Date: 2014-04-29
From: damascus, va

To: damascus, va
Miles today: 0.0

As of last night the forecast looked grim for today so we are going to play it by ear if we would leave or take a day off due to the weather. I got up early to run down to the gas station, grab a couple coffees , a couple cinnamon buns, and check the weather on the big tv they have. The radar was filled with wonderful autumn colors moving over damascus. I asked a local standing at the counter if it was sposed to rain all day. He said yap. I said 'oh come on, look at the radar. The sun will be out all day so i can get back on the trail right?' He said, 'nope'. At this point it was raining outside and the sky full of gray clouds, no breaks anywhere. Rats. As i got back to the bunk with the goodies i checked internet weather in hopes they would have better news, nope. I called Cindy to see if she could find a better weather report, nope. Well. Hmmm. With tornados not real far away, tornado watch in the area, severe weather warning, and 100% chance of rain we called it a zero and rebooked our bunks. Ok, bring on the rain. Half hour later it stopped raining. Must be a freak break in the storm. Then it cleared up, what? We walked down to the diner to get some breakfast while we wouldnt get poured on and had a not too bad omelette and a couple cups of coffee. Still no rain? No rain. We milled around the outfitters for a while to kill time, no rain. Took a walk around town to check things out, no rain. Came across a coffe house, a legit coffee house so we went in for a cup. At the register was gigantic cinnamon buns so we thought it would be rude not to try one. This would be a fourth cup of coffee and second cinnamon bun before noon, impressive. Still dry out. Grrrr. We came back to the room and wasted time there, wrote out some postcards, fiddled around with our gear, ate snacks, and got bored. Finally we had to get out but where? Dollar general, where else would we go? Dollar generals are usually pretty good to resupply food and whatever you need to get by. This one was not up to the semi-trashy par as the others. No instant oatmeal and no flavored tuna packets were issues. I asked a local if there was a grocery nearby, there was, we went. Much much better, sometimes too many choices because you want so much but you have to carry everything you buy, its a fine line. Groceries in hand at three in the afternoon, still no rain. Driving me mad as an old badger that everyone lied to us. Back to the room, laid out our food to make sure we had what we would need. Stir crazyness setting in what could we do, ok, lets go get a cup o coffee. After that it was close enough to dinner time that we could eat and we had heard about a good mexican place so thats what we did. Walking in it smelled like dirty hippies. Now, i really dont like to be negative but its not appetizing. We ordered got food as the place really started to fill up. The food was really good but the commotion and crowd got me wanting to leave as soon aa we got done eating, Captain felt the same so we rolled out. When i got back to the room i checked my trailjournal guest page to see if anyone said hi or something inspirational. This is what happened and it really freaked me out. I had a message from Ann Rogers, a lady i do not know. She said hello and invited me to a hiker feed on may 11, 220 miles from where we are with a crazy good list of food available. They are going to cook right where the trail crosses a road in dutch ovens with all types of food for any type of diet. Meat people, non meat people, and vegan people. This is insane because we should be right exactly where she is going to be when she is going to be there! How crazy random that she would look at my journal, write to me, and that it would be even close to the right schedule? You can look on my guest book and see the message. That was the great ending for a day filled with no rain. I just cant get over peoples generosity toward me, a guy they dont know one tiny bit, and they want to stuff my belly full of tastey food, and they dont know me. 'trail angels' is the appropriate term for these people. How lucky could i possibly be? The luckyestest.