DAY 26: JEFFERSON CITY—> COLUMBUS

A morning hike is one of my favorite ways to start the day. On crisp, chilly fall mornings, there’s nothing better. Warm sun cutting through the trees and, in today’s case, very few people out on the trail.

The structure of my travel days has shifted from the start of the trip, where I would get on the road early and hike in the afternoon. Now, early sunsets make that impossible and I’ve had to adjust to morning hikes before getting on the road, typically arriving to my destination after dark.

Today began with an early wake up, and breakfast around the kitchen island with Uncle Tom and Aunt Chris while the kids played on iPads, and Portland invaded their pillow fort on the living room floor. We sipped coffee and Aunt Chris served up Southwest style scrambled egg beaters with sausage, and cheese, along with avocado smash toast topped with everything bagel seasoning and halved grape tomatoes.

My plan was to be on the way to the trailhead by 8am, but Aunt Chris and I hadn’t had much time to talk last night so I spent some extra time having good conversations with family. We don’t see each other enough.

I was packed up and out the door a little after 8:30am, the trailhead less than ten minutes away. The Frog Hollow Trail was across a creek from the Greenway bike trail, and when I arrived, there were a lot of cars in the parking lot. Most seemed to be on the Greenway, and I only passed one person on Frog Hollow. It was a nice quiet walk.

The trail twisted and turned, back and forth, creating a jagged three mile loop through woods that look similar to the ones at home, but still some noticeable differences. Trees with stringy bark that I’ve seen before, but cannot name, and groves of skinny pines. It was a simple, local trail, but a lovely one.

It was a chilly morning and I was dressed in layers, trying to keep a good pace for warmth and to save time. I broke a sweat before the end. It was a good kickstart to the day before hours in the car.

Then, we were on the road. Stopping for gas earlier than the recommended “cheap gas“ stop twenty miles away. It was almost exactly eight hours to Columbus, and nearly all on I-70.

This was the most painful drive of the trip. I’m back in the “east“ (Midwest), where there’s more traffic and less open road. The day shifted between endless trucks and more orange traffic barricades than I could count. At one point I tried. Maybe it’s because I’m getting closer to home, too. Things are more familiar here, less “interesting.” And I might not really feel ready to end the trip just yet. I feel like I could turn south, working my way down and back up the east coast. Travel for another week, or two. An adventure for another time.

I hadn’t downloaded any new Audiobooks, so I just had music to listen to and so many snacks for in the car. Aunt Chris had packed up a goodie bag for me, and I’d told her it was too much. I ended up eating most of it, including a ham and cheese cracker Lunchable - a fun throwback!

I avoided any real construction slow downs, my GPS routing me onto old country roads to avoid the back up. It just felt slow with trucks and lowered speed limits on and off for the entire drive.

I arrived in Blacklick, OH, outside of Columbus a little after 7:30pm. Portland was excited to be out of the car, and again, ran right past my Uncle Bob and into the house to explore. Uncle Bob is an uncle on my Mom’s side and we’d spent weekends here with our cousins as kids.

As I was catching up with Uncle Bob in the foyer, I heard noise upstairs and my cousin Meghan came down the stairs. Surprise!! The best kind of surprise! I was so excited to see her, in town from North Carolina.

We moved into the kitchen, sitting around their big table, and everything looked just how I remembered it from when we were kids. Uncle Bob called for a beer from their special collection, No Rules Vietnamese Porter (2018) from Perrin Brewing Company. It’s very tasty and boozy, so I was glad it was divided between three cups. We toasted to travel and family and got caught up and talked about dinner ideas. I was in need of a real meal after a day of snacking.

The original plan was for takeout or delivery food, but we wound up at Flanagan’s Pub, just up the street from their house. We ordered a pitcher of Yuengling, fried pickles and pretzels with beer cheese, followed by a BLT pizza (a first, for me) and a pitcher of Rhinegeist “Dad”. We had to go a good toast in Dad’s honor with that one.

Dinner was delicious, and I would order BLT pizza again. We had such fun and good conversation, catching up, with lots of laughs. Back at the house, we all lounged on the big couch in the den and talked and talked and I got to try Screwball peanut butter whiskey. I’ll be looking for a bottle on my next shopping trip.

I don’t know how we stayed up so late. Probably my latest night in this entire trip, we looked at the clock and it was 2am. Time to go to bed and do a quick yoga. There was no chance of blogging tonight.

There had been a brief exciting moment when Meghan said she had an Asus computer and charger with her! Unfortunately, it still didn’t fit mine, so it’s another post from my phone. Apologies for anything that looks a little off.

Home to Pittsburgh tomorrow, but not before one final day of hiking in Ohio!