Date: 2004-05-12
From: Bland Va

To: Damascus Va
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I'm at Trail Days and I'm exhausted... so forgive me if this is short. It's 4am and I have just returned to my tent... I love Damascus! Trail Days, as I have mentioned , is a big festival for thru-hikers and about 20,000 people come. Last night I stayed up until like 5 am reading a John Grisham book, The King of Tarts. I like Grisham too much to read it on the trail. By 10:30am I woke groggily and Franco went to DQ to gte breakfast... Franco Rocks!! After a coke and a sausage buiscit I was packed and we set out with a goal: Hitch to Damascus! As we went to leave we spotted Krispy's wife, Jackie, and we had a ride from bland to Wytheville. Jackie is a sweetheart!After being dropped off along I-91 we stood baking in the heat for an hour as car after car passed... ugh. Right as we were about to cry a truck of 2 young guys picked Franco, Benny, Myself and 2 other hikers: Wooly and Mt. Dew and said they'd get us to Marion. As soon as they dropped us off a man's van stopped (it took precisely 4 seconds). The guy was fascinated by us and asked tons of questions. He was really nice and drove out of his way and took us straight to Damascus. I love hitchhiking!!Once there we were directed to a large field known as "Tent City" to camp. We are a day early and a few hikers are here. We picked a spot near the creek and fought the rocks to get setup. I am next to Franco and Benny and by 4 I was set. Shrotly thereafter I saw Dragonfly for the first time in a month and we set out for the post office and sidetracks cafe. The tents are 1/2 mile from town... I know I hike everyday but this seems far.Sadly the shoes I need for work were not at the post office even though I sent them a month ago My mood would quickly improve though as I met "Rhody" and "Rob". Rhody did not thru-hike but hiked a bunch and Rob runs a hostel called THe Bird Cage in Mass. We met at the pizza place and started talking. Soon we were singing while Rob sang and played guitar... It rocked!! We sang "lean on me", "the dance", and "you dont have to call me darling, darling" to name a few. Soon another musician "Jay Bird" joined and we sung "i'll fly away" together while we all had a couple of beers. We had a blast, I got to sing and beatbox, and it was 10pm before we finally took a break.After an AWESOME time singing I returned to my favorite trail hang out: Side tracks cafe. Sidetracks is a cool internet cafe where I saw my old friends "Nuffy" and "Cotton" who work there. "Tinker" and "Booboo" are going to work there too this evening. I met all kinds of hikers (too many to name names) from this year as well as 2003. I beatboxed and jammed out with a bunch of folks. One girl who played guitar and sang, was cool and hippie-esque not to mention attractive... her name was T-Bird.It was cool to sing with T-bird and talk to hikers and soon I drifted back to Tent City. All night I sang and I rapped but I had a couple too many drinks... gulp! I dont like being hazy (I should be more careful). T-bird and Rhodie were there as well as Jaybird tonight into this morning and we all relxed; it was nice. The next 3 nights I will ahve to work but I'll make money. I love singing/rapping and making music and I can tell this weekend will be cool. I hope to see Happy, Walk Softly, The Roman Noodles,a nd others. I can't wait to say Hi to Ms. Janet too... that all said its 4:30am, Wow!Goodnight, Beatbox            ttt