Date: 2016-07-23
From: Old Orchard Shelter

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Hike day 4: Well, we had a change of plans. Nancy's daughter and a friend were bringing a shuttle out to Fox Creek parking area. That was 1.4 miles from our camp site. The heat was rising, and there was a quick unanimous decision to get up early, hike the 1.4 miles, and get on that shuttle back to town! We were dirty and stinky and satisfied with our hike. Nancy's plan was to go on for a couple more days with her new crew and the rest of us went back to Damascus. So the shuttle made a bee line for town...WAIT!! No. The shuttle took us on a 40 minute ride down a curvy, hilly, mountain road. The A/C was blasting cold. I was near the back of the big van. And by the time we were back in town, I was all done. I was feeling car sick. Ugh! But hungry too. So we went to MoJo's and got a burger. But they had so much pepper in the meat that it ruined the hamburger for me. Bummer! And we were sitting out in the hot sun. Now I was also overheated. So...Pam went on the popular Virginia Creeper bike ride and I went back to Hiker's Inn where we had an airstream camper rented for the night.Ok. Imagine this. I've been 3 nights, 4 days in the woods. Sweaty. Stinky. Dirty. The camper is clean and has nice twin beds...and a camper shower. Of course... a camper shower. I got the worst of the funk off but it wasn't much of a relaxing shower, what with trying to wash my hair with one hand while holding the wand with the other. But I got it done and felt much better after a good nap. I know I've been complaining a lot but now it gets good. Really good. We went to Pizza Plus for dinner. It was sooo delicious! Fresh salad and good pizza at a great price. It was wonderful. And then more magic happened. On the drive back to our silver bullet camper, we saw a sign on a little church. It was hymn sing night! It started at 7 and it was 7:05. So we parked the car and went in. They welcomed us...and rightly so. There were 13 of us in the audience and 4 singers in the guest singing group. Oh it was fun! Very southern twangy hymn singing. With every song, the two ladies near the front would look at each other and nod their heads in approval. And if you're my age and older you might remember the funeral home fans we had in church to stay cool. Yes! No air conditioning, but we had those square fans with the wooden handles. It was just a delightful evening. Note: Oh, yes. I was going to tell you about the poison ivy story. There was a rock in the area where we were camping that was a nice sitting spot for eating. It was surrounded by and a little overgrown with green plants. Very pretty and inviting. So I pointed it out to Nancy and she ate her dinner sitting on the rock. The next morning I sat on the rock to eat my breakfast. Another hiker, a middle aged man, was there cooking for himself and he said to me, "You are aware you are sitting in the middle of poison ivy, aren't you?" I answered, "No!" He said, "Well you ladies all looked experienced so I figured you would know." Oh, dear. Sorry, Nancy.Quote: "Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as though you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it."