You have to be wondering what we are doing these days since we don’t start our new gig until April. I imagine our life is very much like a retired couple’s life. And we are purposely enjoying what retirement periods we can now because it will take some major lottery winnings for J & I…
Well, we survived our almost 2 months in NJ. I say “survived” because J should really be granted sainthood for holing up with his in-laws in a box no more than 660 square feet. No one should have to do that in their life. I had to laugh at last night’s Saturday Night Live skit…
Day 41 in New Jersey, but who’s counting? J was not counting and when I told him 41 days, he vomited in his mouth a little. Today, Jersey got some beautiful snow. Because J had to get lotto tix for my dad (and himself of course) for tonight’s Mega Millions, we decided to take a…
For those who may be newer to this blog, this is Mr. McKinley. J & I adopted him in 2004 when he was 6 months old. We kept him until 2011, when my parents agreed to take him in temporarily during our thru hike. We finished up hiking, bounced around the country on a road…
I have set up “camp” at my parents’ house in New Jersey for the next 10 days and am glad for the “break.” When I say “break,” I mean to say we still have BP duties, I am writing medical articles to catch up on my freelancing and part-time work, I am giving round-the-clock tours…
We are busier than a one-armed juggler these days. Even J, who never stresses about anything, felt a little overwhelmed these past few weeks. Here’s a snapshot has been going on: 1) Today we drove away from the castle in the woods on our way to our new adventure working for Backpacker Magazine. The transition…
We are going to miss a lot of things about BD when we hit the road, but probably the one that tugs at our heart strings the most are our foster cats. We got involved with the Humane Society of Loudon County almost immediately after we moved to BD and after we realized that my…
Jess Hi, my name is Jess and I spent just over 3 months living with Steadee and Deal. They were awesome foster parents. They provided me bugs, mice and much more as my toys and snacks. My favorite spot was a basket they had in their bathroom. But then I had to go away. At…
Dear Mr. McKinley, Your birthday was yesterday (Summer Solstice). You turned 8, which is 50 in cat years (old man, you are). We didn’t forget your birthday, I promise. I just didn’t have a chance to blog. Even if we forgot your birthday, you shouldn’t be surprised. This is in line with our behavior this…
Well, so much for my “bonus post,” as it’s been almost 2 weeks! My “bonus post” was going to be pictures of where we live!!! It is so hard to explain in words and pictures don’t even really do it justice, but they should give you a better idea. You can enter the lodge through…
Hi there. Has it been 2 weeks? Oh, 3? Really? Oh boy. That means I missed my deadline for my biweekly blog post! I am sure y’all will be much more forgiving than my job is about missing deadlines … Overall, we had a pretty good 3 weeks, if you consider we had no car…
RevKev came to visit us at the cabin (aka, paradise) this weekend and we had loads of fun. For new blog readers, RevKev married Deal & I five years ago! He was a long-time friend before that and now he lives in Colorado Springs, making yearly visits a possibility.He got here Friday evening and Saturday…
Fire is NOT something to joke about, which is why I am happy to report we survived our first chimney fire on Monday evening. Apparently the powers that be decided that our life in the cabin was getting a little too boring. I beg to differ, but so be it. And I’d like to say…
It’s good to be back in Colorado and at the cabin and we are waiting for the snow. Seriously, what a disappointing winter!! But alas, we have still gotten out as much as we can to do some XC skiing, especially with SILAdventure/Jamie & DocDoc/Rachel here with us this past weekend. We all attempted a…
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, Festivus … All that good stuff. We had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed our time in the Northeast. Because I like the numbers game, that’s how I’ll break down the last 17 days.We spent 10 days in NJ at my rents’ house, 3 days in CT at my sister’s…
Goodbye Chicago. You have been good to us for the past 3 weeks, but it is time to move on. In Chicago, we played lots of games. Sadly, the boys dominated. Deal, who is the worst speller in the world, but best strategist, won every game of Scrabble. My BIL, Russ/Napolean Dynamite, won every game…
We have been off the AT for more than a week and you would think now that I have easy access to cell service and computers, I would be blogging more often. Clearly not the case. I’ve been so busy … doing practically nothing! Well, we did have the wedding, which was not just a…
We spent 3 wonderful zeros at my parents’ … Saw lots of friends and took care of all our bizness. Of course, the last 3 days were gorgeous … In the 70s, low humidity. Today, torrential downpouring. Thank you Mother Nature. Anywho, we are hitting the trail. I am not excited at all to hike…
Guess what we have been doing the last few days?? NOT HIKING!! I’m excited to tell you all that we are enjoying a few zeros at my parents’ house in NJ! We had this planned in our heads for a long time and actually, we haven’t taken a full day off since Hanover, NH, just…
WE ARE NOW 31 DAYS FROM STARTING OUR TREK. Sorry for the all caps, but I am bursting with every emotion possible! So anyways, 31 days. That’s 744 hours. 44,640 minutes. You get the point. D-Day is almost upon us. Oddly enough, June 6, our starting date, IS actually the anniversary of a real D-Day,…