Date: 2007-04-29
From: Hot Springs

To: Hot Springs
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

well...i was awakened at sunrise (can you believe it?) by the music of roosters crowing....one sounded quite young and fit....another vying for recognition sounded very old....its crow was raspy and pained....i felt sad for the old bird....perhaps because i can identify with him so easily...anywayyyyy....i slipped quietly from the bed (REAL BED WITH SHEETS)...and made a pot of coffee....not really...just ran some water thru the mr coffee....i have a lot of instant coffee i need to get rid of....see how serious we are about lightening our load!!!..(i could never bring myself to throw away coffee....lol)after studying the weather channel, we have decided to depart today for our next section...this will take us to erwin tenn....a larger town...close to being a city...they have mcdonalds and pizza hut....we shall be staying at the holiday inn express there...oddly hot springs doesnt even have a grocery store...hot dogs,bread, and small stuff are bought at the dollar store...beer at the gas and laundrymat ...we are pretty good at laundrymat stuff.....etiquiette at laundry establishments is IMPORTANT...an error could cost you more than your clothes...this laundry was mostly an english speaking one...and we find many are used (especialy on saturdays) by construction folks on the road...most of them are not quick to participate in a conversation....(maybe because they are doing such "woman's work"), but usually during the spin cycle we are communicating....sometimes in english..i HAVE noticed they use the largest dryers, probably in hopes of departing sooner such an UNmanly place! ...whatever... a sign in this laundry said a towel was not acceptable clothing to do laundry - aimed at hikers i believethis place reminds me of my childhood home...there were railroad tracks not far away, and we always heard trains...peaceful sound for some reason....cujo might disagree..we are taking this retirement tour a section at a time..the guides say 5 1/2 days to erwin...so we have 6 damn days of food...(at a lb per day...that means more stress on feet, back, and knees...great..)cujo needs more food throughout the day....be it snacks, lunch or whatever...usually when she yawns it is a signal for her to refuel...we did alright with dinners...but we are taking a new approach to lunches...we bought bagels...and we are taking a block of cheese and summer sausage..we need the fat (never thought i would say that) and protein...and we have some good old honeybuns for breakfast...filling with a quick pop of energy...so i dont have to cook in the mornings...really slows us down with the pots cleaning...putting everything away..and takes forever for grits and oatmeal to cool off enough to eat..etcby the way....there was a set of scales at the outfitter..so cujo and whitebear stepped up to see the tale of the tape....dont know how accurate, but cujo and i have lost at least 15 lbs.....EACH!!!!...not sure i would recommend this diet to carrol though..not really a feast for the taste buds...invited to an impromptu party by the french broad river last evening...the young folks were enjoying themselves...it was flattering i suppose...being so old, to be invited...i imagine we are like their grandparents, and they seem genuinely proud of our hiking attempts...particularly liked chatting with rooster...a rugged and proud individual who was raised in the mtns...plays and writes music...learned gourmet cooking from the ground up...is afraid of nothing..a possum invaded their party the evening before, and rooster attempted to befriend it...to tame it and take it on the trail...the result was a bite to his thumb...we chatted again about john prine, and he suggested listening to towns van zant (did you get that kim)...soko, keymaster,2wheels,soquiet,wrongway--now stroker,iamnot,zack and cabel(who i call wind and breeze)shadow,and some dude with a georgia cap...and others i forget...cujo and i left early to enjoy hot dogs on our private deck....grilled to perfection on toasted buns with brown spicy mustard....yesssss...surprising how simple things mean so much...we (and you all too) are so spoiled with everything we have...so little time to appreciate what we have...not the big things....the little things...how utterly stupid "designer brand name"(hilfiger..harley...porsche) ANYTHING is...just underlines our insecurities....how it IS possible to wash your hair with (god forbid) soap.... i see fires in south georgia...hope some rain gets there....looks like sun till thursday tho...cujo is up...making the bed as usual...she will be dusting soon unless we get going.....going to make her some REAL coffee....she is the BEST!!!!again....we are taking this a section at a time...not worrying about maine...just getting to the next town...and 6 days is a longggggg time...while you all are enjoying life's conveniences....we shall be living, enjoying, cursing, sweating, climbing,pondering why we are here, celebrating that we ARE here,bitching about our pains, taping our feet, trying to keep dry,establishing a new home every day, deconstructing our new home every morning,complaining about to much weight(altho we sent home a lot...hoping for no cold weather...we have no long johns for our legs) the mountains are calling...damn they look high..i sent kim the first card with pics...i think she is having trouble downloading them...we have many more now...with the less rotund whitebear and cujo....maybe if we get near civilization and cvs we will ship her a disk... Whitebear and CujoKen and Pat