Date: 2011-04-10
From: Day 31 Hot Springs NC

To:  Day 32 Hot Springs NC
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

As I said yesterday The Iron Horse Station is a great place but what I didn't know is there is a freight train that runs all night and passes right by a couple times through the night. Not too bad but unexpected. My room is small but with a terrific shower and the bed is something out of a movie set with what fells like 1000 thread count sheets and a big fluffy down comforter Ahhhhh. Ok what am I going to do today? First thing is get breakfast at the only diner in town, the Smoky Mountain Diner. This establishment is awesome. You might think that a town of under 700 people might have a diner that is less than perfect. Quite the opposite. The owner Genia provides a surprisingly great selection with really good food and great prices. The food was terrific, the staff couldn't be friendlier, when my waitress overheard me mention that I couldn't reach my wife since ATT doesn't provide service here, she pulled out her cell phone and gave it to me to call home and all she asked I'd that I didn't walk out with it then left to continue serving other patrons. My great breakfast of french toast, bacon, grits, juice, coffee was only $6. Then I went and picked up my resupply box @ Elmer's and paid for 2 more nights at the Iron Horse Station. Then it was across the street to do my laundry. While I was waiting for the laundry I walked over to the Hot Springs Spa and reserved time later for 1 hr. ($13) in the world famous mineral springs. (www.nchotsprings.com) Then I waked back to my room to open the resupply box and get my pack organized for Tuesday. I then went to the local outfitter, Bluff Mountain Outfitters, they are a full line outfitter for both hiking and river fun, with their vast selection I was able to find a pair of hiking boots that felt better than my boots with 280 miles on them so I bought new boots. I went back to the Spa and sat in a private Jacuzzi style tub of mineral water overlooking the French River. The tub, looks like a normal hot tub and is filled directly from the underground spring with no filtration nor sanitization necessary. They just drain the tub directly into the river and refill directly from the spring between each use. The temperature of the water from the spring is a constant 102*. The outside temperature today has reached 93*, yes it is unusually hot even for Hot Springs, so after soaking in the hot tub all I could do was to mosey on back to the Iron Horse Station (they have air conditioning) for a glass of Merlot where I met fellow hiker Sticks. Other Hikers filtered in and we all had a great gab session over a couple glasses of wine. Of course the main topic of discussion was the trail. This is truly the way to hike the Appalachian Trail. Tonight I'll have one of my trail dinners and then back to getting my stuff together for the trail. I almost forgot, I figured out how to use FaceTime on my iPhone so even though there is no ATT cell service here there is WiFi where I'm staying, so I was able to see and hear my wife, and friends who were over for dinner, it was something like video conferencing Dick Tracy style. I needed that, she knows how much I really miss not being there with her. It was pretty cool and great seeing her smiling face once again. I'll sleep better tonight. That's all for now.