Date: 2008-05-02
To: Another Zero in Hot Springs
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Things do happen and work out for the best. Yesterday Topshelf decided to leave the trail. Today he was going to try and find a way out of Hot Springs. It really isn't close to anything.There is no bus line that stops in town nor any other commercial means of transportation. At best, he would start inquiring and offer some $$$ and see if someone in town would drive him to a bus station?But true to AT form, Out of the blue, Sprite's niece Heather had called and was enroute to a new job in Texas. She had arranged to detour to Hot Springs to meet Sprite and have breakfast together before continuing on cross country. As it turned out, Heather was able to drive Topshelf to Memphis to catch a train back to Michigan. How's that for timing? Trail magic-What are the odds?God I love the AT!We all sat together and had breakfast. It was time to move on, or was it?A lot was happening, collectively we decided to stay another day. This is commonly referred to as "getting sucked into the vortex".Truthfully, another day of downtime would go a long way with my knees and poison ivy. As a consolation, to help ease things, there was a French Broad River Music Festival playing all weekend, starting today.To pass the time in Hot Springs, everyone heads up & down the main drag, about 4 blocks long. Destinations are the Outfitter, Pub, Dollar General, Outfitter, Convience store, Outfitter again etc... The sidewalk is actually the AT. So technically as you wander up & down town, you are still hiking the trail.There is a picnic table in front of the laundromat attached to a little store.This seems to be the main congregation point. It is about halfway between everything. Everyone will pass it atleast twice. But probably more like 20 times. A sign posted in the laundromat specifically addresses a "dress code" policy. Something to the effect that a "bath towel" does not constitute clothing while doing laundry? You gotta wonder?I checked out of Elmers and headed down to the festival campground by the river. I had no idea how big of an event this would turn out to be? People arrived all day long. The music started in the afternoon, this was going to be fun. We pitched our tents together and soon met our neighbors. It was a group of women that attend this festival every year. They were a lot of fun and enjoyed hearing some of our stories. They shared food & drink, as we all enjoyed the company and conversation. Eventually we helped give them trail names. Jenny-"Spreadsheet", Anna-"Falsealarm, Andrea-"Sly" and Heather -"Keyless". I now have forgotten where they are from? Thanks again ladies!Chi-Chi & Tracy had a camp site with a fire pit, a little ways down. They brought a ton of trail magic. They are too much! Springloaded made franks & sauerkraut. Freckle's friend Kim drove down also and surprised us with her supply of "medicine" (aged in an oak barrel)just in case someone wasn't feeling as good as they should?. Needless to say, this night was what the doctor ordered.After the music stopped for the night, I crashed in my tent. Someone nearby was playing their banjo until 3-4 a.m. I no sooner got back to sleep again, before I was miserably awakened by the crow of a #$%*ing Rooster! Where in the ?%@! did it come from? I had a sudden craving for fried chicken.