Catching up with Dreamer and Socks

Team TNT has been separated now for THREE weeks....we're surviving, but not without almost daily phone calls or texts when able and prayers being lifted to Heaven on behalf of each other. We truly are one and space, time and geography can't separate us from each other's spirits.

Charlie and I have been holding down the fort at home in Michigan, mostly waiting for surgery to repair the knee. Once it was diagnosed, the waiting for the actual surgery date was agonizing for the Team....I'm not a patient person anyway, (something God was helping me to work on while hiking), so each day, I tried to fill my time doing some projects around the house, that required TWO legs....cleaning the basement, etc. 

While Dreamer, on the other hand, has been plugging away at the miles on the Appalachian Trail. He continues to average about 15 miles per day, still enduring all sorts of nasty weather and terrain. The Smoky Mountains were a real challenge for him physically and probably even more mentally. Getting back on trail as a solo hiker was tough emotionally and mentally for him. I struggle from a distance being challenged in different ways....missing him, being jealous about the fact that he's still their living 'our' dream and keeping myself from being depressed at my situation here.

He's meeting a whole section of new hikers and even catching up with some that we started with in our first week! He's able to move so much faster without me and so now is cranking out serious miles! I'm so proud of him and his perseverance.... Honest revelation: I don't think, were the roles reversed, that I'd still be out there alone, trying to go on. I'm weak and would be way too lonely and insecure about my abilities to hike alone. 

His physical load is a bit more because he has to carry all the gear himself and his heart is a little heavier too....without the rest of the Team....

The countdown will begin again soon!