I can’t believe it’s been 7 months since I last blogged! In October, 2017 we were enjoying a beautiful Autumn in New Brunswick, Canada and Prince Edward Isle. The colors were erupting, the lobster season was ending; the tourists were heading south, and the island was serene and relaxing. But back home, my family was in crisis, so Terry and I headed the RV south toward Virginia. It’s been a sad and troubling time, but I am so grateful that we had the flexibility in our lives to be here and help out. I won’t dwell on what’s transpired, but part of this tumultuous time was a transition phase for my dad. Just a couple of weeks shy of his 86th birthday, he took his last breath and went to God. Through tears and heartache, on January 20, 2018 we celebrated his life…mostly his life before Alzheimers disease robbed him of the man we had known. He and my mother had been married for 66 years, and we still mourn him today. But I know in my heart that especially the last 6 months of his life were difficult for him and not the quality of life he would have chosen for his last days. I feel blessed that we had many more good years, and I know he felt blessed For years, it has been a dream for Terry and I to hike the Appalachian Trail (AT) - all 2,189 miles from Georgia to Maine. We decided to get in shape and get our gear some months ago with our sights set on early March to begin. For various reasons it became clear in February that he’d have to start ahead of me by about 2 weeks; and, I’d join him, then come back and hike those couple hundred miles he did without me before the year’s end. Schedules were a bit confusing and complicated because for a year now we've been planning an October trip with Terry’s family members to Ireland so we needed to fit our 6-7 month hike in before then. But when choosing when to start the trail, you have to watch the weather. Late February and early March there can be snow in the mountains in GA, and most people start there and hike North that time of year, finishing before snow comes to Maine in the Fall. We decided to hike a “flip-flop” and start in VA and hike north, then bus/fly down to VA and hike the southern part VA to GA instead of the conventional south to north route. But Terry’s departure got pushed back due to weather so he decided to take advantage of a nor’easter set to dump feet of snow in VT where we ski – Mad River Glen (MRG). (I couldn’t get away for that trip.) So our revised plan was that he’d come back to VA and then we’d start the trail together 3/26. A bit later than we thought, but better late than never, right? But what’s that Steinbeck wrote about the best laid plans of mice and men? While Terry was skiing on day 4 of his week long trip, I was packing up care packages that we’d have his sister mail us periodically to post offices near the trail. We had hundreds of dollars of food – peanut butter, M&M’s, Cliff bars, oatmeal, Girl Scout cookies, as well as toilet paper, wet ones, etc. Items were spread across the bedroom, and I was compiling things into box #8 when I had a question for Terry. I called his cell and couldn’t believe what I heard. “I am in so much pain…Oh My God. I think I broke my collarbone. I hit a tree on the 20th hole.” For those who don’t know Mad River Glen (MRG), the 20th hole is a skier-made trail off the main mountain which is a great powder stash when the main trails have been skied off. With 4 feet of snow that week, it was a must for Terry to hit (pardon the pun). After his accident, it was quite a feat to get out of the woods to a place the ski patrol could meet him and toboggan him down the mountain. Grateful he didn’t hit his head, but frantic to get up there and comfort him, I flew up the next day and drove him back in the stick shift Subaru a couple days later. This would put a kink in our plans for the AT…. For a few weeks we pretended that broken bones aside, we could still keep our trek plan – albeit, a few weeks later. And while once that may have been possible, we learned at the 7-week doctor visit that although his clavicle had healed nicely, the pain he was still feeling was due to frozen shoulder. As we reconsidered the calendar, the complication of the dates of the Ireland trip, and the unknown factors of whether he could put a heavy pack on (plus sleep on the ground), it became clear the AT would have to wait until next year. We have been sad about this delay and huge change in plans, BUT we have come up with an enticing alternative. Beginning June 2, we’re going just about as far west from VA as we can to one of our favorite places, Alaska! We’ll drive towards Montana to another favorite, Glacier National Park and then head north into Canada. We’ll hit some beautiful spots in the Canadian Rockies, places we’ve been before like Banff, Jasper, Kootenai, the Yukon and the intrepid Al-Can Highway. Eventually we’ll take the newly opened highway to the Arctic Ocean and dip our toes in (Terry says our whole bodies – we’ll see about that!). We had hoped to be on our way there now in time to see the bears feeding on the dandelions along the roadways end of May. But Terry got a cortisone shot for the frozen shoulder and is due for another one 6/1. So, we’ve decided to get a couple of weeks in at Ocean City, MD first. We’ll come back to VA for a few days, get the second cortisone shot, pick up the RV, and hit the road again 6/2. I hope to have some exciting and scenic shots for readers in the coming months….more bears, moose, wolves (maybe), majestic mountain peaks and glacial lakes. Also, we’re taking our AT gear so we can do some overnight hikes away from the RV…something we couldn’t do when Shady was still alive because she couldn’t hike that far and we didn’t want to leave her overnight alone. While we won’t be hiking 15-20 miles a day like we would on the AT, we’ll have the luxury of showers, refrigeration, movies and occasional TV. Then we’ll trade in that comfort for rugged daily hiking in 2019. We’re hoping you’ll join us as armchair travelers, and please let us know what you’d like to read about!
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AuthorFormer documentary film producer, wife and mother of one...I'm taking time off to see the US with my husband Terry. Here's where I'll write about our adventures RVing until the money runs out! Archives
August 2021
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