Introducing: joke! – The walk

Hello from North Carolina? Tennessee? Honestly, I’m not too sure since the trail follows the border for a long time. Literally left foot in one state and right foot in the other!

What I do know is this: I have the name of a trail! Trail names are given as gifts by other hikers and are often used to represent a fun or sweet situation or habit on the trail. For example, the friends I have been with in the last few days are:

-Lighthouse because it is a guiding light and from Maine.

-Snow because we got to see her act like a little girl seeing snow for the first time on a hike in Georgia (although we’re requesting to switch to Snacks because no one makes snacks like her)

-Singed because she accidentally burned some of her hair on her camp stove.

-Loon because he makes a great Loon call and loves water.

New name alert!

I was the last in my group to get a trail name largely due to the fact that many people thought «Parrish» was a trail name when they heard it. Shout out to everyone with unique names!

But ta-da! My name now is «Quip!» My friend Loon gave me the name Quip to refer to the fact that I always seem to have a sassy, ​​silly, or clever little comment for whatever happens. I love it. This has always been true in my life (my brightest moments have always been making comments at a school assembly) and I love that it is recognized along the way.

I love that it’s still unique and still has a «p» like my regular name. I love that it still trips people up a little when I introduce myself. One hiker was convinced my name was Squid. I just let them accept that; Much like when in college a guy once thought I said my name was Carrot instead of Parrish. Why not?

I love that it represents that I make my friends laugh. It’s the closest I’ve gotten to performing a comedy while I’m here (even though my friends ask me to do a set every night lol). I love what my friend sent me when I told him my name.

jokes jokes

In honor of being nicknamed Quip, I asked my friends some of their favorite Quip jokes. This is what they said:

-I called to go to Dollywood in the middle of our Smokies, our “Smoke Break”.

-A friend and I were talking about how we didn’t sleep well one night at a shelter and a man we met briefly the day before interrupted us to say, «I just have to say that was my best night’s sleep on the trail,» to which I said «actually, I don’t think you HAD to say that.» (We laughed about it all day and then he apologized for saying that too. We’re fine. He’s not a villain.)

-A man on a magical trail was talking (no one’s really sure to whom) about how he has some kids, but is bummed because he «had a vasectomy but finally found a woman to be with.» in fact she wants to have a baby.” No one knew what to say or why I was saying all this and I just said without missing a beat “they are reversible” and continued with my own conversation.

-We were in a shelter that did not have a proper toilet and only had a “bathroom area” (aka a minefield). We also saw that someone had left a Kula cloth (urinary cloth) next to the shelter. Everyone freaked out and I was like, “Not even in the bathroom area, smh.”

-Plus a lot of calls and references to hiker things that would be hard for the average reader to describe…you had to be there!

Shout out to my friend Lighthouse, who I’ll be taking front row to all my future comedy shows for her incredible laugh and for thinking I’m the funniest person on the trail/country/planet. Keep laughing along the way!

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