We left at 7:40a. Knowing I only had thirteen miles to hike made my morning start off fantastic! Then we hiked those thirteen miles. They were kind of difficult. We had a lot of exposed rocks, which wouldn’t have been bad on a cloudy day. However, today was full sun and hot.
Partway through the morning we ran into Storm, a previous thru-hiker about to start a section hike this year. He’s also the chair of a trail maintainers club that covers almost sixty miles. He offered us soda and snacks which we happily accepted.
Today we left the New Jersey section of trail and officially started New York. Another state under our belt. It feels awesome! From here it’s New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Listing it out makes it seem so long. But most of those states together equal Virginia. We are making progress and passing this border line is yet another reminder of it.
We finished our thirteen miles in the early afternoon and came to the road crossing that was our goal. A quarter of a mile down the road is a hot dog stand and a creamery. To our disappointment the hot dog stand was not open. It advertised, “the best hot dogs in the area.” The creamery, however, was open. Someone told us it was voted number two in the United States. They make their own ice cream and sodas. I had high expectations.
I was warned about how big the banana split was. It only issued a challenge, especially since we hadn’t eaten lunch yet. Yes, I ordered a banana split. It came with three scoops of ice cream, pineapple, strawberries, cherries, whipped cream, peanuts, and nonpareils. I think it took me almost an hour to eat the entire thing, but I did! I ate it all and had room for a soda too. Warthog ate an ice cream sundae.
We wanted to go into town and get some chores done before we got picked up, so we decided to hitch. This was probably one of our top two most nerve-wrecking rides yet. I didn’t realize it until we were driving, but it quickly became apparent that the guy giving us a ride was on something. At first I thought it was just a twitch, then I realized he was actually tweaking. At least it was an “upper” I guess, which hopefully would make him hyper-aware. He was cheerful and nice, just on drugs. He drove the couple of miles into the city and asked where we wanted to go. We told him, “Here is fine! Thank you!” and hopped out quickly. We walked the rest of the way through town.
Warwick was a very cool, very inviting town. As we were walking, people would stop to talk to us about our adventure, giving us recommendations for where to go. One woman had just bought a case of beers and asked us if “the weary travelers” would like one. She said, “I’m just an old hippie that backpacked through Europe when I was twenty one.” She was a kind woman who looked you in your eyes when you spoke. I said, “I would shake your hand, but I’m gross.” It had been five or six days since my last shower. I’m always a little embarrassed about how gross I am when I’m in town. In response, she took my hands in hers and held them. It was a simple gesture that made me feel human.
We stopped at a vegan restaurant and I got a sandwich. After that we headed to Burger King so Warthog could eat. The funny thing is, both of us considered our own meals to be a treat and neither would really want what the other ate. Sometimes we are on exactly the same page, and other times we are a planet apart.
I checked in with my mom to see where she was at. To my surprise, she was only about a half hour away. So we packed up and waited for her in the parking lot. They arrived and it was hugs across the board! I was so excited for the next few days. As we got into the car and I was closing the door, I saw a lady kind of skip over and start talking to me. I thought, “What does this lady want? She couldn’t have seen we were thru-hikers. I don’t have my pack on.” This line of thinking makes sense because strangers often come up to us out of the blue. Then I could see who it was… my sister!!!! My sister surprised me! I wasn’t expecting her because of her limited vacation time and now, here she is! I leapt out of the car and hugged her. My mom came smiling over and we had a “Yarbrough girls” sandwich, all three of us hugging at once. It was such a happy moment for me. Definitely a highlight of the trip.
Our hotel was about a half hour from town. On the way we passed Pine Island Brewing, so of course we stopped for a pint. Warthog and I still in full trail stink. We didn’t stay for long, maybe forty minutes, and then we headed back to the motel. Once there, we of course showered. Then ordered pizza from a local place. One of the pizzas was tortellini. The menu didn’t have a description, so we weren’t sure if it was really going to be tortellini pieces on the pizza or not. Sure enough, it was pizza with alfredo as the sauce and cheese tortellini on top. It was fantastic! One of those things I know I’ll crave and probably will never really have again.
We stayed up late, like 11p, talking and visiting. No one wanted to go to bed. But soon everyone’s bodies betrayed them and their eyes started to get heavy. Not mine though, I could have stayed up all night. I was so happy to be with family.
-ansel