We are moving along and have made it into our 11th state of 14 states that we will enter on the trip. A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks so I will try to sum up the events in a nutshell.
First I should mention that I have been hiking with a guy named Renaissance for the past 3ish weeks. He is actually from Marietta, Georgia and graduated from my high school just 5 years before I did. He has been a really awesome addition to our group hiking and we've had a lot of great times since we all started hiking together.
When we reached New Jersey a little over a week ago, 3 Stoves' aunt and uncle took us in for a night, gave us a bed to sleep in and great food to eat. As if this wasn't generous enough, they let us borrow their car to take into NY city for the day. Once again I am amazed by how giving people can be to thru hikers. Though I was excited to head to the Big Apple, the traffic to get there was quite terrifying. I'm used to Atlanta traffic back home so I know that part of my anxiety was due to the lack of exposure to city life. After reaching the city and finding a parking spot we decided to do what we do best; we hiked to the south of Manhattan. We stopped by ground zero and I was amazed to see the construction occuring to make both a memorial to the twin towers and in making a new world trade center building. Nearby was a small museum recounting the events of 9/11. It gave me goosebumps to imagine the craziness of that day and I was moved by the stories I read of acts of bravery people carried out to save others. The visit to ground zero definitely gave me a greater appreciation for our country. From there, we walked down to Battery Park and saw the Statue of Liberty, watched a street performance, took the subway to times square and walked around there, went up the Empire State Building, and finally found a really cool brick oven pizza place before heading back to New Jersey for the night. It was a very eventful day off the trail and we were all more tired after being in the busy environment of NY City than we are after hiking a 25 mile day on the trail.
When we got back on the trail, 3 Stoves had arranged plans that he wanted us to try to make it to. He is raising money for research for diabetes found in kids so he was going to meet some diabetic kids and family members to walk a 1 mile section of the trail. In order to make it to this walk with the kids, we had to hike 25 miles a day for the next week to get to Massachusetts where the walk would start. And so we pushed heavy miles for a week straight and were so excited to make it to the arranged walk except not even one of the diabetic kids showed up. Of course we gave 3 Stoves a hard time for this but we were happy to get to hike with his family members and friends for a few miles in Massachusetts.
3 Stoves goes to MIT in Boston so once again we headed to the city to see what there is to see. Again I was quite anxious on the car ride there but it was much less stressful than our trip to NY City. Boston was very cool and I loved how historic the buildings were. We enjoyed walking around the city and got to go to an REI for the first time since the start of the trail. After touring the city we said goodbye to Renaissance as he had to catch a flight home for a wedding he was attending. It was sad to see him go after hiking almost a month on the trail with him but he's from Georgia so we will get to hang out after the trip luckily. We headed back to western Mass. where 3 Stoves' house is. Once again we had quite a eventful zero day and it is supposed to be raining tomorrow so we decided that we should take another zero day tomorrow lol.
With a little over a quarter of the trail left I am begininng to realise that this trip isn't too far from its end. A thing I've learned from the trips to the cities over the past week and a half: adjusting to the busyness of normal life after the trail will take some getting used to.
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