Date: 2008-04-19
From: Harpers Ferry WV

To: Harpers Ferry WV
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Start: Harper's Ferry, WVEnd: Harper's Ferry, WVMiles: 0HotelAhhh...a zero day. You all know that I love them, but today was a blast really. Karen and I decided we wanted to go tubing down the Shenandoah River, so shecalled a place called River Riders and they told us it's actually a littleearly for tubing, but they'd make an exception for us if we agreed to wearwetsuits, because the water temp was still in the low 50's. We were cool withthat, but before we went, we had to change hotel rooms.So, there are like tons of conferences or something going on this weekend, andthe Holiday Inn that we're at in Martinsburg couldn't allow us to stay in thesame room 2 nites in a row because of some weird floating reservation thingthey had with one of the conferences (don't ask me), but the hilarious thingwas that we didn't realize it was checkout time until like 30 minutesbefore...and the room was TOTALLY trashed with all of my gear and extra gearand more gear. We just threw everything into bags/my pack/wherever we could,and they originally couldn't let us check into our new room until like 3 p.m.(checkout was 11 a.m.). I went down to the desk and talked to them about atleast allowing us to put our refrigerator stuff like milk somewhere, and thenthey realized our new room was ready...so we just ended up moving down thehallway a few rooms. Weird huh? It all worked out, so it was no big deal.Finally, we got out and went to the river place, we were supposed to be there by1:00 p.m. There were tons of kids there, and then we saw a sign saying todaywas Earth Day and they had boyscouts and other groups there to clean up theriver. After getting wetsuits and watching out "tubing safety video" (whichwas hilarious by the way) we were off with JJ in the van. He said we were theonly and first tubers of the YEAR!! Well, the water was pretty cold, and thehigh was supposed to be 81, but it didn't make it. Clouds blew in and the windpicked up, but it was still extremely relaxing. I love floating down rivers intubes, but more than that, I love being in/around the water. I am a Cancer theCrab afterall.There were lots of Canadian Geese, and 2 turtles, but that was all we saw. Nearthe exit point the wind changed directions and actually started blowing us backup river, so we finally made it to the ramp and JJ was there waiting. He toldus they actually had to go in and help some of the canoers who were gettingblown back up river in a different section. On the way back, JJ told us of agreat Chinese place in Martinsburg, and that has been my craving of choice thisweek, so we tracked it down. It's called Peking (how original huh? LOL). Anyway, he was right, it was GREAT food, AYCE for 9.95. I had 2 plates plus abig slice of cake. mmmmmmWell the town of Martinsburg is actually a cool town. There's a historicdowntown with great buildings and houses, but coolest of all is that their oldtrain station has a roundhouse!! This is one of those huge round buildingsthat trains used to turn around in years and years ago. Obviously it's notstill in use, but wow, how cool to see it. The sign said it was the "sole"one, which made me think it's the only one left. I'd heard about these things,but never saw one before. You couldn't go into it or anything, but that was ok.We just walked around the downtown and looked at all the shops and buildings(Karen is an Architectural Historian, so she was eating up all the oldbuildings and houses).Then it was finally back to the hotel to do laundry and get my next leg figuredout. Yes, I'm taking one more zero tomorrow (the weather is supposed to becrappy), and then heading off early Monday for a full day of hiking. I boughta bit more food for this week, and Chex Mix (I'm excited to say) has now comeout with chocolate mix, so I'm trying that.I pretty much always plan for 5 days of hiking, but could "make" my food lastfor 6 if I had to. I'm still taking it easy with mileage, and man do I enjoyit more when I don't cram 18 miles into a day. I really really like 12-15 miledays the most. Give me time to rest and enjoy views more.I'm excited that I'll actually knock off 2 more states in 1 day! Makes me feelall accomplished, even though there's like a few miles in both WV and MD. The rest has done wonders for my sore achilles/calves/feet. It's just thenormal pain from getting back into the swing of things, and like I mentionedbefore, no sign of the plantars pain in my left foot at all. I'm prettyexcited about that. I think as long as I keep the mileage down and pack light,that will be fine.It was a gorgeous day today, and this part of the country is awesome too. Wefound out that River Riders offers 3 canoe trips and even custom trips forhowever many days you want to be out. I am dying to get into canoe/hammockcamping, so I think we'll be doing that for sure in the future.Well, gotta get some zzzz's. We're moving out of the hotel tomorrow and goingto Harper's Ferry to stay in a new Inn that also serves as a hostel. It's newthis year, called the Town's Inn. It's right on High Street (down from theOutfitters) so it's a great location. Well, livin the good life again folks. Bad storms look like they're on the way tonight/tomorrow. I'd sure rather bein town than out there in it....I'll have to get my mind prepared to be out inlightening again this year.Until tomorrow!~Certain