Date: 2005-05-30
From: Troutville

To: Troutville and Roanoke
Miles today: 2.1

Deb's Account:After partaking in the hotel's continental breakfast, Domino and I set out on what would be my first day of hiking. We drove to the trailhead where Domino had come in the day before. The sun was shining and the weather was perfect. We hopped on the trail with some Gatorade and the car keys. It was just a short 2.1 mile walk between Daleville and Troutville.The trail was lovely. Mostly flat and slightly rolling. The smells of spring were out and filled our noses with quite a pleasant bouquet. We saw lots of butterflies flitting and floating about. Domino took some pictures of me with the AT signs and US Government postings. We walked through the typical "woods" of the trail, a meadow and crossed a stile or two and a small creek with a wooden bridge. It didn't really feel like I was on this world reknowned Appalachian Trail. I just sort of felt like a walk around the block, but of course with much more pleasant sights. Parts of it kind of reminded me of a hash run through the meadows and hills of Wales that I did last summer, but with a lot less sheep poop to navigate through. Wow! This isn't so bad at all! I know, of course, that most of the trail was hardly this forgiving.We popped out at the road and Domino saw another hiker (Buffalo Bill, I think) getting on where we left off. Now we needed to get a short ride back to town, about a mile down the road. There was hardly any shoulder to the road on the side that we came out on, so we walked down a little ways in the opposite direction we needed to go so we would be spared by the oncoming traffic. Domino stuck out his thumb car after car after truck after truck passed us by. So we discussed walking back to town, which would mean crossing the street because of the lack of walking space on our side (the side we needed to travel to get to town). I felt bad because the last thing I knew Domino wanted to do was walk miles that didn't count toward the trail. So we crossed and walked, sticking thumbs out lackadaisically hoping that maybe, just maybe someone would see us and turn around. We were almost at Grandma's trinket shack when a maroon caddy turned around for us. Hm, unlikely vehicle to be picking up hitch-hikers, I thought. It was two local boys about 17. They had a CD case with a Marine Corps bumper sticker on it and a small fan in the back seat. Domino said something about the sticker and then they started asking him about his hike. One of them got a phone call and Domino found out they were going fishing for Memorial Day with an uncle or something. I saw Domino's ears prick up at the mention of fishing as he asked where they go and what they catch: catfish. Later he confessed that if I wasn't visiting he probably would have tagged along.Back at the hotel we went to the pool for a little while. Oblivious spent an obsurdly long time being cold before being thrown into the pool in his long johns. He saw lots of money at the bottom, but insisted on only trying to retrieve it with his toes. Domino egged him on to dive down and get the rest of it, and the splashing commenced as Domino and I sat happily warm in the sun. Hm, the water was pretty cold after all. Some dark clouds rolled in and we decided to drive to Roanoke and see what was there and have dinner.We drove into town and things were pretty quiet because it was Memorial Day. We walked around a bit seeing the downtown attractions. It was a cute town, and it seemed to have a few interesting things going for it like the Center in the Square which is a performing arts complex. There were several restaurants that were closed, but we decided to have a Guinnes at Macado's. Even though the menu was HUGE and there looked like there were some good eats at Macados', we decided to go for the Thai restaurant we had passed earlier. When we arrived there weren't too many other diners and the tattooed and pierced waittress didn't look all that excited to have to get off her cell phone and work. But it was a great dinner, pretty romantic and yummy food. Too MUCH food actually, even for calorie deprived Domino. It was so wonderful to be having a nice meal with Domino again!