It's May 4! Happy Star Wars Day! May the fourth be with you. We left camp by 7:00. It turned out we had camped about 0.5 miles short of where we thought we were, but we still made it into Damascus by 9:30 a.m. There is a log home right next to the trailhead. I think it'd be fun to live there and watch the hikers come into town.
We crossed the TN/VA state line on the way into town. Three states down. Eleven to go! Virginia is the longest state on the trail by far. We hike more miles in Virginia than we've hiked altogether up to this point.
As soon as we got into town we saw Woodstock approaching. He's been here a few days so he showed us around town. He walked us to the far end of town to Mojoe's Coffee House where Wing It and I had breakfast. I had two eggs, two slices of bacon, two blueberry pancakes, a smoothie and a blueberry muffin. Downed it. Bluebird just had a smoothie since she's a gluten-free vegan.
After breakfast we walked back to Mt. Rogers Outfitters to try to get private bunks at Dave's Place, the hostel run by Mt. Rogers. While we were waiting for the Outfitter to open at noon, Blacksmith wandered out of Dave's Place and came over to say hello. When he described the conditions of the bunkhouse (no mattresses, semi-private rooms), we decided the Hikers Inn sounded like a better option. We wandered a few blocks down the street to see if they had beds available. They did! A private room with a queen bed and one of the bunks in the small (4 person capacity) bunkroom. The caretaker, Lee, is super nice. When she found out I was from Texas she sought me out to warn me that the "Mexican" restaurant in town was not, in fact, Mexican. They just serve burritos and tacos. She didn't want me to feel disappointed. She also made Bluebird a special vegan drink since she knew there weren't many food options in town for her. It felt like just the right fit. Bluebird and I shared the private queen and Wing It took one of the two bunks available.
We walked back to Mt. Rogers Outfitters while we waited for Lee to clean the hostel. I asked about insoles (I'm not convinced Super Feet are for me but they fit properly) and had them look at my collapsed pole. They tried to fix it but told me to call Leki. I shall. Wing It looked at trail runners and Bluebird looked at summer-weight sleeping bags.
Bluebird and Woodstock went to eat at the "Mexican" restaurant while Wing It and I, still stuffed from second breakfast at Mojoe's, showered at the hostel. They had shampoo and women's shaving cream. Score! I put on my rain suit so that Lee could do our laundry. I ended up having to wear that until 7:30 when laundry was done. It's 85 degrees our so it was kind of hot and sticky, but having clean laundry is worth it.
We lunched at the Blue Blaze Cafe. We were ignored for the first 10 minutes or so but after I sought out a waiter, the food was great! I got half a Philly cheesesteak and Buffalo fried with a side of blue cheese dressing. Yum! Then we made the long road walk down to Food City to resupply. I bought way too much food. I have enough breakfast for weeks it seems.
After resupplying we hung out at the hostel for a while before Wing It and I headed back to the Blue Blaze Cafe to try to meet some new hikers and take advantage of a $2 draft beer happy hour Longhorn and Lotus had told us about when we ran into them at Mojoe's. Apparently that was a one-time deal and they weren't offering it tonight. Boo. Oh well. I don't really like beer anyway but I drank two since they didn't serve liquor. Bluebird met up with us and we had peach cobbler for dinner. They were out of brownie sundae! Double boo! Then it was back to bed. I am so tired!
Best Thing: Everything about being in town!
Looking Forward To: Everything about being in town!
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