Episode #46 - Robby and Meredith King (Doc and Tunes)
Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis
Steve Adams
4.8 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 3 August 2017
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Robby King and his daughter, Meredith decided to hike the Appalachian Trail, his wife Nancy decided that she could support them far better by driving an RV to various road crossings and providing them sustenance and a bed for the night. While Robby and Meredith covered the standard 2,200-mile length of the Appalachian Trail, Nancy chalked up over 10,000 miles of driving to back up their effort. Their story eloquently demonstrates the importance of familial love and support as hikers take on this daunting challenge. 
The physical changes, particularly in Robby, show the toll that this hike can take on the physique, yet with each of them encouraging the other, they made it to the end just a few weeks ago for that picture of pictures at the top of Katahdin.. 
Not only did Nancy feed and house her family on the trail, she took a major responsibility in ensuring that their blog was kept up to date. You can follow them here. This episode features the last interview I'll be able to do with Jessa before I leave for California. She only has a few weeks to go and I'm very proud of the part our podcast may have played in helping her during her hike. I'm also, of course, ridiculously proud of Jessa herself. When I return I'll be doing a complete program with Jessa, her boyfriend Nick and her mother Joan. If you can't wait until then, follow her blog and see how she fares. If you'd like to pledge to support my hike of the John Muir Trail, which I'm doing to support families in my local community, please consider pledging a few bucks for Family Partnership Center by emailing Bridget Harry at bharry@familypartnership.org. Thanks to everybody who has done so already.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, the ultimate midlife crisis, joined Stephen his guests every week as he staggers from Georgia to Maine. |
| 0:26.3 | Welcome back to the show, which is my first that will be airing in absentia, |
| 0:30.6 | as I'm currently driving to California and my date with destiny on the John Muir Trail next week. |
| 0:36.1 | A listener recently suggested that I should date these episodes, so as I'm kind of front-loading |
| 0:41.4 | them to air while I'm away, this is being uploaded on July the 27th, 2017, for airing on |
| 0:47.7 | August 3, 2017. |
| 0:51.0 | We're on to episode number 46, with a family of three, the Kings. Robbie, the dad and Meredith |
| 0:57.0 | the daughter were the hikers, while Mum Nancy was the support all the way up the trail. |
| 1:02.6 | They have some great insights on the benefits of a supported hike, and we're particularly |
| 1:06.6 | lucky to be speaking with them in today's show as they finished just about a week ago, so the |
| 1:11.4 | experience is very much fresh in their minds. Their story is a great example of our family can |
| 1:16.7 | come together to make for a successful through hike. We're going to have our last chat with |
| 1:21.4 | Addie or Jessa before she finishes at Katahden. I'm really sad that I won't be hearing from her |
| 1:27.1 | as she completes a triumph, |
| 1:28.8 | but I promise that we'll have a full catch-up once I return in early September. |
| 1:33.2 | I've loved speaking with her, taking her lows as well as her highs, yet I'm sure you'll agree. |
| 1:37.9 | She has always presented a sunny disposition and being as positive as she could. |
| 1:42.2 | I don't think we could have chosen better. I've already got a couple of ideas for next year and a hiker to follow. I'll let you know about that when I return. In preparation for my upcoming hike, and as a response to my 80s section hike a couple of weeks ago, I had a cortisone shot in my knee this week. It had been playing me up for a couple of weeks, |
| 2:01.3 | and I was shocked how much better it made me feel once it was done. |
| 2:05.0 | I think I'll just keep getting these when I come home from a hike. |
| 2:07.9 | I feel like I've been renewed. |
| 2:10.1 | Now, let's listen to the Kings. |
... |
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