Day 99: A familiar face. 

June 8, 2017

7:32 PM

Total Miles: 1446

Day 98

Tried to sleep in and made it till 7 o clock. Not too shabby. Not too shabby.

We lounged around the hotel till check out at noon.

We had earlier plans for breakfast and central park but the rain was coming down full force.

Once out we had some lunch at shake shack and the rain started to let up.

So we headed to central park.

It was quite beautiful. I feel like if I ever lived in NyC I would be there all the time.

We started to become very sleepy and went up in a rock there and took a nap. I passed out. It was lovely. I feel like I can fall asleep anywhere now.

My favorite statue was the Alice In Wonderland.

From there we headed back and got our belongings together. It was time to head back to Grand Central station. We were to meet my dearest friend.

Tia, one of my best friend that I met in interpreting school decided a week or so ago that she wanted to come out and hike with me if we could work it out.

Nyc was a perfect place for her to come and leave from. And on top of that she knew some people in the town we would end up in on Monday night.

It couldn’t have gone smoother.

The only problem was the plane being delayed because of the nyc storm.

No big deal. She arrived.

We were sitting in the lobby area and next thing I know I see a familiar face in front of mine.

It may have been one of the best things to have happened to me. I jumped up immediately to give her a hug.

Such a weird feeling. Someone who I knew back home, that I had face timed with a couple times, was now out here about to embark on some of this journey with me.

She is one of the best people I have had the pleasure to meet.

She even brought with her one of my resupply boxes so that way I didn’t have to mail it and spend money.

It was planners birthday today too, so I had my parents buy some food that I know she loves and make her favorite granola that way I could give her a bday gift.

She seemed pretty happy about it…

So from there we took the train back to Pawling and then walked a mile back to the same place we camped before nyc.

It is nice to be back. 2 days is a short time but it felt like forever ago.

Nyc was also a little sensory overload but it was a great time.

I’m glad I went and experienced the life a little bit. 

Day 99

Today I woke up early to a beautiful foggy sky.

We headed out around 7 and started walking in hopes to get a hitch back to the trail head.

Today we were walking southbound from Pawling 16 miles to Bills house. Where we stayed for the fourth of July. We contacted him to see if he could take us back to Pawling Sunday morning and we crash there for the night and he immediately said of course!

So we started walking. It is illegal to hitch hike in New York but Alex stuck his thumb out when we heard a car coming and we were lucky enough to get the first car to pull over and take us to the trail head.

He was from London and had been here for ten years. Super lucky we were.

We started the day out and it was such a thrilling experience to be sharing it with Tia.

We got views almost immediately.

A few miles in we walked to a road and I turned around and saw this ginormous tree.

Holy smokes……

“Is this the biggest oak we pass on the AT?!”

Yup. Definitely was.

It was over 20 feet around.

I couldn’t believe my eyes!!!!

Once we got over the huge oak tree we pressed on and came to a gorgeous lake.

Quite a peaceful place.

It was a pretty easy 16 mile day terrain wise which was perfect especially for Tias first day.

She kicked ass with us and we arrived at bills house around 3.

It is unreal to have her here with me.

Bill let us stay in the upper part of his garage so we didn’t have to tent in the rain.

On top of that let us do laundry and shower.

Tia saw a guitar and naturally started a little jam bam.

Planner also stated playing some too.

What talented friend I have!! Yes.  I am jealous. I need to learn to play.

We are currently sitting in his basement relaxing after a yoga video.

I could not feel more lucky.

I’m ready for a solid week back!

Iz and Oz