Date: 2009-06-05
From: Rural Retreat

To: Wytheville, VA
Miles today: 7.5

Mom's Are Great!The morning after we camped at Rural Retreat we got up early and hiked back the 1.5 miles to the Barn Restaurant for breakfast. They had a hiker/trucker breakfast special as well that included just about everything you could want for one cheap price, including pancakes and biscuits & gravy. We ate to our stomach's content and relaxed for a long while drinking coffee and watching CNN news on the diner's TV. As we were discussing when to leave, The Phlo and Graveyard passed by the front window and we could see Graveyard mouth the words "is that Einstein?," who happened to be sleeping on the front porch of the building. Of course this meant sitting around some more while the two of them ate lunch. We really did need to get hiking because Dizzy and I wanted to get to Bland, VA in the next few days to get a package and get up the road toward Harpers Ferry so she could get to DC to catch a flight to Mexico for her brother's wedding. Skipper also had to meet her mom at the next road crossing which was about 15 miles away. So we went across the street to the Exxon station to resupply and once again eyed the ominous clouds heading our way. We walked the 1.5 miles back to our campsite. On the walk there The Phlo got sick again, and it also began to rain. We quickly gathered inside our circus tent to discuss our options and sit out the rain. When the rain finally let up Stone Skipper stepped outside the tent and called her mom. She was only getting one bar, so the conversation was choppy and kept getting disconnected, but was able to find out that her mom could meet us in Rural Retreat at the Barn Restaurant the next day and could give us all a ride to Bland. So, we decided to stay in our makeshift campsite another night and hike the 1.5 miles back the next morning for another hiker breakfast and to meet Skipper's mom. In the morning we packed up and walked back to Rural Retreat in the rain just in time for breakfast. There me met two fellow thru-hikers, Ninja and Sodfather. Sodfather also had a blue heeler named, originally enough, Blue. We had plenty of time to kill before Skippers mom came later that afternoon, so we relaxed again on the porch of the restaurant and let the dogs play. ninja showed us his camera equipment6 and Sodfather filled us in on his plans for an adventure travel business he was thinking of starting. He also shared his idea of buying a cheap RV or VW bus and finishing the trail by vehicle. While we were relaxing on the porch, Tom, a truck driver for "Little Debbie's", stopped to pet the dogs and ask us about the trail. We assured him we were doing our part to keep "Little Debbie's" a thriving business whenever we were in town. He must of liked what he heard, or took pity on some pretty sorry looking hikers, because he asked us to walk over to his truck with him. There he gave us a very large box full of smaller boxes of "Little Debbie's" products, including swiss rolls, oatmeal sandwiches, honey buns and an assortment of other products. We gratefully accepted the gift and all lined up with him in front of the truck with the "Little Debbie's" products for a group picture - just to preserve the magical event beyond the moment we demolished all the snacks. We bid Tom farewell as he got back in the truck and headed up the road. We all went back to the porch to divvy up the bounty. When Skipper's mom arrived it was cutting it close to get to the Post Office in Bland before closing, so she offered to put us all up in a motel in nearby Wytheville, where she had already gotten a room. We, of course, accepted her offer and crammed 4 people and a dog into 1 room at Motel 6, after which she took us all out to dinner at Applebees. Mom's are the greatest.