here] .blogspot.com. I’ll try to get back to you (or at least update kelseyhill.net) with the new address.
What’s going on? What’s going down! July 7, 2006
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How long has it been since I last posted? Over a week? Sweet.
I’m tired. And I didn’t even do anything today. Seriously. Other than talk about mayo.
Amy’s home, by the way. She got back from China sometime while we were in DC… I think maybe Sunday, but don’t quote me on that. Since we only have 3 bedrooms (well, 4 counting the rents), I’ve been relegated to the computer room to sleep on the couch. Actually, I volunteered since I’ll be moving out more permanently in a few days. That seems crazy to say. I’ve realized, though, that other than the sleeping on a couch part, I’ve made a step up from my previous bedroom. I mean this room is easily twice the size of my other room (or at least close to that), plus it’s got a computer in it, and it’s downstairs near all the action. It’s also got a ceiling fan. I’m thinking I should have made the move years ago! 
DC was SWEET. Other than the chaperoning part. Which was quite a large part. Ok, rewind. Thursday we (me, my bro Josh, my “sister” Chalsie, and some other people) left for Washington, DC on a bus loaded with teenagers from the surrounding communities. We also joined up with 2 other buses, and we were on our way. I had some reservations before going when I heard that I have three middle school girls in my room along with Chalsie, but everyone seemed innocent enough on the bus ride, and other than feeling sleep deprived, things were going well.
And don’t get me wrong, the conference was really cool. There were some pretty cool speakers, although don’t ask me to name them. The only name I actually remember is Louie Giglio, and I don’t even know if that’s right. Oh yeah, these two guys named Ted and Lee were also there. They did short skits as two of Jesus’ disciples (Andrew and Peter, I think), and they were pretty funny. And talented. And the bands were SWEET. TobyMac concerted (let’s pretend that’s a verb) the opening night, and over the course of the conference we also got to hear/see Superchick, Hawk Nelson, Sanctus Real, Bethany Dillon, and Jeremy Camp. Guess who led worship while we were there? The David Crowder Band. (Or was it Jimmy Crockett?) Yeah, it was sweet.
We also did some sightseeing, which was nice. A little less rushed than the 2 hour parking meter tour of DC that Melissa, Bizzle, and I did two years ago, but a lot hotter! We got to take in some monuments, Arlington, the Museum of American History (or something like that), and the Holocaust Museum. Everything was cool. I took lots of pictures (what’s new?) of people re-enacting the monuments and of random graves at Arlington and the changing of the guard and some interesting relics at the American History museum. The Holocaust museum was very… [insert adjective here that refers to making you think a lot about things]. How could people just kill innocent human beings like that? I mean it’s one thing to kill other soldiers in war or something, but to herd innocent women and children and grandparents and young people with futures and fathers and sisters and tiny little babies into a room, pretending to be all about de-lousing showers, and then drop in canisters of pellets that release toxic gas? Or to use people for scientific experiments as though they were lab rats, just because of their heritage? I feel like you’d have to turn off all human instinct and emotion to become that sort of killing machine. I just don’t get it.
And as I think about that, I realize my problems with keeping track of and dealing with a few middle schoolers really aren’t that bad in the grand scheme of things. In fact, despite the frustration and sinking levels of patience, I think they taught me some things. And of course it all gave me some good stories to tell. You’ll have to ask me about those in person. Typing them just wouldn’t do them justice, I think.
One cool thing that the whole trip taught me is that God doesn’t expect us to do everything on our own. I mean, if it came down to my own level of patience, I think I would have strangled a couple of those kids. There were times when I felt like I was running on empty, but I’m betting that’s where God works best — during the times we realize we can’t really do it on our own. I don’t know how many times I sent up silent prayers asking for the patience to make it through just another hour or another day. Or to ask for understanding so that I could relate to these girls who seemed worlds apart from me at times. Or just to say thanks for the little things like the ability to send the girls off to any seminar they wanted to go to and go to a different one myself. Maybe I need trials like that more often. It sure kept me in closer contact with God than when I’m settled in my usual routine and feel like I can handle anything that comes my way.
I’m a little nervous about this whole new job thing, with it coming up at the end of the month and all, but now I’m a little excited about another chance to lean on God and His goodness. He’ll bring me through the start of this new experience just like in the past, and I’m sure I’ll have some good stories to tell. Let me tell you… God does not keep life boring.
Well, it’s later than I wanted it to be because I still want to read and get to bed before my eyelids just decide that they want to stay closed. So goodnight, all.
All kinds of fun June 25, 2006
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My sources tell me that people aren’t really like strawberries, which blows holes in my whole theory on life. Therefore, I am attempting to self-combust. It’s not working quite yet, but I will succeed soon, I am sure.
Today was all about a deer, two coons, and a cat. Not really, but that’s what I saw on the road on my way home tonight. The problem with driving a mini is that probably any of those animals could total the car since it’s so small.
Earlier today I had amnesia about yesterday, but now I’ve figured out what I did for most of the day. There are a few missing hours, but I can handle that I suppose. Oh yeah, I finished up the “The Three T’s” tshirts… I think that was yesterday, but in reality, I really think it must have been the day before. Hmmm. Superman just reminded me of one of my old GSIs… that’s kind of scary. But back to yesterday, we went to the worksite in the morning. Dad, Chalsie, and I ran some Tyvek all the way around the new part of the building. Then Chalsie and I cut out the windows and stapled the Tyvek out of the way. Dad and I finished the Tyvek for the upper areas… just so you know, Tyvek makes a lot of noise in the wind, especially when you’re kind of underneath it and it’s flapping all around you.
After all that funness, we headed out to Jeff Kettle’s grad party, and we talked about such thought provoking things like adding -ski to everyone’s last name, unless it already ends with ski, in which case you’d as a -son. Or having cool last names, like something that’s similar to your first name. In my case it would something like “Kelsey Kelso” or “Kelsey Kelsinator” or something else cool like that. The party was cool… and we took a lot of pictures. Around 180 actually… kind of a lot for a two-hour ordeal where you’re just sitting around talking, but Josh and Chalsie made some pretty good faces. I have the pics on the other computer at the moment, so I’ll have to post some later methinks. On the way home we had more stimulating conversation about having a last name like “Cake” where you could name your kids cool things like “Fun Fetti Cake” or “German Chocolate Cake” or “Angel Food Cake” or “Bundt Cake” — you wouldn’t get a middle name with that one. I think my favorite is still “Fun Fetti Cake.” How cool would that be to have the first name “fun”? You’d be able to say, “Hey, I’m Fun” and it would always be true, whether you’re actually fun or not. And who wouldn’t want the middle name “Fetti”… exactly!
Last night is where I get a little hazy. I know we watched a real exciting, suspenseful, unpredictable movie. Except the opposite. Hey, I told everyone I would watch it by myself later, that we could watch whatever they wanted, but no, they said, “Let’s watch it” and then I get all the flack for the boring cheesiness of it. Obviously not fair.
Today was church, and the sermon was about being humble. Of course I’m already so humble I didn’t even need to listen to the sermon. Just kidding. It was good to hear, although I’m a little suspicious of the passage we read in Numbers (or Deuteronomy… or Exodus… or… well, one of those first five books, and not Genesis). There’s a verse that says something like “Moses was the most humble man on the surface of the earth,” but I’m pretty sure Moses wrote that verse (along with the rest of the first 5 books of the bible), so isn’t that a little weird (or prideful, which is of course the opposite of humble) to write that about yourself? Maybe it’s just me.
This afternoon, after making some sweet postcards for the girls in my EQ BS, I headed over to Gaffke’s place to use his video stuff/computers. I was supposed to pick Chalsie up from work, so I took her home, planning to go back to Jason’s to continue my work on the music video, but there was a message on our answering machine about doing childcare for the prayer meeting, and of course I decided to volunteer since they didn’t have anything set up yet. What can I say, I like kids. Chalsie & Missy also volunteered the help of their middle school BS. Then Josh showed up, too, so we were all set, but I still feel like I was a human jungle gym and that I got in all my weight lifting for the day. Even so, I don’t understand people who don’t like kids. What is there not to like? They’re always good for some laughs at least, and I’m pretty positive hanging out with them adds years to your life.
Car bombs are explosive… or so says Josh. Sometimes I wonder about him.
Finally I got back to the music video, and I was done with about 2/3 of it when all of a sudden iMovie decided to quit. And guess what? I hadn’t saved since the beginning… i.e. since right after I imported all the video and the song. Then I attempted to cut my frozen peanut butter cup with my spoon and flung it and a chunk of ice cream onto my leg and subsequently Jason’s computer chair. That’s when I decided something was trying to tell me to call it a night. Maybe tomorrow I’ll make some progress that I actually remember to save.
People are like strawberries… June 22, 2006
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Some people say things like, “Life is like a box of chocolates…” I say, “People are like strawberries. Let me explain.
Today my task around the house was to pick strawberries… pretty intense, eh? Yeah, my mom’s a slave driver. (just kidding) Actually, (it’s pretty cheap…but) I can always threaten to go back to Ann Arbor if she gives me something I don’t want to do. I try not to pull that one out too often unless she starts talking about me mooching off of them or something. Anyway, that’s not what this story is about. This story is about strawberries. So yeah, my mom sent me out to the ol’ strawberry patch (i.e. the last couple feet of the garden) to fill up a bucket… or just pick all the ripe ones I could find. One thing I’ve noticed about hanging out with myself a lot this summer is that when I’m alone, I think about strange things. Not only that, but I blog in my head. Luckily for you, most of those blog entries never make it to the computer due to a bad memory (or should I say, “My memory is good; it’s just short). Unfortunately, sometimes I think these so-called blog entries are actually good, and I try extra hard to remember them. And then I type them (or a re-worded version of them) into this thing, and voila, you wish you had different friends who wrote better blogs.
But alas and alack, you’re still here, and though I have digressed, I will now drop the red herring and continue on. As I was picking strawberries, I noticed that none of them really looked the same. Some were redder, some were bigger, some were misshapen. And suddenly the thought “Don’t judge a book by its cover” flashed through my head, except in the form of “Don’t just a strawberry by its… cover…” I’m telling you, there are tricksy ones, like the ones that look perfectly red and then turn them a little and they’re as white as that part of skin that’s underneath your bathing suit and just never gets tan. Ok, bad simile… I’ve been learning from Josh who says things like “Man, it’s dark out like some place that’s dark and without light.” And then there are the deformed ones that you look at and just want to laugh at. I learned my lesson on that one, though. I had this uber deformed one that I didn’t even think needed to make it into the bucket, just because it looked funny. But it was sweetest, best-tasting strawberry I had eaten out of the many I snitched from the bucket. It was so good. Don’t judge a strawberry by its cover.
So yeah, learn from strawberries; don’t ignore the ugly ones or the weird ones and don’t be conned by the ones that look good on one side but are hiding their true colors.
In other news, I’m at home now (which I hope you picked up since I was picking strawberries). I had a pretty uneventful journey home after a couple days in the Arbor. I got to make 2 trips to the airport AND a trip to Clarkston while I was there. Pretty cool, eh? After talking about driving my mini to these places, we ended up using Melissa’s (or should I say Mo’s) car and Bizzle’s car. But yeah, we got to hang out with Shawsy one last time (for real this time), and now she’s in Texas. We had a movie night, but sadly enough all of us (well, maybe just Bizzle and I) were falling asleep pretty much before the 2nd feature began. After a while, I decided I should take my contacts out since I kept dozing off, but I realized I didn’t have my glasses with me. That was fun. I tried out the whole “looking through a pinhole” technique, and it worked quite well if I wasn’t too lazy to keep doing it. Since I had seen the movie before, laziness won out a lot, which isn’t anything new.
I also made the unfortunate mistake of talking to one of the DCOers after being spotted in Ann Arbor, so I got sucked into going to lunch again. I think they just want an excuse to eat out on days other than Fridays. This time I brought backup with me in the form of Sunshine and Shawsy, and miracle of all miracles, I think World of Warcraft only came up once, and it was when Shawsy was explaining that she finally realized it’s not a flying game. Oh yeah, I also met the guy who stole my desk. He seems nice enough, but I’m not so sure anyone who’s replacing me could ever be that good of a person. Ok, I’m really just kidding. And I’m really kidding about it being unfortunate that I had to go to lunch. It was actually a great lunch and good to see everyone again. And the cryptex! That was sweet. I want one. 
Great, now I sound like Veruca Salt in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”…no, scratch that, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (the old one… I just realized they had different names). “Daddy, I want an oompa loompa, and I want it now!” (Except for me, replace oompa loompa with cryptex… I mean, just kidding, I don’t want to be like Veruca). Turns out I could buy one on ebay, but those things are selling for a lot of money! Craziness. I don’t want one anymore.
What else did I do in Ann Arbor… well, I opened both ends of a box of spaghetti BY accident and Shawsy spilled it all over the floor. I think it added some nice flavor. Oh yeah, we also went to Pizza Bob’s for some yummy goodness. We really had wanted to go to Bubble Island, but apparently they decided they needed to appreciate their employees and be closed for the day, so that was rather unfortunate, especially for Shawsy who was leaving the next day before they would be open. Fortunately for me, I got a milkshake Tuesday night AND I still got to go get bubble tea on Wednesday morning before I made the drive back to HB. Except they use slurpee lids now instead of the cool plastic film lids, which is not good when you’re trying to carry 4 things of bubble tea and then drive with them. I only spilled 1 drop, and it was of my own, and I think it leaked out of the side where the lid wasn’t on tight or something. Anyway, I really hope this weird lid thing is just temporary and that they go back to the cool ones.
Well, I’m beginning to think I use the words “fortunately” and “unfortunately” too often, especially since I don’t really believe in the whole “fortune” thing, so I’m going to quit while I’m behind. Catch ya later, gators.
3 dollar menu items for $1.05 June 20, 2006
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I drove down to Ann Arbor today, by way of Midland, and I left right around lunch time, so needless to say, I started to get a little hungry. And I was falling asleep for some reason. So I decided that it would be a perfect time to stop and get an “eat to bite.” There was a Wendy’s pretty close to the exit ramp, and they were advertising 99ยข crispy chicken sandwiches, so I decided it would be a good choice. I walked in to an empty restaurant… no one else was eating there and no one was even attending the counter, but I could hear people working in the back. I just got in line and tried to decide what I would get with my sandwich. Eventually, a guy came out apologizing for taking so long. Didn’t really matter to me… as most of you know, I’m rather indecisive (ok, extremely indecisive), so I probably would have been standing there not ready to order anyway. So he takes my order but only punches in the chicken sandwich before going to get my frosty. I also got a 3rd item off the value menu that he didn’t punch in, so I waited patiently for him to come back so I could pay. Expecting him to ring up everything, I pulled a $10 bill out of my wallet, since I didn’t have 3 ones, but instead, he rings it up at $1.05.
I stuttered, “Um…y-you forgot two things…” (darn money management book, makes me feel like I need to not cheat people out of money!). I expected him to be like, “Oh yeah, duh, I must have forgotten to enter them,” but instead he told me it was because it took so long. I tried to explain that it really didn’t matter, but he didn’t seem to care and would only take $1.05.
So the moral of the story is that sometimes waiting pays.
But for those of you who came looking for more than just a story about a trip to Wendy’s, I suppose I’ve done more than that recently. Actually, the fact is that I’ve reversed the normal idea of a week, where you stay busy during the week doing work and stuff, and then the weekends are time to relax, catch up on stuff around the house, etc. Instead, during the week I relax around the house and then on the weekend, everything happens! Or at least a lot of stuff.
Oh yeah, I also reversed wake-up times… I got up at 7:30 on both Saturday and Sunday, after getting up around 9 or later the rest of the week.
So basically I don’t remember any of what I did before the weekend. Granted, I probably didn’t do a whole lot so I probably could just say I read books and sat around a lot, but I’m sure there had to be something cool in there somewhere. Oh yeah, I flew kites one day… but I guess that was last weekend, so it doesn’t count as during the week. It was cool, though. Chris and Heather came over with their kites and we went with them to the soccer field to fly ‘em. Chris seemed to have the hang of it a little better than Heather. She got excited at first when we got it in the air, but eventually she got mad when it stayed in the air. I’m not sure why, and it sure was funny watching her running around trying to catch its shadow.
Well, I’ll tell you more about more fun stuff later, but I’ve been tired all day and now my eyelids are drooping, so I’m gonna call it a night. Hasta la pasta!
Get that girl a mood ring June 15, 2006
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“We all know the girls that i am talking about
Well they are time bombs and they are ticking
And the only question’s when they’ll blow up
And they’ll blow up
We know that without a doubt
Cause they’re those girls,
Yeah, you know those girls that let their emotions get the best of them
And i’ve contrived some sort of a plan to help my fellow man
Let’s get emotional girls to all wear mood rings
So we’ll be tipped off to when they’re ticked off
Cause we’ll know just what they’re thinking, just what they’re thinking”
… Sometimes I listen to that song and think, “Ha, I know girls like that.” Other times my response is more like, “Glad I would never be like that… mood rings, ha.” And then there are times when I think, “Man, I want a mood ring for myself. What’s going on in this crazy head of mine? GOSH.” That’s what I’m thinking now, and I don’t know why, but I guess that goes with the whole crazy mood thing. Sometimes I wonder about this whole being a girl thing, but then I decide that it’s probably better than being a stinky boy with cooties who gets beat up because that’s what boys do to each other.
I don’t know where this is going, so I’m going to make it go no where. Adios.
I itch June 10, 2006
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For those of you who want to hear/read about the recent roadtrip to the Smokies, you can read below. The posts are copied from the journal that I wrote them down in during the trip, so if they don’t make sense you can blame the fact that my hand writing can’t keep up with my brain thinking. Also, blame all typos on the fact that I was copying them from the journal and not really looking at the screen or doing any type of editing before I clicked “Publish Post”. Or just blame them on the fact that I always have typos of some sort in my posts.
Anyway, you’ll soon realize that my journaling ended rather abruptly around Wednesday, and that I was actually still gone on Thursday and hadn’t even really finished telling about Wednesday. Turns out I don’t like writing in my journal sometimes, so if you really want to hear about things such as hanging out at the beach or getting 50ish mosquito bites or getting hit on by random guys, just ask me. Or wait until I get un-lazy enough to post about it.
That’s all for now, folks. Enjoy.
Oh yeah, I promised pics of Toots the Attack Cat in one of my earlier posts and since they’re on my computer now, I figure I’ll follow through on that one. Here they are:
Day something-or-other (i.e. Wednesday) June 7, 2006
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Yesterday we left the park and started the drive down to South Carolina. Well, first Melissa and I washed our hair in the sink — it took 2 shampoos for me to really get some suds. Too much grease, I think. [Sorry to those of you who are saying "TMI" right now...]
Matthew drove the first half and I drove the 2nd half to get to Charleston, and we were there around 2, I think. Our 1st item on the agenda was to find some food, so after parking on Market St, we walked until we came to a crab shack (East Bay Crab Shack?). My cheeseburger was delicious –> and not ramen! And the bathroom had soap in it! Craziness.
After lunch we walked down to teh water and saw the sailbots and bridges and dolphins! We also saw colorful houses (later known to be Rainbow Row) and some historical things. There’s a lot of old stuff in Charleston (or as a t-shirt said “Chucktown”). We arrived back to the car at most 10 minutes after the meter expired and we already had an $8 ticket.
We put in another quarter or 2 and took a walk thru the market on Market St. They have lots of stuff, but most of it was rather expensive for my taste. Soon we were back in teh car and on our way to James Island County Park, south of Charleston.
{Random note: I think people down here even clear their throats and cough with a southern accent!}
The campground was really nice although it took us a while to get checked in. We were relegated to the “Primitive camping.”
The campground even had a spash zone or spray zone or something — basically a pool and some small waterslides and stuff, I think. We didn’t use it. We went to get groceries but then it looked like it might rain, so we were going to go to the movies. Then the clouds went away so we got some groceries but decided on Papa John’s and ended up setting up campa nd chillin instead of going to the movies. Matthew went for a walk. Melissa and I decided to play frisbee by the lake but got distracted first by the dog park and then the porch swingy thing. We just ended up talking a lot instead of frisbee. Eventually after some guys drove by and said they were going to pick us up, hunger won out and we went into town to get the pizza.
[Next day...]
Hmm… that writing in the dark business was getting pretty sloppy.
[Abrupt end]
Day 4: Monday June 5, 2006
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I wasn’t about to bring this [my journal] with me backpacking — believe me when I say you feel every ounce of weight you carry on your back.
I’d have to say that when I saw the sign that said we’d only gone 1.7 miles from Newfound Gap, I was about ready to call it quits. I’m not a huge fan of hiking uphill in the first place –> then add 20-30 lbs on my back, and well, pain probably describes it best.
My calves were screaming at me after probably 0.2 miles. Eventually my hips, shoulders, feet, and any muscle I had joined in. Oh yeah, the chorus kept time using my heavy breathing.
At 4 miles, we reached Charlie’s Bunion, probably the best view of the whole trip. You could almost 360* of pure mountains and trees. We breaked there [is breaked a word? I doubt it, but I'm just copying what I wrote] for lunch and took plenty of pictures.
“Y’all are here!” — a sign we just passed [in the car as I wrote this. Yes, I'm easily distracted]
Anyway, eventually those crazy Hobergs decided we needed to continue on our way. My body said otherwise but it didn’t win out, and I reluctantly strapped the bane of my existence back on.
The afternoon seemed to be going more smoothly –> maybe I was just resigned to my fate. Then all of a sudden the clouds that had once seemed far away were swirling toward us. We were seriously engulfed in a cloud. Melissa and Matthew got out their rain covers for their packs. I unfortunately didn’t have/bring one, so we transferred a few things to Mel’s pack. Although the clouds moved in quickly, they didn’t feel the need to move out as fast. We were drenched with COLD rain the rest of our journey. Nothing like being cold and wet to make you move faster. As Matthew said, since we were in the clouds, the rain must have had to fall up to hit us. Either way, we were wet and shivering.
We arrived at Peck’s Corner Shelter drenched and found out we weren’t the only ones staying there. There were 2 shelf-like things to sleep on that filled up pretty quick. First thing on the agenda: get out of the wet clothes and into some dry warm ones. This is easier said than done, especially when you’ve only got pack towels and all your clothes were in your soaking wet pack. Fortunately, I had dry underwear and Mel loaned me some shorts. Matthew loaned me a shirt.
Oh, I should mention that at this point I was about ready to have a breakdown. I was physically and emotionally exhausted and here we were in the middle of the woods at a little shelter we had to share, and I was soaking wet and cold. And it was 10.9 miles back to the car. And that was supposed to be the easy day. We got dressed, though, which helped lift my spirts and then warmed up in our sleeping bags.
Eventually it was time to cook dinner, some mac and smack with tuna. It came out real nice but apparently my stomach just doesn’t like food sometimes. The rest of the night I felt like I needed to puke but couldn’t which didn’t help my emotional rollercoaster. Also I think that everyone else at the shelter probablly despised us for the smell of tuna we were spreading to all bears in the vicinity.
Finally it was bedtime (oh probably 8:30ish, maybe 9:30 or 10 at the latest) and we all snuggled down in our mummy sleeping bags to try and get rid of the last bit of cold in our hands and feet.
And by morning, I was warm. Quite possibly too warm, but I wasn’t about to complain. I was awake off and on between probably 6 or 6:30 and 7:30 when we got up, but I didn’t have my watch and I wasn’t going to get up before the rest. Surprisingly when we left the shelter a little after 8:30, we were some of the first to go, even before the ladies who we passed the day before who said they were going 13 miles.
I had decided that I probably wasn’t going to make it up the 2.8 mile uphill part of the 2nd day’s route, so I told Mel and Matt they could go on and I would meet them back at the car the next day. Mel said she was fine with just heading back and Matt reluctantly said that was fine, so off we went again, Matthew in the lead, me straggling behind.
Have you ever had a hard workout one day and the next day walking a few feet gets you worn out? Well, that was me. Except I had a pack strapped on my back and didn’t have a choice to just walk a few feet and stop. 10.9 miles again, baby. Fortunately ther ewas more downhill at the beginning than I thought, and after a while, my body had settled in for the long haul. I also said a lot of things in my head like, “Slow and steady wins the race” and “I think I can…” and sang songs ranging from “Step by step” and “How Great is Our God” to “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.”
We decided to wait until we got back to Charlie’s Bunion to have lunch, and we made it sometime around 12 or 12:30, I think. The views there were again gorgeious and we “filled up” on Cliff bars and trail mix, all the while hoping the clouds overhead wouldn’t turn to storm clouds.
Unfortunately the last 4 miles weren’t all downhill like I thought they were, butit wasn’t too bad. I htink time moves slower when you know you’re close, though. Oh yeah, my pack busted before Charlie’s Bunion (yeah garage sales!) but we repaired it with a bit of rope from Melissa’s pack.
Soon we were spotting roads and then all of a sudden we could see it — the parking lot in all its glory. Boy was that a sight for sore eyes… and feet and hips and shoulders and… well, you get the idea. Melissa and I had fat fingers — I think from just having them down by our sides for so long.
We had a guy take our “after” picture and a lady nearby asked, “Have y’all been hiking?” to which Melissa responded, “No we just wear these packs for fun.” And the lady said, “Sorry, that was a redneck question, wasn’t it?”
We laid on the parking lot for a while by teh car, then got a few more pictures and Mel and Matt plotted our next course of action. I just chilled in teh backseat, glad to not be walking.
Now we’re at Deep Creek Campground, I think, somwhere in the North Carolina part of the park. We passed thru Cherokee on tehw ay, where we bought some poastcards, looked at funny souvenirs, and ate some ice cream — small, but refreshing. Every time we stepped out of the car, I felt like I need to oil my muscles or soemthing, but after walking like a robot for a few hundred feet, I was fine again.
Ok, that’s all for today.
