Date: 2007-12-24
From: Home

To: Gattlenburg TN
Miles today: 3.0

mi. 3sleep hoteldest. Gattlenburg, TN day 164 Last night was funny. I woke up a couple times last night to one of the guys from Ireland kicking me in his sleep. I woke him up 3 or so times by shaking him awake to get him to stop, without taking my arms out of my sleeping bag. Finally he got the hint, after some verbal persuasion from me to turn the right way in the shelter. He was sleeping 90 degrees the wrong way from everyone else. Funny story. The other Irelish guy was sleeping on the lower level next to Oblivious. He said he woke up feeling something on his sleeping pad. Apparently he rolled partway onto his mat in his sleep. I think he just wanted someone to snuggle with. The moon was crazy bright last night. I woke up to water the leaves and went outside. The moon was almost full. It was so bright I probibly could have read by it. It casted cool shadows. Made even cooler since I was walking around without my glasses on. We slept in since we figured no one would be headed back to Gattlenburg early in the morning on Christmas Eve. Plus we were only 3 miles from NewFound Gap. The road to hitch in on. Luckily we didn't have for to go. The trail was frozen over in places. It got down into the 20's last night. We got to the gap to see some tourons there. We sat a took a little break and made out plan. We make a couple poor efforts to get people to offer us rides. Then we went to the road and stuck out our thumbs. It was still early, sometime before 11am. Most people were still headed into the park at this point. A few cars pasted with families or single guys. No one looked our way. After 10 minutes or so someone pulled over. After all the people to drive by, a woman in her 40's by herself pulls over to pick up us 3 guys. Of course she turned out to be local. People not from around the trail never seen to get it. Hopefully at some point they need to depend on the kindness of strangers and figure it out. She turned out to be pretty cool. She was headed to work after hitting up the Indian casino's. She works in Pigen Forge. Originally she said she could only drop us off at the visitors center a couple miles from town, she was running late to work. Then she said what'!s 15 more miutes and said she would take us into town. It is 15 miles from the trail. She was even listening to NFL talk radio. To top it all off she pasted a touron driving way too slow creeping by every overlook by crossing the double yellow on a cruvy mountain road. What can I say, fun ride. She dropped us off right in town. From there we hit a pancake/breakfest place for food. The hunger/confusion was kicking in. After that it was to the outfitters. The outfitters here is probibly my favorite of the trail. They took our picture, no big thing there. They offered to take 10% off anything not already on sale.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        I did upgrade one thing at the outfitter. My liner gloves have more than a couple holes in it. I got a pair of mountainhardwear heavyweight liner gloves. Way warmer than my patagoina ones. After that it was onto the hotel. We got a good place close to the outfitter. The Grand Prix was closed, where most hikers go, so we stayed at the Family something or other. Nice enough for me. From there it was onto resupply. We figured places are going to close early for Christmas Eve, so the plan was to get everything done before relaxing. Oblivious or I brought it up about wanting some Champain for Springer. There was also a liquer store close by. So we picked up some before the Grocery store. From there it was the bus service. Gattlenburg has a cheap 50 cent bus service. We caught it and got dropped off right at the post office. Unfortantly they stopped taking packages a few hours ago. So I guess I'll have some beverage tonight. The resupply was different. I bought a ton of crap. I ended up spending more, but I think I will come out ahead in the end. I bought snacks and food to eat at the hotel, along with new litium batteries from the death ray. In all $60. But I'm close to the end and tired of being hungry on the trail. Now I tend to think of myself as a decently smart person. But when it comes to bus services I am clueless. Back home I only road a bus once back from a Bengles game in 9 years of living in a city with full bus service. We went over to the trolly/bus stop and just decided to get on the next bus heading in the right direction. Worst case we end up taking a bus tour around. We ended up headed in a good place. We figured out the right bus to get back. Like I said I have no idea when it comes to these things. Something funny I haven't mentioned is a running joke we have going. I'm not sure how it started. But when we are making plans it gets said a worst case. Like worst case it will take us 3 days to get to town, we'll do a short day in bad weather, or something along those lines. It turned into worst case is death. So when making semi plans it is always we could do this, or this, but as always worst case is we are all going to die. It spread to when we re going to talk about doing something we say yup, we're all going to die. On of those things you have to be there for. A funny running joke. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and pigging out. I'm trying to eat as much as possible in town to keep my energy up.