So after we left the library at Williamsburg we headed toward the East Fork Lake. Tammy, our friend from Owensville came to hike a little with us. We walked a few miles around the lake till we came out on a road that Tammy recognized as being the road her friend lived on. So we called her husband and asked him to meet us there at her friend's house when he brought us dinner. Her friend was not home but her husband was and we sat and visited with him a bit and then Tammy's husband showed up with Arby's. Yummm!! After we ate, it was beginning to get dark and we still had a lean-to shelter to find in the woods. So we hopped in the car and headed down the road to the area the map was saying the lean-to shelter was located. We came across a hunter who was packing up and asked if he knew about the shelter and he pointed us towards it. We drove down a little and asked another hunter about it and he said he knew of it also but it was going to be tough to find since it was dark. Then hunter # 1 came over and said that we might have a better time getting to it if we went down a horse trail that was back where we had firts talked to him. So we backed up to that spot and saddled up and headed into the dark woods. I am sure Tammy was very nervous seeing us walk into the woods in the dark and I am sure Eric comforted her and reminded her we were professionals at this sort of stuff!! Hahaha!! So as we walked down ths mowed pathway Jeff saw two glowing eyes and froze. I thought, "oh no, the animal probably smells our left over Arby's bag we were carrying and was going to try to get some of it." So we got out our hiking poles and put on our armor and I clung to Jeff as we headed right toward those copper eyes that were glowing in the night. I just told myself to trust in the Lord and not be afraid of the terrors of the night. As we got closer I yelled for Jeff not to get too far away cause I did not want there to be any room between us while we were about to walk up on this wild beast! As we approached it Jeff saw the beast face to face and the next thing I heard him say was, "it's a cat", I said, "what kind of cat, a bobcat?!" "No", he said, " it's a house cat!" I walked toward it and sure enough it was an orange tabby cat sitting on a log and it came out and circled our ankles and meowed at us and went back to sit on it's log. "Whew," I thought, "What a relief". Then I thought that will be a good one for the blog and we began cracking up at ourselves!
~Kristin
After our run-in with Garfield we stumbled our way down the trail and found the hiker shelter. It is a 3 sided structure big enough for about 10 people to lay down in. We were the only ones there so we pitched our tent up in the shelter and conked out. The next day we woke up late. I woke up before Kristin and tried eating some of the leftover Arby's. Not a great idea. So I choked down as much as I could stand and "left the rest for Kristin." Then we basically just lounged around all day. We were just worn out. Both physically and mentally, because I guess the last 4 months of walking has begun to take it's toll on us. We just couldn't find the motivation to get up and walk that day. Then a couple of other hikers came up the trail looking quite lost. Come to find out the were looking for an orange flag of some sort that should have been right around the shelter. They were in some sort of big triathalon race and were looking for this flag that had points on it! It sounded like a lot of fun. I imagined for a minute that we were just in a big race and that we were really going to go home and curl up to our dog in our big comfy bed that night. That quickly faded away as I remembered where we were. So Tammy calls and says that they are on their way back from a neighboring town and that they would be passing us in about 15 minutes. We decided to catch a ride with them back to their house. So we stuffed our packs with our gear and hoofed it back to where they had dropped us off. They were surprised that we hadn't walked anywhere and quite frankly, so were we. As soon as we were in the truck I realized that I had left my shades hanging in the shelter. Grrrrr!! I have lost 2 other pairs of sunglasses on this trip and I wasn't about to do it again! So I ran back to the shelter and got them.
~Jeff
Jeff and his sunglasses, he just needs to spray paint them on! So we went to the Averwater's again to spend the weekend with them. We missed them so much the 4 days we were not with them we had to spend another weekend with them. It was wonderful and I am so glad we did. We got to go to dinner with the Galvin's and afterwards we ate icecream at Graeter's! Yummmm..... We went to church with the Averwater's again and the sunday school asked us to share out testimony with them so we did. Then we spent a couple more days there and Tammy and I got some good girl talks in! She is so great and I am so grateful to God for putting her in my path. We finally left the Averwater's on Tuesday morning even though I just wanted to stay there forever! Just a few miles down the road we ran into a nice lady on her bicycle named Betty. She was riding 20 miles, which she did often. She was exited to hear about our journey and she invited us to come stay at her house with her and her husband for the evening just a few miles up the road. So we got her address and headed that way. When we got to their house we met her husband Ken. They were both so hospitable. They let us take showers and gave a nice little room with a hideaway bed to sleep on and then took us out for dinner. We shared our testimony with them and then went to pick up our package that had been sent to the Averwater's. Jeff and I slept well but the morning came way to fast. Betty and Ken made us a wonderful breakfast with scrambled eggs and ham and some delicious zucchini bread. We walked from their house to a little coffee shop in downtown Milford. There was a group of lovely people having coffee that met there every Wednesday. They immediately asked what we were doing and one of the women bought us coffee. Thank you nice woman!! I am sorry I forgot your name! After walking down the street to check out the little shops we headed to the Little Miami bike trail and walked to Meriemont and now we are at a local library updating all our readers on our journey. We are in Cincinnati now and it will probably take 3-4 days to get to the other side depending on what happens while we are here. From here we actually head across the Ohio River and into Kentucky for a few miles to Covington and then back to Cincinnati and to Elizabethtown before crossing the river AGAIN and then we will be in Indiana. Yeah!!!
~Kristin
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