Date: 2009-05-18
From: Tent City, Damascus, VA

To: Laurel Bloomery, TN
Miles today: 8.0

The Pizza Tape CouchOn Monday morning, after the end of Trail Days, we woke up and broke camp because we were supposed to be out of Tent City by 10am, although there was no one left around to tell us to leave. We were planning to hitch back to Hampton, TN, with Graveyard and The Phlo to hike most of the miles we missed hitching up to Trail Days. So we bid farewell to everyone who was hiking out of Damascus or hitching to other parts of the trail, including Maxwell, Ten Sticks and Jen who were all headed back to hike out of Erwin, TN. We took our time that morning, making another visit to the library, one last trip to the Dairy King and a brief stop at the outfitter. Finally, late that afternoon, we began our hitch back to Hampton at the side of the road to Hampton by way of Mountain City.The hitch appeared it would be easier then we anticipated, as a woman in a white pickup soon stopped and offered a ride most of the way which seemed great since there were four of us and a dog. We hopped in the back and headed up the mountain road. Einstein was a little nervous at first but, like the rest of us, soon laid down and enjoyed the rush of (cold) wind on his face."Most of the way" to Mountain City as she said turned out to be about six miles shy of town, and she dropped us off in the middle of nowhere, apologizing that she couldn't take us any further because she has groceries to get home. She turned up Taylors Valley Road and left us at the intersection on an otherwise desserted mountain road. As her truck disappeared over the hill, we began to get concerned that we might be in a bit of a predicament. For the next 45 minutes, we stood on the side of the road with our homemade cardboard signs, watching as every car passed us without a pause. Almost every car was a pickup with an empty truck bed going in the one direction we needed to go. The sun was nearly set, it was getting cold fast, and we didn't know what we were going to do.Finally one red truck with a camper shell, and a "Legalize Bluegrass" sticker on the back appeared as if it was about to stop, but the driver just flashed us a big grin, waved and turned up Taylors Valley Road. About 20 minutes later, after a few more trucks passed us by, the red truck returned. The driver, who I will just call "Max" to protect the anonymity of his farm, explained he couldn't take us to Mountain city that night, but he had a cabin on his beef farm we were welcome to use for the night, and he would give us a ride into Mountain City in the morning. We all looked at each other, nodded, and decided it sounded like a good ideal. So we hopped in - Dizzy Bat (Liz) and Graveyard in the cab, and The Phlo (Jess), Einstein and I into the back which was covered by a camper shell and had a large mattress filling the truck bed. Since the situation seemed a bit shady, I tried to watch for street signs from the back of the truck, but we soon began turning onto roads with no signs, then roads with no pavement, then dirt tracks, then through fields of Mayflowers, then right through creek beds and finally into a cow pasture. I could tell we were on a farm because we had to stop a couple of times while Dizzy Bat hopped out to open a farm gate, then close it behind after passing through. We went by a few old and deteriorating farm buildings, barns, cow fencing and water troughs. At one point, after the truck climbed up a very steep hill, Max suddenly stopped, backed up and floored it straight though a field of Mayflowers to the edge of a steep drop off. he looked back at us from the cab and pointed to the view, which was amazing, and shot a huge grin back at The Phlo and I, who were both totally in the dark about what was happening and thankful that this total stranger didn't just drive us off a cliff. Max then backed up again and floored the truck forward down a hill, over another stream and up a steep and narrow bald ridge. He pointed out the window, as he gave further narration to Dizzy Bat and Graveyard that The Phlo and I couldn't hear, into a bowl at the bottom of the hill where a small cabin sat, then floored the truck again up to the top of the bald ridge to an old abandoned and rusted out school bus that sat at the top of the ridge, pointed again and shot another huge grin while he floored the truck around the side of the bus on the edge of the ridge. At this point i saw my life flash before my eyes a second time as I looked almost straight down the side of the ridge to the ground below - where I was almost sure I would be resting after the truck finished rolling sideways down the hill. But the truck didn't roll and we circled around the bus and sown into the bowl where the cabin sat. The Phlo and I breathed a sigh of relief when the truck finally stopped. Even Einstein, normally quite at home and nonplussed in any vehicle, gave me a look as if to say "are you looking out for me here?"When we got out of the truck and talked to the girls, we discovered that Max had been narrating the whole sightseeing tour to them and that he wasn't the crazy man we had been imagining from the back - well not completely crazy anyway. It turned out we had been driving through his 180 acre beef farm (not Beet farm as we all originally thought we heard), and both the cabin and bus were left over from hunters to whom he had allowed the use of his farm in years past. The farm sat on the side of a mountain and boasted an incredible view of the mountains of Tennessee and Virginia. The cabin itself wasn't much to speak of, but it quickly became a palace to us. It was surrounded by old wooden fencing to keep the cows out and had an old rotting wooden porch. Max said he kept it run down intentionally to prevent any of his friends from hanging a mailbox there and calling it home. Max opened the door and told us to make ourselves at home. Inside was one large room with lights that didn't turn on, a sink that didn't run, a radio that didn't get reception, a ceiling that was coming down (as a testament to Max's skill as a roofer and contractor on the side), cabinets, a Papa Bear wood burning stove, one bed, two bunk beds, a small table with two oil lamps and two couches. Max pointed to one of the couches and asked if we had ever heard of the Pizza Tapes, referring to a famous recording of the Grateful Dead. he proceeded to tell us a story about Jerry Garcia, Tony Rice and several other well known blues and bluegrass musicians that he and friends used to host frequently on the farm and in the area. According to the story, after recording a session and sitting on that exact couch at a nearby house the tapes of their session were stolen. To make a long story short, which was how most of Max's stories went, someone ordered a pizza and the delivery guy stole the master tapes of their session off of that couch while they were looking for money to pay him. The story went on to indicate that someone got arrested in the process of trying to retrieve them, and eventually the recordings turned up as bootlegs among Dead fans. How the couch got to Max's cabin he didn't get to, but he called it the Pizza Tape couch and informed us that we would have the honor of sitting or sleeping on the couch Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir used to hang out on. Eventually, after a couple of more stories from Max, many that had a charming way of starting in the middle and ending up as completely different stories, Max said he had to go tend to some things and would stop by later. So we settled in, unpacked our bags and took a walk up to the bus on top of the bald, which Max referred to as "the Magic Bus." We returned tot he cabin, lit the lanterns and stove, and made some dinner. At this point Max suddenly returned and asked why we weren't listening to the radio. We explained we couldn't get any stations, so he examined it and discovered the antenna wire had been ripped out of the back. We went outside to check it out, as he surmised some local kids had come by and messed with it. But when we got behind the cabin we found the antenna, and 20 foot pole it was attached to, lying on the ground. We got it upright, retied it to the house and fed the wire back in through a hole in the wall. At this point Max came to the realization that it was probably a cow that got tangled up in the antenna wire and pulled the whole thing down. So Max hooked up the stereo antenna wire and tuned in a station for us so we could "hear some good local bluegrass". He told us a few more stories then left for the evening. We cleaned up from dinner and kicked back on the Pizza Tape Couch to relax. It was incredibly hot inside the cabin from the stove, which drove us back outside now and then into the frigid cold night just to cool off a bit, where we discovered an amazing display of stars above. It made for some hot sleeping that night, but we were quite happy to be Max's guests.