After a couple of nights camping, an unexpected “trail angel“ gave us a warm place to stay. You can catch up on our adventures in the three most recent posts.
3-25-06
Start: Fort Hill State Memorial
Destination: Peebles, OH
Miles: 22.0
Weather: Snowy, again...
It's the end of March, and the snow keeps a' comin'! We camped under a pavilion last night, and just after we set the tent up, it started to rain. So we stood for a few seconds and just watched it, thankful we weren't in it. We were so glad we hiked the extra hour and a half to the pavilion! When we woke up in the morning, there were two inches of wet, heavy snow on the ground, and it was still falling hard. It fell like that all morning.
So the snow fell hard, but not as hard as I did today! We were walking the trail out of the Fort Hill State Memorial area, and there were some wooden steps. One looked broken, so being cautious, I stepped on the next step while thinking about walking around or skipping the broken one. Once I put my weight on it, it gave out, and with all the snow and having my slippery rainpants on, I slipped about 4 steps down on my butt. I sat there and started cracking up - I wasn't hurt, thank goodness - I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe! Mom was laughing even harder - it had to look even funnier from her angle. She actually sat down in the snow because she couldn't stand with her legs crossed and laugh that hard. So we snickered about that for the rest of the morning.
When we got to Sinking Spring, we stopped at a little convenience center - all the people read about us in their county paper. One gentleman was familiar with aplastic anemia because his son is battling leukemia, and one of his doctors talked with him about it. So we chatted with him awhile, and he gave us his phone number in case we needed anything. What a great bunch of people - we were there buying Aleve, coffee, and a couple of candy bars - they sent us away without making us pay! Then, just next door was a restaurant. We ordered these huge breakfasts... we were so hungry for a big breakfast... and a couple across the room must've recognized us from the story in the paper, because they picked up our bill for us! So we left Sinking Spring, Ohio, after being treated very well, and fed very well!
Then we were Peebles bound. All road walking ahead, so we trucked it. The snow and cold wind came on and off, but the sun did get a chance to peek out a time or two, so it's trying to help us out, anyway. We took a few breaks to rest our backs, but other than that, we just hiked on hard. When we arrived in Peebles, we weren't sure where we were going to camp. We were chilled, so we stopped in a cafe for tea and hot cocoa. Three older gentlemen were sitting at the far end of the restaurant, and mom went over with one of our cards and our newspaper article and started telling them our story. By the time we left, one guy bought our drinks and 2 bowls of soup, another offered us to stay in his warm home, and the other offered us a ride! Mom's on the job, now!
So we're staying with Jim from Peebles, Ohio. He is such a nice guy. He surely fits the description of a "trail angel." He was just so thrilled to be helping us -- but get this -- as we were standing in his kitchen talking, it just started to DUMP MORE freakin' snow!! So mom and I looked at each other, then at Jim, and almost with tears in our eyes, we said a simultaneous "thank you." We'd have camped in it and we'd have been fine, but instead, we're dry, in warm beds, our clothes are in the dryer, and breakfast is planned for 6 am because of Jim. Thank you, again, Jim, for saving us from another cold, damp night in the tent!
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