Date: 2008-05-18
From: Trail Days...Damascus, VA

To: Trail Days....Damascus, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

This has been a GREAT weekend!! Kind of a blur because it was almost non-stop, but lots of fun AND I got to see 100's of friends. :-) I decided to list a few of the friends that I could remember seeing, BUT......there are lots of friends that I saw that I know I haven't listed. I just thought it would be fun to list a few, so here goes; Ed Speers, Pog, Youngblood, Lief, Jackie, Zipdrive, Big Red, Mrs Gorp, Rambunny, StarLyte, Ed, Pole Climber, Circuit Rider, Sherlock, Queen Diva, Maw-ee, Jeff, Damascus Dave, Tom, Pirate, Lone Wolf, Gypsy, Hammock Hanger, Aloha Ann, Laurie & Dick Potteiger, Dave Startzell, Larry Luxemberg, Cotton Joe, Shortcut, Kevin, Matthewski, Viking, V8, Auntie Mame, OC1, Strider, Aries, Red, Mango, Five Leaf Clover, Dragon Slayer, Trevor, Ramblin' Man, Roy, Grey Fox, Vera, Warren & Terry Doyle, Mr Doyle, Garlic Man, Mother Nature's Son, Tacoma Ted, Spur, Ready, Bob Peoples, The Old Ridge Runner, Madhatter, Alien, Jackaroo, BooBoo, Lipstick, Racoon, Pilgram, Wing Heart, George & Ginny Fisher, Betty, Tinman, Liteshoe, Peter Pan, Comer & Jean, Mara, Bogie & Slim, Lee, Ron & Maricela & the boys, Barefoot Sage, Snackeeze, Bus Driver, Skittles, Kyonite, Sunkist, Gourmet Dave, Southern Harp, Phoenix Rising, Bag O Tricks, Parkay, Wonder, Fishin' Fred, Lion King, AT Troll, Awol, Hopeful, Baltimore, Miss Janet, Kaitlyn, Ox, Footslogger, Bad Ass Turtle, Hotdog, Grey Squirrel, Poptart, Bluebearee, 30-30, Ladybug, The Solemates + 1, Gene Espy, Jakebrake, CeeCee, Pipesmoke & Mrs Smoke, Mulligan, Cimmaron, AquaMaria, Tale Gate, Karuna Meil, The General, Mala, Model T, Krispy Kritter, Yazzie, Bushwhacker, Bluebelle, Tree, Cannabel, Genuine Draft, Trillium, Jeff Brewer and, humm, uh......(scratching head)......umm......oh yeah.....my ol' buddy Chief was there too. :-) I even tried to teach Liteshoe and my ol' buddy Chief the proper way to do trail magic for someone.....but I know they are both sloooooow learners. I hung out mostly around friends in the vendor's area, but did get back to tent city twice. Mango was back there and treated me to some excellent seafood gumbo that he made from scratch!! Thanks Mango!!!!! I thought about doing hard core Trail maintenance with Bob Peoples, but he has 100 volunteers for this work each year, so I'll go and do some volunteer work later in the year when it's less hectic. I enjoy it much more when we go out with just 8 or 10 volunteers. I did walk around some today, but Trail Days was winding down and lots of the vendors were gone and most of the people were gone. We went out to dinner with Rambunny and her friend, Cindy from Indy, to celebrate Rambunny's next adventure. We had a great time and ate some good food at a restaurant in Bristol, VA. I REALLY love hiker get togethers, but I feel I need to get back on the Trail to get rest. :-) My plans are to start walking north out of Pearisburg, VA on Tuesday morning. I'll spend tomorrow resupplying, getting my bounce box ready to mail ahead and finding some caffeine replacement for the headache I know is coming when I start walking WITHOUT my stove and Stumpknocker's Blend coffee. It took about 3 days to get past the caffeine addiction last time I did the stoveless thing and gave up coffee on the Trail. 8-) I really want to thank everyone who had anything to do with putting together a successful Trail Days. Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)