Week 7 - 2022

WEEK SEVEN of HOBOS GOING SOBO IN THEIR OBOZ,  the journey "in-tents"ifies ...

    Buena Vista, VA  to Daleville, VA - 79 miles, average 11 miles a day.   Total miles so far = 423 miles!

WHAT WE LEARNED THIS WEEK ON THE TRAIL:

• Week Seven did not disappoint!  It topped week six by one “beary” big detail: We saw our first BEAR while hiking on the trail!  It “bears” repeating … we saw a BEAR!  We were at a safe distance so  “bear” that in mind which made it so much more “bearable” to see one!  Thanks for “bearing” with me, I’m done now. Well, “bearly” …

• Another first for us. A privy (outside toilet) shut down due to content overflow. I wonder how they’re going to fix that problem? I can’t even imagine having to be the one in charge of doing that … I’m thinking it would be pretty CRAPPY and would really STINK to have that job!

• I did a thing. We did a thing. Couldn’t help ourselves, the temptation was too great. We stepped on a digital scale. FROG is losing his drawers again and has lost 18 pounds so far. Then there’s me … stepped on the scale first time and knew it couldn’t be right, stepped on it two more times and all three times got different amounts. The thing is indecisive.  Said I lost weight, definitely not as much as FROG did but more than I did last year … but did I really?!  It wouldn’t give me a straight answer and kept going up each time. I gave up after 3 times. I left so confused. Probably shouldn’t have done the thing. 

• We’ve improved in our endurance! Before we were taking 30 to 60 second breaks. We’re now down to 15 to 30 second breaks on inclines.  Yay us!  Does that mean our long lost trail legs will soon be arriving?

• We hit another milestone: 400 miles this week!  It really is huge considering the rough moments Team Nomads/HOBOS had this week — I was ready to call it quits …

• I debated airing our dirty laundry (and believe me, you DON’T want to get a whiff of that!) but I need to keep it real and what we’re going through.  Life is simple out here but also can be very hard and stressful! We had our first real argument with yelling right smack dab in the middle of the trail.   We’ve been having hot and humid temps, very steep inclines and declines and so many rocks, we’re both so over the rocks and the struggles all that has brought added to our frustration with each other.  Bottom line: We lost sight of the fact that we’re on the same team and supposed to be working together as a team and instead had been battling each other for control, disagreeing with each other when decisions needed to be made. Which finally escalated into one doozy of an argument.  FROG stormed off and I was just ready to quit the trail and be done with it. After talking it all out later (much later!) we knew quitting would have been the easy way out but sticking it out and fulfilling what we set out to do will come with its challenges but in the end will be so worth it. We know we need to keep talking and working things out, taking it one step at a time, one day at a time. Team HOBOS will not quit, we are here to the finish!  185 miles to go!! We can do this!

• We have spent more time in a bed this week than we have in our tent.  That makes me one happy camper!  We stayed in a semi private room at Stanimals Hostel for two nights and in a cabin at Middle Creek Campground two nights. Both places I highly recommend.

• Stanimals: Run by Charlie who does an excellent job of keeping everything organized and keeping us all in line. His hired help, Cindy, is awesome as well! Dessert was offered every night and blueberry pancakes for breakfast every morning!

• Middle Creek Campground: Makes the Best! Hamburgers! Ever!  Okay, so I gave that title away already but I’ve come to the conclusion, the hamburger I’m eating at the time is the best! I just love me a good juicy hamburger! And theirs was the bomb!!

• More Trail Magic this week! And in addition, a hiker feed.  What a week of goodies!!  “Great Dane” provided us with sodas, hamburgers, chips and cookies. “Paint Splash” had cold sodas, and “Wild Turkey” (a 12 yr old) was handing out cookies, oranges, and chips.

• Hiker Feed! An area church in Glasgow, VA put on a free dinner for hikers so we had salad, pasta dishes, bread, drinks and ice cream.  All you can eat!  Scrumptious!

• Has anyone noticed a theme here?! I talk about food A LOT!  When you are limited in what you can eat, you dream about food and can’t wait for the times you can get somewhere to eat “real” food.  We are hungry all the time but the unfortunate thing is our stomachs have shrunk so we can’t eat much before feeling stuffed!

• Don’t take drinking water for granted. It’s been a rough couple of weeks where we’ve had to conserve our water because there isn’t any streams, rivers or creeks in the area to get any to filter.  A few nights we were so low all we could do (so to have enough drinking water the next day to drink) is eat protein bars or packaged chicken for dinner. Nothing that required water.  See why we can’t wait to eat real food?!  We’re starting to make a face when it comes to protein and granola bars because we’ve eaten so many. 

• Week Eight will be a little different…we are taking time off and staying in a hotel (eating REAL food!!) to go over the editing of our book, HOBOS GOING SOBO IN THEIR OBOZ.   Hopefully it doesn’t take long and we can be back out on the trail soon.  GOD bless each and every one of you!