Landfill and TJ from mass

While hiking the AT last year we met a lot of people, and we have kept up with some of them too. It's really like an extended family out there and it's incredible how quickly you bond with good hearted people. We met landfill somewhere in Pennsylvania I believe. He was kind of a weird, say whatever he wanted to whoever he wanted type of guy, and he is hilarious. There was never a dull moment with landfill around haha.. So he's from Massachusetts and when we started to get up toward that area his mom came out to Bennington, Vermont and hooked up a delicious round of trail magic with beer and fresh sandwiches and soda and chips, the whole shibang! And then later on we met his buddy TJ when he drove to pick landfill up for a much needed break in dalton massachusetts. So we were separated for a little while and met back up later up the trail. TJ had a buddy who he had worked with named Jim who lived in Franconia, NH who helped us (like a group of 7) tremendously by slacking us through some tough sections and giving us rides and graciously accepting us into there gorgeous 5 level new Hampshire residence! We were also able to lend him a hand as well, we built him a nice drainage waterfall system at the corner of his driveway and fish and I took a trip to his neighbors house to fix up a deck seat and rail that had broken, so it felt good to give a little back too! They fed us extravagant meals and bought great micro brewed beers, so it was the least we could do!! So thank you Jim and Cathy for being awesome people. And our journey continued the whole way to the finish line with landfill. Although I made a push to get done a week ahead of them fish summited Katahdin with that group, which is awesome! Then on Friday night TJ and landfill started their drive to pa (some 385 miles) stopped at a hotel and finished the trip up on Saturday arriving around lunch time I think. We then took another bit of a drive to go and see my Amish buddy John, who wasn't home cause he was out hunting (when he should have been collecting and stacking eggs!!!), but his wife Emma was. These guys have never met a real live Amish before so it was exciting for us to get to meet Emma and have her show us around the chicken farm and answer all of our chicken farming questions. And showed us the reject eggs, one was super tiny, one had no shell, just that inner membrane and the white and yolk inside, but no shell it was so weird to feel. It was squishy and soft and shaped just like an egg but no shell.. So weird, I have a video of it that I'll try to post. Also landfill and TJ got to walk into the chicken house itself which contains 13,000 free range chickens, needless to say the odor was pretty intense! It smells like ammonia and makes your eyes water, but it may have been a once in a lifetime experience and these guys weren't about to miss out on that! Then after meeting with the Amish I took them to joes famous where landfill enjoyed an order of the extra hot wings and TJ had his very first corndog, a famous wiener and an order of mozzarella sticks, delicious!! Then a little while later we came home and had a wonderfull large meal prepared by momma dukes. Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, gravy, honey garlic red skinned potatoes, asparagus and buttered noodles with some delightful mini potato rolls. Then for dessert she made some homemade no bake cheesecake with cherry topping on a graham cracker crust and homemade buttermilk brownies.. Sofa king delicious. Of course of all of that I had a tiny piece of no bake cheesecake with a little bit of cherry juice cause I can't even have a freakin cherry!! But my company enjoyed it and so did mom and Patrick and that makes me happy. Then Saturday evening we had a group of us (Sean, myself, TJ, landfill, addy and wookie) riding around in Sean's Honda pilot, listening to Christmas music and looking/ critiquing/ criticizing people's light displays lol!! That was a trip, and we were out late!! Then yesterday these guys would've slept all day long I think had I not woken landfill up at like 9:15 and told him breakfast is being made and and will be done soon! Then TJ continued sleeping for another hour or so, despite the noise of breakfast and conversation and dogs barking and his phone going off repeatedly, I think he was tired... Then yesterday fish came back over around 11:00 am and we all hung out all day. We went to Christmas tree shoppes on accident while trying to walk into bed bath and beyond to purchase some rc helicopters. The whole time we were in the Christmas tree shoppe fish and I thought we were in bed bath and beyond and the whole time landfill and TJ never said a word and knew we were in the wrong store!! Man that was embarrassing haha. So obviously this place didn't have what we were after and we went to bed bath and beyond, got what we wanted and rolled out.. Then stopped at GameStop on the way home and got some boredom tools, just in case. And finally headed back home. Tj and landfill helped get rid of some leftovers from the night before and we did a Skype with another hiker that we hiked with for a long time too, Brooklyn, so that was pretty cool. First time for everybody on that deal too I think, and TJ administered my 3:00 pm shot speaking of firsts, he was glad to give it a whirl, and he did a great job too!! Then after that it was getting near dinner time and these guys had a little over a seven hour drive home, so there was just enough time to set off bottle rockets (another first for landfill and maybe tj too) and pack back up for the journey home. All in all a jam packed weekend of fun and I loved having the company of these crazy new englanders!! And I can't wait to be able to visit them and have them show us around their home towns someday!!