Finishing Delaware

Hello Everyone....Greetings from the trail.
We are finally back on the trail due to the snow starting to melt. Our trail
angel Mrs. Serinda dropped us off where we stopped in Milton, DE and off we went. We hiked 19.5 miles the second day on the trail. We walked along icy snow covered roads, beside farms and fields all day. We walked through Redden State Forest and stopped for lunch at their pavillion. Here we ate an array of food out of our hiker pack. We had ramen noodles, spinach bagels, spicy tuna, hot green tea, cheeze its, pnut butter, nutella, dried fruits, donut holes and strawberry creme rolls. WOW, what a strange meal....but we are living out of a bag. From here we hiked along more roads and beside sheep farms and grain farms and even chicken houses. I thought we were done with chicken houses when we left Al. We were picked up by another trail angel and treated like family at their house. Friday morning they slack packed us without our heavy packs due to the rain chances. This was a huge blessing. We hiked 18 miles on this day. We made it through Delaware in 2 1/2 days and into Maryland. One state down, we walked in and out of rain all day on Friday. Grounded Haug and KatyDid cooked hot ramen noodles on the side of the road while I ate dried fruit. We road walked all day and most of the roads did not have a shoulder to walk on so it was kind of dangerous and it was not marked well. We have blisters and sore feet due to all of the road walking. Our trail angel picked us up in Denton, MD and took us back to their home for rest and relaxation. Here they have treated us like family. We have had wonderful meals, great fellowship and it has been such a blessing to be treated as a christian brother and sister by complete strangers. We have been truly blessed thus far into our journey. We took the day off due to blisters and rain today. We may walk tomorrow or go to church with them. Keep us in your prayers and all of our trail angels also in your prayers. Thank you

God Bless and Happy Hiking

Delaware/Maryland State Line

Eating some warm Ramen noodles and Cheez-its

Windy Day

Entering Redden State Forest Area

ADT signs are few and far between

Glad to see it gone

Katy Did and Serinda

Not something you see everyday

View from the hotel

Things we did today...Update

Serinda picked us up at our hotel today and dropped us off at the Milton library for emailing and such. We walked down the snowy sidewalks about a 1/2 mile or so in the freezing cold to Miltonians pizza and wings . There we shared a white pizza with pepperoni and it came with 1/2 dozen free wings, all for under $18.00 what a deal. We love this no tax stuff. We rode out to Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge and here is where we saw the sign for protected squirrels. The Delmarva fox squirrels are protected here. We also learned why there are so many horseshoe crab sheds on the beaches here. Deleware beaches have the most horseshoe crabs in the world. This is where they come in May to spawn. KatyDid will be posting more on that soon. To end the day we went to Food Lion for hiking supplies for tomorrow. We will be on the trail in the morning. Keep praying for us.

God Bless,

GentleFir
Backpacking Believers

Day 1 on the ADT across America

We started the day today with a ride from Enterprise to our starting point on the ocean. Our driver Woody gave us a donation as he dropped us off. It is the 50th anniversary of Cape Henlopen State park this year. We met alot of nice people thus far and the kindness has been amazing. We had lunch today at a Chinese place and a complete stranger bought our lunch without saying a word. Then as we were stopped for a break a girl named Jackie came running up to us and brought us a bag full of fruit, crackers, and water. God is so good. We then found this dairy along our walk called Hopkins Farm Creamery and KatyDid had some homemade cookie dough ice cream. Yummy! Then continuing on our walk people would stop to bid us God speed. The DE coordinator, Serinda gave us a ride to a hotel due to the snow storm coming in the morning and she is taking us out for breakfast and dinner tomorrow. It has been truly a blessing so far. Also at the hotel , the owner said God Bless You and after talking to him , he shared with us how he converted to Christianity and was a probono lawyer for persecuted Chritians. He and his family had to flee from Pakistan to the US for safety. Well this is a brief overview of our first day out,we hiked 18.5 miles today and we are exhausted and very blessed. Thank you for continuing to pray for us.

Backpacking Believers

Start of our Journey to Hike across America........

We started our journey on Friday heading to Delaware and had some delays on our trip along the way. We stayed in NC then drove to DC hoping to spend two days there before starting our hike. Well we drove in circles for nearly three hours and never found one parking spot so we left stressed and decided to drive on to DE and we will walk through DC on our hike. We spent Sunday getting all of our gear ready for the big day,Monday. We went to the starting point and walked on the very cold beach, climbed a old 75 foot tall military tower that was used to shoot German ships during WW2, then we had lunch at cracker barrel. It was here we met Angela a professing Muslim, we were able to share Jesus with her and and she was very receptive, please keep her in your prayers that the seeds we sowed will grow in her heart. We then went to find our way along the trail before we physical start our journey in the morning. Please pray for us we are expecting alot of snow and storms on Tuesday. We will be walking in it. We will blog as we can.

God Bless you all and Happy Hiking

Love,
Backpacking Believers
GentleFir