Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

The weirdest part of the journey home was waking up in the Northern Peaks Motel in Gorham, NH, less than 48 hours after summiting Mt. Katahdin.

M and I planned to stay in Millinocket, ME (the town closest to Baxter State Park) for a few days, just to rest and make travel plans and let the whole experience soak in for a little while. However, by Monday morning, we were feeling kind of antsy, so we checked out of our motel and headed for the diner, hoping to find some other hikers and to get a ride. However, the day was dreary, with more rain on the way, and it didn't look like many people were going to be passing through Millinocket that day. We decided to try to hitchhike, just to see if we could get anywhere. Well, it was ridiculously easy, and with two rides, we found ourselves 100 miles south in the town of Bangor. We rented a car and hit the road. M and I have a general policy that we don't take interstates, unless absolutely necessary, so we followed several two lane country roads that roughly follow the course of the AT. That night, we ended up back in Gorham, NH. There were a few hikers in town, but it was weird to talk to them, since they still have 3-4 weeks left of their journey and we were done.

It rained pretty heavily the next day, but we continued on our way through New Hampshire, Vermont and New York. Around dinnertime, we ended up stopping for a couple of hours to go to the movies. That night we stayed near Wilkes-Barre, PA. By morning, the skies had cleared and the drive home through Pennsylvania was beautiful. We resisted the urge to stop and go for a hike in the Allegheny National Forest, since we had to return the car to the airport by 3 pm. After dropping the car off, we took the bus back into town, where we met M's mom for lunch. We had a couple of beers at Peter's Pub while we were waiting for her to finish work and class, and then drove back to Saxonburg with her.

I guess today is the official first full day back in town. Now, we're suddenly removed from our former routine that consisted of eating, hiking and sleeping (and playing cribbage, of course). I've taken more showers in the past couple of days than I did in the previous month. We've been giddy over picking out clothes to wear...after wearing the same clothes every day for months, it's pretty exciting to change your underwear every day.

We're happy to be home, but we're homesick for the trail. M even cooked oatmeal for breakfast this morning, which I thought for sure he would have sworn off that stuff for life.

So, what's next? Everybody's asking...all I can say is, stay tuned.