Today is the big day! The day we get our girl back! We have been so excited to get Turkenna back on the road with us since our vet gave us a clean bill of health a few weeks ago. We had made plans for Cody’s family to take her back to us and spend a few days with them. And this was finally the day!
Figuring out the logistics of meeting someone on the road can be difficult. When we made plans weeks ago, we picked a city we estimated we’d be close to on dates that fit their schedule. We chose Port Clinton, Pennsylvania, as our meeting place for all the reasons listed above, but most importantly, it happens to be my mother-in-law’s hometown. It is the town he lived in when he was young and the town he returned to to visit his grandparents. Cody and I were so excited to see his hometown and let him show us all the places he has memories of.
Getting a Shuttle to Port Clinton
That morning we woke up in Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania. We had passed through Port Clinton about a week earlier than we thought when we picked the dates for this meeting. But that was easily solved by arranging a shuttle service with Moon and Tie Dye, a married couple listed on FarOut as local shuttle drivers for hikers. We were scheduled to be picked up around noon. Until then, we were just hanging out at a local church’s free hiker’s shelter. We walked to the cafeteria for breakfast and said goodbye to Retriever, a hiker we had spent a good portion of the last week hiking with. Knowing that we would slow down once Turk followed us again, it was unlikely that we would see Retriever again. So this goodbye felt more official than the ones we’d done in the past.
Tie Dye and Moon picked us up and drove us an hour and twenty minutes back to Port Clinton. We had some time to kill before Cody’s family arrived and we all had empty stomachs. So we decided to do a little double date at Red Robin. It was so good! We were then dropped off at Walmart where we bought resupplies and waited for Cody’s family to pick us up.
Meeting our puppy
We sat outside Walmart looking forward to their arrival. They parked in the back of the lot and we watched his mom, dad, sister and brother get out of the truck. And then we saw it. Turkena Girl. 
When he noticed we were getting closer, he started shaking his whole body! Her entire butt was moving back and forth as she pulled on the leash. “I’m going to let her go,” Cody’s mom said. I knelt on the floor, opened my arms, and felt the weight of her excitement as she watched us hit me in the chest as she jumped into my arms! He greeted his dad with equal joy and enthusiasm! It was quite a reunion!
Turkenna wasn’t the only one we were excited to see. After the excitement calmed down, we hugged each other in big hugs that seemed already expected. One of the hardest things about being on the trail is being away from family. A lot has happened since we have been on the road and we have had to experience it all from a distance. Sometimes a hug is all you need to make up for lost time and distance. We all climbed back into the van, threw our backpacks on top of his luggage, and headed to Airbnb.
Exploring Port Clinton
The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing with family. We went out to dinner that night and then Cody’s mom showed us around town. We passed by his grandparents’ old house and found their tombstones in a small cemetery next to the church. She told us stories of climbing the apple tree in the back of her grandparents’ house as a child. 
And how he has photographs of his older daughters climbing that same tree. He pointed to the buildings in the city center that he had vivid memories of and exclaimed that everything is still exactly the same. It was amazing to hear her tell stories from her childhood and learn more about her family’s history.
Zeroing with family
The next morning was officially our 100th day on the trail. We wouldn’t have spent it any other way than enjoying the day with our puppy and our family. The weather was perfect. We spent the quiet morning on the back porch drinking coffee around a small campfire. Cody’s sister shared photos from her recent engagement and her parents told us how everyone in the family is doing.
That afternoon we all went out to lunch. Cody and I made a quick stop at the post office. I feel like we’re constantly mailing things to each other along the way. This time it was a pair of shoes and a box of dog food. After lunch, Cody’s mom showed us the peanut store she used to go to as a kid. We all left there with many good things for the road.
We spent the afternoon at the Airbnb, playing with Turkenna in the backyard, sitting around the fire pit on the porch, and exploring the recording studio above the Airbnb. That night we had dinner at a local restaurant and stopped by the grocery store to buy everything we needed to make French toast for breakfast the next morning. We ended the night watching a World Cup game and playing cards with Cody’s brothers.
saying goodbye
As much as we enjoyed our time with family, we woke up on our last day with them ready to get back on the trail. Cody got up first to make French toast for everyone. We packed up just in time for Tie Dye to pick us up. We have said goodbye many times along the way, but this one was difficult. We knew exactly how much we missed family these last three months and we knew how hard it would be to leave them again. Words cannot express how grateful we are to have our family supporting us on this journey. What would we have done without them? They picked up Turkenna in Pearisburg, VA over a month ago. They walked her, took her to the vet, nursed her back to health, and drove to Port Clinton, Pennsylvania to return her to us. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family supporting us!
Enter New Jersey
We arrived back at Delaware Water Gap and had plenty of time left in the day to hike. We took our first steps on the road with the Norris Trio back together. 
After crossing the Delaware River Bridge, we officially left Rocksylvania and entered New Jersey. At some point we realized we were close to the 1,300 mile marker, but unfortunately we couldn’t find anything to represent our achievement along the way. There were no sticks and stones organized into a ‘1300’, so we simply acknowledged our feat and kept walking.
We knew it would take some time for Turk to get his legs back, so we took our time walking the 10 miles. We stopped for lunch at a shady spring and took another break near Sunfish Pond. And to our surprise, Billy Goat appeared out of nowhere while we were resting! 
After he continued, we headed towards Raccoon Ridge. We found a nice rock to sit in the shade. Cody pulled out his phone and was able to stream England’s World Cup game. We stayed for the entire game before heading to the campsite next to Yard’s Creek. We just feel good when we lay our heads with our girl Turkenna snuggled up in the tent with us. We are very happy to have her back with us!
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