day 43 - 04/22

i hate to admit how much i enjoy starbucks coffee, but it was oh so good as i sat there and waited for my aunt and uncle. we had a great breakfast and visit together. they have been so generous and i appreciate it so much. i was appreciating my aunt, her name is karen, as i set off on the trail after leaving them at 10:45, because she has taken such an interest in my hike and invested so much time in researching thru-hiking info. just to make sure they would be able to meet up with me she made a list of all the possible shelters on the trail given my average daily mileage thus far and the towns near i-81 with which they intersect. waynesboro worked out perfectly. she also knows all the things a hiker might want, like ziplock bags. this may seem silly, but ziplocks are like gold for a hiker. she even brought the exact right ones. also, even though i already got one, she brought a perfect-sized, half used, compressed roll of toilet paper. karen you rock! thank you so much! and my uncle has been so generous! to top it off, my cousin's girlfriend, shelaigh, baked me a whole batch of home made cookies. you have no idea how great this was because the weather got really funky yesterday. it was raining off and on all day and the temp really started to drop. so, by the time i made it to the shelter, i was very cold and wet and those cookies, which i ate in one sitting cuz they were so good, really cheered me up. i actually cried in appreciation thinking of all the support and love people have given to me on my journey. thanks karen, john, and shelaigh. you made my difficult day of hiking so much easier. 20mi from waynesboro to blackrock shelter. 874.0 total.