Date: 2007-06-29
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Miles today: 0.0

So we all ended up taking a zero-day in Pearisburg. My shins were sore so I wanted to rest up and the rest of us folks just kind of never left. There wasn't much to do in town, it ended up being a lazy nap and coffee shop day. At night time Blue Song and Squirrel made an amazing meal in the hostel's kitchen that consisted of egg/potato/onion fritata, baked chicken, and blue song's made from scratch apple pies (he made 2!). The night before Blue Song & I made corn on the cob and roasted vegetables on the grill outback. It was nice to have home cooked food for once.The next day we all got a late start and I decided to investigate the possibility of slack packing a section. Brenda at the Rendezvous Motel hooked Barbarossa & I up and we hiked 23 miles that day starting at almost 2:00 (we didn't make it back to the motel until 10:30 at night, nighthiking south into Pearisburg is NOT fun, it's confusing & overgrown & somehow we ended up in the cemetary!). It was pretty hilarious passing Squirrel & Bluesong heading south b/c they had no clue we were slacking it... they laughed and just kinda rolled their eyes. So these past several days I've been hiking with Barbarossa and we've been doing some creative blazing. He needs to be in Waynesboro tomorrow so we've done some retroblazing down roads (which is actually really neat walking through the beautiful countryside... it's gorgeous out here but ridge after ridge and pud after pud, it's just getting to be the same ol' thing a little), a little bit of what I like to call "Rail Blazing", & hit up the Blue Ridge Parkway for awhile (there's more views!)... okay, I'll stop justifieing it, I'm not an AT purist anymore We've had a lot of awesome adventures this past week.One stop that couldn't be missed was the Home Place in Catawba for the best meal on the trail. I'm a vegetarian and pretty much every dish had meat in it but I definately made an exception. It's an all you can eat country style buffet where the server brings out bowl after bowl of food... pintos, green beans, cole slaw, mashed potatoes (the best!), mac & cheese, biscuits w/apple butter, and Barbarossa really really enjoyed the fried chicken. We stuffed ourselves silly and closed the place out. The owners were really nice and let us crash in the gazebo behind the restaurant.The next morning we each packed out 6 beers uphill 4 miles to McAfee Knob and had a grand ol' time. The weight was definately worth it, it ended up being a very short day b/c we were only able to stuble one more mile to the next shelter... it was worth it!Other then that we hit up Daleville and stayed at the Budget Inn there. We hung out with Seagull & Ben and Blue Song met up with us that afternoon. The day was spent swimming in the pool, watching way too many movies, and enjoying red wine. We stayed another night there and Squirrel showed up as well. More pool time.Right now I'm at the Dutch Haus in Montebello at mile 810. I've heard of this place from many folks and it's definately worth the stay. We both arrived here at about 6:30 last night, dinner was being served at 7 so the owners rushed us off to the showers and we dined in terry cloth robes while our dirty clothes were being washed... it was awesome. The dinner was delicious also, I've been absolutely craving veggie lasagna for weeks and it happened to be served last night. Other then that it's been quite relaxing. We're heading onto the trail in about an hour and will be staying at Rusty's Hollow tonight.