Day 104 (10/26): Thunder hill ridge shelter to Jenkins creek

Miles today: 14
Total miles: 1434.2

It was so cold last night. Being in my tent definitely helped keep me a bit warmer but I was for sure pushing the limits of my 15 degree sleeping bag. I slept with my head completely under my sleeping bag and slept pretty well given the frigid temperatures. I did wake up at 430 am a bit cold and on the verge of being uncomfortable but was able to fall back asleep. I woke up at 730 delighted to find I’d survived the night. However, waking up meant I had to get out of my sleeping bag and I was not excited for that. I had an actual time limit too because we were meeting deltas parents at 2 pm so I had no time to be lazy. Delta kindly brought me my food bag so I was able to eat breakfast in my sleeping bag in my tent and put off getting up for as long as possible. Finally I put on every item of clothing I have and mustered up the motivation to get up.

Wow was it cold! I packed up as quick as possible and finally warmed up as I got walking. There was frost on the ground everywhere. Brrrr. The hiking was pretty easy and mostly downhill and we made decent time. We passed two guys out for the weekend and one of them told us his gun must’ve fallen out of his holster while he was hiking. He followed this up by saying if we came across the gun it was ours for the keeping! What. Welcome to the south I guess. I don’t think I’d ever seen a gun in person or known someone who owns a gun or even hunts before this trip.

Deltas parents had told him if they got to the road crossing before us they’d start hiking north to come meet us. We got to the road crossing around 230 and found their car empty. Delta called them and found out they had set out hiking… 40 minutes in the wrong direction! Oops.
When his parents returned from their hike, we set out to find a hotel and then go eat at the Home Place. We’ve been hearing about how we need to go to this place since Maine. It’s a family style place where they bring unlimited plates of food to the table and you eat family style until you can’t eat anymore. We got there at what we thought was an early dinner time, around 5 or 530, to find tons of people waiting inside and outside already! This place is popular and not just with hikers. In fact pretty much everyone there was a local. The restaurant was in a house set between mountains with beautiful sprawling fields surrounding it. You could wait inside or outside. We waite in the car for a bit and then came to wait inside because it was chilly to find some entertainment while we waited. In this side room there were all these chairs set up in rows and an older man and his grandson were playing guitar and singing. All their songs were religious and about Jesus and on some of the more well known ones the people watching in the chairs would all join in singing. Wow I am not in the north anymore. I had a good laugh imagining this scene in Boston and how people would react to it. I also saw some guy with a gun in its holster on his belt. Like what? You need to bring your gun out to eat? I don’t think that’s something I’ll ever get used to or be comfortable with.

After waiting an hour or so we got to eat and I was not disappointed. Delta and I are like the professionals we are. It reminded me of a big thanksgiving meal. We did have a funny moment where we’d cleared nearly all the plates except one little bowl. Deltas mom asked why we didn’t eat it and none of us could figure out what it was. We smelled it and it smelled like apples and we realized oh it Must be applesauce! Delta and I scooped some onto our plates and tried it only to scrunch up our noses. It was SO cinnamony. Like almost unbearably so. A few minutes after eating it I had an epiphany. OH MY GOD I said. It was apple BUTTER. We were supposed to put it on our biscuits but instead we just ate it by itself. I’m not cut out for southern living.

After dinner we went back to the hotel–delta and his family are so kind and are letting me stay with them. They enjoyed watching their Ohio state buckeyes on tv but conceded to switching to the World Series during commercials. Yes!