2009 - The Beginning of our Lives Together!

Check Out Our Blog from our Travels! PICTURE ALBUM! Here's a Friend for the Half-way Blues... In 2007, I hiked 6 months along the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia. Just past the half-way mark in Virginia, while I was busy with my evening routine at High Top Hut in Shenandoah National Park, I heard the ting, ting, ting of trekking poles. I looked up and saw striking brown eyes peering out at me from under a blue floppy hat. Eric Toombs, from Cincinnati (I'm originally from Dayton), was hiking southbound like me, had started in Maine as well, and just happened to be ahead of me the whole way. His mother, Laurinda, drove from Ohio to visit her son on the trail, and had just dropped him off at the road crossing before the hut. We were the few hikers attempting the whole trail that were in their thirties too. For the next 90 days through Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia, we made excuses to continue to hike together. By the time we got to the Smokies, we admitted we wanted to be more than hiking buddies. The looming question after that was, What should we do after we get to Springer? Hike in Holy Matrimony... During our engagement in 2008, we worked as seasonal caretakers at the Blackburn Trail Center outside of Harper's Ferry and DC in Virginia. During the peak of serving hikers at the Blackburn, we were rummaging in the book shelf in the cabin living room when we came across a guide to thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail(PCT). Jokingly, we toyed with the idea of spending our first year of marriage on another adventure. On September 26, 2008, we married in Walland, Tennessee outside in a glen surrounded by trees near the boundary of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. After a honeymoon on the East Coast in the Carolinas, we traveled to Tennessee to work temporary jobs. The time we spent with Iris and Dale, my Mom and Dad, was a precious 3 months. Eric enjoyed being "adopted" by them and the many dinners with our neighbours. After saving enough money living with my folks, we sketched out a month and a half of driving out West stopping at national parks and gems along the way. Then. Park the car somewhere. Take a train. Touch the Mexican border. Try out the PCT. Rich from the Journey... As we headed out for the Pacific Crest Trail in March, we got a phone call from Phil, Eric's brother. Paul, Eric's Dad, was going to be admitted into at-home hospice. There would be no more treatment after a 9-year battle for his rare lymphoma, Waldenstrom's Macrobulinemia. We sat in a parking lot in Louisiana. All the preparation and plans for the PCT began to disintegrate. Our selfish desires still nibbled at us. The hood of our car pointed east and north all the way back to Florence, Kentucky. We walked through the door at Paul and Marlene's home, and into Aunt Mary's arms. "You're not going to regret this. This is going to be a special time." Paul looked over his shoulder from the bedroom. He was laying on his side for an afternoon nap. His hand reached out. "You guys didn't have to come home..." Feeling bold, I grabbed his hand. Over the next three months, we received gift after gift, undeservedly. We were allowed to be caretakers again, but in a very special way. I could write pages upon pages...but I won't. In the wake of a wasting disease, Paul joked with us about daily life. He was open about not having a relationship with God. We respected that, but then we were humbled when Paul slowly reached out to God for help. All the while keeping his biting humour fresh, he was eager for prayer. God used Paul to show me strength and determination in the face of physical death on earth. Our experience as newly weds is rich. We failed and succeeded in trying to balance being with family vs. tending to our new marriage. We developed a relationship with Paul that wouldn't have existed if we would have hiked the PCT. Dinners and mornings became usual affairs in the Toombs household. The last morning with Paul was sacred. In heaven, we will laugh. Cost or sacrifice doesn't really exist when you submit control over your life and love as we are commanded to do. And to stray from being too cheesy in this world, for Paul Toombs in loving memory, I promise to never shy away from butter when making dinner - yes we are the Butterton's! ...and why on earth would you ask to be beaten with a stick?	September 26, 2008 after meeting on the trail September 26, 2007
Thank you for your interest in our endeavors! Sincerely yours, The Toombs
Send email to us! Home!
Copyright © Kristina Toombs