Date: 2011-04-27
From: Hiawassee

To: Hiawassee (Day 2)
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Day 10Yeah...the whole walking to NC thing...not gonna happen. Tornado watch, wind advisories, and thunderstorms. I called the Blueberry Patch Hiker Hostel cause there was NO WAY I was staying at the Inn again. Besides that it cost me $45!!!Gary from the hostel said he would pick me up around 11. I checked out the weather some more...looks pretty nasty! A thunderstorm rolled through while I was still at the Inn but cleared out before 11. Gary got me about 11:30 and the Hostel is AWESOME! Very clean and cozy. They do your laundry for you and have temp clothes you can wear so you can get it ALL washed at once (without having to wear a toga!) As I was putting my stuff on my bunk I noticed a deodorant on the bunk below me. "Hmm, that's the same kind we picked up in Helen"...(look at the pack by the bunk) "and that is Moosette's pack!" She will be under me for tonight and Honey is in the other bunk set! They, and all other hikers, are in town till 4pm so I am here alone. It's so peaceful. There are birds everywhere, and donkeys and goats. The blueberry patch is just a buzz (pun intended) with honey bees and bumble bees. I went and stood among them feeling totally at ease with them buzzing all around me and checking me out. I am sitting on the back of the porch of this little hostel watching the clouds come over the mountain and listening to the birds and the wind in the trees. Apparently RIGHT HERE on the weather map is a box that says "tornados likely." It is now 2:45 and if I had been on the trail this morning, I could have made it to NC by now, but then again, we all know that if I had been on the trail, it would be storming instead of beautiful!Gary said to help myself to any food in the fridge as hikers left it over the past couple days. I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich!! O..M..G! Yumm! I'm pretty much in "Kathleen" mode here and went through all the hiker boxes and reorganized them and cleaned them, washed any dishes I found that were dirty and folded all the "etra" clothes.My nails are a mess. I think I will find a file. If there were a hammock, I would take a nap. The other hikers got back from town around 4. Honey Badger and Moosette along with 5 others. HighwayMan is from Lowell and Lazerus is also from MA. Then there was JD who didn't quite have a trail name yet. He is a 16 year old kid from Tenn. He had a Barbie on his pack and HighwayMan wanted to dub him "Barbie on Board". I suggested "Ken" and it almost stuck, but then BigBear suggested "Leonidis" and that one stuck hard. BigBear and FlyingLeap are brother and sister in law from...Florida, I think. BigBear's brothers came later. Tenderfoot (because his feet were actually BLEEDING) and SuperDave. It was a great bunch. I made some ramen out of the hiker box and veggies from the freezer. Leonidis split it with me and he had parmesan cheese that we added. YUMMM!As we were getting ready for bed, Gary came in and let us know there was severe weather on the way. A tornado had been sighted and we all piled into the lower bunks together. This went on all night. Gary kept us updated on the conditions and was very concerned for us all. At one point when the cell was about 5 minutes away (and BigBear started playing "final countdown" on his mp3 player) FlyingLeaf got out of the bunk and insisted she needed a Snickers bar. Come to find out she was totally sleepwalking/talking/eating! Very funny AND I got it on tape!I finally fell asleep about 2am because my bunk was right at the window and I couldn't stop watching the storm!