Date: 2019-04-26
From: Hot Springs (again)

To: Hot Springs
Miles today: 0.0

Today I took another zero. I needed to fully let my body get the virus out and get some food in me so I could get back on trail. I was feeling pretty weak and didn¢t want to move, so I sat in bed for a while. I finally got up to talk to the owner. I probably should¢ve talked to her sooner, because she was all booked up when I saw her. Sometimes these hostel owners aren¢t fully organized though, and she was just writing names in a little notebook. She told me I could sleep on the couch in the bunkhouse and I was fine with that. Anywhere would work to help me lie down and recover. I booked a room with her for tomorrow night while I had the chance, as I wanted to stay one more night and possibly slackpack.I moved my stuff into the bunkhouse and set up the sheet and comforter on the couch. She was nice and let me keep the comforter and sheets from the bed I had slept in last night. There were other hikers in the bunkhouse with me. Most of them were taking zeros. I remember Tex and Brother Bear. There was a guy from England as well, but I can¢t remember his name. The hostel owner¢s name is Tigger and her husband is Chuck. They named their dog Chigger. Brother Bear put in a movie. I was not super excited about it because it was ¢127 Hours¢, that movie about that guy that cuts his own arm off after getting it stuck while hiking in Blue John Canyon. I¢m normally grossed out by that kind of thing, but I did start to watch more ¢doctor¢ TV shows before I left, so I got more exposure to that kind of ¢surgery gore¢. I had actually read about this guy before. It¢s kinda random, but the story about him is in one of the books I read with the kids I teach. Every time we read the story and had to discuss our pictures, I wanted to vomit. It¢s pretty graphic. I tried to skip that story when possible, but the boy students always chose it lol. The movie was actually really good. I liked it quite a bit. I watched the whole thing, even the arm-cutting scene. It¢s inspiring to see how he tried to get himself out of the situation, even though he made some stupid mistakes by not telling anyone where he went. The trail is completely different, but it did make me feel scared of situations I could get myself into without help. It made me feel lazy just sitting there watching the movie, but I knew that was ridiculous because I just had noro. Someone brought us trail magic because they were picking up someone from the hostel, so they came in with candy and Gatorade. I couldn¢t handle the candy, but I held onto it. I was pumped for Gatorade, but then I saw that it was lime-cucumber flavored. Yuck! Hot Sauce later told me that¢s her favorite haha, to each their own! I¢ll stick to the blue or red flavors! It was very nice of them to bring it; I¢m just picky. After the movie ended, I finally got up off the couch and decided to walk to town. I had not had nearly enough water or food today. I was just so afraid of eating because I didn¢t want to throw up and be in that awful pain again. I put all my stuff on the couch to claim it as mine, and left the hostel. I brought one bottle of water with the other Nuun tablet in it. I walked down to this smoothie place and got a berry smoothie. It was delicious, but my tummy was having a tough time. I saw Tinder and Wobbles! I still smelled like sickness because I hadn¢t showered or done laundry yet, but I was so happy to see them! Wobbles got sick on Max Patch too!! Twins lol. He actually walked the same day he got sick and said it was the hardest 6 miles of his trail experience, even though the 6 after Max Patch are pretty easy. He got off at Lemon Gap and came into town. I¢m glad I didn¢t try hiking that first day. I would¢ve been in the same boat and I was so miserable even walking to the parking lot.Zahzu showed up too! It was good to see him. I haven¢t seen him in a long time. He¢s been partying it up on the weekends with his old soccer buddies, but hiking 20-mile days during the week to make it all possible. He told me he thought I had lost a lot of weight and I was thinking ¢yeah I probably dropped 10 just from the noro¢ haha. I walked to the Dollar General next. It¢s actually so cheap there and I didn¢t realize because I¢ve never been to one before this trip. I got ice cream and pasta stuff for tomorrow night, my last night here. I got crackers, Gatorade, ginger ale, and rice as well. There were a bunch of other hikers there buying the usual hiker meals: ramen, peanut butter, knorr sides. The store had WiFi, which was also nice because I had no service in the entire town of Hot Springs. Also I don¢t think I mentioned this, but I switched to Verizon just for the trail. I¢m doing a personal unlimited plan and it¢s pricey, so I¢ll switch back to my family¢s plan after, but it¢s the best provider on the trail. Even so, it had no service in Hot Springs. I also don¢t have service at shelters pretty often, and that¢s annoying because I want to blog and update people when I¢m done hiking for the day. Overall I¢ve been pretty pleased with the switch, but it has its disappointments. The hostel was a bit of a walk with my full bags of groceries. I was also still carrying my smoothie and my water. The path was grass on the other side of the guardrail from the main road. I got back and put my groceries away on my couch. My ice cream was melting so I put that away. I went to cook my rice for dinner. I didn¢t realize there was no real stove, but rather a hot plate. There was no simmer, so I wasn¢t sure how I¢d make my rice, but I went for it anyway. There was a pasta dinner in town tonight, but I didn¢t think I could handle pasta just yet. Rice was a suggested meal for post-noro when I searched online, so it seemed like a good plan. Hot Sauce and Prometheus were there as I finished making my rice! They had been in town all day doing miscellaneous things. They actually pulled off a crazy day and hiked the entire 20 or so miles from Max Patch on the same day I got my ride into town. They left at 11am after helping me get to the car and finished hiking in the dark. Today they were taking a full zero to recover. They were setting out their food on the picnic tables outside to plan their meals, so I joined them with my rice and ginger ale. I actually drank a lot of ginger ale. It was good! Ginger ale was always the post-stomach bug drink growing up. I don¢t tend to drink a lot of soda, but this hit the spot. I actually have had so much soda on trail and it¢s interesting to me. I almost crave it more than alcohol. It¢s just refreshing. I know it doesn¢t hydrate like water does and it¢s really just sugar, but there¢s something about an ice cold Pepsi that just hits the spot. Ginger ale was hitting the spot today. I was slowly going through my rice. It was a process to get it all down. Prometheus and Hot Sauce did laundry and Prometheus put on the loaner clothes they give you at the hostel. He¢s such a goon. He put on fuzzy pj pants that said ¢love¢ in different colors and then really switched it up and wore a dress. We were cracking up. He and Hot Sauce decided to tent on the grounds, which you can do for a fee, but they paid for laundry and showers so Tigger let them tent for free. There were some people hanging out inside and I chatted with them for a while because I was chilly outside. There was a mom and her daughter just here for the weekend. They didn¢t have trail names, although the daughter wanted to be called pineapple. She was very talkative and wanted to show me many photos on her phone of random things. I went along with it because she was sweet and funny and I knew her mom needed a little break too. Her mom thanked me for talking to her daughter all night. I also chatted with a man who lives out of his truck because he has a tent attached to the top, and he¢s been going from hiker fest to hiker fest. He was headed to Roan Mountain the day after tomorrow. That town is two town stops from here for me. We were chatting about how I came from Max Patch because I was looking up shuttles and deciding who to call. After a while, he nicely offered to drive me there. He said that he had always wanted to see Max Patch and was hoping to see it before he left town, so he¢d gladly take me for $20. I was overjoyed. My shuttle into town was $60, and with the cost of the hostel too, I was getting annoyed about money. What a wonderful offer he made! We arranged it all and planned to leave at 9. I decided I really was going to slackpack the whole distance from Max Patch down. I certainly wasn¢t healed, but I was feeling good enough to do it and I didn¢t want to skip the section. I had also taken two zeros and didn¢t know how many more I could do before mentally getting too far off trail and financially going overboard. I did meet another woman in the hostel who also came down from Max Patch due to ankle pain and she never went back to make up the mileage. Hike your own hike, but that would bother me! And I wouldn¢t want to make it up at the end of the entire hike. I headed in to sleep on the couch. It was comfortable actually and I had a good rest. My point about the disorganization of the hostel owners was proven though, as there was an empty bunk all night and I was on the couch. I didn¢t mind because I paid less and it was fine, but I was a bit annoyed that a bunk was available after all. I felt wiped even though I didn¢t do much today. My body is still just recovering and I haven¢t eaten anything but rice, crackers, a banana, and ginger ale for two days. Norovirus totally sucks. I can¢t wait to shake this and finally feel healthy and strong again. Little Debbie