June 17th

     Well first I have to start out by saying I'm very sorry that I haven't posted in such a long time. I dont know why I guess because I have been too lazy after hiking and I feel like theres not enough interesting things in my day that I can really write about.
     Since I left off there has been a lot that has happened and I will try to let you all in on most of the important things, maybe a few stories and also give thanks to everyone that has helped me out along my way this last few weeks.
     After we left off from trail days our plan was to make it to Hall's Hovel by by June 8th. We realized once we left that that would actually be a little too easy of a goal and only requiring us to hike about 12 miles a day. Instead we decided that we would instead try to push ourselves and get there by the weekend before. To do this we were going to have to hike an average of about 21 miles a day. It seemed really tough but we thought we would give it a shot. When we did this we ended up not being able to hike 21 miles a day on a few days due to the fact that we stayed a little too long in a couple of the trail towns gathering groceries and just being a little lazy and not wanting to leave the luxuries of the city. This however meant that some of those days that we hiked consisted of a few 24 and 27 mile days. One memorable day I have in mind is when we decided that we were going to hike 27 miles and Dayglow really had no interest in going that far and said that he was going to only hike 21 and he would see us later. Son and I knew however that even if he says he is not going to do what we do he will just end up doing it anyway and just not be happy about it. So when Son and I arrived at the shelter 27 miles later that particular day we had gone ahead and set up our tents made a fire and started to cook dinner. While we were sitting there cooking we saw Dayglow walk by not saying a word and proceed to set up his tent about 50 feet away from us and then he made his own fire, not coming over to join us. So I say to Son, "I think he is mad at us." Then I called over to Dayglow and said, "Hey Dayglow whats going on, you mad?" Dayglow says, "I'm not hanging out with you maniacs." After a little alone time he finally came over saying, "I'm not mad it was just really rocky over by you guys and I didnt have a place to set up my tent."
     It ended up taking us about 11 days after Trail Days to make it to Halls Hovel where we were able to meet up with most of my family and a few friends to finally take a day off. It was a great time I thought, my dad did an awesome job feeding us and organizing the entire thing. All the food was really delicious, this had been the first time that we were completely full since we started the trip. I think my mom and dad kind of took it on as a challenge to have us say we couldn't eat any more. While we were there my Uncle Jon drove us all over Lexington it seemed making sure that we had everything we needed to resupply, and then got us some delicious ice cream. Hall's Hovel was really a different place in the summer than it is when we go up for trout fishing weekend. Thanks again Robert and Diane for having such an awesome gettaway spot and allowing us to use it.
     After a nice day of being with family and friends we were back on the trail. We however were so full from the weekend that we had a hard time getting back into our hiking groove and also felt like taking it a little easy now that we didnt have any deadlines. We hiked for about 3 days till we arrived in Waynesboro, right where the Blue Ridge Parkway meets Skyline drive going into the Shenandoahs.
     We spent a day in Waynesboro kind of exploring the town since we were staying at a church hostel that didnt allow us to be there between 9am and 5pm. It was a pretty nice town and I was even able to donate blood there. The next day Thomas, Natalies Fiancee, came and picked us up to stay a few days with him in Charlottesville. It was a really nice time for me to be able to get to know him better and spend time with him before him and Natalie get married. When we were down visiting Thomas and Natalie we decided to stay another day there since my mom and Buzzy were coming up to visit. We spent the entire next day with them doing all kind of things including my first wine tasting at Jefferson Vineyards. It was really cool to go there and do that since we sold a lot of their wine when I worked at Taste Unlimited. Before we left Thomas' grandmother made us a delicious breakfast to get us on our way.
     Just a little over a week ago we started back on the trail to start our hike through the Shenandoahs. It took us a few days to get back into hiking mode again since we had taken 3 full days off the trail. SNP was not really the most fun time for me I have to admit. I can see how it would be a nice place to visit to do some hiking, however just not on the AT. I was really hoping to see a lot of waterfalls and have lots of fun hikes through SNP except all of that was on side trails, which I didn't really want to take the time or energy to go on. The park was a bit like an amusement park for camping and hiking in the way that it was catered towards people out for weekend trips and people who aren't very big backpackers. All of the stores were expensive and didnt have any selection of food that hikers would actually buy. I did however get to see a lot of wildlife while out there. I saw tons of deer and about 3 bears, however never close enough to get a good picture. While we were in the Shenandoahs we got a lot of rain as well which probably didnt help my experience. We met a few friends while we were there and now have a place to stay in Aspen, CO if we ever want to go which would be really nice. All in all we were ready to get out of there. My dad was able to organize us going over to stay with another old family friend who I havent seen in a long time that our family knows as Mountain Man Mark. Once we were able to get some good weather we decided to b-line it to his house as soon as possible. We ended up doing a 23, 28,24 and finishing 16 mile days to get out of the Shenandoahs and to his house.
     The day before we arrived however we saw a challenge in Front Royal that we needed to take part in. Pikes restaurant in Front Royal has a hamburger challenge that consists of 5-6oz patties, 5 different cheeses, bacon, ham, fried egg, 2 mozzarella cheese sticks, lettuce, tomato, pickle and a double order of fries. Son and I were able to complete the challenge and get our pictures added to their legendary wall of fame, then decided to get ice cream after as a reward. The hardest part of the challenge however was the fact that we now had to still hike 10 miles to get to our destination. That was a very fun 10 miles taking us about 6 hours.
     We arrived at Mountain Man Marks house yesterday and have been having the most relaxing time. He has been a great host making us feel completely at home. He even allowed us to use his truck to go into REI and return all of our old crappy stuff for brand new stuff. By the way, If you are not an REI member go out and become one, their money back guarantee is well worth it. We'll be getting back on the trail tomorrow and should be arriving in Harpers Ferry, WV (the unofficial halfway point of the trail) in just a couple of days.

Sorry again for such a long time between posts and thanks for all who are following.
-Turbo Toes