Mission Out of a Backpack: September 2014

Friends, my deepest apologies for the delay in our final weeks of the Appalachian Trail blog posting. When we entered the rural but beautiful state of Maine, we were greeted with little to no service unless we were in a town or on top of a mountain. We decided to focus on finishing up the hike rather than taking valuable time to keep a constant update on our blog. The plan was to update it immediately after we summited the final mountain, Mount Katahdin; however, we were distracted with all obligations that came with re-entering society.

Also, it has become quite difficult to summarize the last crucial and final weeks of our journey. WE ARE DONE! FINISHED! THE END! NO MAS! WOOOHOO! We finished August 20, 2014. So many things happened. So many feelings were extracted. So many memories. How do you sum it all up in one post? Well, that is the current extended project for the moment.

Our first week back, we were able to visit most of our family, and gave them the opportunity to pick our brains. We are also back in the groove of serving at our church. Our first Sunday back we went straight to work by helping with the annaul "Mud Bowl" for students. It's a way to get students involved, have fun, and get a little dirty. Jeremy and I opted to avoid the mud as much as possible, since we've been playing in the mud for the last 4.5 months. The rest of the week was spent catching up with friends, playing at the lake, and dusting off our resumes. We have been on the job search. The first round of resumes being sent out, and onto the interviews!

This week we've been interviewing for jobs while continuing to send out our resumes. Jeremy and I are both excited to get back to work. Not that the trail wasn't work. Trust me, it was. The most difficult, labor intensive work I've personally experience. That is for certain. Our bodies yearn for challenge now. We went from hiking 20 plus miles a day to almost nothing. However, we have started bicycling every evening. This has been refreshing and rejuvenating. We look forward not only to spending the time with one another, but also to getting out and exploring without having to hike. We plan to get back into running, but our knees and feet are still recovering from the 2,100 plus miles we put them through. I hope to be conditioning again by next week.

Keep a lookout for the post about our final weeks on the A.T. We look forward to the weeks to come, and we will be sure to keep you updated with where we get jobs and such. Thank you for following!