Mariemont, OH to Aurora Indiana (pack a lunch! it's a long one people)

Ok so when we left the Mariemont Library we were feeling pretty hungry so we decided to try and find something to eat. We walked around a while and then finally asked someone where we could get some food and and she pointed toward the town square. After popping into a deli and glancing at the menu, we decided they did not have hiker friendly prices. So we went a couple more blocks to a pizzeria called "La Rosa's". They did not have a sitting area to eat in but the guy who worked there very graciously brought us a little plastic folding table and sat it in front of the bench we were sitting on. It was perfect! All it lacked was a candle and some roses! After we stuffed our faces with pizza, a hikers favorite, we walked down the path following the blue blazes. A few blocks later we looked up and saw a woman walking two boxers. She had a big smile on her face as did we because we love boxers. She immediately inquired to what we were doing? We told her we were walking across America and she asked for what purpose and I just showed her my Jesus necklace and she got really exited! She asked where we were gonna sleep and we told her we usually just find a church or something to camp behind. She told us about her church which was just a couple miles up the road and said they might have a Wednesday service we could go to. As she was trying to explain how to get there a jeep pulled over and the woman immediately started talking to the driver. It was her husband! She explained to him what we were doing and he said he knew someone at the church and he could just drive us over there if we wanted. So we agreed and hopped into his car. As we approached the church Jeff and I were just thinking, wow, that's a huge church!

~ Kristin
This church is just massive and very modern. When we walked in we were hoping that this mega church wasn't going to be one of those churches that is all about money. We have seen that so many times it has made us leery of them, but I felt convicted about judging this church by it's cover. We met with a man there who had been with the church since it's beginning. He was now getting around with a mobility chair and oxygen, but he had everyone in the office emailing around to try and find us a place to stay. What a nice man! He even gave us a tour of the church. It was very nice and very huge. While we were waiting to find out the results of the emails Jerry, the man who took us to the church, said we could at the very least camp in his side yard. He told us he lived right on route 50, and we would be hearing cars go by all night. He said that if we couldn't find anything better we would definitely have a safe place to sleep. Well the emails turned up no available places so Jerry told us that he was going to prayer group at his church back across town and that we could go and maybe someone would have a better option for us than he did. He had some running around to do so he dropped us off at his church early. We waited around there for a while sitting in their cemetery. I had a strong nature call and the church was locked so I left Kristin there to read her Bible and I walked a few blocks over to the convenience store. On the way back I noticed the ominous clouds looming overhead. About the time I noticed the clouds, Jerry calls. He said that his wife Suzzie called him and told him to come and pick us up so we wouldn't get wet. She told him to give us a tour of the area!!! What a great wife/mother thing to do!! Well we hopped back in the car with Jerry and took off down the road. We made it a few blocks down the road when Gil, the man from the mega church, called us. He said that he saw the lightning and he and his wife were going to put us up in the Mariemont Inn!!!!! ~Jeff When Jerry told us what Gil was offering I immediately said that would not be necessary, we could just camp in his yard. He said no, this is what Gil wants to do and it was already decided. I immediately felt that this was too generous of an offer, but we were in the hotel, checked in, and had a key in our hands before we could even say thank you! Gil came by to pay for the room, which Jerry split with him, and say hi but he did not stay long because he had to get home to his wife. Jerry said he would be back in an hour to take us to dinner. So we walked up to our room and opened the door and just stood there in shock at this generous gift! This room had a king size Temperpedic bed and a walk-in shower with multiple shower heads! So after standing in awe for a while and feeling undeserving of such an amazing gift we decided to put the shower to use. One of the walls was a fireplace with a wall painting. Jeff stood beside the painting and said, I think there is a TV behind the painting and then pushed a button on the side of the wall and the painting ascended to reveal a flat screen TV. Jeff and I thought, "uh okay, cool, I like the painting better!".

~Kristin

So after amazing showers and putting on clean clothes we went down stairs to meet up with Jerry, his wife Suzzie, and daughter Rebecca. They wanted to take us out to dinner and then Jerry was going to take us over to the prayer meeting. Dinner was great! They took us to a Cincinnati place called Skyline Chili. For those of you who don't know about skyline chili it consists of a layer of spaghetti, a layer of chili, a layer of beans and onions, and a mound of sharp cheddar cheese!! Delish! We were able to tell them our story over dinner and then we we went to prayer service. That was amazing! I can say that Mariemont Community Church has some great people there. We prayed for the next generation coming up and also for each other and loved ones. It's nice to see people still doing that! We really enjoyed the fellowship there and miss everyone there. So from prayer service Jerry took us back to the Mariemont Inn. We slept great on that Tempurpedic! When we woke up we went to breakfast with Suzzie and Rebecca at the Inn's restaurant. We learned that Gil also paid for our breakfast! God bless you Gil! So we had a wonderful breakfast with Suzzie and Rebecca and after a few minutes it felt as if we had known each other for years. I imagine that if we lived in the area we would be close friends! Of course I don't know if anyone in that family has ever met a stranger either! We parted ways out on the square in front of the Inn where we took pictures and exchanged information. Jerry, Suzzie, Rebecca, and family - may God bless you and keep you, and make his face to shine upon you! May you pray without ceasing together as a family, and grow together in Christ. Thank you so much for everything.

~Jeff

So Jeff and I decided we were going to get an iPhone so we could update the blog more often. We checked out of the hotel and found out where the nearest ATT store was located and walked over that way, which was about 4 miles. We made it to the store and looked around at their merchandise for a while before a sales person was available. So...I have not talked about Jana yet so I am just gonna throw her in right here. When Jeff was little bitty toe-headed boy he had a babysitter named Jana, who moved to Cincinnati over fifteen years ago. When she moved there Jeff's mom drove up to Cincinnati with a daybed in her car to visit her. We had talked to her about a week before we got there and she said she would love to see us. So we called her once we were in Cinci and she said she could pick us up Thursday evening wherever we were. So we called her from the ATT store and she said she could come get us in an hour from then. So we did some business with the ATT people as we watched out the window for a silver Civic, that's what she said she would be driving. Just as we finished making our purchase for our new handy dandy phone we looked out the window and called Jana and she was sitting in her car right outside in the parking lot waving at us! We went outside, gave her hugs, and shoved our big packs in her trunk and drove off into the traffic of Cincinnati. As we pulled into Jana's driveway 2 of her 4 children were just getting off the bus, Julia her 11 year old and Ben her 8 year old. Jana's husband Tom was also waiting at the door. Their teenage boys were going to be home later. Tom went back to work and we got to know Jana and the kids while she made ice tea and coffee. When Tom and the teenage boys, Luke and Joseph, got home we all decided that Skyline Chili sounded good. Jana said we did not have to eat there since we already had it for dinner the previous day but we insisted because it was that good and how often were we going to be in Cincinnati! After we had our second helping of 5-way chili, ice-cream from Graeter's, was next on the list. Graeter's has been mentioned on the previous blog but we recently found out it's all natural and Oprah loves it so much she has it flown in!! Tom and Jana had all kinds of questions about our journey but we wanted to wait and tell them our testimony first because it answers a lot of them. However we were pretty tired and decided to postpone the long story for the next evening. Joe and Luke let us sleep in their beds even though we told them we were fine with our tent. However, Jana insisted we take the beds.

~ Kristin

The next morning we woke up and everyone had left for their respective jobs and schools. We found the coffee still hot and hung out in their living room watching the news and playing with our new phone. It's so hi-tec that it kinda scares us a little. Anyway, a few hours went by and Kristin gets a hankering for some Indian food. Well the minute she mentioned Indian food my mouth instantly started to water like Pavlov's Dog (to quote Jana) and I just had to have it too!! I think they put crack in the food over there or something. So we looked up some restaurants near by and called Jana to see if we could use their bikes to pedal across town to eat some Indian food. She said that would be fine but that they were locked up and the Key was on Tom's keys ring! So she called Tom and he said that he was getting ready to go on his lunch break and that he would come over and unlock the bikes for us. What a great guy!! Thanks Tom! So Tom made sure the bikes were in good working order and warned us about this big hill between us and the restaurant. Then he left for work. Well Kristin and I pointed our handle bars east and just followed our noses to India! As we rounded the curve our bikes began to pick up speed. We looked ahead and realized that we were looking out across all of eastern Cincinnati! It was a great vista. The only problem was that we were REALLY high above the city. As we were smoking the breaks on their bikes screaming down this road off the side of this "hill" at warp 5 I had a thought, "we're going to have come back up this monster after stuffing our faces with spicy Indian food!" There were no shoulders on either side of the road and tons of cars everywhere, but our taste buds were dragging us down that "hill." Fast forward 3.5 miles and we are chaining the bikes up to the pole out front of the restaurant. When we went in, the place was packed with people of every color and nationality! Kristin and I looked at each other and knew instantly that we were in the right place! It was some of the best Indian food we've had, except for Himalaya's back home of course, and we were so glad we rode over. Although the slow and grueling process of pushing our bikes back up that "hill" to Tom & Jana's was annoying, it was worth every bite. So we finally arrived back at the house and we were both in need of a nap from the food/workout coma setting in. Kristin zonked out on the bed and I on the couch. Before we knew it Jana and the kids were home and we were doing our best just to keep up with them! I think I blinked and stretched, and Jana was cleaning up from making a huge pot of chicken soup and something called Ooie Gooie Sticky Cake. Or something to that "flavor."

~Jeff

When I heard all the family home I got up from my nap and drug myself upstairs to see how everyone's day went. I can not imagine having 4 kids with all of them being in at least 2 extracurricular activities. I think I would need a personal assistant!! I have much respect for you Jana!! Soon after I got up the house began to fill up with the delicious smell of chicken noodle soup. Before we knew it dinner was done! It was delicious! We shared our testimony with them and talked about how God deals with everyone differently and how we are all at different steps in our walk of faith and then Julia and Ben brought out the Ooie Gooie cake and served us all. It was so good my mouth is watering just thinking of it!! The next day was Saturday and all the kids had some sort of recreational sport function to attend so we decided to get out of their hair and get back to our pilgrimage. It was such a pleasure meeting this family and we are so grateful to have been able to spend time with them. Jana and Luke dropped us off in Eden Park, where we began walking the trail again. As soon as we got out of the car, Jeff said he felt car-sick and he needed to sit down for a minute or he was gonna puke! When you don't get in a car very often and then you do once and a while and ride at high speeds down a highway, it can throw your equilibrium off a little. So I walked around looking a squirrels and things while Jeff regained his strength. While we were sitting on the side of this road a woman walked by with a miniature black poodle in a purple sweater and bows on it's ears. It was the cutest thing I had to go say hi!! Her owner approved but said our backpacks may scare her. She was okay when I walked up to her but as soon as she saw Jeff she started barking like she was ready to attack!! I can understand, he is starting to look a little bit like Sasquatch!!! If I was her I would have barked too!!!!! Well after that we decided to find the Cincinnati Art Museum, so we headed toward the general direction of it's location and asked someone to point us to its exact location. They pointed us towards this short cut that led up some really old stairs through the park. It was really neat! Hopefully we can post some pictures soon! We walked into the museum knowing they might not let us in with our huge backpacks but thankfully the guy at the front desk said we could leave them with him and he would watch them for us. Thanks museum entrance man!!! We wandered around the museum looking at sculptures, paintings from all over the world. They even had a temporary exhibit of wedding dresses from the 1800's to the 1960's. It was interesting what women would wear on their big day! You would just have to see it to know what I am talking about. While looking at the art I thought about how I used to enjoy things like that but now I feel that all that stuff is so meaningless. It is all going to pass away some day and it's just stuff that someone once owned and is now in a huge building for people to come and stare at. Oh well..... So we got our packs from the front desk and headed to down-town Cincinnati where we stopped to see some amazing views of the river and the skyline. We walked through the Bicentennial Park where there were sculptures of some Roman dude named Cincinnatus and a flying pig! Many people were out walking their dogs which made us miss Boomer and maybe a little homesick. We went under a bridge where someone had sat an upright piano painted all colorful with clouds and such. We both had a little moment of playing it and moved on toward the suspension bridge where we would cross over into Covington, Kentucky.

~Kristin


We walked across the old suspension bridge that was closed to automobiles so it could be a nice new coat of blue paint. We watched a few barges go down the Ohio and took some pictures of the Bengal's Stadium. When we reached land on the other side we were in Kentucky. We looked on our new sci-fi phone and found a few places to get something to eat, but none of them had hiker-friendly prices so we found a skyline chili a few blocks away and headed for it. When we reached the skyline, it was closed! It was the weekend and we were downtown, so I can't blame them for being closed I guess. Anyway, just a few doors down was a nice Chinese place so we stopped in there. It was pretty good, and the prices were just right! So we ate lunch and headed off to find the trail. The trail took us through Covington on 6th street. We passed a place where they had a wine tasting going on that spanned 3 city blocks! We would have liked to stop and try some but we weren't quite dressed for the occasion. We met a guy carrying a big pack going the opposite direction and stopped to talk to him, but it was kinda hard to decipher where he was headed because he was obviously stoned out of his gourd! Poor fella. So we made it to the base of the "hill" where Devou Park was and met a couple working in their yard. They were nice enough to give us some water and tell us that there were some old steps back in the woods that would take us up to the top of the park where the lookout was and we could bypass the dangerous curvy road. We talked to them for a bit and then took off to find these stairs from the 1930's. Well at the hairpin curve in the road we walked back into the woods and found the steps. They were old and crumbling, and had a vibe about them that would come straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. Think Ancient Aztec City undiscovered by modern man and you got the picture. A bazzillion steps later we reached the top! Here we are, out of breath, sweating, and making all kinds of noise with our hiking poles on the stairs, and when we crested the top there are a whole bunch of people standing like 40 yards away looking right at us! Turns out we walked right up into the lookout where there were like 4 separate weddings going on!! It was hilarious! I was so proud about making it up those steps that when all those people were staring at us I just threw my arms up in the air and said, "YES! MADE IT!" A bunch of people just laughed and went back to looking out over the city. And what a view it was! Just beautiful. You could see all of Cincinnati, Covington, Norfolk, and some other City I forgot. Plus the Great Ohio river was smack dab in the middle of the picture! We stood there for a while talking to people and taking in the vista before heading down the road to find a place to camp. We walked to the other end of the parking lot and decided to sit down at the park where a ton of kids were playing on the jungle gym and people were having a cookout and playing corn hole. We sat there and tried to get caught up on the blog and filled up on our water. After about an hour we decided it was time to go because there weren't any places to camp around there and we had several more miles to get back into Ohio. We were walking down this nice asphalt trail meandering across the top of the ridge lined with mansions and a golf course when we heard, "There aren't any mountains around here! What are you doing?" We looked up and saw an older couple pushing a baby stroller.

~Jeff

The couple was playing frisbee with a golden retriever when we saw them. The woman looked like she probably lived in this upscale neighborhood and when we told her what we were doing she said, "No your not!" and we said, "yes, we are" and she said, "your kidding!" So I told her she was right we just walk around places with hiking poles wearing big backpacks telling people we are walking across America. Right about then a man came with his dog which he was walking on a leash. By the way there was a sign posted that said you must have your dog on a leash. The golden retriever was not however on a leash and it ran up to this poor man's little dog and started attacking it. The woman who was talking to us just started saying no to her dog while her husband ran up to try to pry the dog's teeth from the other dog's throat. I said, "sir is your dog ok?!!" The woman said, "oh she was just barking!" Jeff and both just looked at each other and said, "well, have a good one, bye!" As we walked through the rest of Devou Park and down a road by a golf course we came out to a little township called Ludlow where there were three guys geocaching. They said they had been at it since early in the morning and they had already found about 15. We talked to them for a minute and left them to find their treasure. We walked a few more miles into a town called Bromley. We came upon a Baptist church that had a pretty big yard and walked back to see if it would be a good place to camp. I saw some woods and headed down into them where there was a little spot canopied with trees right beside the Ohio River. It looked like a spot homeless people may camp but it did not have any traces of recent activity by anyone so we decided to call it home for the night! When we sat down I looked around and saw a big sink hole looking thing at least 10 feet wide and I went to look in it to see what made it but could not really tell. Then I turned around and saw a sign posted on the tree that said something about a warning for Sewer overflow! EWWWWW!!! Oh well, it did not look like any rain was in the forecast so we decided it would be safe for the night. When we woke up the next morning we packed up, hoping this little township might have place we could get some eggs and coffee, but after searching a couple blocks we decided to get out our handy dandy sci-fi phone out and see where google map suggested. The only things we saw were all across the river so we decided to walk towards Anderson Ferry, where we would take the ferry back across to Ohio in West Cincinnati.

~Kristin

We walked down a nice two lane road that bordered the river for a few miles with vivid fall trees all around and the occasional sunday driver passing by. When we reached the Historic Anderson Ferry we waited for the cars to unload and load before walking on. We were greeted by Capt. Shawn who was playing deck hand that day. He was instantly friendly and very curious to know where we were headed and what we were doing. We talked to him, and a guy in his car on the ferry, for the duration of the ride and before we went back ashore, Capt. Shawn gave us his card. He said that he owned a marina about a mile and a half down the road and if we needed a safe place to stay that he would be happy to let us stay there! We were very appreciative and gave him our card that my sister had made up for us! So when we got off the ferry we headed for the United Dairy Farmers. (That is a chain of nicer convenience stores around here) We ate some super nutritious donuts, coffee, and microwave food, and got the maps out to see where the trail went. We hung out at the store for a while (they had an ice-cream shop inside with tables and chairs) and then decided to get on down the road. We had also been looking for a place to print off the map for several days now with no luck. We had only enough map to get us to the Ohio/Indiana border, and we were a day's walk from there. We made it a few miles down the road when one of us said, "Wouldn't it be awesome if we just got a canoe and took it down the Ohio to the Mississippi River in Missouri?" Well we talked about this for a few minutes then decided to sit down and talk seriously about it! We've walked over 900 miles at this point and our bodies are taking a beating!! This sounded like a great way to get another 700 miles across the country and it wouldn't be walking. It was such an alluring idea that we decided to pursue it seriously. We turned around and headed back for Cincinnati! If we were going to find a canoe, we were going to have better chances of finding one back there. So we walked back to Anderson Ferry and to the Bar-n-Grill across the street. We went in and called the Captain. We told him our idea and he said that he would call around to see if he could find us a canoe! Well after an hour or so he called back with no luck on finding us a canoe. He did however offer us his Marina again as a home base of operations while we were looking for one. He said to go to the address on the card he gave us and walk down to the marina. We thought that sounded like a terrific idea! By this time it is late afternoon and Kristin and I are hungry again. We ordered some food and huddled around the Iphone to look for canoes on craigslist. We were looking for one that was dirt cheap or free so obviously we didn't find one. We spent several hours at the bar-n-grill and then decided to walk back to the marina. We found it and as soon as we came down the walkway Capt. Shawn was there to greet us. He lives on the first boat there! He showed us the head boat where we could stay. It was basically a floating house next to a 110' luxury yacht! It was so cool to stay there on the river in a floating house at the marina! One of our most memorable overnights for sure. We talked with Shawn for a while as the sun was setting over the last bend in the river with the most beautiful colors. All with boats, and barges, and birds, and other river dwellers living out their daily lives seemingly taking it all for granted. Except for Capt. Shawn, he had that certain glint in his eyes as he was talking about river life watching the sun set. You could just see that he knew days like this were special, and that he was living every minute with the utmost reverence for the river way of life. What a site indeed! We even got to do our laundry which made it even better! We told Shawn that we would know by the next day if we were really going to be getting a canoe or not, and we would not be abusing his offer to use the head boat. We fell asleep to the gentle rocking of the river serenading us to off to dream land! When we woke up we packed up our things and said farewell to Capt. Shawn. During the night Kristin and I talked about the canoe thing and realized that it would be AWESOME to do, but not really cost friendly. If the Lord really wanted us to canoe down the Ohio river He would provide a boat for us. We were just trying too hard to make it a reality. So we left the marina with hopes that a canoe would fall from the sky and land in front of us with two oars and life vests on board! So since that didn't happen immediately, we re-focused our energy on something more attainable. BREAKFAST! We hailed a cab and told her to take us downtown to the best greasy spoon restaurant she knew of! She got a smile on her face and laid the hammer down, and I swear that cab grew wings and a jet engine!! She flew us to the middle of downtown Cincinnati to a little hole in the wall place called the sports page. She said that they serve breakfast all day and that the Goetta was especially good there! We said "PERFECT!"

~Jeff (still shaky from the cab ride)

After a great breakfast and some caffeine we decided to go to the library to type some on the blog. We walked into the lobby of this ginormous place and Jeff decided he better stay outside and wait for me. I asked where the computers were and they pointed to the second floor. I got on the elevator and rode up to a room filled with computers and people. Now these were not just your average kind of people! There were yellow haired ones, blue haired ones, spiky haired ones, and ones that looked like they belonged to the band "Gwar"!!!! If you do not have a mental image yet, you can look them up on the internet. I had to wait a good 20 minutes before a computer was available. So I sat at a table with my backpack just watching all these people, who appeared to have no where to go, watch movies on the internet. Then an older man came and sat at the table with a leather book holder. I thought it looked like a bible but I was not sure until he unzipped it and pulled it out. I said, "I like your book!" He looked at me and said, "thanks, it's a pretty good one!" Then I said, "like the best one ever written!!" He smiled and said his name was Ed. He shared his daily devotional with me and I told him that my husband and I were walking across America for Christ and then he had to go. He shook my hand and said, "Kristin I will pray for you and your husband if you will pray for me", and then he was gone. I thought, "what a nice thing for God to do." He had a bible carrying old man come and sit by me at this crazy library in downtown Cincinnati. It is little things like that that really make me appreciate our pilgrimage! When I looked over at the computer I had been assigned to, it was free so I went over to get started on this blog, which is probably the longest one ever!!!!!!!!! Jeff texted me and said the bus that would take us back to West Cincinnati was leaving soon so I had to rap up my library session so we could hop on the bus. We got to the bus stop with some time to spare so we sat on the bench and I sang songs about the Most High while waiting, hoping they might touch someone! At the end of our bus ride a man who got on when we did came and sat by us and started talking to us. I think he asked where we were headed. We told him what we were doing and why and he immediately started talking about the bible and Jesus. We continued talking about the things of God and he told us a little bit of his testimony and we told him some of ours and then we all got off on the last stop of the bus route. The driver said that was as far west as she could take us. We thanked her and got off the bus in front of Shamrock bar and grill. I was very thankful because I was about to pee my pants! I used the facilities and asked where our next directions were and we headed west! The story of our lives!!! We walked a couple miles into Cleeves and ate at a local restaurant named after it's owner, Nick. We had a great home cooked meal and when we were checking out we were telling the waitress and a man, who appeared to be a chef or something, about our journey. We were asking if they knew of a church or a park we could possibly camp in and they said there really was not a place in the area. The man said he would not camp anywhere in that neighborhood. So we said, "I am sure we will find a place." Before we left, as I was heading to the powder room, the man said, "don't go anywhere!" I told him we were not leaving yet, that I was just using the bathroom. On the way back he said I have a friend who lives just down the way who will let you camp on his property. We said, "wow, really!!? Thank you so much!" He took off his apron and pulled his truck around and we hopped in! He said he was the owner of the restaurant, his name was Nick. He drove us just a couple miles down the road to some land that had a giant pavillion and a 20ft high swing set. It was perfect!!! We had heard there was rain in the forecast so we were very grateful to have a place which we could keep our tent dry. He said the owner of the property, Rusty, would probably be down to visit us in a few minutes. We thanked him once again and he headed back to the restaurant as we sat on the giant swing set watching the sun set.

~Kristin

We had our tent set up under the pavilion and our beds made before the sun set. It wasn't long before Rusty came down for a visit. He opened the door to the storage room where there were bottles of water and pop in the fridge, with stacks of lawn furniture calling my name! He told us we could help ourselves to anything in the fridge and to make our selves at home! Then he went over and unlocked the bathrooms for us! All without even really knowing who we were!! I guess Nick and Rusty must be pretty good friends. Rusty was very nice and stayed for a few minutes and chatted with us about our trip and his horseback riding trips. He had a few things to do and told us that he might be back down a little later. So we pulled out a few lawn chairs and popped open a Coke as we relaxed the night away! Pretty soon the wind picked up and nudged us into our tent to crawl into our warm sleeping bags. We were just lying in there talking about the last few days when we heard a car and an ATV pull up. It was Rusty, his wife Pattie, and their friend Ken! They all came down to talk with the crazy hikers. Well we all sat around in lawn chairs and talked for a few hours. They were all so nice and Ken had some funny stories to tell about he and Rusty. Apparently a few that Pattie didn't know about too! It was great because we don't usually get too many "house guests." So after a great night of conversation we all decided it was time to turn in and we all took pictures and left for our respective beds. We sure didn't have to walk far! Ha! So after a GREAT nights sleep, (I think that was the first night I slept all the way through the night) we were greeted by a voice in the morning saying, "Anybody awake in there?!?!" I stepped out of the tent and saw Rusty on his monster golf cart with his two black lab buddies! They were Moon Dog and Winnie. Rusty said, "sorry it's early but do you guys want to come up for breakfast and a shower?" We said "Of Course!" So Kristin and I piled on the cart with Rusty. Winnie and Moon Dog rode in my lap the whole way back to the house! How great it was to wake up and hug on a big lab while riding on a monster golf cart up a gorgeous driveway in the "hills." So when we pulled up to the house Rusty told us it was his mother's house. When we walked in his mother was there to greet us and asked if we drank coffee. This day is just getting better! We got to eat eggs and bear claws with OJ and coffee with Rusty and his mom. It was great! Pattie even came over for a bit. Kristin and I both got to take showers and Rusty even got his mother to sew up the huge rip in the seat of my pants!! It was starting to get a bit drafty down there! So we made some new friends and I got my britches stitched up and they sent us on our way with full stomachs and even more full hearts! We packed up our tent and tidied up the pavilion and set off for Indiana!! We walked a few miles and soon came to Elizabethtown, Ohio. This is where the American Discovery Trial splits into a southern route and a northern route. We flagged down a park ranger and sweet talked him into taking some pictures for us to capture this monumental occasion. He was delighted to do so! He told us a little about where we were headed and wished us a safe journey. So we walked on down the road until we reached State Line Road. It was neat walking down this road because for a mile or so Ohio was on the right side of the road and Indiana was on the left. We finally came to a T in the road where State Line intersects US 50, and we saw a state boundary marker. We were officially in INDIANA!!! It seems crazy to think that we have walked across Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, and now OHIO! We ate some lunch at a little diner there at the state line and skipped on down the road deeper into Indiana. For some reason we had a little extra bounce in our step that afternoon! :)

~Jeff

We did not skip too far actually. We just went across the street to State Line Restaurant and got some grub! We have been eating at restaurants a lot in the past week because there is not really anywhere in the city we can just build a fire. Well technically I guess we could but it is probably illegal! So we had chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes and corn and a roll! It was belly fillin' good!! We wiped the gravy from the corner of our lips and saddled back up and headed to Lawrenceburg Indiana where we would get on a bike trail that followed the Ohio river called the Dearborn Trail. It was about 4 miles from the restaurant. By the time we got there I was so tired and my feet were ready to call it quits for the day. We walked through town to the CVS and I knew we were about out of wet wipes and I would be very upset if we got out of town and did not have a way to bathe!! So we stocked up on a travel pack of Wet Ones! When we left the CVS we looked across the street and saw a DUNKIN DONUTS!! We both looked at each other and said let's go get some donuts!! You might be thinking it seems like all we do is walk and eat, and you are right! We wake up, walk till we are hungry, eat, walk again, eat, and then walk to find a place to camp and sometimes eat again and then go to sleep! The next day we do it all over again!! Sounds like fun doesn't it?!! So after eating at Dunkin Donuts twice we walked to the Dearborn Trail as the sun was setting. We were hoping we would find some woods to camp in before it got to dark. After walking about a mile and a half I saw a path way that cut in behind some trees and just walked in like I knew where I was going. It just so happened to be an open field that had weeds short enough to put up a tent. So we thanked the Lord and put up our tent, typed a bit more on this crazy long blog and got a phone call from Jim Shaner, the prayer walker who came to see us on the C &O canal and at Dolly Sods. He just so happened to be prayer walking in Indiana and he was calling to see if we wanted to go with him to the Creation Museum. We thought that sounded like a lovely idea and so we now have plans for Thursday to go to the Creation Museum with our pal Jim Shaner!! After we got off the phone I slid down a little farther into my sleeping bag, cinched it up, and passed out until 11:3o when a train went by. The camp sight was about 30 feet from the train tracks. When we woke up in the morning it was soooooo cold and I realized my down sleeping bag was not doing a very good job so it probably needs to be washed. Jeff said about 8 trains went by last night but all I heard were 2. I must have been out of it! We finally mustered up enough energy to get out of our sleeping bags and packed up and headed toward Aurora on the Dearborn Trail. When we got to Aurora we asked if there was a diner near by and a nice lady who was pumping her gas said she would just take us to it because it was easier than explaining how to get there. On the way there we told her what we were doing and she thought that it was great. She then gave me a a plastic green frog she pulled out of her pocket. She said, "do you know what it is?" I said, "a frog?" She said it stands for "Fully Rely On God!" She said I could have it. What a sweet lady! She showed us where the library was and dropped us off at the diner so we could get a hot meal! We had our usual, eggs, hashbrowns, toast and coffee! After breakfast we walked just across the street to the library where we are now and are now finished typing this blog! Yeah!!!!!! I hope it did not wear you out reading it. We will try to update more often now that we are caught up. I hope you enjoyed our journey through the big city. It was very interesting to say the least! It felt like Sodom and Gomorrah at times, but hey it is a big city! What else can you expect!?

Blessings and Shalom,

~Kristin

Wiliamsburg, OH to Meriemont, OH (by way of Tammy's again!)

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

Peebles, OH to Williamsburg, OH

Ok, so we prayed about which way to go. If we stayed on the trail it would have taken us 111 miles to go to a town 30 miles away. We did not feel convicted to stay on the trail so we decided to go the shorter route. Well after mapping out our route at the library, and printing off the directions for the new route, we started down the road. We started walking around 4:30pm. We made it maybe a mile down the road and we saw a church with a nice pavilion behind it. It was Peebles Baptist Church. We then noticed that they were going to be having a Wednesday night bible study so we decided to stick around and go the bible study. We were also hoping that they would let us stay in their pavilion out back since it would be dark after the service. We waited until 6:00 and went on in the church. We were warmly welcomed as guests, and Pastor Wells made sure that we were brought up to speed on what they had been talking about before starting. They were going through the book of Daniel. The bible study was great. We discussed the things in Daniel, and the pastor was right on! It's nice to hear a pastor who preaches the truth, because it doesn't always occur in some of today's churches. After bible study ended they started asking questions about our story so we told them. They were very excited to hear about how we were walking by faith and trusting in God. It was what the bible study was all about!! So we talked WAY after it was time to leave and we asked if it would be alright if we could camp behind the church in the pavilion. Well they all looked at each other and started talking about how cold it was going to get that night and the pastor asked the small congregation there if anyone objected to us sleeping in one of the back classrooms of the church. They all eagerly agreed that it would be the right thing to do. It is so wonderful to meet people who profess Christ to be their Lord and then have the actions to prove it. After exchanging information and bidding each other farewell with long good-bye's, we headed over to the back of the church to cook our dinner and get a good nights rest. It had been a few days since we had slept well. We've had a few nights of cars going by all night and cows serenading us until morning. So this safe and quiet place to sleep was a real blessing that couldn't have come at a more perfect time. We were also happy to have a quiet nights sleep that night because we knew that we had 3 days of walking down a very busy and very noisy 4 lane interstate. So we slept like babies and it was great!





~Jeff



When we awakened the next morning we decided to pack up and go to the McDonald's down the street to get our coffee fix and pollute our bodies with disgustingly delicious cardboard food! On the way out the door we saw a guy in the church, Jeff said, "How's it goin'', and we left. The guy said, "hi", and just had a puzzled look on his face. When we got to McDonald's we ordered our food and I sat down and as we sat down Jeff was approached by the man we saw in the church before we left. The man was shouting in Jeff's face about us not having permission to be in the church. Jeff told him the pastor had given us permission, but he said nobody had authority to tell anyone to be in HIS church except him. Jeff said, "really! Are you Christ?" The man got furious and continued to yell at us. I told him he was not being very Christlike and he continued to exercises his authority and making sure that all of McDonald's knew that he was the only one who had the right to let someone sleep in his church. He said he was a trustee of the church. I thought, "whatever that means!" I told him it was obvious that it is not Christ that he is serving and I told him I was going to call the pastor and he said, "go ahead and call him, I am the one who has authority of that church!" So then he said he was calling the cops and then he left. As he was going out the door Jeff asked him from across the room, "Hey wait, how do you know a Christian?" The man paused with a puzzled look, but no anwser. Jeff said, and I'm sure all of McDonald's heard, "BY THEIR FRUIT!" He just muttered something under his breath and left. I called the pastor and he said he was sorry and that that guy was not going to be on the board of trustees after this month. I think that explains his disposition. Perhaps he was bitter because he was about to lose his power! I hope God shows him how ungodly his behavior was and he is humbled by that experience. As for Jeff and I we were definitely humbled by the persecution we received. It is just sad to see the persecution coming from someone who professes to know Christ! On top of all that, he was wearing the church's sweatshirt. It said in big white letters on his back, "PEEBLES BAPTIST CHURCH." What a sad witness for that church.

So shortly after the guy left, the cops showed up and we were glad to show them our id's and give them the pastor's # and tell them what was going on. They said that there had been some break-in's to churches and they just had to make sure there was nothing unlawful going on. After they left, I sipped on my coffee a little while longer and then we headed down Measley Ridge Road where we came to a business called "Cedar Works". I had to use the powder room so I went in to see if I could use theirs. As I was using the bathroom, an Amish gentleman walked in and was talking to Jeff. He asked if we wanted to sit and talk for a bit. We agreed and went into the conference room to chat. He had just been reading a book about a guy who walked all over the world named, Steven Newman. So he was fascinated and wanted to hear more about our journey and so he invited us to come and have dinner and spend the night with him and his wife at their home. I was so exited because I have been wanting to spend time with an Amish family for a couple of years now. God knew that this would be the perfect time for that, I think that is why we took the shortcut that we did. So the Amishman, Mr. Keim, drew us a map of how to get to his house, which was only 4 or so miles and we said we would meet him there.

As we were walking down OH 32, Mr Keim and his working partner pulled up in a van and asked if we wanted to ride with them to his house, they were going home for lunch. We said we were content walking but we put our backpacks in the van so we could slack-pack. The views of the valley and the mountains were beautiful! When we got to the house we were greeted by Mrs. Keim dressed in a humble blue Amish dress and a head covering. She invited us in and gave us a cold cup of water. "How scriptural!" We got to know Mrs. Keim a bit and then took some showers. Yes showers. These Amish are not the more conservative that I have read about. They have running water and a refrigerator that uses propane to power it. They do not have electricity though. When Mr. Keim got home we helped him with a little project, putting cedar blocks together to put around a flower bed. One of their sons and grandsons came over and met us. His grandson stayed for dinner. Dinner was wonderful! After dinner we cleaned up so we could go for a horse and buggy ride! Yeah!!! After going on a trip down the road to check out the Herb festival that was being set up for this weekend we went back to their home to visit with each other. I had asked Mr. Keim to share some history of the Amish people with me and so he did. It was fascinating! Then Mrs. Keim wanted to hear our testimony and they thought that it was fascinating as well. Mr. Keim said he would be glad to take us to Williamsburg because he and his work partner were going that way anyway. We told him we would pray about it. I think he secretly wanted us to stay a couple more days. We would have loved to but Jeff and I have been feeling for a couple of days that the Lord is quickening our spirits to get farther down the path for some reason. So in the morning we had both decided to take the ride. We had a wonderful breakfast with the Keim's before we left and we said prayers for each other.

On the way to Williamsburg we stopped at a scrap metal junk yard and that was quite a site. They had these huge machinery that looked like dinosaurs that would just come grab something out of the trailer and toss it in a heaping pile of other metal junk. I was amazed that man had come up with such things and wondered how long it would take to learn how to operate one of those metal beasts without hurting someone! Jeff said probably a couple months of hands-on training. We then drove down the highway a few more miles and got to the town of Williamsburg. There was road work keeping us from going into town so we just said we would get out there and walk the rest of the way. After they drove away Jeff looked over and guess what he saw? A BLUE BLAZE TRAIL MARKER!! They had unknowingly dropped us off right on the trail! God works in mysterious ways indeed. Now we are at the library updating all our readers. I hope you are enjoying our journey as much as we are!

I am so grateful for all the friends we are making on this journey. God is so gracious to have us cross paths with all of those we have met. We pray for all of God's saints often and ask him to bless you and keep you. We miss everyone back home and cannot wait to see you again. Peace be with you all!



~Kristin

Back on the trail in Peebles

Tammy was such a blessing and we cannot wait to be in her company again. Bill, the brother from the church we attended with the Averwater's, drove us to the little town of Sinking Springs, popultation 130! Bill felt a little nervous dropping us off in the middle of town on the side of the road but he said he knew that is what we do and he gave us a hug and prayed for us. As we watched him drive off, we were so grateful to have met him. A nice fellow on his ATV told us where everything in town was and pointed us to the mayors house. We knocked on the door and nobody answered so we walked to the other church in town, Grace Bible Chirch, and nobody was there so we found the community center where there was a kids gymnastics class going on. The teacher just so happened to be a member of the Grace Bible Church and called to make arrangements for us to stay there. As we were sitting on the porch of the church reading the bible and picking out grass burrs a woman and her children from across the street came over and said hello. They were the preacher man's son's family. A few minutes later the preacher man's son came over and asked if we would like to come over for hot chocolate and a warm meal. We took them up on the offer and were so glad we did. After meeting them for a while we all gathered around the piano and sang hymns for at least an hour. His wife was a terrific piano player. Once we sang through everyone's favorite hymns we decided to call it a night and head over to the church and get some shut-eye!
The next morning we walked to Serpent's Mound which is a Native American effigy site where New Agers go to worship creation during the summer solstice. We decided to read God's Holy word while sitting at the serpent's head!! We walked another 5 miles to a community called Louisville and camped at a little white church. We looked at the maps and decided we have a decision to make. We can stay on the Buckeye Trail and it will take 111 miles to get to Williamsburg or we can get off the Buckeye Trail and it will only take 30 something miles. So we are praying about that right now as I type this. So if you read this on Wednesday October 6th feel free to pray that God would give us direction on this matter.
May the Lord bless all our readers and keep them, and make his face to shine upon them!!

~The Vandagriffs

Richmonddale OH to Butler Christian Camp in Sinking Springs

The last night we spent with Connie and Mike in Richmond dale was an adventure. We went to Point Pleasant WV to go square dancing. Point Pleasant is also the town where the Mothman Prophecies took place. You can find out about that from the internet I am sure or hollywood made a movie all about it! So we took pics with the statue of mothman. Eva wore a pink petticoat over her pants and a Ted Strickland t-shirt. It was a great look for her! She made me laugh all night. We got to the square dancing ho-down and ate dinner and then watched the dancer's for a while before Eva and I could not keep still any longer and had to join in. We had a lot of fun! I think the old folks really got a kick out of watching us too! The next morning we headed down old Highway 35 to the trail. Jeff walked ahead of Eva and I or behind us for most of the day and Eva and I got to have some very interesting conversation. She told me more of her own beliefs and thoughts on the world. Meanwhile Jeff was apparently having an intense conversation with God. While we were hiking in the woods we were also trying to hook up with our brother Chris who was wanting to come hang out with us, but when you are walking through the woods between unmarked county roads with spotty phone service it makes it very difficult to find someone! We got to Caldwell Lake in Scioto Trail SP a little before night fall and we were all so exhausted. Chris actually found us after hunting for us for 6 hours! The next day Jeff was feeling a little under the weather and slept in and when he finally woke up he went over to the park office and someone handed him a raffle ticket and the n they drew his ticket # and he won a free night of camping!! So we camped for another night!! It was nice because we got to spend time with our friend Chris and have bible study and talk about all sorts of things. The next morning we got up early and packed up our things and headed toward Mapleberry Farms where we were planning to camp for the night. It misted all day on us but it was nice for a change from the heat. We were about 2 miles from Mapleberry Farms when a red car pulled up and Chris was sitting in the passenger seat with Mr. Rickey, the owner of Mapleberry Farms. They said they were getting worried about us because it was beginning to get dark. We were all pretty exhausted so we put our packs in the tiny red car and Jeff and I crawled in the backseat and Eva walked the rest of the way without her pack. When we pulled up to the Farm we were shown to our quarters in the tool shed which Mr. Rickey has been cleaning up for us. We dumped our packs in there and he then invited us inside. I looked through the door and saw a piano! I was in heaven. He had hymn books, a guitar and a mandolin. We sat around for a little while playing some music and chatting. Then we went outside to prepare dinner and while we were doing that Mr. Rickey brought out a pot of delicious tomato stew! And told us his wife was making us hamburgers! What a treat!! The Rickey's were such a blessing! We will hold you in our thoughts and prayers forever Mr. Rickey and family. So when we finally started walking the next morning Eva decided to take a vow of silence and Jeff and I walked a couple of hours ahead of her because we had some praying and discussion to do. Jeff and I were beginning to feel that it was time to part ways with Eva. That was a tough day of hiking. We were going up one ridge and down another all day till we got to Pike Lake. When we got there the general store was open and we went in to check out what they had to offer. We got loaded up with snickers bars, a bagel and cream cheese, some spunkmeyer muffins, juice and pop, and a couple of cans of Chef Boyardee along with a can of Manwhich.

~Kristin

OK so when we walked into the little general store I asked the guy behind the counter, "how late are you going to be open?" He said sharply, "for another eleven minutes." So that is when Kristin and I started hastily grabbing things that looked good to eat and required zero prep time to eat. When I saw that can of Manwhich sitting on that shelf, all I saw was this big tasty looking sloppy joe on the front label. So I grabbed it and threw it up on the counter too. We paid for our loot and took it outside to the picnic table to devour it like a pack of ravenous dogs. I grabbed our cooking pot and ripped open my can of beefaroni and manwhich with my bare hands and scraped then into the pot. That is when I realized that this can of manwhich looked nothing like the sloppy joe in the picture. I fearfully turned the can around to the back label where I learned that the 1/2 pound of hamburger meat was not included in the can. My heart sank as I realized that I had already mixed my chef boyardee with a can of glorified ketchup!! As hungry as we were, as tired as we were, and as worn out as we were, I couldn't bring my self to eat all of it. I feebly tried picking out the noodles, but that manwhich had permeated every molecule of edible food in the whole pot! Spoon full after spoon full of glorified ketchup went into my mouth and my appitite soon tucked tail and ran. I wound up just tossing the rest for the birds. So to make a long story short: 1) don't try to eat a can of Chef Boyardee with a can of Manwhich without the hamburger meat! And 2) make sure you look at what you are about to stuff into your face before you buy it. Let the laughing ridicule begin.....

Ok so soon after I washed out the pot and was mentally rid of this culinary disaster, my capacity to care for another human being returned. At that moment I realized that we had been there for a few hours, it was now getting dark, and Eva had not shown up yet. Kristin and I were getting concerned and decided that we would go over to the park office. They were closed but we knocked on the door anyway. A woman answered the door, took one look at our packs and invited us into the warm office! She just knew that we were walking the trail. How she knew I'll never know, but she was just the most friendly person ever! We told her what we were doing and she told us that we could stay in a campsite tonight for free! We also told her about Eva not showing up yet, and that we thought she would be alright because she had food, water, shelter, and fire. We just wanted to tell someone now in case she didn't show up in the morning. So we chatted for a while, and she noticed that we didn't have any gloves on, and gave us a pair of jersey gloves each and sent us on down to the campsite. She said that she would call the rangers and let them know about Eva. We said that was great and that we would see her in the morning. Well we had left Eva a note at the edge of the woods where the trail came out, and now that we had a campsite, we had to change the note. So Kristin ran back across the lake dam to change the note, and when she got back Eva emerged from the woods! It was just barely light enough to see her. So I went back up to the office and informed them that she had arrived and everyone was relieved. We walked down to the campsite where we promptly set up our tents and crashed out! It had been an extremely difficult day full of tough terrain and sparsely marked trail. I think that we did 14 or 15 miles that day, which is a longer day for us. I think that we all slept really well that night.


~Jeff


The next morning we woke up at 6:00 and got packed up by 7:30. We headed towards the next campsite, which was Cave Lake. Jeff and I had felt God confirmed in both of us that it was time to part ways with Eva. We were not sure how to tell her though. We walked together all day and after about 10 miles we were all getting tired because of the long day we had the day before. We got to a fish hatchery and talked to the guy who worked there for a while. Cave Lake was another 5-6 miles by way of the foot path through the forest, and I don't think any of us were up for that. So we moped around at the fish hatchery for a good 30 minutes and decided we would just walk until we found a good place to put up our tents. We did not get but a quarter mile from the fish hatchery when a woman and daughter and a big black lab pulled up beside us and asked if we would like a ride. I thought, "God is so awesome, I did not even pray for a ride and he knew exactly what I needed!" We hopped in the car and she whisked us away to Cave Lake. We told her how Jeff and I were walking for Christ and her eyes lit up. I felt that it was encouraging for her. We told her a little bit of our testimony and she was very exited for us. We hugged her and asked God's blessings upon her and wished her well. We followed a paved road to a primitive campsite and popped up our tents. I then had an uncontrollable giggle fest for 30 minutes and fell asleep.
The next morning we all got up and headed to find the blue blazes again. We sat to take a break after climbing straight up a ridge and Jeff went to find the blue blazes. I was asking God when I should tell Eva that we should part ways and I felt him lay on my spirit to just do it now and get it over with. So I told her and she was okay with it and was glad that I said something. So the rest of the day we walked knowing that that would be the last day for us to walk together because Byron, the Buckeye Trail supervisor that we met a few days ago, was taking her to a backpacking gear festival in Dayton for the weekend while Jeff and I were being picked up by a beautiful sister in Christ that we had been connected with to relax for the weekend. So we all had a few more interesting conversations about the bible and life and end times and Jesus and homosexuality and all other sorts of things that had been the topic of conversation for the last 5 weeks. Then we called Byron to make arrangements for picking Eva up and he told us to camp at Butler Christian Camp. We checked out the map and we were only about 2 miles from there so we took our time since it was still early. When we got there we were greeted by Chris. He showed us where we could camp and then took us to the convenient store where Jeff and I went crazy again and bought a bunch of junk food AGAIN!! We were invited to dinner by a lovely family that lived on the campgrounds and Eva and I did some laundry and we all took showers so we could have a big group hug without smelly armpits before we said goodbye!
So......we had a good last evening together and I tried not to get emotional and when I woke up at 6:00 a.m. I checked my voicemail and Tammy, the woman who was picking us up left a message saying she was picking us up at 8 and so we only had a couple more hours of time with Eva. I went over to the big wooden Noah's ark, where she was camped, and she was already getting packed up. Tammy pulled up just a few minutes after 8 and hopped out to greet us and boldly asked Eva why she did not believe in Jesus and then we all hugged and headed to Tammy's house.

~Kristin

We rode in Tammy's truck the whole hour and 10 minutes back to her house. One of her daughters was in the truck with her when she picked us up, and one was back at the house. Their Names are Amber and Abigale, and they are the coolest kids you could imagine. Tammy and Eric have done an awesome job raising and homeschooling them. Amber and I like to find all the hidden objects in her kids "Highlight" magazines! She says I'm her "best buddy" when it comes to finding the things in the magazines! We are going to miss them. Tammy and Eric took us to the massive outdoor car show, fed us lots of food, let us sleep in their spacious camper, and took us to church! We even spent the day after church with Tammy's parents splitting wood and eating pizza! Tammy's father Fred, a 22 year career Marine, got a kick out of my beard and told me stories about his "Great Squirrel Wars" where he fought for the birds, and their feeders, in his back yard. He finally won the upper hand when he wired up the house current electricity to the copper pole that the squirrels ran down to get to the bird feeders!! The look on that man's face when he re-lived that story warmed my heart to no end. Fred and Lois, you are such a blessing and we can't wait for the day we meet again. Either here on earth, or in eternity! We have had sooooo much fun spending time with Tammy, Eric, Abigale, and Amber and are going to be sad to part company. Luckily, we will be coming back through the area on the trail in a few weeks, and they have said that they will be happy to see us again.

While we were at church I met a man and fellow bassist named Bill. He let me play his bass and i offered to take it back to the house and give it a good set up. He came over today and took me to his house where he showed me around his "man dungeon" that is full of R.C. Helicopters, electric trains, and a full band set up! We even have a mutual friend that plays in his band! Small world. We spent some time talking about bass and music and he showed me around his property. He even offered to open his house up to Kristin and I if we needed it during the winter! He said, "I've driven 8 hours to pick up some goats. I'll certainly do that for you guys!" We have just been so blessed to meet all the good people of the world that God has sent our way. We are amazed and humbled everyday. Tammy and Bill both offered to take us back to the trail, and since Tammy has spent the majority of the time with us, she reluctantly agreed to let Bill drive us back to the trail. We have been completely spoiled here in Ohio and are excited for who God will have crossing our path down the road.


~Jeff

Logan Ohio to Richmond Dale Ohio

After resting up in Logan Ohio we headed out of town to Lake Logan but on the way there we passed the largest Washboard factory in the world to take a tour. It was quite fascinating how many different styles of washboards they have. They also have a washboard festival where many people come and play washboards as musical intruments. That must be a noisy good time! After leaving there we went to Wal-mart to stock up on food. We got way too many pounds of food because we knew we would not be coming to a town for several days. When Jeff and I checked out we went to the front of the store and sat on the bench trying to pack up all of our food we had just bought. While sitting there I had a song on my heart and if you know me, when I have a song on my heart I don't usually let it sit in my head, I sing it as loud as I can no matter where I am. The song I was singing for the welcome team of Wal-Mart was "Mighty to Save". For those that do not know it, it says, "Savior, he can move the mountains, my God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save, forever, author of salvation, He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave, Shine your light and let the whole world see, we're singing for the glory of the risen king!" I was really enjoying myelf while singing this song and I just lost myself in the entrance to Wal-Mart and began just singing to God. I felt his presence flood my being so much that I got a little teary eyed! Just a couple minutes later Eva came out of Wal-Mart with her cart full of things and she said, "So..... this guy just came up to me while I was checking out and asked if me if Jesus was my savior?" She told him no, and so he preceded to tell her about his savior and how he had blessed him. He told her if she shook his hand then she could recieve the holy spirit. She said she did not really have any words to respond with and she did not feel led to shake his hand. Well Jeff and I were just looking at her and thinking, "WOW!!"
So we packed up and headed down the road toward Lake Logan and we were not but a couple miles passed Wal-Mart and a car pulled off the road and a guy got out of the car and walked up to Jeff and said, "Are you Jeff?" Jeff was really dumbfounded and said yes of course, and the guy told him he was the coordinator for the Old Man's Cave section of the Buckeye Trail that we were on. He had been looking for us since the day before because Andrew, the guy from the Buckeye Trail office in Shawnee, told him we were headed his way. His name is Byron and we have seen him many times since then. He was quite a blessing to have on the trail. He was our tourguide for part of the section and gave us some tips on places to camp.


~Kristin

The campsite at Lake Logan had a broken game machine. The recording went all day and night saying: "50 cent play". I wanted to play the ukelele there to the rythm of this "50 cent play" robot voice, but didn't quite have time. It's funny to not have time when there's no schedule. I was probably reading the bible and taking notes. The ukelele is going back in the mail today! It will be missed. Some volunteer opportunities have come up with the American Discovery Trail Society, which answered my non-denominational prayer. I'll be doing simple tasks for them while on the trail. Really grateful for the structure this trail provides. And everyone who contributes to it.

Byron gave us a tour on the Emma (Grandma) Gatewood trail which goes through Old Man's Cave. Both of those names make you think of respecting elders! At age 67, Grandma Gatewood was the first woman to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail in one season--with a pillow case for a backpack and Keds tennis shoes. She did this two more times, walked across the United States (pre-ADT), and bought the first can of blue paint for the Buckeye Trail's blue blazes. What a cool lady. The "old man" of the cave was a recluse who lived there a few years. He befriended the Native Americans there. As Byron walked with us, he told all kinds of stories about trail maintenance, rescues in winter, environmentalists. There's a curved steel bridge that used to be straight. A flood, carying a large tree, rushed through and caused it to change shape. Byron really likes that story to show something simple like water can actually bend steel if there's enough force. The 3 miles he walked with us are on the maps as part of our route anyway. Those 3 miles were astounding--so beautiful--Byron wished he could see it through the eyes of some one new to the area. This walking trip continues to show us interesting things every day. It's hard to explain what it was like to walk the Emma Gatewood Trail, knowing we had gotten over to it walking, and not knowing where we'd sleep that night. You can see the wonders of national and state parks by taking a trip for that reason. We ended up at this one, not by accident exactly, but as part of our trip with no ending date. After rural roads and towpaths, here was this national treasure.

--Eva


Ok, I think that enough time has gone by since we were at Lake Logan that I can now tell my mother this story. When we were camped out at Lake Logan we rode out a very intense, confirmed tornadic, thunderstorm in our tents. We had a guy come running over to our tent in the craziest downpour you could imagine, and told us at the top of his lungs that we better head for the bathrooms to be protected from the tornado. I had to poke my head out of my tent and ask him 4 times what he was saying because the rain was so loud. It was so loud inside the tent from the rain that Kristin and I had to basically yell at each other to have a conversation. This guy's poor little miniture poodle looked like something you would pull up out of your shower drain with a coat hanger! Pitiful. Anyway, we decided to wait and see what happened, and so Kristin and I just prayed and put our trust in the One who makes the tornados. Right after we prayed, it stopped raining cats and dogs and the sun started to peek out. It was awesome! Some accounts say that the tornado went right over us on the map, and some say that there wasn't one at all. Who knows, but we are pretty used to twisters, coming from Oklahoma and all! Ok mom you can breathe again.

Now, on to where Eva left off......Old Man's Cave was just beautiful. It is going to be hard to describe it in words because I don't have much time for typing and consulting the thesaurus. If you want to look at pictures of Old Man's Cave, Cedar Falls, and Ash Cave, just do an image search on google. Your keywords will be "Hocking Hills State Park," or "Old Man's Cave Gorge." You should be able to find them from there. For those of you reading this that attended Kristin and I's hitchin' festival (wedding) at Robber's Cave State Park, it's kinda like that on steroids with lots of waterfalls!! Incredible. Byron had hooked us up at Hocking Hills S.P. with a free place to camp. Which is great because it was $20 for a tent site with no water, smelly pit toilets, and a half a mile walk in. We stayed in a campsite the first night, and then at the old abandoned outdoor chapel the second. What a great time. Oh and we finally got showers! It had been like a week. From there we hiked down the Grandma' Gatewood trail with Byron like Eva said. Byron left us when we reached Cedar Falls, but before he left he told me of a piece of property where we could camp for free in about 14 miles. When we got there it was all nice and mowed with a fire pit and no noises around except the natural things! It was so nice that we ended up staying 2 nights there too! Byron came down to visit us the first night and we made sure to leave the place nice and tidy with plent of fire wood already cut and laid out for the next people. We did have an interesting visitor pull up into this remote campsite to give us two warm bottles of water, which kinda put us on edge for a while, but again we just prayed for protection and a good nights rest. Which we got! Slept like a baby! So after camping there for 2 nights we headed back out on the road to get to Richmond Dale, OH where we are now. We were now going to be entering into the Scioto trail section of the Buckeye trail. That was of course after the Old Man's CAve section gave us swift kick in the rear on the way out. We got to the end of the Old Man's Cave section and had to tackle this insane jeep trail. It was straight up for what seemed like a mile or more and straight down the other side. The trail consisted of very large, very loose rocks thrown about in very loose, very dusty, very steep ruts. It was all garnished with a heavy sprinkling of very large, very round, very marble-like acorns!! We went from the beautiful scenic gorge with concrete stairs and people taking wedding pictures, to an insane iceskating rink for mountain billy goats!!! It was crazy! Thank you Old Man's Cave Section of the Buckeye Trail. I guess you had to get in the last laugh. Anyway, on the way to Richmond Dale we had to go through Tar Hollow State Forrest. When we reached the boundry for the state forrest it was getting late and we decided to guerilla camp behind the maintainece buildings for the park. We hung our food high up in the trees and camped close to the back of the buildings. It is getting dark earlier and being down in a holler behind a big building, it got dark fast! Just as I was starting to doze off I saw two large, dark, four-legged animals making their way across the grass infront of the tent. Keep in mind that we had stopped for pizza at a little gas station about 2 miles back and the man there showed us pictures of some very large black bears in the area. So this was weighing slightly on my mind. So when I saw these dark 4-legged creatures making their way infront of our tent my heart shifted into 5th gear! I watched them for a few seconds then rose up to shine the light on them. Before I could get the light turned on, they heard me and ran off. Then they proceeded to make the most distinctive sound that I am all too familiar with. They started to "blow" at us. It was a group of whitetail deer!! I chuckled at my paranoia, Kristin sighed a sigh of relief, and we drifted off to La-la-land. We woke up before sunrise as to avoid detection from any park employees and headed over to the trail. It was great! First thing in the morning we get to fight back the greenbriars going up a series of very steep switchbacks! That'll wake a person up in a hurry! So we fought our way through Tar Hollow State park and over to Pine Lake. We had to take off our packs and pass them through the tops of trees that had blown down several times. We negotiated washed out trail on the side of very tall and steep moutainsides. And worst of all, the weeds were 15 feet high in someplaces. I had to hack out the trail with my hiking poles just to find the next blue blaze!! Then half the time the blue blazes were just not there for a long time! Then as we made it to the top of the state park we encountered a fierce wind storm. Limbs and trees were being blown over everywhere and the leaves and trees that didn't fall were standing out sideways. So we came across a big shelter with picnic tables and a large fireplace. We decided to make camp there for fear of having a large tree end up in our tents in the middle of the night. We cooked an awesome meal from a can of beets, a can of sweet potatoes, a can of tuna, 2 rice sides, and some freeze dried veggies. We just threw it all in one pot and chowed down. After fighting back the forrest for a few days, that was the best meal we had ever tasted! Then at 2:00 in the morning some drunk locals rudely drove up past our tents and over to the pit toilets. They promptly got out and started removing the excess alcohol from their bodies. They stayed for about 20 minutes and then I guess they figured out that they wern't alone and drove off. That left all of us a little on edge and none of us got very much sleep. The next morning instead of fighting back the forrest and playing trail maintainers for the day again, we decided to walk the road that paralelled the trail. We went down it as far as we could until we had to jump back into the woods. We followed a well groomed horse trail for most of the day and then it came out into a clear cut logging area. It was great! They left all the trees standing that had the blue blazes marking the trail, but they had bulldozed all the tree tops over into the trail!! It was COMPLETELY IMPASSABLE! We had to climb up the side of the mountain walking ontop of the downfall and then scramble down the hillside through head high weeds and tree tops. It was pretty nasty. We eventually reached a road where we took a break. While sitting down on my backpack, I heard a car door slam pretty close to us down the road. Oh, I forgot to mention that we had run out of water early that morning back at the shelter. So we were hacking through the forrest on a very hot day with no water. OK so we made it down to where we had heard the car door and found a little trailer!

~Jeff


Jeff knocked on the door of the little trailor and a family answered the door and gave us some icecold water. They told us we could sit and relax for a while on their porch swing and their 4 year old stood on the porch talking to us. He came out and said "Jesus lives in heaven", I said "that's right, do you know where else he lives?" He said no, and I told him he lives in my heart. I said I had a song for him and sang some sunday school songs for him and then I began getting requests from the family for songs to sing. They even brought out a guitar and Jeff, Eva and I sang some spirituals and hymns. When we left their house we walked down Blue Lick Rd and before too long a man in overalls and a conductor's hat pulled up beside us and asked if we were following the blue blazes. We told him we sure were and he said he was Mr. Detty. Mr. Detty is on our map for being a good mail drop for through hikers so we were exited to see him. He asked if we were worn out and wanted a ride. He must have been reading our minds because that is exactly what we were hoping he would say! He said hop in and he would take us to Londonderry. I asked how far Richmond Dale was because Byron told us of some trail angels that lived there. He knew exactly who I was speaking of and he took us straight to their house. When we pulled up to their driveway I saw the ADT sign on the post beside the house. Then Mrs. Connie Snyder came out to see who was pulling into her driveway. Mr Detty told her he had picked up some hikers. We all got out to greet her and got our packs out of Mr. Detty's car and wished him farewell. She said she had been expecting us since yesterday. She also said she had just found out that there were 3 of us. She showed Jeff and I the hikers quarters which was in the basement. It was a nice bedroom with a full size bed and a cool shower she had rigged up just for stinky hikers!! She showed Eva to a cute little room upstairs. Then we all met and sat around and talked and got to know each other. She fixed us some yummy fruit salds and eggs with toast to tide us over for dinner. Her husband Mike came home shortly and we all sat around and talked about some of the other hikers that had been through. We decided to stay another night so we could all get the things done that we needed to get done. So now we are enjoying a nice relaxing day, typing the blog, and mailing things and such. Tonight we are going to Point Pleasant WV with the Snyder's to the place where they do square dancing. We are all really exited! I feel very fortunate to have met the Snyder's. Connie and I have sat around talking about many things. She is a very interesting woman, she used to be a Jehovah's witness and I did not know much about them until last night. I am always interested in hearing about other religions beliefs and views. Oh and she is also a fabulous cook. She made homemade pies and I tried Rubarb pie for the first time! Tomorrow we will be heading toward the Scioto Trail and Pike Lake and we have heard that there is more overgrown trail to come so until next time. I hope we all make it out alive and a little stronger!!


~Kristin

Chesterhill OH to Logan OH

We have put in so many miles I don't know if I am going to be able to remember everything that has happened. We have spent a lot of time on some footpaths through the Wayne National Forest which is such a blessing. The roads really take a toll on your joints. When we left Chesterhill we walked towards Wayne National Forest (WNF) and came upon this beautiful view of the countryside with hints of autumn on its way. We were running out of water and we noticed we had cell phone service so we walked up to a lovely home and I was praying they would find favor with us so we could sit there for a while and take in the view. Not to mention they had a fabulous pavilion that looked perfect for camping under!! We walked up the sidewalk to the front door and were greeted by a kind man who immediately asked if we were walking the trail. We said yes we were on the Buckeye Trail but are actually doing a much longer trail called the American Discovery. He had a similar smile that we see on many people's faces. One that says, "Wow, that sounds fun but man you're crazy!!" He offered us some cold drinks and said he would even bring out some meatloaf sandwhiches if we were hungry. We all thought that was a beautifully generous offer and took him up on it. So he said he would tell his wife to get busy. As we sat on the porch of Steve and Joyce's house we ate our yummy sandwhiches and got to know Steve. He is a very likeable guy. He had such a kind heart and a warm personality. He said we were more than welcome to camp wherever we wanted. We told him we usually have a bible study in the evening if he would like to join us. He said that sounded great so we headed to the pavillion to make some phone calls and set up our tents. We took some great pictures of the view at sunset. (Sorry we haven't been putting any of them up lately!) When Steve came out we were still getting camp set up. Eva was very exited about her new way of organizing her pack and so she did not want to undo it. She asked Steve if she could just sleep on his porch. He said well you can just come in and sleep in the house if you want. She was so taken back by his kindness that she blushed a little. But of course she accepted the generous offer!! We studied I Timothy chp. 1-2. We has some lovely discussions and then it was getting pretty dark so Steve and Eva went to the house and Jeff and I crashed in our tent after we had a long gaze at the stars of course! The next morning Steve and Joyce invited us in for coffee and cereal. It was a great start to our day. We even read a daily devotional with them and rapped our visit up with a prayer. Then we headed off to Burr Oak State Park.



--Kristin



The Buckeye Trail has been really great for walking feet. We've put in some 10 mile days without realizing it. While we were setting up a lunch campfire, some one came by and offered us rabbit. His name was Chris, and he raises rabbit to eat on his land nearby. Now, typing this, I apologize to my vegan and vegetarian friends. You can skip down a few sentences. It's nice to know where the meat comes from, which isn't always possible with a grocery store. It was delicious. Later on, we met Norma Jean. Her family used to own portions of the park which are now available for public use. She's been connected to the land her whole life. Her car broke down, so between the three of us, we helped her, and helped her get help for it. Norma had lots of stories, life philosophies, and hysterical sense of humor. As for me, I'm still working on meshing the reality of this cross-country walk with volunteer service. I'd like to help out along the way in towns and for the trail itself. Still researching the options. I don't want to walk as a vacation. There are many ways to give back.



--Eva

OK so after we had woken up from a great nights sleep at Burr Oak State Park we took off back down the trail. We hiked around the south end of the lake and across the Dam where we found a bathroom with running water!! It's amazing how a good 'ol sink shower will brighten up your day! After freshening up and putting on clean undies, we headed back down the trail. We made it maybe 100 yrds when we ran across a Corp of Engineers office. We decided to stop to talk and found a couple of very friendly Corps. guys there. They offered us water and a snack and asked if we would sign the guestbook, which we gladly did. They were interested in our walk, but knew that we looked like we wanted to get moving so we kept it brief and started walking. About a mile down the trail we came to a highway and the blue blazes that mark the trail took a left down the highway and then promptly dissapeared. If I hadn't happen to look back over my shoulder I wouldn't have seen the trail kiosk tucked back into the woods just past the guard rail on the road. So we hopped the guard rail and headed back into WNF. The trail took us on a series of switchbacks with only a few inches of footpath between us and a steep slide down the mountain. It was pretty cool. Soon the footpath reached the top of the ridge and miandered over the hills and through the woods. It really was lovely to walk in. We hiked all day and took a few breaks. When we hit the gravel road on the other side of Trimble Wildlife Area we couldn't find a decent place to put our tents so we just had to keep walking down the gravel road. Gravel roads are pretty bad on the body. So after a few more miles of gravel we sat down to rest our feet. Still no place to pop our tent, we thought we would have to keep walking. That is, until we heard Ron's pickup coming down the ridge. He stopped to ask if we were alright and we asked how far it was to the blacktop. He said that it was a few more miles, and he must have seen our faces droop because he offered to give us a lift. We all looked at each other and nodded in approval! So we jumped in the bed of his truck and he wisked us down the road. When we started seeing houses we knocked on the back glass for him to stop and we climbed out. He said that this house right down the street would probably let us camp in their yard. So we gave Ron our blog and bid him farewell. As his truck went around the bend and out of sight we were loaded up and headed to the house he suggested. When we got there a woman was already outside unloading her groceries from her car. We asked if we could camp in the yard and she said we could. We quickly set up our tents, and while the girls were doing some stretches to unwind from the long day I figured out that we had done about 13-14 miles. It was the most we had done since Eva joined us and we all felt that it was a pretty good day of hiking. So we spent the evening talking and were serenaded to sleep by the cooing and clucking chickens. We woke up and were kind of rudely asked to leave by the woman's elderly father. So we packed up quickly and left. I guess they had second thoughts on letting us camp there or something. Anyway, once we started walking I realized that we weren't seeing any more blue blazes and that we were probably off the trail. I remembered that Ron had taken a turn and that we were farther East than we were supposed to be. No big deal though because we reached the highway we were supposed to reach and just walked down it a little further than was intended. So we ended up in Murray City anyway and asked a man where the place to get some breakfast would be. He kinda looked at us, then looked at our packs, and back at us, then kinda chuckled and said, "the American Legion 'might' be still serving food." He pointed the way and we walked over and right on in. It was a full on bar with guys in there that had obviously been there long enough to drink a few beers. It was 11:00 am. They said that they wern't officially serving breakfast anymore, but that they would fire up the grill and make us whatever we wanted anyway!!! What awesome folks! We got the best breakfast. We're talking heaps of eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and toast. PER PLATE!! It just made me smile from ear to ear. We had coffee, orange juice, a couple of bags of chips and they filled up our bottles with ice water. Then they only charged us $5 a piece!! Well we spent a couple hours in there telling them about our journey and just generally chatting. It was very nice and relaxing. Once we decided to leave we went next door to stock up on trail food at the carry out and stuffed it away and headed back out on the trail. After another 4 miles of gravel, we found the woodsy footpath. We walked basically straight up this ridge. Once the blue blazes reached the top of the ridge they made a hard left then came out onto a jeep trail. This is where the trail markers just vanished like Houdini. I mean we walked a couple hundred yards in every direction and found nothing!! We went back to the last known marker and they literally just dissapeared. So we walked down the jeep path (which went in the general direction we wanted, N.W.) and came to a oil pump location where we decided to set up camp for the night. Of course it started to rain as we were setting up our tents and quit just as we finished setting up. It was saturday night. Luckily we had a map of the area, thanks to Jim Shaner, and were able to deduce apporximately where we were and kept traveling unmarked trails. We crossed two roads, doubled back twice and then finally met a dead end 80 yards from the final road we had to get to. We wound up bushwacking the last 80 yards and reaching the road. I double checked the map and deduced we should go left. We would either run across the trial again, or we would come to an intersection where we could walk the road on into Shawnee. We were trying to get to Shawnee for church. Well we found the trail and after scratching our heads as to how we got off course, we put a quickening in our step and actually made it to tecumseh lake just outside of Shawnee in time for church. As we emerged from the thick woods into the manicured lake property we saw a pair of squirrel hunters coming out of the woods on the other side of the lake. We met up with them at the north end of the dam by there car. It was a father and his son, and they had each gotten a nice spuirrel. We chatted for a second and they told us where to go in town to get to a church, and they also told us where the local greasy spoon was! We parted ways and walked on into town. We stopped at the carry out (convience store) and got something to drink and continued on to church. We arrived right in the middle of sunday school and were welcomed by pastor Cliff. He told us we could leave our packs in the lobby and "come on in!" It was a little white church with nice country folks in there studying the bible. We briefly told Cliff what we were doing and he thought it as great. He also asked if we would mind sharing our testimony, and we gladly accepted the opportunity to speak.

~Jeff

The service was nice. The sermon was awesome becuase we had been explaining to Eva the significance of the law for the last few days and the sermon was all about that. It is so nifty the way the spirit works. Then the service was ended with communion. It was a great end to our Sunday morning. After church a nice lady named Joyce offered to let us do laundry and take showers so we hopped in her car and went home with her. We ended up spending all day with her and swapped God stories! She was a lot of fun and we will be keeping her in our thoughts and prayers. By evening we decided we would just go camp at the Lake and Eva mentioned seeing a sign that camping was only permitted by written notice. So Joyce called the mayor. He gave us permission and we were so grateful. After a long goodbye with Joyce we headed to the lake and stopped to get a pizza first! We all had a nice rest that night and when we got packed up Eva decided she wanted to send some emails before leaving cell phone range and so Jeff and I went to get some water from town. On the way through town we stopped at the headquarters for the Buckeye and North Country Trail. We talked to the coordinator, Andrew, for a while and thought Eva would probably have many questions for him, and so Jeff and Andrew went to pick her up in his truck. We got some emails out and made some more cards. I even sent out an email to a christian brother we met back at Dolly Sods to see if he wanted to come walk with us for a couple days. I thought I remembered him saying he lived in Ohio. We ended up leaving finally around 1 p.m. We walked through the woods a little while longer and came to a wide spot in the road and set up camp there. The next day we packed up and were all ready to go and Eva was not quite ready so we just said we would meet her down the trail so she could have some time to herself. We met back up with her ten miles down the way. Jeff and I were out of water so we were really anxious to get back to the roads. When we did we stopped at the first house and met a nice fella named Bud. He filled us up and we walked another couple miles and sat to eat some lunch and checked to see if we had phone service. When I turned my phone on I had two messages from Chris Hunter, the guy I had sent an email to about walking with us. He was in the area and was waiting on us to call him! "Wow!" I thought, I did not expect him to call so quickly. Eva came soon after that and we all headed down the road together and we stopped to say hi to some folks and they asked if we wanted a ride to Logan. We thought for just a few seconds and we all decided it would be a great idea. So we hopped in the car with them and got dropped off at the library where Chris called and said he was 15 minutes away and he would see us in a bit. When he found us we were all pretty hungry and we decided to find a cheap local place to eat. We ate at Bush's restaurant and our waitress, Haley, had all kinds of questions and said we could camp in her back yard! We said that sounds great. She was probably more exited than we were!! We went to her house and all 4 of us sat around and talked about God, prophecy, conspiracy, philosophy, and hiking!! Then it got dark so we set up our tents. Chris slept in his car. Haley came home and shared her dinner with us and said she would cook breakfast for us in the morning. That is today. She did cook us breakfast and asked us all kinds of questions. We sat around all afternoon talking and just relaxing and then decided to come to the library to type a new blog. Oh yeah and Jeff and I talked a couple days ago about checking to see if the thrift store had some long-johns, and you wouldn't believe it, Haley gave me some, and I did not even tell her I needed any!! She is a sweet young lady and she insists that we be friends for life. Before she headed to work she said she would like to have a bible study with all of us when she gets home. So we of course said YES!!! That is our favorite thing ever!!!!!! Oh and we recieved a nice box at the post office. Thanks Jenn and Mom for all the goodies! We already ate all the cookies!! Well.....until next time...Peace, grace, and love to you all!

~Kristin