Tree along the road

This tree is on SR 13 between North Manchester and Goshen. I liked it.

My tent

 I use an Ultra Lite Big Agnes one person tent when I am out hiking.  So the other day when my niece asked to build a tent in the living room, the way all kids like to build forts with chairs and blankets, I said sure.  And I pulled out this kid-size tent and set it up in the living room.  She had a fun time making her hair static-y and playing with the zipper.

Power Lines

I was driving from North Manchester to Goshen a few weeks ago and first I liked the lines of the power lines.  Then I was interested by the colors of the signs.  Also, I was intrigued by the mostly straight or level horizon in these scenes.

Playing the Piano

My parents have an old square grand piano that has a fantastically big sound and is lots of fun to play.  Especially with another young friend.

Snow Angel

When she woke up on January 22 and saw snow on the ground she leaped out of bed and cried "We can make a snow angel!  You do it like this, Aunt Crystal, you get on the ground and make the angel, then you stand up very, very slowly."  And so of course we went outside to practice.

Long Horn

Between North Manchester, IN and Goshen, IN along SR 13 there is a farm that raises these long horns. They come right up to you if you get out to take pictures,

Computer time

My mom enjoys playing puzzle and word games on Facebook and the AARP website for hours at a time.  Recently she and my niece bonded over a game they call "Crabs".

Swimming

 My friend Ali with her son Hayden, and Kaylee floating.

On February 15

Today is my last day of babysitting for awhile.
Tomorrow my sister and I will take a road trip to North Carolina and she will drop me off at trail head. I'm finally headed back to the open trail! I'm very excited to go hike again. I'm also very happy that Marita can be the one to drop me off. She offered to be the one to take me to Maine last July, but other plans happened instead. So this feels like a road trip we're ready for.
I'll start up my daily journal entries about trail life with the two week delay again. In the meantime I might sprinkle in some photos of good ol' Indiana.  I'd love to hear your comments or ideas or stories from your part of the world.
My plan as of now is to start in North Carolina where I stopped in December and hike North to where I stopped in NY last November.  We'll see what happens. Here goes. I hope that you come along for the adventure!

Also, I've added two more blogs on the sidebar for you to check out.  The Patchwork Pietist is written by a good friend of mine who now lives in the Boston area.  General Patrick is written by a hiker I met in Maine who takes cool pictures and has some good stories posted on his website.  So check out those links and give them some cyber love.