Update on the Trail Gypsies

I was right.

These punks showed their true colors today. Lingering like homeless people on the bridge, drinking lots of beers, having a lovers' quarrel, and collecting more tips, the only thing they got today was an escort off of the property.

My theory is that they are hopping between trail towns, hitchhiking, and claiming to be thru hikers to gain admiration and loose change. If they were smart they'd write a book about it. The again, if they were smart they'd wear polypro and not vomit in a restaurant sink.

Shew.

If they make it and are on the Today Show, I'll stand corrected and may or may not blog an apology.

Vagrant Posers on My Trail

I'm going to have to take a break from my scheduled blogging about life, passion, and good things to tell you about this nonsense going on in my little corner of the gorge.

So, yesterday these people show up claiming to be AT thru hikers. It's a young couple from the PacNW. The first red flag was the electric cello the boy was carrying. Along with it an amp, powered by a lawn mower battery, probably weighing around 10lbs. They loitered around the center for a while, playing music (it was decent, albeit) and collecting a few damp tips.

He told my boss Katie that he was carrying the cello on the trail and only thought it was a bad idea for the first 2 days. So, we'll say he's been on the trail for 10-12 days and covered around 141 miles to get from the Southern Terminus at Springer Mountain to NOC. The trail is 2,180 miles long. He has 2,040 miles to go and he plans on a carrying this case with his electric cello along with his huge pack the whole way?

I'm calling BS. There's no way. People were ignorantly flocking to these gypsies. They wanted to give them money, pay for their room in the hostel, text message their friends, put video of him on facebook.

Furthermore, they're carrying a purse, a very heavy HP laptop, big construction type boots...things no one hikes with on Sunday afternoon, let alone a 5 month long outdoor journey.

As if all of this weren't enough...they were clad head to toe in cotton. Cotton kills. Thru hikers don't wear cotton. No one does really.

Home

"'Home' is any four walls that enclose the right person." Helen Rowland

While there's much more to get caught up on, the term "home" is the little four letter word that begged me to blog again. So, I'll start here.

In the weeks before leaving Colorado to come back to TN/NC I was full of emotions. Mostly because I had an uncle pass away, and a week later my very first niece, Eva Ruth, was born. My family was on a roller coaster of joy and grief and I was 1500 miles away. All I could do was pray and send flowers...after I checked on the prices to change my plane ticket and decided it couldn't be done. I realized for the last few weeks in Colorado I would have one foot in Salida and one foot in Tennessee.

Then the day finally comes. I get to fly back to Tennessee and eat all things delicious (yes, I am mostly motivated by food). But on the plane I realized I wasn't bringing my other foot with me. I would still have one foot in Salida and one foot in the South. Ted was getting his Level 2 AASI teaching certification and had a bad day on the hill, and all I wanted to do was be there with him and keep his spirits up. All of a sudden Cracker Barrel didn't seem that important.

In my regular, predictable fashion of course I stayed on Facebook updating my statuses frequently as I made my journey across the country. When I was Tennessee side, and then when I was finally in NC at NOC the most asked question was "are you glad to be here?" The word glad in this context made me shudder, the same way should does regularly. [blog will follow regarding should] Glad insinuates that i'd rather be here than the alternative. I expected to feel that emotion, but never did. The truth is I am happy to be here, I am happy to just be, but no sir, I am not glad. Because honestly, the old saying is true-Home is where the heart is.

I've got a big heart, made up of smiles, laughs, and joy brought to me by other people. I'm so glad to have the friends and family that I do. And to be honest, there was one moment when I said I was glad. And it was on an otherwise unassuming patio at Aubrey's. A patio that had no clue it was the chosen place for a reunion and homecoming for soul sisters. And at that moment, in the midst of the banter and the catching up, I was glad.

This lesson is one that I think it's safe to say I've learned in the past year and a half. It is what it is and everything happens for a reason, so don't dwell on it. Just be happy to be here. Just be content. After all, having a lot of places to call home is way better than having none.

"I'm just happy to be here at all." -Todd Snider

In the mix...

Well, we've got a lot to get caught up on. Formerly, I was using iPhoto as a timeline for my life and updating my blog by post dating posts. Formerly, that was important to me. I'm a bit more laid back now, and well I just don't care. I've got things to talk about, so I'm going to write. If you're up for it, settle in to get caught up on how my life has changed in the past year or so.