Date: 2019-05-19
From: Damascus, VA

To: Damascus Old Mill
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Today is my last zero here in Damascus and most of the festivities are over. I can tell because I actually have service and when it was crazy busy here my service was so slow. I woke up sweating buckets inside my tent and took it down so I could air my things out and get packed up. I chatted with Hiker Dan and Flowers for a bit. They¢re leaving town today. They¢ve been so awesome to hike with and get to know and I¢m looking forward to seeing more of them! They gave me their extra hard ciders and wine, which was so nice. Wobbles, Naners, and FKZ showed up to do their laundry at the hostel since there was no option for that around Tent City. They sat with me while I packed and they packed up too. They¢re all pretty ultralight, so they had much less gear than me. But hike your own hike! There was a freak rainstorm and I quickly moved all my stuff under the porch. I procrastinated moving for a while because I had so much stuff with me to carry to the hotel. I had new shoes and all this Trail Days gear to send home and whatnot. I finally walked it all over in two trips and said goodbye to the whole gang. Odie walked in and just as he did I picked up my trash bag of stuff and my hiking poles poked two holes. We all laughed and he said ¢I love hiker problems.¢ I definitely should¢ve considered the decision to put poles into a trash bag, but sometimes my tired brain doesn¢t want to deal haha.I sat in my hotel room and aired out my stuff and relaxed. I watched Pearl Harbor on TV, one of the war movies I¢ll actually watch with my father because it¢s got a bunch of romance. Haha. I also watched Cake Wars and missed baking. Post-trail I¢m going to go back to baking and gain 500 pounds thinking I can eat a whole cake because I need the calories. Lol. I blogged a bit and then went downstairs for dinner. I sat alone, but was enjoying the time to myself and blogged and planned a bit at dinner. I was thinking a bit about my old boyfriend because today is our old anniversary. It hasn¢t been a year since it ended, but today is still what was an important date for a long time. It was ironic because as I was thinking about it I saw a big sign that said ¢Love¢ outside the window. Hm. I will always love him, he¢s such a wonderful person. But I¢m also at peace today and enjoyed my dinner and my time to think. Prometheus left today and didn¢t get to say goodbye because Hot Sauce¢s family wanted to leave. It hurt to not be able to say goodbye, but I got as much time as I could with him and hope to see him more in the future. I was texting Thunder Buddy and apparently they all stayed at the hostel and are staying the night, which is pretty funny because they were all convinced they were leaving today and then decided to zero. Even despite my zero, I¢m still tired from the weekend. I¢ll probably do low mileage tomorrow and get out late, but overall I¢m feeling good and ready to hike. I¢m glad the drama is behind me for now and I¢m excited for more adventures and milestones with this amazing hiking community. I am watching Everybody Loves Raymond, such a good show, and snacking on some wine and chocolate. The life! Happy Anniversary to me haha. I love you Diana! Happy end to Trail Days too! What an adventure. Little Debbie