I had the opportunity to sleep in this morning. Eddie, C2T’s hubby is delivering some items to me at 10am. He has a mattress inflator which saves me from blowing my mattress up manually. It’s the little things that make me giddy! George sent me a care package with Jelly Belly’s, Poison Oak Drops, and a lovely card. It was so nice to get special gifts from home.

I packed up my stuff at 8:30am, way late for me, but I still wasn’t the last one left on the lawn. I headed to the Deli and had my most favorite egg sandwich to date. It was loaded with fresh vegetables and hash browns. I ate every last bite. Even the guys that worked there, complimented my sandwich! Eddie arrived precisely at 10am. He had my boxes of goodies and drove me back to the trail.

My feet hit the ground around 10:30am so I was a bit behind. The trail was stupendous today. Nothing too technical, no crazy climbs just mellow ups and downs. My goal was to make it to Walter Shelter for lunch. I had leftover pizza from last night. I love leftovers from town. I arrived and within a few minutes, Bear showed up. He’s a thru-hiker who met C2T eons ago. I’ve never met him but he’s hiking from Shelter to Shelter. I’ll probably be seeing him again. We talked about our strategy for the day. There is water another couple miles north, then waterless for twelve miles.

We both decided to go for the Telephone Shelter being there’s rain coming. I think we have a change in the weather, finally, and there should be more rain on the horizon. I left the Shelter and just like yesterday, it started raining within a few minutes. There was some rolling thunder and one lightening strike that I saw. But within thirty minutes, it was gone.

I had a couple of slips on the wet leaves. The rocks are manageable but them leaves are hazardous. If only George could go ahead of me, and with his blower, blow them leaves off the trail. Is that asking too much? With the recent rain, there’s a few mushrooms popping up and salamanders coming out. It’s good to see the plants and critters enjoying this recent rainfall. God knows they need it back here.

I meandered along the trail, in no big hurry. There was a lake I walked along called Nuclear Lake. They had signs warning people to not drink from it. Really??? With a name like that, I’m not taking any chances. It was quite pretty with geese swimming and doing their goose butt dive. They were like synchronized swimmers, all diving down at once.

I made it to the Shelter and saw another woman. It seems all the gals have gone home. She was a weekend overnighter with her husband and friends. They all had chairs, had gathered wood and started a fire. Here on the East Coast, you can have campfires everyday. It was so nice being I was a bit chilled from the rain, and sweating too.

I had brought my new inflator over and sure enough, the gal had the same one I had. It wasn’t working so she got her Goal Pro Charger, and charged it up for me. So nice to have a fully charged battery that you can share with a stranger. She told me she was heading home tomorrow so it wasn’t like she was going to need it. Now my inflator is ready to be used. My lungs are so relieved!

I had my Chicken Pho Soup and more Jelly Belly’s. Such a good dessert and very satisfying. We sat around the fire for a bit and exchanged ideas on gear and shoes. It’s so interesting to see what people have and use.

As I was finished eating, Holly showed up. She has been hiking around me for a bit and also is a Flip-Flopper. She was hiking with a guy from Hungry named Steve, who ended up with a overuse injury. He went home a couple of days ago. That’s the problem with doing long miles, day after day. Your body never gets a chance to repair and heal, and before long, you get something debilitating. Holly’s a Christian and is working with other women to get outside and hike. I admire her can do, get it done, attitude.

I feel like I’m getting into a rhythm now. My body is happy, no real issues and as long as I keep my feet firmly planted on the ground, I feel like this is my time. The weather has been ideal with a light rain or sprinkle, but no major downpours. I’m in my tent right now and it’s a light drizzle outside. I can handle that, and so can my tent.

The north end of New York has been quite nice. I have only a few more miles, and I’ll be entering Connecticut. Hard to believe. Another state almost done. I’m taking my time enjoying the scenery more these past days. It’s been nice to have easier terrain and not having to watch every step. God willing, I will continue this path and before long, I’ll be in state number ten. Georgia, N. Carolina, Tennessee, half of Virginia, W. Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and ready to check off New York. That makes me tired just thinking about where I’ve walked. I think I’m ready for my nightly rest.