Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 99, Thursday, 6/23 – I woke up at 8:30am and was pretty hungry. I was about to scavenge through my food bag to see what I could snack on, but Birthday happened to wake up at the same time and told me that he got a text from Stephanie. Stephanie told Birthday that she had gone into work, but there were breakfast sandwiches and hot coffee waiting for us in the kitchen.

Birthday and I lounged around most of the morning. Half time woke up a bit later and joined us in the house. I was on the couch catching up on my blog when Half Time put on a Netflix documentary about John Wayne Gacy. Birthday and I had a laugh about the absurdity of the situation. You invite a few strangers to stay in your house, only to find them watching a serial killer documentary in your living room.

Around noon, we got laundry going and took showers. It had been raining fairly hard all day, so we were glad to not be outside hiking. Stephanie got home a bit after noon and took us to Walmart so we could resupply food and then to McDonalds for some lunch.

When we got back to the house, Half Time and I spent the majority of the afternoon fishing from their dock. We didn’t catch anything, but it was fun to just sit outside. Half Time took a kayak out to try fishing other areas. I put down the fishing pole and hung out at the bar near the water with Birthday, Mike, Stephanie, Maverick, and Badabing (Badabing is not a trail name, he is Mike & Stephanie’s neighbor who got that nickname for having a strong New Jersey accent). Stephanie made a taco casserole for dinner, which we all enjoyed together at the bar outside.

Half Time was still out on the kayak so he missed dinner. Birthday and I took out some paddle boards to see how his fishing was going. He had caught some bluegill and large mouth bass, but had wanted to catch a striper. He asked us what time dinner was, and he was surprised when I told him we ate 2 hours ago. He was out on the water a lot longer than he realized.

I got off the paddle board around sunset and started fishing again. I still didn’t catch anything, but I was enjoying myself. The lake was absolutely beautiful.

Once it got dark, the bugs really came out. I was getting eaten alive, so Birthday and I went inside. Stephanie had bought a pie for dessert from a local bakery, so we all watched the Yankees game and ate some pie in the living room.

Mike and Stephanie are just awesome. The kindness that the extended to a few strangers is truly remarkable.