Our Dream Adventure

OUR DREAM ADVENTURE...

In 2014/2015 we are taking some 'Time Out' and planning an adventure trip of a lifetime.

We will start with a six month thru hike of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail or 'AT' for short. A 2186 mile (3500km) trail running along the eastern United States of America.

Next we will be taking a break from daily hiking (there will be some hiking involved though!) and will be going on an amazing three month adventure holiday through South America.

Finally, back to thru hiking again. This time five to six months in New Zealand hiking the Te Araroa - New Zealand's Trail ('TA' for short). A 1865 mile (3000km) trail spanning the whole of New Zealand.

We have set up this Blog so that family, friends and anyone else who is interested, can follow our adventure which will include blogs about our planning and preparation stages as well as our whole amazing trip.

(So not to bore you with too much information, if you wish to read or learn more about what The Appalachian Trail and the Te Araroa Trail are all about see the 'Links' below the three maps in the left hand column.)

Christine & Nigel xxx



Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Day 86 Zero Day No 9 Port Clinton

Today's miles 0.  AT miles 1213.7

We timed it right for a rest day again, it rained heavily for most of the day.  We had a fun hour this morning in the local barber's shop after being invited yesterday.  It was a busy place, apparently not usually that busy but because it was raining lots of the local men decided to go get their hair cut.  It was too wet to do outdoor jobs so a good time for us to arrive to see some local characters and there were some real characters in there, we love to see this local side of small town America.  Frank, the owner,  is obviously a popular barber locally.  After waiting his turn Nigel got his hair cut and beard tidied by Franks dad, Rocco.

We needed to get to Hamburg about two miles away to resupply, a guy in the barber's kindly gave us a lift to Cabela's outfitters store.  A huge store with lots of stuffed animal displays and an aquarium plus outdoor gear aimed mainly at the hunting and fishing outdoor lifestyle rather than hiking and backpacking.  There was a cafe so we had an early lunch, smoked buffalo wraps, we were hungry as we'd had no breakfast.  We got our camping gas and some more sun cream/insect repellant plus I got a new vest top and sun hat, getting prepared for the hot weather.

Still raining heavy and windy we walked a few blocks to Walmart for our food shop.  Nigel also got a new T-shirt and I found some comfy camp pants/trousers. Since bouncing some gear up the trail I've had nothing comfortable to change into at the end of the day apart from a pair of laddered footless tights that were most definitely for tent wear only, not for public display. 

After Walmart we went to McDonald's, we weren't particularly hungry but we wanted to use their WiFi services so we could update the blog and also Skype home, our hotel WiFi was not very reliable.  It stopped raining thankfully by the time we left, we needed to try and hitch a ride back to Port Clinton.  It didn't take too long for someone to stop, about 15 mins stood next to a very busy road junction.  We could have walked, it wasn't too far, about 2 miles but it would have been unsafe walking along a busy dual carriageway.

Next to the hotel was 'The Peanut Shop' a fantastic sweet/candy shop. Like a traditional English sweet shop but better, there was so much to choose from we didn't know where to start looking.  We bought a few bags of sweets for the trail and some large chocolate covered pretzels to try, very American, we don't get them in the UK.  Sweet and salty is a popular food combination here, we're not so keen!   A very friendly lady owner, we signed her hiker book, we're her second English hikers this year.

Final job when we got back to the hotel, laundry about 6pm, oh and then write this blog.  Not much of a rest day really we've been on the go all day, no chance of the afternoon snooze I was looking forward
 too.










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