New Orleans

We arrived in New Orleans around 1 PM on Memorial Day, May 25th. This means that we missed the moment of thought and silence at 3PM. I notice this around 3:30 on Bourbon Street after ordering my first beer on the way to the cathedral. Yeah, there is so much sin in that sentence I fear my Catholic grandmother reading this. Hey, I stuck to my guns at least about finishing the beer before going into the church at least! The St. Louis cathedral is the oldest in America and what I expected. It was beautiful, wonderfully constructed and a classic Catholic church. I was secretly hoping I might stumble across something to be an architectural rival to the amazing European cathedrals, but alas I was still taken with the classic beauty and peaceful energy it offered. Cristy took a video of a man falling asleep in the pew doing the whole body nodding/falling. Sure, she is going to hell too, but this was funny stuff man! We almost couldn’t contain ourselves. He was wearing beads and probably hadn’t showered in a week. Oh well, that described me too not that long ago! Except not falling asleep drunk in a church I mean.
We had lunch at Café Pontalba that had been recommended by Nano. I also suggest the combo of Gumbo, Jambalaya and red beans & rice. I further recommend Voodoo Juice for a drink! We continued walking around Jackson Square, taking lots of pictures of everything. NoThai is not impressed, he says it feels just like Telaveve. Having never been there (hehe), I’m even taking pictures of the surrounding buildings because I think the balconies are amazing. We make our way to the market just before they are closing and we convince NoThai not to buy his girlfriend a crocodile head as a souvenir (sorry Dana if this is something you would have liked)! We head back to our hotel, the Prince Conti Inn (very nice for the cheap price) to rest a bit before getting ready for the night. We followed my fathers advice and drank our way down Bourbon Street (hey, dad said so)! We stopped in booty shakin’ clubs (where I danced on stage for a free shot), the oldest bar in the country (an excellent candle lit piano bar that makes you think you have stepped back in time). We poked our heads in to listen to some jazz, blues and karaoke. We even went into an uhm, adult bar where an entertainer was rude to us (after declining private entertainment, we were informed she was trying to make some money here)! We walked around the art district to window shop between drinks before NoThai called it. I turned over my room key and Tippy and I headed to gay town where we found a men’s dance club to crash with our estrogen. More of me dancing on stage and then we headed out to demand hand grenade’s from the proprietor that had already closed. They obliged and we were again on our merry way. It was about 3:30 when we made some friends that directed us to where we could find lady bars (but they were closed), and reggae bars (which were a bit of a trek). We decide maybe we’ll stay another night and do that tomorrow but for tonight, a bathroom and some greasy eggs are the only things left to be accomplished. We happily find Cody (the guy I was stage dancing with) at the diner and we promise to e-mail him pictures.
We load up the car the next morning and check out a bit before 11am and head to the aquarium. It was good, about what I expected and I think worth the $15. We went to Café du Monde and had beignets (over rated) and then our last stop was the cemetery. I took lots of pictures here too. I was surprised to see the hurricane damage so prevalent here on some, but completely untouched by others. We drove around the surrounding neighborhood west of the city to see more local flavor. Again, it was strange to see how some buildings had been restored, completely rebuilt or still dilapidated right next to each other.
New Orleans concluded, we headed north to Michigan as it was decided to forgo Florida for now. It was a very long drive, Cristy and I sharing driving duties. I got dropped off in Plymouth before NoThai was deposited in Southfield. Driving through Kentucky a bit after sunrise was my favorite. I've always thought Kentucky is so beautiful.

Mississippi

We stayed at Tippy's grandmother's house as well as her father's house. NoThai tried fried catfish (some of the best I might add) and Reese peanut butter cups. We booked our room in New Orleans and I'm looking forward to it. We plan on leaving here early tomorrow morning to have two full days. I have everything updated, photos uploaded and even a video, so enjoy!

Mississippi

Onward to Mississippi today! We stopped in Starkville to tour the other MSU campus and visited Ryan (Tippy's friend) for a short visit before arriving at Granny's. She has an evil cat named Baby that hates everyone, including Granny, who she sometimes bites!
My knees are incredibly stiff and sore. I've been taking the oils my mom sent and hopefully they will heal/get better. The alternative is that I've done permanent damage to them. I can feel things inside there moving around when I bend my knee!

Oh, so that is my plan, by the way - to get back on the trail, sort of. I would like to get my car and keep on going up the trail to see the hot spots and section hike. I'm not done with the trail entirely, I'm just done climbing mountains everyday with 40 lbs on my back for the next 4 months! It has been a great experience (for all the reasons I've already mentioned) and I'm so happy to have met the most wonderful people (again, I can't say this enough). I've challenged myself mentally and physically and risen to that challenge, but it is my choice to stop. I could keep on the same way for the sheer sake of saying I did it, but that isn't important to me. It stopped being fun, and I want to do this the fun way. Maybe I'll fill in the gaps I skip later if it becomes important to me to finish that way at some point, but right now it isn't and it is so much more important to me that I do what I want right now the way I want. I feel like I got a lot of what I was looking for out here too. There are just some other areas I was looking forward to seeing and still want to go see, like Dragon's tooth, McAfee Knob and others.

So, I'm really excited to go to New Orleans (and hopefully see Bluto and Photoshop) and I'm also looking forward to meeting back up with Queen Becky at some point along the trail when I get my car and keep on. Tippy is talking about not going to Florida now and wanting to go back to Michigan. Nothai and I are deciding our options for driving back with her or not.

Alabama

I slept the best I've slept in a while (latest too, eleven). We went to Nacalola Falls Park and illegally rock climbed enough to work up a sweat and then went swimming at Jeff's dads house. Jennifer, Jeff's GF, cooked an amazing spaghetti dinner and I was turned back onto cooked mushrooms when they are stuffed with yummy cream cheese concoction! Heading back on the road tomorrow morning.

North Carolina to Alabama

Breakfast at Waffle House (Tippy was very excited about this), and then stopped at a Goodwill so NoThai and I could buy a new normal clothes. Tippy tried to take my finger off with her car window at a tattoo shop where I needed to stop for a new nose ring. We said bye to Bluto (will we see him again in New Orleans?) and did a drive by through Asheville. We drove north through the Smokies (Tippy hadn't ever been) and stopped at Clingman's Dome. The weather was perfect, better than when I hiked through even. This is certainly another affirmation that I shouldn't be hiking anymore - beautiful weather on the days I'm not on the trail! :) NoThai and I relive the 'good 'ol days' by having lunch at Newfound Gap. We drove through Gatlinburg and Pidgeon Forge so Tippy could see the tourist vomititous that it is. We make it to Tippy's college friend, Jeff's house in Gadsten, Alabama around 1AM. I am wondering what kind of crack she smoked before we arrived and how I missed out - she was bouncing off the walls when we got there - it was cute!

Damascus to Asheville

We found and were able to get close enough to the wild ponies at Greyson Highlands...YES! I enjoyed this scenery greatly. It was a treat to see something that was starting to look different. The ponies were smaller than I imagined and shaggy. We walked down the trail for a bit to these huge rock formations that I wanted to climb on.

We drove through Damascus again (to pick up Becky's prescription), through Johnson City (got an oil change), Erwin (dropped off Becky at the Beauty Spot) and settled in Asheville, North Carolina in a hotel with Tippy, Bluto and NoThai. It was a long day of driving and we were all getting restless I think. I'm glad we took Queen Becky to the beauty spot though, it was beautiful! We got some really great pictures there. I also had the opportunity to say goodbye to Mala as well.

I reacquainted myself with a razor (it has been a whole week since showering, but I still felt clean since I hadn't really been sweating at all). Tippy and NoThai wrestled and Bluto played with his laptop until it was bed time. We are all pretty rambunctious after being in the car all day and we all crashed pretty hard. Bluto made an exception to his 'I don't share my bed with dudes' rule thankfully, so he and Nothai snuggled together all night. :) It was pretty funny, and in the morning Bluto called Nothai "lover hebrew" making fun of Cristy and I. It was hilarious and a name I think will stick for a while for him!

Trail Days

I really didn't write each day in my journal during the weekend, so I'll need to just sort of write what I can, not particularly in the right order and I'm likely missing some detai
We moved our tents to Dennit and Meagan's property where NoThai secured us spots when he arrived last week. The Baptist church hosted an excellent free dinner for early arrivals. Over the weekend I ran back into almost everyone I hoped to see (except Wolverine!). Chef, Screefreak, Nano and Walking Home got a ride into town from Miss Janet's daughter and then Bluto showed up a bit later. I even saw Black Eyed Susan again and had dinner with Flying Turtle! Of course I met tons of new people, of which I can't remember half of. Wolverine and I just missed each other all weekend (the only disappointment for me). Tippy had to relocate into her car the second night when it rained and her fly wasn't pulled taunt enough and her tent flooded. Watching and listening to the drum circle around the tent was amazing! :) Queen Becky was face painting and painted Tippy and I perfectly. Tippy, Photoshop and I went to hear a Native American flute player and then I got my T-shirt ready for the parade. Walking Home exacted revenge on a small local girl for squirting me with a squirt gun by throwing a water balloon of steel at her face! Tippy got pulled over by a bike cop for letting some girls ride on the back of her car - he let us off! I laid in a bunch of hammocks and wish I would have tried that earlier. I found an amazing green amber ring and taught KamaSutraRed how to belly dance! Tippy and NoThai jumped on the blow up bouncy thing.
Okay, so we said our Goodbye's in Damascus to everyone at Mojo's (the coffee shop). It is sad, because I know that this weekend is the last time I will ever see some of my traveling companions again. I knew it, they knew it, and we just sort of said, "okay, bye!" I am going to miss all of them. Everyone has been so great and honestly I think the people I traveled with kept me going longer than I might have made it otherwise. I am really going to miss everyone. :(
We headed to Greyson Highlands with Queen Becky in our car and NoThai with Bluto. Along the way, we saw a sign outside of a church that said, "Stop Drop and Roll won't work in Hell!" OMG!
We set up camp in Greyson Highlands, had dinner over the fire and had a great night laughing and listening to music over a nice fire. It got a bit colder than expected and I realized this is exactly why you don't send cold clothes home until Pearisburg!